Yahoo is slowly emerging from the Microhoo mess, ready to finally unveil "what could be its company-saving ad system," according to the New York Post. Formerly known as "Amp," the new ad management platform will roll out this quarter. Yahoo claims it will make it easier for publishers, advertisers and agencies to buy and sell space across its network, by eliminating the need to use the phone. In fact, unlike Google's DoubleClick, with which the unnamed system will compete, Yahoo's system will be free. More than 800 publications that belong to Yahoo's newspaper consortium will use it. The San Francisco …

In a letter in response to an inquiry made by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, telecom giant AT&T said it was considering ISP-level targeting. According to The New York Times' Saul Hansell, AT&T expressed in its letter more interest in the controversial approach than other big Internet service providers. ISP-level targeting involves deploying a monitoring technology to capture where users go on the Internet in order to serve targeted ads. AT&T claims that it would deploy ISP targeting "the right way," meaning the advertising system would require customers to agree to being monitored. The opt-in approach is …

Barack Obama is crushing John McCain when it comes to raising funds on the Web, the Economist reports. In June, the Illinois Senator raised $52 million for his campaign--$31 million of which came from donations of $200 or less. Most of these came from the Web. On Facebook, Obama has 1.3 million supporters to McCain's 200,000. He is also using Twitter, the microblogging service, to spread the word about his every campaign move. Former Howard Dean adviser Andrew Rasiej claims that Obama "understands the DNA of the internet" in a way that John McCain simply does not (McCain has admitted …

Facebook won final approval to acquire ConnectU, a social networking rival whose founders had accused Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea, despite an appeal against their agreed out-of-court settlement earlier this year. ConnectU claimed that Facebook misrepresented its value during the settlement talks. The controversy was all about Microsoft's stake in the social networking giant, as ConnectU's owners were to be given an undisclosed amount of money and Facebook stock as part of the settlement. Following Microsoft's purchase of a one percent stake in October 2007, Facebook was given a valuation of $15 billion, but the company …

The New York Times is reporting that the first Android-powered phones will go on sale in the U.S. as early as October. According to the report, the phones will be created by HTC and run on T-Mobile's nationwide network. Android will be the phone's operating system software. Many tech blogs are calling the new HTC device the "dream," claiming that it will be able to match many of the capabilities offered by Apple's iPhone and other smartphones, including touchscreen technology. Video of the phone has popped up on YouTube; a Times source who's seen the HTC device claims it …