Microsoft on Tuesday announced a new deal with Nokia to put its Silverlight technology in front of the Finnish handset maker's millions of mobile phone users. Silverlight allows developers to create multimedia applications independent of browser, operating system and handset. Because of its interoperability, the technology is seen as a direct competitor to Adobe's market-dominating Flash, which is already on millions of mobile phones. Under the deal, Silverlight software will be made available on Nokia smartphones running on Symbian's operating system. Nokia's S6 software platform, which uses Symbian, will be the first to deploy the technology. Rival …

TNS CEO David Lowden warned that many companies "simply running blind into the Internet" as market research firms like TNS struggle to understand consumer behavior on the Web. Many executives at big content providers have gone on record about the poor state of the Web measurement industry. "There are challenges in our industry in terms of the quality of Internet research, and it is something the users have confronted the industry about," Lowden said. In tough times, people need to be even more certain that they are making the right decisions with their advertising spend." …

Here's a trio for the future: Hollywood talent agency William Morris is teaming up with Silicon Alley VC firms Accel Partners and Venrock to invest in digital media startups in the Southern California area. Telecom giant AT&T is also on board as a limited partner. How's that going to work with so many control freaks in the kitchen? Nobody knows. It's kind of unprecedented, but the last time big tech and Hollywood got in bed together was right around the time Internet bubble burst. "There is always a fear, I know, that the bubble is about to burst …

A Microsoft-Yahoo takeover still looks inevitable, but the News Corp.-Yahoo rumors refuse to die. On Thursday RBC Capital markets analyst David Bank said Rupert Murdoch and co. could come out ahead in a bid for Yahoo because a deal "offers little downside to News Corp." Here's how the deal would work: News Corp. would combine Yahoo with Fox Interactive Media, its Internet division that includes MySpace, and then join forces with a private equity firm to purchase a 20 percent ownership stake in the combined company. This scenario has been widely reported, but reviews …

In an SEC filing last week, online auctioneer eBay revealed that its business faces many challenges in the coming months, including slowing growth in its three largest markets, the U.S., U.K. and Germany. Growth of listings, active users, new users and sales is expected to slow, driven by the weak economic climate in each of three countries. Regardless of a recession, ecommerce growth had been expected to continue its deceleration. Wall Street analysts expect eBay to earn revenue of $8.7 billion in 2008, a rise of 14 percent over 2007--which is a far cry from rates of …

Business Week devotes today's Technology page (link: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/) to the wonderful world of widgets, providing anything from advice on how to build your brand using widgets, to widget anecdotes, a CEO guide, and a point-counterpoint argument on their validity as a marketing platform. Widgets are embeddable software programs that users pass along to each other and download to their customizable homepages or social networking profiles. Some, like Scrabulous or Parking Wars, are undeniable hits, surpassing marketing execs' expectations as users repeatedly interact with the programs and send them to friends. Others, fall well short of expectations. Just ask …