America Online plans to begin testing a new service that lets wireless phone users search the Internet and link to regular Web pages that it will reformat for tiny cell-phone screens. The test of AOL Mobile Search Services is an attempt to move away from the computer, where its position as the dominant Internet provider is being undermined as users defect to cable operators and telephone companies offering high-speed Internet access.

The Netscape IPO wasn't really about dot-commerce. At its heart was a new cultural force based on mass collaboration. Blogs, Wikipedia, open source, peer-to-peer - behold the power of the people.

Even though it has suddenly removed sexual double entendres from its new Web site, CoqRoq.com, Burger King today denied it had received any complaints from consumers or other outside groups. The Web site's double entendre name, along with the lyrics, demeanor and the sophomoric presentation of the fictitious heavy metal group, projects the illusion of something designed to offend the sensibilities of mainstream adult America.

Measurability has been an enviable advantage of online media and advertising since the get-go. It's an inherent and expected part of what we do as Internet marketers and communicators. So why don't we demand more when it comes to measuring the effectiveness of behaviorally targeted placements or campaigns?

For years, many cell-phone enthusiasts have been hacking their phones to play old-fashioned games from the Commodore-64 era. In many ways, the text-game genre is better suited for these small devices than modern graphic-based games. Rather than shrinking down screens intended to fill a monitor, text games scroll like a playlist or a phone directory.

Following complaints from a congressman, the producers of "Wedding Crashers" on Monday yanked from the movie's Web site a printable Purple Heart advertised as a gimmick to pick up women and get free drinks.

An unconventional campaign for a nonbutter spread is unusual for the way the ads will be served up. The spread is I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!, a Unilever brand that has long used traditional advertising, primarily television commercials, to reach its target market of women ages 35 and up. For the spray-bottle version of the spread, the American unit of Unilever is introducing this week a humorous campaign devoid of TV spots.

Internet portal Yahoo Inc. said yesterday that it has acquired Pixoria Inc., a small software company that makes tools that allow computer users to check traffic or weather information via the Internet without having to open a browser window. For Yahoo, it's a step toward a possible next version of Web use in which consumers have customized information streamed to their computers instead of having to use a browser to go find what they want.

AQuantive said MSN has decided to move its online media-buying chores from its Avenue A/Razorfish agency to Universal McCann. With the move, Microsoft's MSN will consolidate its media buying with Universal McCann. Sister Interpublic Group agency McCann-Erickson is MSN's creative agency of record.

Podcasting, that baby medium, is suddenly home to a lot of adult content. Introduced to a mainstream audience just last month, the technology?radiolike programming for your iPod?that was once the chaste province of "Geek News Central" and "Knitcast" is now reddening faces that sport those trademark white earbuds. "No matter what the technology is," says Andrew Leyden, founder of podcastdirectory.com, "sex finds a way to get involved."