Yes, it's 1999 all over again. Web start-ups are cropping up with names like Bebo, Squidoo and Moblabber. Start-ups like YouTube, less than 1 year old and unprofitable, are being sold for $1.65 billion. And the business plan known as Free has returned. But the difference these days is established companies like News Corp., Google and Yahoo are taking the gamble on startups that don't make any money--not investors--although they will lose if the gambles turn out to be ill-advised. The most surprising participant in "Web Bubble 2.0," is Time Warner's AOL. Still, shareholders have applauded the company's …

A consortium of seven newspaper chains representing 176 daily papers across the country announced a broad partnership with Yahoo to share content, advertising and technology. It starts with classified postings, but the long-term goal of the alliance with Yahoo is to be able to have the content of these newspapers tagged and optimized for searching and indexing by Yahoo. The consortium includes the MediaNews Group, Hearst, Belo, E. W. Scripps, the Journal Register Company, Lee Enterprises and Cox Enterprises. The group owns newspapers in 38 states, among them major metropolitan dailies, including The San Francisco Chronicle, …

In 1998, the U.S. Congress enacted a sweeping Web censorship law that nearly everyone forgot about when the ACLU filed a lawsuit to block the Justice Department and a federal judge granted an indunction barring prosecutors from enforcing the law. That may soon change. Today, U.S. District Judge Lowell A. Reed, Jr. in Philadelphia will hear closing arguments in the Child Online Protection Act case, and a ruling is expected by early 2007. Earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court asked Reed to evaluate whether the effectiveness of blocking software had changed in the last few years--a crucial question because …

Yahoo needs a dramatic organisational shake-up and cuts in its workforce of up to 20%, according to an internal memo written last month by senior vice president Brad Garlinghouse. The document was published in the Saturday edition of The Wall Street Journal. A Yahoo spokesman confirmed the authenticity of the memo, but declined to comment directly on its content. The WSJ story also describes rumours that COO Dan Rosensweig and CFO Sue Decker could be elevated to co-presidents, in preparation for the retirement of chairman and chief executive Terry Semel, who joined the company five years ago. The …

It was bound to happen. Universal Music Group has sued MySpace.com, claiming the social-networking site is infringing on the copyrights of thousands of songs and videos. Universal, owned by French media conglomerate Vivendi, claims Myspace has ignored the fact that its users unlawfully upload copyrighted music videos. In a copy of court documents filed on Friday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Universal also accuses MySpace of aiding copyright infringement by reformatting clips so users can transfer them to friends or post them to other sites.

Microsoft wants to conquer the wireless fidelity market one city at a time. The company's recent Wi-Fi deal to provide content and services for a wireless network under construction in Portland, Ore., will intensify the battle between Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN for online traffic and ad revenue. Microsoft's partnership with municipal Wi-Fi operator MetroFi is more than just a me-too gesture following Google's decision to team with partner EarthLink to build out a Wi-Fi network in San Francisco. Content providers that capture the growing municipal Wi-Fi market will be in a better position to enjoy higher traffic …

After raising $200 million for a new venture called Demand Media, Richard Rosenblatt, the former MySpace chair who sold the net to News Corp. in 2005, believes he can replicate his former success. Now he's focusing more heavily on merging user-generated content with professional content. However, instead of publishing material in a mass way, Demand's focus will be on vertical segments, which in many ways are more attractive to advertisers. To encourage usage, it also plans to compensate all content producers. Of course, the company is entering a rowded field that seems to be the focus of everyone from …

Has local search successfully converged with mobile phone content? Sort of. In a technological sense, local search has improved by leaps and bounds in the last few years. The service on mobile devices like Blackberrys 3G-enabled phones is good and getting better. According to mobile specialist Joe Herzog, "Both users and non-users say they would prefer to use a free 411 service with advertising over paid carrier services. Consumers are willing to accept a lot of advertising ... if the relevancy's there," he says. Which is great, but the problem for content providers and advertisers is that …

Second Life's growing virtual economy is being sabotaged by a new program called CopyBot, which allows users to copy any object in the game. The controversy surrounding the potentially detrimental program gathered steam as content creators in the game (not the game's developers) protested the program's distribution. Objects from clothing to furniture to houses are the lifeblood of the game's nascent economy. Some people even make a living selling these virtual wares. Problem is, it's not clear yet if there's anything game creator Linden Lab can do to stop people from using the bot. Linden Lab said Second …

Yahoo today acquired Bix.com an interesting site that allows users and advertisers to create, enter in and judge online contests. The Sunnyvale, Calif. Web giant intends to integrate Bix.com more closely with its social-media offerings Yahoo Groups and Yahoo 360, which have struggled to compete with YouTube and MySpace. Bix has only been around since August, but it's already carved a niche for itself in the exploding sector of user-generated media. Reality TV has shown that Americans love contests. Programs like "American Idol" and "Survivor" have been resounding successes. Bix merges that concept with the explosion of online media. …