Reuters reports that another U.S. lawmaker plans to introduce a bill that would bar the likes of AT&T from offering Web companies faster content delivery speeds at a premium, in a renewed battle over network neutrality. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) who introduced the bill, thinks a network neutrality law is the only way to prevent phone and cable companies from discriminating against Web content. "We feel that legislation is definitely necessary," said Frannie Wellings, telecom counsel to Dorgan, speaking at a recent University of Nebraska law school event. According to Reuters, Dorgan will be among the highest ranking Democrats on …

Never a publication to mince its words, The Economist flatly states that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang must go. In fact, the business journal goes so far to say that Yang should have never re-assumed the role of CEO in the first place. "A mistake it clearly was," the report says, "and it is time for Mr. Yang and Yahoo's shareholders to say so." Where did it all go wrong? When he took over in June 2007, Yang thought he could, "through sheer passion for his creation," revive Yahoo, which had failed under Hollywood mogul Terry Semel to turn into a …

Microsoft, the undisputed king of packaged software, "quietly drove another nail into the coffin" of the business that built its empire by launching a new software download store aptly named the "Microsoft Store." After initially testing the online service in Europe and Korea, the U.S. version of the store was opened up on Thursday. The Microsoft Store sells downloadable versions of all Microsoft software, from Office to games for the Xbox 360. Unlike, say, the Apple App Store, the Microsoft Store does not distribute mobile applications or third party software. Curiously, Microsoft didn't make a big deal about yesterday's …

Want to know where the nearest Starbucks is, but don't feel like taking out your phone to search for it? Well, now you can simply ask your phone, thanks to new voice recognition technology Google's added to its search software for the Apple iPhone. Simply place the handset to your ear, and you can ask virtually any question. The sound will be converted to a digital file and sent to Google's servers, which interpret the words and then pass them to Google's search engine. The search results will be displayed in a matter of seconds on a fast wireless network. …

In a sign that the financial crisis is extending to private companies, universities and pension fund managers are divesting their holdings in VC firms, depressing their values by as much as 50 percent, Bloomberg News says. According to Hans Swildens, principal at a San Francisco-based firm that buys venture stakes, investors have stakes worth more than $2 billion up or sale, more than double the $800 million at this time last year. Swildens said the glut of stakes up for sale reminds him of the beginning of the VC slowdown in 2000. "2009 will feel like 2001," Swildens told Bloomberg, …

At the beginning of 2008, one of Google's stated objectives was to finally eke out some meaningful revenue from YouTube. And while the search giant has been actively pursuing content and advertising deals for the enormously popular video-sharing site, none of its moves has yet to hit pay dirt. On Wednesday, Google introduced a new auction-based video advertising system, that's not dissimilar to the one it pioneered in search, which promotes sponsored video clips alongside regular YouTube search results. Is this the move that finally makes YouTube profitable? It could be: YouTube, after all, has recently become the Web's No. …

Web giant Google, whose business is supposedly more resilient to an economic downturn than other Internet advertising stocks, on Wednesday dropped below $300 per share for the first time since 2005. The stock is 44% off its one-year high of $725. And while most analysts think Google at $291 is getting cheaper and cheaper, some, like Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodget, think the stock could fall as far as $200 (although please note: little more than a year ago, Blodget was saying Google could go as high as $2,000). In any event, many securities analysts are revising their Google …

Things are just turning from bad to worse at Yahoo. First came the turning down of Microsoft's $31 and $33 per share offers, and then came the eventual collapse of its proposed search deal with Google. Now, Yahoo is trading at close to $10 per share. Of course, it would be easy to lay blame on CEO Jerry Yang, but BoomTown writer Kara Swisher thinks a larger boulder should be tossed in the direction of Yahoo's "incredibly shrinking board." After all, the board is Yang's boss, which is "why their apparent stasis is just astonishing, if it were not …

Microsoft is socializing the suite of products that fall under the Windows Live brand. The software giant on Wednesday said the next release of Windows Live will integrate e-mail, instant messaging, photos and Web applications from other companies into a single platform. The idea is to position Windows Live as the hub for using Microsoft's products as well as other companies' Internet applications, and to incorporate new features similar to those found on social sites like Facebook. In fact, Reuters claims the move puts Microsoft in direct competition with such social networking sites, which opened their doors to outside …

Apple's iPhone 3G and its game-heavy AppStore may well push mobile gaming into the mainstream, Ad Age reports, in much the same way that the Web brought casual gaming to the masses. The trade pub points out that it wouldn't be very difficult for the likes of Apple and Google to develop an in-game ad network for their mobile phones. Google, for example, already owns an in-game network. Microsoft, which owns the in-game ad network Massive Incorporated, is also rumored to be working on its own phone. Sony, which has the PSP portable gaming device and the Sony-Ericsson line of …