Google CEO Eric Schmidt shared an interesting view of what he foresees in the Web giant's future with the Financial Times. Schmidt said gathering more personal data is key to the company's core goal of organizing the world's information. "We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalization," he said. "The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as 'What shall I do tomorrow ?' and 'What job shall I take?' " That's right, Google doesn't …

Microsoft chief advertising strategist Yusuf Mehdi on Wednesday put the stop to rumors linking Microsoft to a potential Yahoo acquisition. Earlier this week, financial and Web industry analysts surmised that Microsoft would make a move for the Sunnyvale, Calif. Web giant following its $6 billion acquisition of the interactive ad holding firm aQuantive, in order to better compete with Google in online content and advertising services. "We think we have all of the pieces to reach our target," Mehdi said, though he added that smaller acquisitions are a possibility, which would rule out Yahoo. The Web giant's current …

During its first quarter earnings call on Tuesday, Anheuser Busch, the nation's largest brewery and one of the globe's largest ad spenders, said the company would begin slashing costs, starting with superfluous marketing expenses like the branded entertainment site Bud.TV. AB said Bud.TV would "probably fade a bit" this year in response to weak demand and rising costs for manufacturing its beverages. The beer maker spent more than $12 million to create 2,000 minutes worth of proprietary content on the branded site. Since the site's launch on Super Bowl Sunday in early February, Bud.TV has been met with …

In the wake of the high-profile acquisitions of competitors DoubleClick, 24/7 Real Media and aQuantive, it's no surprise that ValueClick, one of the last big ad networks still standing alone, has seen its stock shoot-up. Investors may believe a buyout and a big pay day are on the horizon, but the spotlight is on the company, which means that several of its practices are coming under intense scrutiny. One of these, the Consumer Promotion Center, generates customer leads through the use of aggressive promotional packages. The newspaper uses the example of a $300 package that includes a dozen …

Nepotism, perhaps? In an SEC filing Tuesday, Google revealed a $3.9 million investment in a search service for Anne Wojcicki, wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. This thing has teeth, however, which means the investment can't really be nepotism; it certainly has synergies with Google's goal of organizing the world's information. Called 23andMe, the search engine encourages individuals to learn more about their own genetic information, with the goal of creating a resource for understanding one's personal genetics, which the company says creates the potential for "personalized medicine." In a press statement, Wojcicki, a former health-care industry …

Kevin Ham is the most powerful dot-com mogul you've never heard of. He is a master of the game that Google vowed recently to clean up: Ham buys domain names, often typos or ones you would think belong to a major company, or those whose registration recently expired. He writes software, in fact, to ensure that he buys those domains as soon as they become available. To make money, Ham either resells them for a profit, or in the case of typo domain names, he sells Yahoo pay-per-click ads that often direct users to the Web site they intended on …

Newspaper publishers are taking Google to task for indexing their headlines and offering synopses of their stories without paying for it.Sam Zell, new owner of Tribune Company asked, "If all of the newspapers in America did not allow Google to steal their content, how profitable would Google be?" The answer is not very. Imagine if Web publishers charged Google a per page fee for indexing their content? It's an interesting question, and the fact that American publishers haven't asked it until now is vexing, say print industry analysts. "The search engines are supposed to be sending traffic to newspapers. …

CBS Corp. on Wednesday acquired 6-month-old Wallstrip, a daily Web show, a la Rocketboom, devoted to irreverent stock market news. The acquisition was cleverly announced this morning on WallStrip's show, drawing even more attention to it in the process. Most attribute WallStrip's success to show host Lindsay Campbell, who's drawn comparisons to video blogger Amanda Congdon, formerly of Rocketboom and current producer/host for ABCNews.com. Campbell will continue in her role as host of the show, while producers Adam Elend and Jeff Marks will produce original Web content for CBS.com. Another key to WallStrip's success has been …

Sony and News Corp. have their eye on Club Penguin, a community site where tweens chat with friends in the guise of avatar penguins in an Antarctic virtual world. For Club Penguin owner New Horizon Interactive, a bidding war could end in a major windfall; the media companies are said to be interested in paying as much as $400 million for the site. Does this mean virtual worlds are the next trend in big media acquisitions? Could be. Call it social networking 2.0: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Time Warner, News Corp., Viacom -- all demonstrated an interest in it. …

Google, champion of ad democratization, thinks the Feds should adopt its principles in allocating radio spectrum. In a filing with the FCC, the company called on the agency to auction off the next swath of spectrum in real-time, a la its search advertising system AdWords. Companies currently buy spectrum on long-term contracts; Google is suggesting that it be sold in real-time auctions on an ongoing basis. While Google says it has no intention of participating in the auction itself, the company has a vested interest in "democratizing" (sort of) the process so that newer entrants have a better chance …