Google Inc. is experimenting with a new feature that enables the users of its online search engine to see all of their past search requests and results, creating a computer peephole that could prove as embarrassing as it is helpful.

DoubleClick, the one-time darling of dot-com advertising, is nearing an agreement to be sold to Hellman & Friedman in a potential deal that could be worth around $1.2 billion, The Post has learned.

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) behemoth Kraft Foods has embraced online marketing, but it doesn't measure success in impression volume, but in impression quality and the level of customer engagement achieved.

On one hand, you have a company that rose up from modest beginnings to become one of the richest businesses in America (indeed, the world), and in the process revolutionized the use of technology to create a new way to do business -- helping people find what they want. And then you have Google.

When users share files on P2P networks, using software such as eDonkey or Gnutella, they often just wind up sharing the entire C: drive. This makes it possible for the wouldbe spammer to get hold of the user's Outlook.pst file, where their Outlook messages are stored. All they have to do is search for "Outlook.pst" on the P2P network, and once some files are obtained e-mail addresses can be extracted.

Just when we grasped what blogging was all about, along came podcasting, which in some ways is even more disruptive and exciting as blogging. Being a podcaster myself, I've seen firsthand the business and legal chaos podcasts have created. As you'll see (and hear) in this column, perhaps they might soon create some political chaos too.

Market research firm Dynamic Logic has unveiled a copy-testing research service for online ads. Its aim is to help brand advertisers create more impactful ads. Creative PreTest is a panel-based service that allows advertisers to test how a panel of Internet users will respond to different display ads before running them in a campaign.

America Online on Wednesday is expected to unveil plans to block identity theft sites and monitor suspected Web sites around the clock.

Google has sued Froogles.com, charging the rival shopping search engine with trademark infringement. Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, the No. 1 search engine, filed a 68-page complaint against Froogles.com in the Eastern District Court of New York. The complaint alleges that Froogles.com proprietor Richard Wolfe, a New York state resident, illegally traded on Google's famous name and search brand for profit with a "nearly identical" mark.

CBS announced that it named long-time MarketWatch sales veteran Scot McLernon to head up advertising efforts for all of CBS's digital media properties.