The future of casual gaming should absolutely belong to Internet advertising, if a recent report from RealNetworks is to be believed. An astonishing 90 percent of gamers surveyed said they would watch ads, both before and during play, if it means they can play casual games for free. Even more important was the revelation that 34 percent reported clicking through or taking some kind of other action regarding the advertiser's product. "One in three is a shockingly impressive click-through rate," says GigaOm's Wagner James Au. However, Real's press release didn't state the methodology or its accuracy rate, "Still," …

Yahoo's shareholders seem to be the only ones who are happy about Microsoft's offer to acquire the struggling Web giant. Meanwhile, fearful Microsoft shareholders are defecting, Google's firing up Washington, Yahoo's board is frantically searching about for other alternatives, and fearful employees from both companies are casting out their resumes. Microsoft's stock has also plunged so far that the deal (which was to be a 50/50 cash-stock split) is now down to $29 per share from $31. Analysts remain unconvinced. A much better deal could (and should) be worked out. Instead of combining the two companies--a slow …

Hollywood, in its struggle against Internet piracy, has called on Internet service providers to start filtering out access to certain peer-to-peer file-sharing destinations. AT&T, a provider of high-speed DSL service, has slowed down traffic its network sends to peer-to-peer sites. The telecom giant is also thinking about developing a system hat identify and block illegally copyrighted material being sent over its network. However, Verizon, a rival ISP, opposes that concept. Tom Tauke, Verizon's executive vice president for public affairs, said the idea of network filtering raises privacy concerns and by acquiescing to Hollywood's request for network filtering, …

For many, the most surprising aspect of Google's fourth-quarter earnings results was the admission that Google's partnership with News Corp. to serve search ads on MySpace wasn't performing. Also add Facebook and Google's own YouTube to the list, too. Meanwhile, ad executives say they struggle to see consistency in their return on investment from social-networking campaigns. Facebook has struggled mightily to make money from its massive traffic, despite issuing several new ad innovations. Analysts estimate that Microsoft, which has a 1.6 percent stake in the company, is actually losing money with its Facebook partnership. …

Google plays second fiddle to search competitor Baidu.com in China, a position the world's largest search company doesn't like to be in. Music is one the main reasons Baidu has been able to sustain its dominance. Reminiscent to the practices of the Pirate Bay, a searchable directory peer-to-peer downloading destinations, Baidu returns searches for free, unlicensed music downloads. While the Pirate Bay is being sued for those practices in Sweden, its home base, Baidu is also attracting scrutiny for its practices both inside and outside China. Understanding that music is key to winning the search wars …

Yahoo's board of directors have two options in the wake of Microsoft's takeover bid: they can accept the bid, or swallow their pride and do a paid search deal with Google. As much as Yahoo would love to see a bidding war, no one besides Microsoft could afford to pay more than $31 per share for the company. Moreover, nobody else--with the possible exception of eBay--makes logical merger sense. So what will it be, a Microsoft merger or a Google search deal? Yahoo's pride might be worse hit by selling itself completely. Meanwhile, it's far …

Google has been dominating U.S. spectrum related headlines for months, the Web giant is bowing out of the auction. Analysts speculate that Google put up the required $4.6 billion for the "C" portion of spectrum that ensures the creation of an "open" broadband network for handset makers and software developers. Some industry watchers claim that that's all Google really wanted--to see those auction rules put into place. After making the initial bid, it looks like Google's off the hook; the company won't be stuck shelling out billions to create a nationwide wireless network. Instead, analysts believe …