VentureBeat sources say that Facebook will start testing a payments system with developers in the next several weeks. One of the sources, who is close to Facebook, confirmed the timeline for the test, saying that it will be a "small, alpha test", the details of which are still being worked out. "It could end up being pretty big," says VB writer Eric Eldon, as "Facebook could potentially offer a universal currency for Facebook applications, as well as other sites on the Web that use Facebook data, making a single trusted payment method that users and developers would feel …

For the first time in its history, Microsoft Corp has sold bonds to investors, raising $3.75 billion. Due to its stellar credit rating, the software giant was able to sell at interest rates that were much lower than most other corporations, and only slightly more expensive than U.S. government debt. According to The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft may be planning to use the money for an acquisition, but sources said the company didn't have a specific deal in mind for the cash; rather, it was seeking to take advantage of market conditions. Analysts think Microsoft is more likely …

Time Warner is getting ready to end one of the most unhappy unions in merger history, as it prepares to spin off former Web giant AOL. However, just as Time Warner moves to end one Internet relationship, it's beginning another, notes The Economist: later this year, the media conglomerate plans to unveil "TV Everywhere," a new scheme for putting Time Warner shows online. The service will allow those who can prove they subscribe to a cable or satellite package that includes Time Warner channels to watch shows online at no extra cost. Rival networks and cable providers have also pledged …

Original Web video is still mostly a bust, says Silicon Alley Insider's Dan Frommer. Americans may have watched 14.5 billion online videos in March, according to comScore, but the top videos were undoubtedly clips of professionally produced content. So far, there simply aren't that many Web-original hits -- and no Web producers are striking it truly rich yet. According to YouTube, by far the most popular online video destination, "hundreds of YouTube partners are making thousands of dollars a month," but most YouTube producers still can't quit their day jobs, Frommer says. Take FunnyOrDie, producer of "The Landlord," …

News Corp. has announced micro-payments for individual articles and a new premium subscription service for the Wall Street Journal's Web site, which will be rolled out this year, The Financial Times reports. The move comes at a time when the newspaper industry is searching for a better online business model, as advertising revenues plunge. This is the first time a major newspaper adopted micro-payments. Other big papers will be watching the experiment closely.Senator John Kerry tells the FT that it's conceivable newspaper publishers will be given limited exemption from antitrust laws to pursue these kinds of new online …

Oh, what a difference a rally makes: Sanford C. Bernstein boosted its price target on search giant Google a whopping 30% to $600, saying improving economic conditions would translate into higher revenue-per-click for paid search advertising. In a research note, analyst Jeffrey Lindsay suggested the rally would last through the end of the year, boosting Google's year-over-year performance in the fourth quarter. "Although revenue per click (RPC) weakness may persist through the second quarter and possibly into the third quarter, we think the trend will reverse by the fourth quarter and restore Google's revenue growth to 14 percent year over …

The iPhone is proving to be quite expensive for AT&T, says The Wall Street Journal's Martin Peers. According to comScore, iPhone users download games and use the Web at two to four times the rate of other smartphone users, yet AT&T charges subscribers the same $30 fee per month for data that it charges other smartphone users. However, certain apps that are popular with iPhone customers are complete bandwidth hogs, says Peers, citing a recent analysis by Alcatel-Lucent that found that North American wireless network use during an average midday hour consumed 32% of data airtime but 69% …

Wolfram|Alpha is the latest Google Killer that probably won't kill Google. But then again, it probably won't die on the vine, either, like so many would-be Google Killers that came before it. Indeed, Alpha is powered by very different technology than anything we've ever seen before. The brainchild of Stephen Wolfram, a 49-year-old former particle physicist, Alpha is unique in that if you type in a query for a statistic -- say, the average speed of a sparrow -- you get a mini dossier on the subject compiled in real-time. Unlike other search engines, you don't get a series of …