Fresh from its failed attempt to buy Yahoo Search, Microsoft on Tuesday bought Powerset, a provider of so-called "semantic" search technology. Semantic search draws results based on an understanding of a word or phrase's meaning and the context of its use. When you consider that the likes of Google and Yahoo generate search results by merely matching words in queries to those on Web pages, Powerset's technology certainly sounds like a step up. Problem is, instructing a computer to understand context and meaning is incredibly difficult to execute, technologically speaking. Even so, the acquisition has Microsoft trumpeting that it can …

Yahoo shares have nearly come full circle in the five months since Microsoft tabled its offer to acquire the company for $31 per share. On Tuesday, shares traded as low as $19.59, before recovering slightly to end the day at $20.20. On Feb. 1, when Microsoft announced its unsolicited offer to buy Yahoo, shares immediately jumped 48% from $18 per share to $28, a level at which they would hover for the next three months, until Microsoft abruptly pulled its offer on May 2. Following that announcement, shares dipped back into the $24 range, until billionaire investor Carl Icahn swooped …

At a senior staff meeting yesterday, Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes suggested that AOL might be for sale, a source told Silicon Alley Insider. Meanwhile, another source stopped short of saying the company was for sale, instead claiming that "everyone is talking to everyone", and that AOL might someday be sold. Time Warner corroborated the latter source, saying that Bewkes' remarks were made in the context of a lengthy meeting about the state of the industry and AOL. In other words, not much has changed among the Web's giants in the months following Microsoft's bid for Yahoo. Everyone is talking--Microsoft, …

BoomTown's Kara Swisher has the scoop again after talking with high-level Yahoo sources, who say that various options are on the table, including another possible deal with Microsoft, a full or partial purchase of Time Warner's AOL, and a News Corp. or Comcast acquisition. Meanwhile, the board is very heavily considering firing Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and President Sue Decker. Possible replacements that have risen to the surface are ex-AOL CEO Jonathan Miller, ex-Fox Interactive President Ross Levinsohn and Google VP Tim Armstrong, among others. Of the above-mentioned scenarios, Silicon Alley Insider things that Yahoo would most likely accept …

Twitter is undoubtedly the hottest Web property with no revenue model. Silicon Alley Insider's Nate Westheimer suggests that the microblogging service move into the peer-to-peer mobile payments space, where "no one has much of a head start." So what are P2P mobile payments? Think PayPal for your phone. What does this have to do with Twitter? At first glance, not much, really, except for the fact that Twitter is widely used on mobile phones. As Westheimer says, "Twitter is far from being a ubiquitous mobile platform, but they have more penetration and usage than any other mobile service and …

In an interview with paidContent, Les Moonves explains why CBS decided to buy CNet Networks instead of The Weather Channel, as the media giant considered making an acquisition to strengthen its digital offerings. "Both have their values," Moonves said. "I think CNet for us-premium content being sold online across various categories seemed to fit better with what CBS is and what CBS wants to be in the future. That's not saying that Weather (Channel) is not a very valuable asset, as well. But using the technology of CNet and their brands and their content along with our brands and our …

Adobe announced an important development today that will allow search engines crawl and index SWF files. This means text or links contained in Flash files can now be picked up and indexed by Google and Yahoo crawlers. TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld notes that this is "a huge step forward" for Adobe and anyone else using Flash because for most people on the Web, if Google and Yahoo cannot find what they're looking for, it simply doesn't exist. A new special player now actually translates the runtime of each Flash app into something the search engines can understand, "so all of those …