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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

At Google's I/O event on Wednesday, co-founder Larry Page answered questions about Google's relationship with newspapers; Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan was on hand to take notes. Firstly, Page noted that Google wants good content to do well, otherwise there would be "nothing to search." He added that in the last year, Google paid over $6 billion to all types of content sites through AdSense. In spite of the tough economic climate, Page said, "I'm pretty optimistic that the business models will evolve, and we'll hopefully get even higher quality information as a result...but I don't think …

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz revealed that she would be willing to sell the entire company to Microsoft for the right price. Speaking at the D: All Things Digital conference in San Diego, Bartz said it would take "big boatloads of money" for her to sell Yahoo, although Microsoft sources tell Reuters that the software giant is no longer interested in an outright acquisition. Bartz added that discussions with Microsoft are ongoing over a possible search deal, which she said would also require "boatloads of money." Meanwhile, Microsoft will unveil its new search engine at the All Things …

News Corp. chief digital officer Jonathan Miller and MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta, speaking at the All Things Digital Conference in San Diego on Wednesday, said that the company was working with Google to try and make their existing advertising deal better for both parties. The parties' existing advertising arrangement comes up for renewal next year. "When it comes time to negotiate, one of the things that can be helpful is looking at it from the overall News Corp perspective," Miller said, hinting that a broader deal was in the works. Under the current arrangement, Google only …

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 …