Silverpop has become the first well-known e-mail service provider (ESP) to integrate RSS into its offerings. The company has built a proprietary tool, called RSSDirect, that lets it track individual subscriptions and dynamically generate content for RSS. Silverpop CEO Bill Nussey said the company's goal was to introduce all the data marketers get with e-mail to the new spam-free medium, which he expects to grow to "near ubiquity" over the next several years.

"Splogs," or spam blogs, are the latest way for spammers to manipulate the blogosphere for profit. The phenomenon hit an all-time high recently, when Google's blog-hosting service, Blogger, was inundated with more than 13,000 fake blogs spawned by a script (all have since been taken down). How do you know if you've been splogged? And what can you do to stop it? Here are a few tips:

Google, the company that dominates online advertising, would like to try its hand at buying and selling television ad time. Google, already dabbling in print ads, recently confirmed that it's "mulling" ways to extend its ad-brokering system to television spots as well. If Google succeeds, it would mark a major turning point for an industry that has rebuffed other attempts at creating new ways to buy and sell TV ad time.

Yahoo! is doubling the price of its online music subscription service for portable MP3 players, ending a short-lived promotion that sought to lure consumers from Apple Computer Inc.'s market-leading iTunes store. Effective Nov. 1, Yahoo will charge about $120 annually for access via download to more than 1 million songs that can then be transferred to portable players. The Internet powerhouse has been charging just under $60 annually - a price most industry observers predicted wouldn't last when Yahoo entered the market in early May.

Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce Web site, has bought the assets of Yahoo! China for $1 billion.

Google has confirmed it's testing a method of structured content submission called Google Base. The new service, unearthed by bloggers who took screenshots before the pages disappeared, could put Google into competition with classifieds providers as well as e-tailing giant eBay.

An alliance including Microsoft and Yahoo says it is fast gaining backers to challenge Google in digitizing many of the world's great books. The grouping -- the Open Content Alliance (OCA) -- is making its pitch even as Google Inc. and the publishing industry lock horns over Google's ambitious plan to create a digital library.

An MSN executive is disputing that MSN Messenger is running contextual ads based on the users' instant messaging conversations, as recent reports suggest. MSN Messenger is, however, serving up text ads based on its users' age, gender, and other demographic information.

Consumers want an iPod phone that will play any song, anytime, anywhere. Just four little problems: the cell carriers, the record labels, the handset makers, and Apple itself. Why the ROKR went wrong.

As identity theft has grown, so has fear of being victimized through high-tech means. A new study finds some computer users are cutting back on time spent surfing the Internet. Some have also stopped buying altogether on the Web.