Now that the deadline has passed, what happens next in the Microhoo saga? On April 5, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hinted that a hostile takeover would follow: "If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo board." In an April 25 report, Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney said there's a 45% chance Microsoft would up its bid, a 40% chance Microsoft would go hostile, a 10% chance it …

Sites like IAC/InterActiveCorp.'s CollegeHumor.com are finding that the online ad model for niche sites has completely changed in recent years. Whereas advertisers used to buy standard online ad formats, like banners, and then ask for a creative extra or two, "now advertisers won't even talk to you unless you have a great topline idea, something cool," said CollegeHumor.com founder Ricky Van Veen. "They use the banners and the rest of the stuff to support the deal." The result has been custom-built sponsorships with brands like Sprint Nextel Corp, Doritos and P&G's Old Spice. One of the most successful of …

Take Two Interactive's "Grand Theft Auto IV" is expected to have one of, if not the biggest launches in entertainment history when it hits stores tomorrow. Analysts are predicting a $400 million opening week for the video game, topping Microsoft's "Halo 3," which set the previous record last fall with $300 million in sales. "Grand Theft Auto", an 11-year-old franchise that's sold more than 65 million copies worldwide, also happens to be at the center of a $2 billion takeover war between Take Two and Electronic Arts, the industry's biggest third-party developer. Take Two has said it's unwilling to …

Google researchers on Monday unveiled a bold new image search technology. During a presentation at the International World Wide Web Conference in China, the Google scientists described the company's new VisualRank technology as blending image-recognition software techniques with criteria for weighing and ranking images. The scientists noted that despite years of attempts, image search remains an unsolved mystery-even though the likes of Google and Yahoo offer image search, the results are largely based on how the images are tagged, rather than on how they look. While progress has been made on face detection, finding objects has proven to be far …

Yahoo is taking the bold new step of completely drinking the Web 2.0 Kool-Aid: The Internet giant will is opening up its Web services to developers and link its platforms together in an attempt to get users to interact with the site more like a social network. Yahoo has been moving in this direction for some time, having introduced social media features to its Web mail, joining Google's Open Social initiative and introducing Search Monkey, a new social search initiative. There are three components to the company's so-called Yahoo Open Strategy: Platformization, opening services and portability. Platformization is a movement …

The Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodget says there's a 60% chance that Microsoft will retract its bid for Yahoo once the deadline passes on Saturday. As a result, Yahoo's stock will fall back into the low $20s and Microsoft's will shoot back up. Why the sudden change? For starters, Microsoft's weaker than expected first quarter makes it even less likely that the software giant would be willing to pay more money for the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company. And Yahoo, after holding off so spectacularly for a better price, can't cave in now. "(Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang) has demonstrated that he's...been …

After comScore issued a series of reports showing that Google's paid click growth in the U.S. was nearly flat in the first quarter, investors blamed the Web measurement firm for costing them millions when the search giant actually delivered stronger than expected earnings. In an email to clients, comScore CEO Magid Abraham responds to the criticism, saying that not only was the data accurate, but it reveals that Google's U.S. business is weakening. Abraham claims that many pundits failed to draw a distinction between Google's domestic and international operations in concluding that his company had missed the mark: while …