Wired, January 27, 2005 The powerful House Commerce Committee on Wednesday made anti-spyware legislation a top priority, with members hoping to vote it out of committee in the next two to three weeks. "This is on the fast track, and we hope to be marking this bill up in the very near future," said committee chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas).

ClickZ, January 27, 2005 Two startup technology companies have joined forces to enable online publishers to insert advertising positions within their blogs and RSS (define) feeds.

Wired, January 26, 2005 When he reads the glowing stories detailing the wonders of the fledgling Firefox web browser, Jon von Tetzchner can't help but wonder why his own baby is so often ignored. Von Tetzchner is the CEO of Opera Software, maker of the Opera web browser. In the sort of grand comedic tragedy that echoes its name, Opera went from spending almost a decade as Internet Explorer's understudy to getting an occasional polite mention in the cavalcade of media attention currently being directed at the new superstar -- Mozilla's Firefox browser.

Cnet, January 26, 2005 Everyone knows Super Bowl ads get the most buzz. Now Madison Avenue is turning to bloggers to learn what all the buzz is about. Internet research companies plan to measure the "watercooler effect" of Super Bowl XXXIX ads by capturing sentiments as they bubble up within the loose collection of diarylike personal Web sites collectively known as the "blogosphere."

Reuters, January 26, 2005 Microsoft Corp. will combat piracy of its flagship operating system by requiring Windows users to verify that their copy of the software is genuine in order to receive timely updates and security fixes, the world's largest software maker said on Wednesday.

ClickZ, January 26, 2005 Procter & Gamble has placed the Web at the center of a big, new initiative for the Tide brand. Tide Coldwater detergent was introduced via viral interactive marketing before offline efforts begin later this month.

Washington Post, January 25, 2005 Microsoft Corp. said yesterday it will comply with a European antitrust ruling and within weeks begin offering a version of its Windows XP operating system without a built-in media player. The decision by Microsoft, which was not a surprise, is consistent with the firm's strategy these days on antitrust matters: Get them resolved quickly, so the software giant can focus on its business, rather than on legal wrangling.

Wired, January 25, 2005 The web as we know it was invented by a British academic working in Switzerland. Is a Nordic academic working in Britain about to redefine it forever? Frode Hegland, a researcher at University College London, wants to change the basic structure of information on the net.

Reuters, January 25, 2005 Web search company Google has hired the lead engineer of the Firefox Web browser, fueling speculation that Google will create its own version of Firefox to take on Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer.

The New York Times, January 25, 2005 Google and Yahoo are introducing services that will let users search through television programs based on words spoken on the air. The services will look for keywords in the closed captioning information that is encoded in many programs, mainly as an aid to deaf viewers.