"I'm starting to wonder if AOL is getting a little giddy about acquisitions," said The New York Times' Saul Hansell. Sphere, the Time Warner company's latest acquisition, which an executive tells him sold for around $25 million, helps bloggers and other publishers provide links to contextually relevant Web content. In other words, it supplies widgets-some simple, some not so simple-for Web publishers. Hansell points out that there's no obvious moneymaker behind Sphere, a service that's usually provided to publishers for free. Sphere's business model is to sell a single ad that appears in related pop-up content that users may or …

The Great Click Debate continues, as Google once again recorded poor gains in U.S. paid click growth in March, up only 2.7%, according to the latest figures from comScore. That means that overall, U.S. paid click growth for the first quarter was just 2% year-over-year, compared to 25% in the fourth quarter of 2007 and 48% in the third quarter. Does this mean that Google bombed the quarter? Nobody really knows, as the company has acknowledged that it was tweaking its search advertising system to cut back on those clicks that weren't likely to convert for advertisers. In that case, …

Monday marked the first major deadline for Google's Android Developer Challenge, a contest to build cool apps for the Web giant's mobile operating system. Fifty winners of the challenge's first round, which will be announced the week of May 5, win $10,000 each and the opportunity to compete in round two for $275,000 in prizes. Winners also receive bragging rights that their application was one of the first to show-off what the mobile operating system can support. It's been said before that Google's Linux-based service could be a potential game-changer for the mobile wireless industry. Prior to Android's launch, which …

When it comes to blockbuster sequels, nothing in the video game sphere comes close to touching "Grand Theft Auto." The next iteration of the series is due to hit shelves April 29, a day which video game sellers, lenders, big box retailers, publishers, console makers, Take Two shareholders, Electronic Arts shareholders and the rest of Wall Street will be watching with baited breath. According to Variety, "Grand Theft Auto IV" is expected to be the biggest selling video game of all time, with projections of $400 million in sales for its first week and 6 million units in total. The …

Facebook is introducing a new tool that lets users import content from non-Facebook sites to their news feeds and the news feeds of their friends. The service currently supports content from Flickr, Picasa, Yelp, and del.icio.us, and more content partners like Digg are rumored to be on the way. Facebook calls the new feature "lifestreaming", but it's not a new concept: in fact, Read Write Web said the service "pales in comparison" to its competitors. "The limited amount of supported services only highlights what a great service this could be if done well," said RWW. What does "done well" …

Last month it was Bebo, this month it's Sphere. Yep, AOL has reached into its pocketbook again to purchase yet another Web 2.0 startup. This time, the Time Warner company has come away with a content search engine whose technology adorns Web pages with links to articles, blog posts, and other related content. According to BoomTown's Kara Swisher, the sale was upwards of $25 million. As usual, AOL's purchase is a win for the purchasee-that would be Sphere co-founder and CEO Tony Conrad-but it's unclear what, if any impact, the acquisition will have on AOL's flagging business, Swisher said. …

With 89% of U.S. adults signed up for cell phone service, The Los Angeles Times says mobile carriers are pushing their video subscription services hard. According to Nielsen Mobile, these services raked in $308 million in Q4, compared to $112 million a year earlier. Major changes in the industry have opened the door to wider video adoption, including the introduction of the Apple iPhone--which spurred extensive usage of the mobile Web and pledges by the mobile carriers to grant more open access to their networks and software, along with new unlimited data plans that allow users to watch as much …

Cellular carriers like Verizon Wireless and AT&T are missing out on content revenue as consumers bypass their offerings and head straight to the Web to download mobile ringtones, music, wallpaper, applications, and other services. Carrier Web portals, the gateway to the mobile Web for most cell phone owners, currently account for about 80% of content purchased on mobile phones. But not for long. Strategy Analytics analyst David Kerr said their share will shrink to 25% in five years, as the mobile Web matures. The carriers claim they're not that concerned. "The content piece is not as meaningful for service providers …

The latest comScore figures don't solve Google's case of the missing clicks, but they may ease fears that the search giant tanked the first quarter. According to comScore March data, Google's query growth in the U.S. accelerated grew 4% over February. Now, query growth isn't the same as paid click growth-which is used as an indicator of how well Google is performing-but the two are related. After showing a scary 11% decline (from 37% to 26%) in U.S. query growth from January to February, investors should be somewhat reassured that growth deceleration stabilized at about 30% for the quarter. …