Popular review platform Yelp partnered with reservation site OpenTable so users can make dinner reservations without leaving Yelp. Stephanie Ichinose, Yelp's director of communications, tells The New York Times' Bits blog that users had been asking for an integration with OpenTable for awhile. According to Bits, nearly a third -- 29% -- of the reviewed businesses on Yelp are restaurants. To make reservations, Yelp users don't need an OpenTable account as long as they have a Yelp account. The new feature is first launching in North America, and will encompass roughly 11,000 restaurants. Ichinose told Bit that the site …

The Los Angeles Times looks into what it suspects is the first "Facebook-oriented political attack ad." "It seems the issue of Facebook privacy has gained enough currency to earn itself a place in a TV attack ad in the race for California attorney general." The ad, which apparently began airing in the Los Angeles market late this week, features Democratic candidate Kamala Harris challenging opponent Chris Kelly for his role in "designing the Facebook privacy policy condemned across the country." Kelly, as The L.A. Times points out, was formerly Facebook's chief privacy officer. "Chris Kelly released your private information," …

This week, HP CEO Mark Hurd told investors at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch tech conference that he "didn't buy Palm to be in the smartphone business," nor would he ever "spend billions of dollars trying to go into the smartphone business." Some industry watches took those statements to mean that HP wanted nothing to do with smartphones. 'Not at all!' says HP. "When we look at the market, we see an array of interconnected devices, including tablets, printers, and of course, smartphones," the company said in a prepared statement. During his presentation this week, Hurd did put the …

Fueling rumors of a broad live-streaming rollout by YouTube, TechCrunch has posted a screenshot from a help page for Google Moderator showing the channel settings for a YouTube content producer, including a button labeled "Live Stream." Google recently integrated its Moderator service -- which lets users vote on user-submitted ideas -- into YouTube. In the past, YouTube used the service for special events, and granted only select users access. Similarly, YouTube has sparingly employed live-streaming for presidential speeches, healthcare debates, cricket matches and a U2 concert. Still, "The shadow of YouTube hangs over the budding live video streaming industry, …

For Facebook founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg to regain the trust of users and industry peers, he needs to "stop stealing every idea out there and partner," insists Web entrepreneur Jason Calacanis. In an open letter to Zuckerberg this week (republished by VentureBeat), Calacanis tells the embattled CEO: "No one trusts you any more after you screwed app developers and lifted Twitter, FourSquare, Quora and countless other startups' innovations ... You're building up a lot of enemies ... The proper protocol in the Valley is to at least try and partner, or purchase, the startups who have innovated in a space …

Steve Ballmer knows that Microsoft needs a mobile miracle, and he's not afraid to say so. "We were ahead of this game and now we find ourselves No. 5 in the market," Ballmer told Walt Mossberg at the All Things Digital D8 conference this week. "We missed a whole cycle ... I've been quite public about the fact that I've made some changes in leadership around our Windows Phone software." Still, "Ballmer is certainly right that Windows is far behind competitors, notably the surging Android OS," notes Computerworld's Preston Gralla. Worse still, "I'm not sure that Microsoft will be …

Microsoft is making several improvements to its Windows Live set of downloadable programs for managing and synchronizing various content and files. "With no major update to Windows coming this year, Microsoft is counting on improvements to Windows Live to help boost the appeal of Windows for this year's holiday shopping season," according to CNet's Beyond Binary blog. The updates to Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Movie Maker, Windows Live Mail, and Windows Live Sync are expected to go into beta in the coming months. The next version of the Windows Live Photo Gallery tool will add …

Drawing perhaps the least flattering comparison possible, MarketWatch Says Facebook founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg just had "a Richard Nixon moment under the grilling of two of the hosts of the All Things D D8 Conference." Thinks got so bad that Zuckerberg "literally squirmed in his seat," and was forced to take off his "famous" hoodie sweatshirt. "When I was 18 or 19 years old, I did a lot of stupid things," Zuckerberg told D8 co-host and BoomTown blogger Kara Swisher when asked if recent unflattering stories of the early days of Facebook accurately portrayed him. "I don't want …

Google has started putting links to mobile apps and related information at the top of mobile search results. "For some time Google PC search has indexed links to iTunes enabling users to click through and directly review or download mobile apps," notes Search Engine Land. Now, clicking the associated link takes users directly to iTunes or the Android market on the device to download the app. "As of today, if you go to Google.com on your iPhone or Android-powered device and search for an app, we'll show special links and content at the top of the search …

A day after MediaMemo broke the news of Google acquiring ad technology startup Invite Media, the search giant is acknowledging the deal, and explaining the rationale behind it. "In recent months, many agencies and advertisers have been asking us to make a bidding platform available directly to them, as they want to take advantage of the opportunities that real time bidding presents," Google wrote in its DoubleClick blog. "We're going to continue to invest significantly in improving Invite Media's technology and products as a separate platform and, in time, make it work seamlessly with our DoubleClick for …