Microsoft is finding itself to be an underdog these days in many ways. Its MSN Web portal is second to Yahoo, its search engine is third behind Google and Yahoo, and its new music player--well, nobody's giving it much of a chance against Apple's iPod. Nevertheless, determined Microsoft execs want to see the company stage its first come-from-behind victory since the software giant toppled Netscape with Internet Explorer in the early 2000s. BusinessWeek tells the tale of J Allard, the man responsible for bringing the Zune media player to market in less than 8 months. You …

So-called "recommender" engines are the next step in search and human laziness, and such sites are "sprouting up on the Web like mushrooms after a hard rain," decries the magazine. These sites recommend stuff for you, from movies to recipes, based on personality tests and accumulated Web history. In a way, they present a challenge to Google (or new acquisition territory). Marketers are licking their chops. At Whattorentcom, you take a personality test that recommends movies based on your answers. Are you a "Raging Bull" or a "Lawrence of Arabia" kind of guy? Not sure? Now you can …

Google shares exceeded $500 for the first time yesterday, and instead of worrying about excessive valuations, analysts and critics are looking ahead to another burst of growth. Google's shares finished the day at $509.65 yesterday, bringing the company's market cap to $153 billion, more than half of Microsoft and four times greater than Yahoo. It's stock has now surged 37% from its low this year. Part of the reason Google's stock slid in the first place was due to the comment made by CFO George Reyes that investors should expect advertising growth to slow. Shares have now grown …

News Corp., which acquired MySpace parent Intermix for $580 million in July 2005, has now offloaded some of the assets that came with that deal. As it turns out, those properties are returning to former owner Richard Rosenblatt, who was chairman of Intermix. More than 20 Web sites are included in the transaction, the financial details of which were undisclosed. Properties included Grab.com (a casual gaming site), FlowGo.com (an entertainment site), SoYouWanna.com and Focalex. Rosenblatt is reacquiring his old properties as part of his new venture, called Demand Media. Demand Media is an aggregator of highly …

Legal reps of the major record companies have been busy recently, Universal Music Group most notably. However, in the first united front mounted by the big four, EMI, Sony BMG, Warner Music and UMG collectively sued Chinese search giant Baidu.com for facilitating the illegal download of 137 pieces of music owned by the companies. They lost. Baidu has a popular MP3 service on its Web site, and the companies demanded that the Web giant compensate them for 1.73 million yuan, or $216,250--not really that much money. It's more likely that the big four were testing the waters of …

Yes, yes "Cyber Monday" is next week, and there'll be several stories leading up to it and after it, but in reality, "Cyber Monday" is to the online shopping season what "Flag Day" is to holidays: Most people don't notice. Named, of course, after the "Black Friday" that comes after Thanksgiving--its imaginary retail holiday cousin--"Cyber Monday"--ranked as the ninth most-active online shipping day last year, according to a MasterCard report. The busiest day was Dec. 5, for no particular reason, Black Friday, by the way, isn't as big a deal as the media would have you …

Interesting enough, Second Life creator Linden Lab is retreating into the shadows over the controversy surrounding the game's first widespread instance of cyber crime. The program CopyBot, which lets users copy anything that appears in the virtual world, threatens to undermine its growing virtual economy, which is predicated on users creating products purchased by others. However, instead of bringing out the lawyers, Philip "Linden" Rosedale, the company's CEO, says that nothing can stop someone from copying textures or shapes off their own compute, which is what's happening. Merchants would have to file a federal suit if they want …

The media loves irony. A day after the announcement of the News Corp.-Universal Music Group suit, it's worth remembering that Peter Chernin, president and COO of News Corp., stood before a Senate Committee in 2002 to proclaim his esteem for intellectual-property law. Fast-forward to today. News Corp.'s MySpace charged with alleged illegal distribution of Universal Music Group's songs and videos. UMG seeks $150K per alleged violation, and cites more than 60 such instances. However, as recently as News Corp.'s Nov. 8 earnings announcement, Chernin reiterated News Corp.'s commitment to copyright protection. The media giant cites the Digital …

The New York Times asks, a day after the highly publicized "Peanut Butter" incident, whether Yahoo's stock might now be considered a bargain for investors. Following the grim news in October that lead to the Sunnyvale, Calif. Web giant's stock plummeting even farther, Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post, declared now's the time to buy. He and many stockholders believe the main problem for Yahoo is its inability to cash in on search, the one and only driver of Google's stock for the last two and a half years. Yahoo's search revenue in the third quarter was $191 million, …

News Corp., Time Warner, Viacom and CBS Corp. have seen executive shake-ups recently, with each subsequent new hire having significant experience in TV or online video. Of these, the departure of Ross Levinsohn, president of News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media, is perhaps the most surprising because under his watch, MySpace, FIM's major property, is now worth 10 times what it was when News Corp. bought it in 2005. Levinsohn is being replaced with his cousin Peter, who initiated deals involving Fox Studios and online media stores like Apple's iTunes and Amazon.com. Time Warner's big news, of course, was …