Google is preparing a new service called Google Voice that provides users with a single phone number that seamlessly routes calls to their existing phones. The service also has built-in voicemail that can be accessed from any phone or through a Web browser. It features automatic message transcription (converting voicemails to text, which will be searchable) and free SMS delivery. Users can also forward their voicemail transcripts directly to their email accounts. Other cool features: recording incoming (but not outgoing) calls with the touch of a button, playing back recorded calls and voicemails directly through the browser, or even downloading …

In Italy, four Google executives face allegations of defamation and violating privacy for allowing a video that showed a teenager with Down Syndrome being bullied onto Google Video. Prosecutors argue that the video was uploaded without the consent of all parties involved. In that case, they claim that Google should keep such content off the video-sharing site. If the judge rules that videos posted to sites like YouTube need the permission of all involved, it will have huge ramifications for social media sites in Italy, says Nick Lockett, a partner with DL Legal. "If that becomes law, …

You can forget Google vs. Microsoft, says Wired's Fred Vogelstein: "Today, the Google-Facebook rivalry isn't just going strong, it has evolved into a full-blown battle over the future of the Internet -- its structure, design, and utility." Sure, the last decade or so has belonged to Google and its algorithms and equations for organizing the Web's information, but the future -- at least, according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg -- is a "more personalized, humanized Web, where our network of friends, colleagues, peers, and family is our primary source of information, just as it is offline." In …

In a sign that small to mid-sized businesses are starting to allocate more of their marketing budgets to social networking, Facebook on Monday said the number of customers using its automated advertising system had more than tripled in the past year. The service lets companies target users based on the information in their profiles. "You basically just have a greater diversity of people using our ad system -- lots of businesses, lots of local businesses finding success," said Tim Kendall, Facebook's director of product marketing for monetization. "It's really been a steady, successful growth pattern." Facebook launched the …

Fox Interactive Media CFO Ed McKenna is moving to another post inside News Corp. amid a broader restructuring of the interactive media unit, Kara Swisher reports. The restructuring should see FIM's Web, online advertising and publishing technology units receiving more autonomy, and could also include a name change for the four-year-old division. MySpace, of course, is by far the largest of FIM's properties. Aside from nearly cutting its worldwide staff in half, new CEO Owen Van Natta and new News Corp. Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller are also working on a major overhaul of the MySpace product, …

Last week, MySpace, News Corp's flagging social networking giant, laid off 400 domestic workers. Today, the company announced it would be cutting its international staff by 300. "With roughly half of MySpace's total user base coming from outside the U.S., maintaining productive and efficient operations in our international markets is important to users worldwide and our immediate financial strength," MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta said in a statement. "As we conducted our review of the company, it was clear that internationally, just as in the U.S., MySpace's staffing had become too big and cumbersome to be sustainable in current market …

In an interview with Bloomberg, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone says Twitter is finally on track to generate some revenue this year, as companies like Dell, Whole Foods and Starbucks use the micro-blogging site to communicate with millions of customers. "The idea is if they are getting value out of Twitter then we could add more value to what they are doing and we could get some revenue," Stone said, declining to give sales estimates. "We think we'll get to something this year, however simple, that shows we're making some money." One potential revenue source, he said, is …