Despite increased competition, VoIP provider Skype saw its share of international calling minutes increase 50% year-over-year to a 12% market share in 2009, according to new research from TeleGeography. In total, that equates to 54 billion minutes out of a total 406 billion international calling minutes. According to TeleGeography, international call volume from telephones has grown at an annual rate of 15% over the past 25 years, while that growth has been slowing for the past few years. In the past two years, meanwhile, international telephone traffic annual growth has reportedly slowed to just 8% -- growing …

Under pressure from European Union privacy regulators, Microsoft said it will begin deleting Internet Protocol addresses associated with search queries after six months. The changes are expected to be implemented within the next 12 to 18 months, and will reduce the time data is held down from 18 to 6 months, according to John Vassallo, Microsoft's vice president of EU affairs. Microsoft, meanwhile, had until the end of January to respond to concerns expressed by EU officials probing possible breaches of privacy laws. According to Bloomberg, the move leaves Google alone in storing data beyond the accepted …

Apple just sent out invitations to select media for an event on the morning of January 27, where the company plans to unveil what its calling it "latest creation" -- likely code for its highly-anticipated Apple tablet device. Reports suggest that the device has been years in the making. A source at Apple tells Fox News -- of all places -- that the event will most likely focus on three projects: "The tablet device, iPhone 4, and a new round of iLife 2010 software." The invite features "spray-painted blobs amid vibrant color swatches," which Fox is interpreting to …

Putting the kibosh on any remnant possibility of a Google tie-up, Yelp is reportedly close to closing a fifth round of financing in the neigborhood of $50 million. Led by Elevation Partners, the round would include both a primary investment component, along with a secondary offering for long time employees, according to TechCrunch. "These deals are now being referred to as 'DST deals,' since DST first invested in Facebook in May 2009 at a $10 billion valuation and later funded employee buyouts at a $6.5 billion valuation," TechCrunch explains. The valuation is also …

Think mobile apps are a nickel-and-dimes market? Well, according to new Gartner research, consumers will spend $6.2 billion in mobile application stores this year while advertising revenue is expected to generate $0.6 billion worldwide. Overall, analysts say mobile application stores will exceed 4.5 billion downloads this year -- eight out of ten of which will be free to end users. Gartner forecasts worldwide downloads in mobile application stores to surpass 21.6 billion by 2013, while the share of free downloads will increase from 82% of all downloads in 2010 to 87% of all downloads in 2013. Worldwide, …

Giving local review sites more cause for concern, Google now seems to be looking beyond the range of traditional review sources to new, non-traditional sites like blogs, and even articles. Some, including Search Engine Land's Greg Sterling, believe that this could potentially complicate the emerging area of "reputation management" for local businesses. The immediate advantage for Google will likely be increasing the volume and coverage of reviews on its Place Pages service, and, according to Sterling, its unlikely that Google will fill its service with any local business mention. Rather, particular "hyper-local" blogs and niche sites are …

At least according to TechCrunch, AOL is nurturing a Wikipedia-killer named Owl, but which is official being described as "a living, breathing library where useful knowledge, opinions and images are posted from experts the world over." TechCrunch further speculates that Owl is really a "testbed" for Seed -- AOL's new low-cost content management system for soliciting articles and photographs for its network of existing Websites. On that last point, AOL responded: "Owl was developed last year as one site that could publish content from Seed on a wide range of topics ... It is not currently being used, however."

Like Germany before it, France is now advising computer users to download any Web browser other than Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The move comes after it was discovered that Internet Explorer contained a serious security flaw that could be exploited by hackers and cyber-criminals, and was likely the cause of the Google-targeted cyberattacks in China last month. Last week, Microsoft admitted that its Internet Explorer browser was the weak link in recent attacks by hackers who pried in to the email accounts of human rights activists in China. The software giant, however, insisted that the German government had over-reacted about …

In the latest twist to the Chinese cyberattacks on Google, the search giant is asking whether one or more of its own employees in China might have been involved in the operation. Citing reports, the Guardian says Google is presently investigating the matter, even though the line of inquiry is a routine part of its investigation into any attack. What Google seems to know for sure about the attacks is that they were the work of professionals, originated in China, and targeted intellectual property and the email accounts of human rights activists. Citing two unidentified sources Reuters …

In its ongoing search for a sustainable business model, The New York Times has certainly done its fair share of experimenting. Now, after several failed attempts at paid content, over a year of discussions, and multiple delays, New York Magazine reports that the Times is close to announcing -- if not actually launching -- a metered system, which would give non-paying readers access to select stories, while limiting full access (say, over 10 stories) to paying subscribers. But, as NY Mag says and paidContent also points out, the new model still faces a big …