Cnet's Rafe Needleman reviews Microsoft's new search engine, Bing, calling it "a solid improvement over the previous search product" that "beats Google in important areas." In fact, so good is Bing, Needleman declares, that, "it will help Microsoft gain share in the search business." Sources claim that the new search service will go live on June 3. Bing wins big in a few areas, Needleman says, notably in search presentation, where it offers refined versions of search queries in addition to regular results. It also competes with Google on the quality of its search results (though Google's were …

Wikipedia has taken the unprecedented move of blocking an entire organization's IPs from the service. The Church of Scientology were banned from the site for using the self-proclaimed "free encyclopedia anyone can edit" to push its own agenda, and editing entries based on its own ideology. Single users are often banned but this is the first time Wikipedia has banned contributions from all IPs tied to a single organization. Wikepedia Arbitration Committee voted 10-0 (with one member abstaining) to kick Scientology off the site. The ban was enacted based on especially egregious cases of editing. The accounts …

Google countered Microsoft's new search engine announcement on Thursday with an ambitious new project that promises to be "The Email of the Future." Called Google Wave, the new communications product takes the idea of email and adds to it new elements like message chain IM boxes, photo galleries, widgets and games. "Good luck!" says Silicon Alley Insider's Dan Frommer, as replacing email, one of the most deeply entrenched consumer activities on the Web, is "not going to be easy." But Wave certainly looks cool, he says, and could prove to be a "a huge disruption" for companies like …

PaidContent.org is reporting that two-dozen publishers, including the New York Times Co., Gannett, E.W. Scripps, Advance Publications, McClatchy Company, Hearst Newspapers, MediaNews Group, the Associated Press, Philadelphia Media Holdings, Lee Enterprises and Freedom Communications, met at an annual Newspaper Associated of America event to discuss ways for charging readers for online content. The NAA did not publicize this year's event due to the grim news pervading the industry. At the event, The Atlantic's James Warren said he expects many publishers to start charging for online content because "they don't know what else to do." Panel topics included …

Blame Google's purchase of YouTube for the failure of the online video market to sustain itself, Mark Cuban said at the D: All Things Digital event on Wednesday. The problem, Cuban said, is that in purchasing YouTube, Google focused on ubiquity rather than making money. "This is a company that is literally subsidizing the bandwidth for the world," Cuban said, noting that it's particularly risky, too, especially if someone were ever to find a better search business model than Google. Cuban noted that the online video industry still doesn't have any advertising standards, among other shortcomings. "I …

Fresh questions are being asked about Facebook's ability to monetize following the huge $200 million cash injection secured earlier this week with Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies. A $10 billion valuation is a lot to live up to, after all. Meanwhile, the argument still goes that people go to Facebook to socialize, not hunt for products. BusinessWeek's Jonathan L. Yarmis thinks that that argument misses the point; he thinks the focus should be more on how Facebook and other social networks are changing advertising. "I'm loath to affix the 2.0 moniker to yet another phrase, but if …