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 …

If you're in the search engine business and you don't work for Google, you probably think and talk about Google all the time anyway. If you're Yahoo, you wonder why Google still does a much better job monetizing its search traffic. If you're Microsoft, you're wondering how many more millions to invest to gain a few percentage points of market share. And if you're Ask.com, you might ask, is there a niche or something here for us? Forbes talks to Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone about his company's place in search -- read: What's it like fighting a losing …

Business Week reported a few days ago that big companies like News Corp. and Sony Corp. are taking a close look at virtual worlds -- primarily those catering to young kids and tweens, like Club Penguin and Webkinz.com. In the adult world, Second Life has been getting all the attention for its innovative, thriving virtual economy -- and its showcasing the experimental advertising efforts of global brands. For many companies, from ad agencies to news outlets to the NBA, there's a certain cachet about having a presence in Second Life. But, GigaOm asks, what's the ROI on these marketing expenses? …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

It's long overdue, but Google is finally dealing with the rampant problem of so-called AdSense arbitrageurs on its search engine. These sites, also called "Made for AdSense," have no content other than AdWords ads. Google last week sent several MFAs a letter explaining they would be kicked out of the program as of June 1 for having an "unsuitable business model." Some of these sites, by the way, pull in significant amounts of money. Of course, many also pump a lot of that cash back into AdWords in order to drive traffic to their site. AdSense critics …

MySpace handed over information about sex offenders on its site to authorities after Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal sent the company a subpoena. A week ago, eight state attorneys general sent a letter to the company demanding that it turn over the user information of convicted felons, but the News Corp. site resisted, saying it couldn't legally provide personal information like names and addresses without "the proper legal process." In some states, that requires a subpoena; MySpace had said it would be happy to comply if issued one. It was. Said Blumenthal said in a statement: "Our subpoena …