Search Engine Land's Greg Sterling takes a look at Blekko, a general search engine expected to debut shortly. What's makes it special? "Transparency and user control," writes Sterling. "It's also social in interesting ways," as registered users can "follow" one another. Blekko's motto is "Slash the Web," which refers to its core concept of "slashtags." Slashtags allow search personalization and filtering through the creation of "mini-indexes" of authoritative or favorite sites. As a result, users can get articles and commentary from sites they trust or that people they trust recognize as authoritative. According to Sterling, Blekko's search …

Mobile loyalty card application CardStar has tapped Foursquare for its new iPhone app, CardStar 3.0. "Now, as CardStar users present their mobile phones to merchants for scanning, they can also be automatically 'checked in' to that business on Foursquare," writes ReadWriteWeb. CardStar is designed to replace physical loyalty and rewards cards with a single mobile application that stores card information and presents a user's account number as a barcode that can be shown to a merchant and scanned directly from the screen. The CardStar mobile app presently offers a network of over 2,000 merchants, and has been …

Twitter is testing inline multimedia, including videos and photos, Mashable reports. The tech blog first reported that the microblogging service was testing a new setting, dubbed "Tweet Media," which asks users whether or not they want to show photos and videos from everyone. For Mashable, the setting "strongly [suggested] that the company will soon embed videos and photos in the stream." As an explanation for the setting -- which has since been removed from Twitter's platform -- explained: "By default, you'll only see images and videos shared by people you're following, and reveal those by people you're …

Ask.com on Tuesday soft launched a new question-and-answer service -- which, depending on who you listen to, is either a white flag in the field of "traditional" search, or a shrewd attempt to reinvent Web searching in its own image. To date, Ask.com "has tried with scant success to morph itself into a search engine on par with those of Google and Microsoft," writes The New York Times. "For years, Ask.com has basically been roadkill in the search-engine wars," writes CNNMoney.com. "Trailing way behind Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing, it has a …

Newspaper publisher A.H. Belo on Monday reported digital revenue down 4.3% to $9.3 million in the second quarter, while non-classified digital revenue increased 2.5% to $4.2 million. Overall, the Dallas-based company reported a narrower second-quarter net loss of $171,000, or 1 cent a share, compared with a year-ago loss of $7.1 million, or 34 cents a share. Total advertising revenue was down 12% in the quarter, while total revenue fell 4.7% to $121.6 million -- "the lowest year-over-year decline in more than two years," according to Editor & Publisher. "We continue to manage the business to maximize …

In March, Eyeblaster (now calling itself MediaMind) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $115 million in an initial public offering of common stock. An SEC filing now reveals that the online ad campaign management firm only plans to raise $73 million -- or three-quarters of the $115 million sum. In March, Eyeblaster did not reveal how many shares it plans to sell, their expected price, or where they will be listed. As The Wall Street Journal notes, "The U.S. market for initial public offerings has been patchy lately, with many companies reining in debuts …

Reuters has written what reads like an obituary for BlackBerry-maker R.I.M. "Research In Motion's future looks bleak," according to the news service. Critically, the company appears to have lost it preferred status among the country's corporate set. Just last week, Apple said that more than 80% of the Fortune 100 companies were now testing or deploying its iPhone. "Meanwhile, phones using Google's Android operating system appear to be making inroads, too," Reuters writes. R.I.M.'s share of the American smartphone market fell to 41% in the first quarter from 55% in the previous year, according to Gartner, while …

Even before Apple rivals have had a chance to debut their iPad alternatives, Computerworld's Jonny Evans is declaring the software giant king of the tablets. "Apple has already won," he writes. In slightly less stark terms, he adds: "Apple has stolen the tablet/netbook industry to the extent competitors face a pretty tough time in even manufacturing their 'iPad killers'." In other words, component suppliers -- of everything from flash memory to displays -- unable to keep up with Apple's demand won't have any time or resources to devote to its rivals. For one, LG Display CEO Kwon …

It's already been widely reported that Google is prepping a music download service tied to its search engine for a late-year debut (to be followed by an online subscription service next year). Now, music industry sources tell the NY Post that the search giant's iTunes killer is on -- and perhaps even ahead of -- schedule. "Google's plan to challenge Apple's dominance in the music marketplace is advancing more rapidly than expected," reports The Post. "The search giant's Android whiz, VP Andy Rubin, is said to be having 'accelerated' talks with a music-industry …

New York State Governor David Paterson just signed a bill outlawing the use of private dwellings as makeshift hotels. In faux rant style, TechCrunch's Paul Carr considers the bill's likely impact on open "extra space" marketplace Airbnb.com, which basically helps people turn their private dwellings into makeshift hotels. While Carr concedes that the legislation was spearheaded by hotel lobbyists, he notes an explicit exemption in the bill that allows for the letting of rooms in private dwellings if the owner is present (as is often the case in AirBnB lets). Also, State Senator and bill sponsor Liz …