Yahoo is giving away Web page hosting services to small businesses in a bid to bolster its search and related advertising business. The Internet company on Wednesday introduced a new service that lets any small business sign up for a free Web page to appear in Yahoo's local directory. The move will help otherwise unwired small businesses come online, said Paul Levine, Yahoo's general manager of local services, as well as help consumers find more local information.

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga is the president -- or at least one of the founding fathers -- of the left side of the blogosphere. Moulitsas, a key architect of the fabled Dean for President internet campaign, has built his own blog, Daily Kos, into the most popular political blog anywhere on the political spectrum. But now Moulitsas wants more. He wants to build an empire, and an unlikely one -- a network of interactive community blogs devoted to a world only slightly less partisan than politics: sports.

An annual e-mail responsiveness survey released yesterday shows a decline in customer service response rates for the fourth consecutive year. Thirty-eight companies, organizations and government entities -- including IBM, Dell, Apple, Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, American Airlines, L.L. Bean and the Direct Marketing Association -- have been asked during the past four years about their policy regarding turnaround time for e-mails addressed to customer service.

Microsoft Corp. has signed Volvo Cars of North America as the sponsor of its recently launched blogging tool for the masses, MSN Spaces, according to the company.

Internet search leader Google Inc. late on Monday announced a test service for finding local restaurants, stores and other businesses via Web-enabled cell phones and other mobile devices.

Yesterday's relaunch of Priceline.com -- the Internet travel company now lets consumers search for airline tickets, hotel reservations and rental cars in addition to naming their price for tickets -- puts it on par with Expedia and other online travel companies.

As president of the French National Library, Jean-Noël Jeanneney has good reason to feel safe from the frequent incursions of American popular culture into contemporary French life. With its collection of 13 million books, the library is a reassuring symbol of the durability of French literature and thought. Yet Mr. Jeanneney is not one to lower his guard. He grew alarmed last December when he read that Google planned to scan 15 million English-language books and make them available as digital files on the Web. In his view, the move would further strengthen American power to set a global cultural …

E-mail services firm Return Path has acquired the Bonded Sender e-mail whitelist service from IronPort Systems. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Return Path will acquire all operational, marketing and development activities for the Bonded Sender Program, while IronPort will continue to provide the program's infrastructure. IronPort founder and CEO Scott Weiss will be granted an undisclosed number of shares in Return Path, and join the company's board of directors.

IBM has debuted a new campaign to introduce potential business consulting and services clients to "The Other IBM." Online ads and a microsite are part of the integrated effort. The push, the budget for which was not disclosed, is part of the company's shift to expand its image beyond that of a technology provider. Agency of record Ogilvy & Mather and interactive unit OgilvyOne are behind the print, TV and online ads that comprise the campaign.

For further evidence that the Internet can be complementary to print, consider this: Radar magazine, which folded two years ago and is being revived in May, is starting a Web site before publishing the magazine itself.