Microsoft is expected to unveil a revamped version of its search engine at the D: All Things Digital conference in San Diego this week. The new search engine had been codenamed "Kumo," but according to The New York Post, it has been given the new name, "Bing". Company execs will conduct a demonstration at the D Conference, with the intention of building buzz prior to Bing's official launch in June, which will be backed by a major advertising campaign. The Post points out that while Bing may be able to equal Google's search results on merit, overcoming …

Internet users watch much more news and user-generated content than repurposed TV content online, according to a new study. The nationwide survey of 1,250 broadband households and 250 teens aged 12 to 17 found that only 8% of respondents watch repurposed TV shows online, compared to 24% that watch news clips, 20% that view user-generated clips on YouTube and 15% that watch sports news or highlights. "While online video usage is growing, it is shortsighted to think of this primarily as an alternative venue for watching TV shows," analyst Bruce Leichtman, who conducted the study, said in …

Russian-based investment group Digital Sky Technologies has offered to invest $200 million Facebook Inc., giving the Web's largest social network a valuation of $10 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported late last week. It's still unclear whether Facebook will accept the offer, which comes as the social network has been talking with several venture capital and private equity firms about raising money. According to one source, the Russian firm's offer is the latest of many the company has received. Under the terms of the proposal, DST would also offer to buy between $100 million and $150 million …

A new survey from the Pew Internet and American Life Project reveals that the use of online classifieds sites like Craigslist among U.S. adults is soaring. According to the study, which was released last week, 45% of Web users use online classifieds sites, compared with 22% of online adults in 2005; on any given day, 9% of U.S. Internet users visit classifieds sites, up from 4% in 2005. In all, classifieds sites averaged 53.8 million uniques in March 2009, with Craigslist alone receiving 42.2 million uniques. Pew noted that the rise of the likes of Craigslist have …

"Among all the companies fighting to grab a piece of the brightest star in computing -- the smartphone -- Google seems the least interested in taking the spoils," says Cnet's Tom Krazit. That would be because Google doesn't generate any money from Android, the mobile operating system it introduced to the world in 2007. According to Andy Rubin, Google's mobile director of platforms, the idea is simply to get more people using the Internet from their mobile phones. And Google thinks Android is the best means for achieving that end. "Google's business model is deep into advertising, …

Yahoo is looking to acquire its way into becoming a bigger player in social networking, CTO Ari Balogh revealed at the Reuters Global Technology Summit. "It's a good time to be buying now," Balogh said, alluding to the fact that company valuations have fallen drastically over the past six to nine months. Balogh did not name any specific companies that Yahoo is looking at. "I can guarantee you there will be some acquisitions, and we will do some stuff in-house," he said. Balogh also conceded that Google has won Round 1 of the search wars, but he …

Millions of us are "producing oceans of data" through our use of communication platforms and social networking tools, says BusinessWeek's Stephen Baker. "When I started network research 12 years ago, we had virtually no data," says Duncan J. Watts, a Columbia University professor who Is heading a research unit at Yahoo. Now, he and his team can study the network behavior of 295 million email users and 200 million Facebook users. Watts says this flood of data could be "transformative." Statistically, Baker says, friends tend to behave alike, because they share interests. However, this …