Say goodbye to those virtual birthday hat-wearing dogs and poignant emoticons, because, come August 1, Facebook plans to shut down its virtual gift shop. Why do such a thing when the shop is still reportedly generating tens of millions of dollars a year? "Apparently more can be generated with the small gifts team working on other projects," writes All Facebook. What's more, "The rise of FarmVille and the social gaming ecosystem on Facebook has driven virtual goods transactions away from Facebook's core gift shop." "Closing the Gift Shop may disappoint many of the …

Productivity levels in Washington stand to skyrocket now that the U.S. House of Representatives has voted to block the viewing or downloading of porn on government computers. "After all, a series of news reports have highlighted ... how some financial regulators earning six-figure salaries were watching porn at work as Wall Street imploded," writes CNet's Politics and Law blog. "So, as it turns out, did employees of the National Science Foundation and the Interior Department -- including ones who were supposed to be inspecting oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico." Not surprisingly, civil libertarians warn that …

Europe's highest court has ruled that companies don't infringe on trademark by purchasing search keywords that are similar to other companies' names. The ruling, issued this week, appears to go one step beyond an earlier decision in March, which cleared Google for allowing advertisers' to use other companies' trademarks to trigger search ads. This week's case stemmed from a complaint by Portakabin that another company, Primakabin, was purchasing search keywords that sounded like Portakabin, like Portacabin, according to The Inquirer.

Google's Street View service may have accidentally collected personal information of members of Congress, including some involved in national security issues, claims Consumer Watchdog. The advocacy group therefore wants Congress to hold hearings into what data Google's Street View possesses, reports BBC News. "Google admitted it mistakenly collected information, transmitted over unsecured wireless networks, as its cars filmed locations for mapping purposes," reports BBC. "Google said the problem began in 2006." The issue became apparent when German authorities asked to audit the data. Google said the snippets of data could include parts of emails, text, photographs, or …

Think of it as iTunes for your TV. Apple TV will sell individual TV episodes for 99 cents, sources tell NewTeeVee. "According to sources, Apple is trying to get TV programmers to let it rent individual TV shows for 99 cents each, as opposed to the $1.99 it receives for sales of standard-definition episodes and the $2.99 it gets for selling HD episodes." The TV rental program would work in much the same way that movie rentals now work through iTunes -- once an episode is purchased, the consumer will have 30 days to start watching the …

A week after Google agreed to stop automatically rerouting users to its uncensored Hong Kong-based search page, Chinese authorities have renewed the search giant's Internet Content Provider license. "China has renewed our license," a Google spokeswoman told Reuters on Friday. "We are very pleased that the government has renewed our ICP license and we look forward to continuing to provide Web search and local products to our users in China." It was feared that China might shut down Google's China search page, which, according to Reuters, "would have been a blow to its other business in the …

So, why exactly did Facebook just acquire social travel recommendation service NextStop? Rumors are circulating that the top social net could be getting into the travel space, or might use the service to reinforce its yet-to-be-announced location-based offering. "From what we're hearing, it's much more simple than that," writes TechCrunch. "It really just boils down to Facebook getting a few very talented people at a relatively low price." The strategy is similar to Google's approach to acquisitions, which often have more to do with a target's executive talent than its technology or services. "Facebook has been on …

Likely to inspire more confidence in the nascent business of mobile advertising, one app developer is reporting strong initial returns from Apple's new mobile ad network, iAD. After racking up 9,300 impressions -- at a very attractive eCPM of $147.55 -- the utility app developer raked in about $1,372. "Compare these to the earnings from a random Android app with Ad-Mob integration and the figures should speak for themselves," writes The Next Web, citing an Ad-Mob earnings reports that lists eCPMs between $0.46 and $0.75. "Click Through Rates are around five times higher and iAd's eCPM (Effective …

Yahoo Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse tells Bloomberg that the company has a bad habit of overpaying for acquisitions, but vows to stop the practice. "You've seen our track record on M&A with buying really high and selling pretty low," Morse admits. "We've got to be careful." Having served as finance chief for a year, Morse now plans to improve the return on invested capital -- a measure of how profitably Yahoo is spending - from about 5% in 2009 to 18-to-24% by 2013. How, exactly? By bypassing high-priced acquisitions that don't jibe with the company's core …

Facebook has tapped Malaysia-based payment service provider MOL to provide online gamers with virtual currency and other services through retail shops across Asia. Per the deal, customers can now buy Facebook Credits, a virtual currency used to buy gifts and virtual goods in many games and applications on Facebook. "Many Facebook users prefer to buy physical cards that they can then use online as credit, and MOL's 500,000 outlets at 7-Eleven stores and cybercafes across the Asia-Pacific region will sell these cards," reports Agence France Presse. Facebook hopes the deal will further encourage developers and website owners …