"It's pretty obvious that Google is getting ready to fully cast its social net over its web properties," says TechCrunch's MG Siegler, as the search giant has been making several moves in that direction, including making social tweaks to iGoogle, integrating Gmail contacts to be used across Google properties, overhauling and promoting Google Profiles, and perhaps most significantly, says Siegler, pairing YouTube accounts with Google accounts. As of today, if you sign up for a YouTube account, you automatically get a Google account to go with it. "Without saying what it means by that specifically, I think it's pretty …

Facebook has controversially taken action against The Pirate Bay, blocking members from distributing its file-sharing links through its site. However, legal experts tell Wired that the social networking giant may have gone too far, as it not only blocks links to torrents published publicly on member profile pages, but it also blocks private messages that may contain them, too. "This raises serious questions about whether Facebook is in compliance with federal wiretapping law," said Kevin Bankston, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. As the report points out, Facebook private messages are governed by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, …

The Financial Times reports that Hulu.com is taking its first steps towards becoming a global content provider, signing its first round of content deals with international television producers. Hulu, which is jointly owned by News Corp., NBC Universal, and Disney, is still only available in the U.S., but company executives on Wednesday said it was in talks to launch the site in eight of the leading international broadcast markets. "We're having discussions in the top six to eight markets... we're laying the groundwork," Andy Forssell, senior vice president of content acquisition and distribution, told FT.com. Hulu has added …

During a first quarter earnings call, Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger on Tuesday said the media giant was developing an online subscription service of Disney branded content. "We realize that monetizing at a rate that is as robust as the traditional platforms doesn't exist yet, but we believe... that eventually it will," Iger said. "We are looking to create a real blend in terms of how we monetize and how we reach consumers and what kind of product we make available," he said. The announcement follows a string of major interactive moves by Disney, including last week's announcement …

The New York Post has the scoop on a new scheme devised by News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch to get consumers to pay for content online. According to the report, Murdoch is assembling a global team of News Corp. executives to develop a system for charging for online content. The team includes Murdoch himself, his son, James, Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton and former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller, who is now News Corp.'s digital chief.Apparently, the team is looking to create a consumer device similar to Amazon's Kindle that delivers News Corp. content from publications like The Wall …

Following a "healthy debate" internally, Disney finally decided that Hulu's surging popularity and ability to monetize its content were reason enough to join the video venture from News Corp. and NBC Universal, chief executive Bob Iger said during Disney's first quarter earnings call. During the call, Iger reiterated that Disney's decision to put content on Hulu wouldn't pose a threat to its existing businesses, and would instead add new revenue streams and help combat digital piracy by creating a legitimate place for consumers to access online content. He added that Disney's relationship with Apple's iTunes digital media store …

Silicon Alley Insider's Nicholas Carlson offers five reasons why Microsoft, which is sitting on a pile of cash, should offer "whatever it takes" to buy Twitter. Most estimates peg the microblogging site's value at between $700 million and $1 billion.For starters, Carlson says that Twitter has created a new and exciting type of search-real-time search, whereas Microsoft search (now called Live Search) has been a total flop. A Yahoo deal, which now looks likely, would certainly help, but it won't grow the way that Twitter is growing, Carlson says, but he warns that integrating Twitter into Live Search …

Is Google being compensated for other people's work? According to Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller, "there is a strong case to be made that Google is indeed getting a bigger piece of the pie than it deserves," especially from the perspective of content producers (such as Forbes.com) when the advertising market is "in a trough" and journalism as a business "seems to be shrinking by the day." For starters, Spanfeller says, the last click gets way too much credit. Google is by far the biggest beneficiary of this "ill-conceived metric", and by selling keywords, is "working hard to maximize …