Google head Eric Schmidt is now admitting he overpaid for YouTube by, oh, $1 billion or so. And he did it under oath during his testimony before Viacom lawyers. Schmidt estimates the video sharing site was actually worth about $600-$700 million when Google agreed to pay $1.65 billion for it in 2006. Why? To edge out the competition, he says. "They had indicated to us that they would be sold, and we believed that there would be a competing offer -- because of who Google was -- paying much more than they were worth," said Schmidt. "In the …

This holiday season will likely be a lackluster one for online retailers, according to Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore, "I'd be delighted if the growth was around 5 percent, but I am worried that we'll see it continue to go sideways for a while," he tells the Times' Bits blog. The fact is that even growth of 5% would be a significant reduction from past years. Prior to last year, when the holidays arrived on the heels of the financial crisis, growth had been 20% to 25% each season. Last holiday season, however, sales fell 3 percent to $25.5 billion, …

Ostensibly in an effort to focus its strategic vision, Yahoo is having a little garage sale where, for a song, you can take home your own email client (Zimbra), job-listing service (Hot Jobs), enough casual games to keep you busy for eternity (Yahoo Games), or a suite of small business tools (Yahoo Small Business). TechCrunch lays out Yahoo's assets in a handy slideshow. What's not for sale? The company's homepage; its mail messenger; its search business; or Yahoo Media Group, which continues to lead in several key categories, including sports, news, finance, and entertainment. Oh, and don't even …

Another day, another Apple-excluding deal that seems destined to shape the future of mobile media. On Monday, Adobe announced partnerships with every major smartphone maker -- except Apple -- to roll out full Flash capabilities to their platforms. Today, Google and Verizon Wireless have teamed up to bring the search giant's Android OS to Verizon Wireless's over 85 million U.S. customers. To date, Google's Android open-source mobile operating system had only been available on T-Mobile -- the smallest of the major carriers. "The partnership signals a full-frontal assault on Apple's iPhone, which is distributed exclusively through wireless …

The Wall Street Journal sat down with Sports Illustrated's Peter King, who's possibly parlayed his old media acclaim into new media fame better than any living journalist. Indeed, the seasoned writer's column, "Monday Morning Quarterback," which started out as a repository for what didn't make the print mag, now attracts 2 million readers a week. How does he do it? Keeping it very personal, for one. "One of the things that has both kind of inflamed people and sort of attracted people is when I have written over the years about some personal thing," says King. A supportive …

Gmail isn't the only email client sending headaches to users. Neowin.com reports that Windows Live has fallen victim to a "hack" or phishing scheme where password details of thousands of Hotmail accounts have been posted online. While most appear to be based in Europe, the security breach includes over 10,000 accounts from A-to-B -- suggesting there could be additional lists. Also, it appears only accounts used to access Micrsoft's Windows Live Hotmail have been posted, including @hotmail.com, @msn.com and @live.com accounts. Neowin reported this immediately to Microsoft's Security Response Center and to Microsoft's PR teams in the UK and U.S., …

Read 'em and weep (or rejoice, depending on the your perspective.) In the wake of a broad McKinsey inquiry, Condé Nast has settled on some key cuts and cutbacks, the majority of which are at least incidentally Web related. Titles to be shuttered include Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, Cookie, and, most surprisingly, Gourmet. (At least in name, Gourmet will live on in the recipes section of Epicurious.com.) Brides, by contrast, will increase its frequency to monthly "to solidify its position as the most important brand in the bridal category," writes Condé CEO Chuck Townsend in an internal company memo. Oh, …

Amazon has launched a new service that brings its payment processing tools to mobile devices. Its new "Amazon Mobile Payments Service" includes a set of APIs for mobile developers, which lets them provide payment options to their customers within mobile Web sites and mobile apps. The service also allows for integration of Amazon's "1-Click" checkout, which lets customers make purchases using their credit card information stored within their Amazon accounts. According to analysts, that ease of buying songs, apps and other products is largely responsible for the success of the iPhone among developers.

Internet telephony company Vonage is releasing a mobile app for BlackBerrys, iPhones and iPod Touches. The free app lets users place low-cost international calls over Wi-Fi and cellular voice networks. As the Times' Bits blog notes, the launch could further sour the relations between Google and Apple, which has yet to approve a Google Voice app for its iPhone. Federal regulators recently began looking into Apple's decision to keep the Google Voice app from appearing in its App Store. Apple, for its part, has told regulators that it had concerns about Google's app, including the way it duplicates …

Increasingly, industry news cycles are dominated by mobile developments. It's not that the, um, "traditional" Web isn't witnessing innovation (Google Wave; Microsoft's Bing; the rise of real-time distribution and search a la Twitter). Rather, the dawn of the mobile Web has finally arrived (thank you, Apple), and is presently engaged a serious case of catch-up. Ironically, Monday's mobile bombshell is all the more newsworthy because it excludes Apple. Indeed, with the exception of the Cupertino company, Adobe has announced partnerships will all the major smartphone players -- Research In Motion, Windows Mobile, Palm and Google -- to …