America Online Inc. on Thursday launched its Internet telephone service, jumping into a market that's already crowded with startups, cable operators and even traditional phone companies. The AOL Internet Phone Service, which is being offered to AOL members and others in 40 markets at first, includes the regular features of traditional telephony and combines them with advanced services that are accessed on a PC over the Internet.

There's good news about phishing: The growth of new attacks has slowed. But that's only because attackers are building more sophisticated traps and using advanced technology to perpetrate online fraud, researchers say.

Former Vice President Al Gore unveiled a new interactive cable TV channel for the internet generation Monday that blends the immediacy of video blogging with the voyeurism of reality TV. Current TV, formerly known as IndTV, will be launched Aug. 1 and will aim to combine the interactivity of the internet with the couch-potato pleasures of TV.

The Observer has learned that Warren Beatty, the 68-year-old actor and director, will likely join a lineup of liberal all-stars who will "group blog" on a Web site to be launched next month by columnist Arianna Huffington. The "Huffington Report," as Ms. Huffington has dubbed it, will also feature such boldface bloggers as Senator Jon Corzine, David Geffen, Viacom co-chief Tom Freston, Barry Diller, Tina Brown and Gwyneth Paltrow. If the name seems to echo that of the Drudge Report?the mega-site operated by the rightward-tilting unofficial editorial director of America's news cycle, Matt Drudge?well, it's supposed to. And Mr. Beatty …

Sony Corp.'s new PlayStation Portable is turning into a great tool for Web browsing, comics reading and online chat -- and it also happens to play video games, movies and music, if you prefer that sort of thing.

Earlier this year a small Internet search company called GuruNet Corp. changed its business model from a subscription-based service to one that made money from advertising, the same "paid listings" approach that has made Google Inc.'s and Yahoo! Inc.'s search services such profitable ventures.

Fallon has earned a place among the handful of agencies that are consistently breaking ground in interactive marketing. The Minnesota-based firm has pioneered what's become known as "branded entertainment." The term applies to many of Fallon's best-known projects, including Amazon Theater, the "Chrismahanukwanzakah" Web site for Virgin Mobile, and the now-legendary BMW Films. So the bar was already high when, late last year, Fallon named Baba Shetty to head interactive. Shetty took over the job while remaining group account director for the U.S. BMW account, a job he took two years ago after heading all U.S. marketing for BMW on …

Google Inc. plans to put out a call for personal video clips as it moves to further expand the reach of its Web search business, company co-founder Larry Page said on Monday. "We're going to start taking video submissions from people," Page said at the annual cable industry convention in San Francisco.

The Mozilla Foundation has developed a beta patch for the Firefox browser that it claims improves the blocking of pop-up ads. The popular open-source browser already contains a pop-up blocker by default, but this does not handle pop-ups launched by plug-ins such as Flash and Java. Mozilla employee Asa Dotzler wrote in his blog last week that Mozilla developers are responding to the increasing number of advertisers that are using plug-ins to launch pop-up ads.

For most people who spend a lot of time online, impulsively typing queries into a search engine has become second nature. Got a nasty infection in an embarrassing spot? Look up a treatment on your favorite search site. Obsessing about an ex? Try Googling his or her name. Chances are the queries will unearth some enlightening information.