With major Net and privacy issues looming, the search giant has hired its first full-time lobbyist. Some say it's about time.

The music industry is filled with creative types, and many seem to be wearing suits these days. When search engines like Google formally launch their new video-search sites, Warner Music wants a cut of the cash the sites would reap from selling ads next to search results.

Time Warner Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have restarted discussions about forming an alliance of their Internet units, America Online and MSN, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the situation. The two companies are focused on combining AOL's Web content with Microsoft's search-engine technology, although other aspects of the talks are sketchy. It isn't clear whether they are considering merging their Internet dial-up businesses, which generate lots of cash, the paper said.

Social-networking site Friendster is gaining some enemies in users opposed to the site's new "Who's Viewed Me" feature, which went live late last week and lets people see who has recently looked at their profile. On the site's forums and across the blogosphere, some users are complaining or even canceling their accounts to protest a feature they believe violates their ability to surf member profiles anonymously. This, coupled with the way the change was communicated -- through a posting in the site's discussion forums and the necessity to opt out of, instead of in to, the feature -- has drawn …

The Weblog world looks different today than it did at week's beginning. More mainstream. More big media. More big money. Through deals with the two most prominent blog networks, America Online and VNU have made it clear they want a piece of the audience -- and ad revenue -- that's beginning to pour into the blog space. High-profile start-up Glam Media also launched a fashion blog network that allows the company to tap into existing communities (and additional ad inventory).

Amazon.com isn't stopping at the computer screens of the world in order to increase sales. It's now cracking open piggy banks and peeking under sofa cushions, too. The leading online retailer has made loose change a payment option for online purchases by hooking up with Coinstar Inc., a provider of electronic cash processing units in thousands of grocery stores. Coinstar will let people trade their pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters for certificates redeemable at Amazon.com. National cable TV ads will premiere in November and serve as the chief means to promote the e-certificates.

Yahoo Inc. Chairman Terry Semel belittled rival Google Inc.'s recent efforts to expand beyond its leading Internet search engine, describing the diversification as a haphazard attempt to catch up with his company. He noted that Google seems to be following in Yahoo's footsteps by adding an array of new products like e-mail, photo sharing, social networking, personalized home pages and voice communications. The additional features, Semel said, have made Google "look more and more like a portal. And as a portal, it probably would be rated No. 4."

Let me boil this down for you. Eric Schmidt, the titular CEO of Google, met with his old pal Scott McNealy, the panicky chairman of Sun Microsystems, to talk about hockey or California Cabernet or who-knows-what. One of the two, probably Scott, thought it would be cool to make some sort of joint announcement to either rattle the Microsoft cage or give the Sun stock some attention. So that's what they did. To me this is the biggest non-news story I've seen for maybe the past six months.

America Online Inc. has agreed to buy Weblogs Inc., a network of Internet sites focused on niche topics ranging from food to gadgets, for around $25 million. Weblogs Inc. includes roughly 80 advertising-supported sites published by a group of more than 100 bloggers.

IAC/InterActive Corp. plans to develop original programming for the Web, Chief Executive Barry Diller said in conversation at the second-annual Web 2.0 confab in San Francisco on Wednesday.