TechCrunch reports that MySpace is following in the footstep of Yahoo and other Internet giants by opening up a Webmail service of its own. The proof? The company has been reassigning internal email addresses, which used to be name@myspace.com, to name@myspace-inc.com. This is exactly what Yahoo did prior to launching a Webmail service, Michael Arrington notes. "There is no other reasonable explanation for the changeover, which is extremely disruptive to communications," he says. On Wednesday, Fox Interactive Media, the corporate parent of MySpace, sent an email to all MySpace employees detailing the change. "It doesn't seem like much, but this …

Facebook has gone to great lengths to protect the privacy of users on its own site, but what about on other sites? Through Facebook Connect, users can now share their profiles and friend lists on participating third-party sites, but who is responsible for defending their data? Privacy watchdogs claim services like Facebook Connect raise new questions about how user data is collected and shared among Web sites. Such tools "unearth a trove of new data about a visitor" notes BusinessWeek's Douglas MacMillan. "I'm wondering if people really understand when they're using Facebook Connect that other sites get access to their …

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes went public with "TV Everywhere" -- his idea to give cable and satellite TV subscribers programming access across platforms at no extra charge -- about a month ago. Bloggers, critics and other industry watchers have given the idea mixed reviews; Blog Maverick's Mark Cuban is one of its most vocal supporters. Prior to his address at the 2009 Cable Show, PaidContent's Staci Kramer spoke with Bewkes about TV Everywhere. For starters, Kramer asks if the negotiations between Disney and Hulu/YouTube have any bearing on the concept of TV Everywhere. "I don't think it challenges …

Apple, through its iPhone and iPod Touch, has emerged as a real force in gaming, Reuters says, "fulfilling the long-held promise of mobile gaming and positioning itself as a legitimate competitor to handheld consoles." With 30 million devices on the market (17 million iPhones and 13 million iPod Touches), Apple is creeping up on Nintendo's DS (100 million units) and Sony's PlayStation Portable (50 million units). Scores of iPhone and iPod Touch-only games were on display at the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco last week. Some say the iPhone's unique features-like GPS, Wi-Fi connectivity, and touch-screen technology-give Apple a …

Another Google killer bites the dust: Wikia Founder Jimmy Wales on Tuesday said the company would close Wikia Search after just 15 months of operation. The site's lofty goal was to be a user-generated search engine through which users could influence rankings. However, the search project failed to gain traction. By August 2009, Wikia Search had just a 0.000079% share of the search market in the U.S., compared with Google's 70.77%, according to Network World. In an interview, Wales said the current economy has forced him to "reassess everything" and "do what we need to do to get to …

A source tells Silicon Alley Insider that a deal to bring Disney content to Hulu is "basically done." VentureBeat's MG Siegler says the implications of such a deal would be huge for the joint video venture from News Corp. and NBC Universal, which would be able to add programming from ESPN and ABC, as well as movies from Disney. If the deal goes through, Hulu would have content from all the major networks except CBS. That's OK, Siegler says, "CBS hardly seems rich with the content that the web-savvy users who watch Hulu now flock to." ABC, with shows …

Facebook CFO Gideon Yu is being forced out of the company as the huge social network looks for a new CFO with "public company experience." As TechCrunch's Michael Arrington notes, it wouldn't be accurate to say that Yu had no public company experience (he worked at Yahoo, after all), but sources tell Kara Swisher that Yu's departure came down to an "increasingly strained" relationship with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. According to Swisher, the pair was at loggerheads over a variety of issues, from increasing ad revenue to fund-raising discussions with investors. "At Facebook, you're either with Mark or you're not," …

Hewlett-Packard is considering a deal with Google that would make Android the operating system bundled with its new line of notebook computers. HP spokeswoman Marlene Somask said the computer maker was currently "studying" Android's communications and computing functions to see if the sofware would be a good fit. One possibility is that HP would load the Google OS onto the popular mini laptops known as "netbooks," which, like other PCs, are dominated by Microsoft's Windows OS. BusinessWeek's Aaron Ricadela notes that Android is currently used for cell phones, "but that's changing," as Google attempts to put Android on netbooks so …