In the Web business, there's always a latest privacy issue, and this year, it's search data retention. Federal, public policy and consumer activist groups have put big-time pressure on the search industry's Big Four to come clean about data retention-especially in light of the latest round of Web mergers that brought aQuantive to Microsoft and may yet bring DoubleClick to Google. In response to the pressure, search leader Google told the EU it would dump user search data after 18 months. Microsoft on Monday went even further, outlining incremental steps to improve privacy for Live Search and its other …

Was it really any surprise that the last installment of the Harry Potter series showed up on the Web prior to its July 21 release? Pictures of the book's text showed up on News Corp.'s Photobucket and the virtual community Gaia Online, threatening to ruin the ending for thousands of the series' fans. A greater surprise is how quickly many Web sites responded to requests to take down the copyrighted material and hand over information about the perpetrators. In fact, on July 16, U.S. publisher Scholastic subpoenaed information about the identity of the violators on Gaia Online, which …

Google on Friday announced its intention to take the spectrum plunge in a letter to the SEC, guaranteeing that the company will put up the minimum $4.6 billion to bid on a piece of wireless spectrum that many believe the FCC will require to be an open network. Which is good news for competition. Why? Because the state of the U.S. telecommunications infrastructure is "troubling" at best, and big G's intention--or so it seems--is to allow new players to provide cheaper, open wireless access to consumers. However, it's far from certain that Google will prevail in its quest--the …

Everybody scream. Users of social networks like MySpace and Facebook put themselves at a greater risk of identity theft, according to a new report from UK-based Equifax. Why? Common sense would tell you that users of these sites make personally identifiable information publicly available. One consequence of this is fraudsters using that personal information to apply for credit cards and benefits. As Neil Munroe, external affairs director for Equifax says, "More and more consumers are signing up to these sites every day, and chances are they'll put on their date of birth, location, e-mail, job and marital status." …

Wall Street shrugged as eBay on Wednesday reported 50% profit and strong revenue growth in the second quarter. Why? Because eBay is having a hard time adding new customers, and while earnings per listing may have grown, overall listings fell 6%. CEO Meg Whitman dealt with the issue by claiming that an improved user interface is in the offing. But it was still a strong quarter for the Web giant, as the total value of sales on the site grew 12% from the year before, to an impressive $14.4 billion, in part thanks to strong ad sales. Net income grew …

Social networking sensation Facebook on Thursday acquired a Web startup named Parakey, a platform its creators say "bridges the gap between information on the Web and the desktop." There are almost no details on the company's Web site--as the product has yet to launch--but the idea behind Parakey (or so it seems) is to create a closed network or intranet that links desktop and Web information. "Computers are frustrating. Creating documents, finding files, sharing information -- why do everyday things still seem so tedious and counterintuitive?" the company's Web site says. How does this fit in with Facebook? Part …

Sure, Wikipedia has its problems, but Jimmy Wales' wiki-based encyclopedia is a phenomenon that's opened the possibilities for future wiki products and services. Craigslist founder Craig Newmark is a fan: "What Jimmy has done through Wikipedia is change the way people write history. Before, it was guys with guns, now it's anyone." Of course, there are inherent problems with inviting the public to create content -- from misinformed postings to slander to outright lying -- something both men face with their respective sites. The pair has met on several occasions to discuss these and other issues, including the potential …

It's a sign of the times: Nickelodeon, Viacom's kid giant, is moving very aggressively into the burgeoning world of casual gaming, pouring a hefty $100 million into the development and renovation of the new and old casual gaming destinations that fall under its umbrella. MTVN has also thrust considerable resources behind a variety of other gaming genres, including massively multiplayer online games and console-based and handheld games. In the last few years, the company has acquired such properties as online gaming portal Xfire, the online video and game producer Atom Shockwave, promotion site GameTrailers.com, virtual community Neopets and …

Google shares tumbled 7 percent in after-hours trading yesterday after the search giant failed to meet earnings expectations by 3 cents per share. But don't panic yet, CNET says, "Google isn't Yahoo." It's simply dealing with certain market forces that can't be controlled. Specifically, Google CEO Eric Schmidt blamed the cost of adding new talent for weighing down net earnings, which were $925 million for the quarter, 28 percent higher than 2006. Wall Street all but ignored the company's strong 58 percent increase in overall revenues, which totaled $3.87 billion. As CNET says, "It's hard to even call …

The final installment of the Harry Potter series is scheduled to come out Saturday morning at 12:01 a.m., but news of the book's content is already spreading across the Web. On Tuesday, digital photographs of pages from the 700-plus-page novel "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" appeared on various Web sites, threatening the "specialness" of the series' resolution to millions of fans across the globe. What followed was mass confusion: Is it real? U.S. publisher Scholastic says the versions on the Web conflict with the actual text. Who did it? The U.K. and U.S. publishers have been left …