Spotify is reportedly close to raising over $100 million at a valuation of more than $3 billion. “The investment is a testament to the popularity of the music streaming service, which leveraged Facebook Inc.'s social network to attract tens of millions registered users in Europe and the U.S.,” The Wall Street Journal reports. Yet, as WSJ reports, the round would actually falls short of Spotify's earlier ambitions to raise additional capital at an ever higher valuation of $4 billion. 

Just because YouTube has tons of money to invest in original content, doesn’t mean the Google unit wants to throw it away. That means the party could soon be over for many partner producers, AllThingsD reports. “Just like the TV world, YouTube isn’t going to renew all of last season’s programs,” it writes. Beginning this week, YouTube is expected to re-invest in no more than 40% of its original channels when all it said and done. 

Respected search expert Danny Sullivan doesn’t think much of Google Shopping, and its current user experience. In a word, it’s a “mess,” Sullivan writes in Search Engine Land. “One of the things Google promised by moving Google Shopping to the pay-to-play model for merchants was how much the experience was going to improve for shoppers. If that’s the case, I’m sure not seeing it.” 

Taking its content show on the road, Google plans to make Google Play Movies and Music available via its Google TV set-top box in the UK, Germany, and France, starting next week. The search giant did the same for U.S. consumers, last month. Overseas, “it's not clear if the content selection on Google TV devices will be the same,” The Verge writes, while suggesting that a rollout to smartphones and tablets is likely next on Google’s agenda. 

Why should Facebook be afraid of George Takei? Well, the former "Star Trek" star has a big following on the social network, and, in a forthcoming book, he calls out its page-filtering model. At issue is Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm, which filters page posts to varying degrees based on the amount of advertising owners are willing to buy on the site. While “complex and wonky,” Wired warns that the issue is an important one for Facebook to resolve with page owners. 

Though unlikely to reshape the Web browser marketplace, Google’s Chrome has added a new feature sure to cut into users’ free time. Jam with Chrome, as the service is called, is an experimental, interactive Web app that lets friends jam together from different locations. “This is evidently an experimental toy of sorts for Google, demonstrating the latent potential of HTML5 and Web-based applications,” TheNextWeb reports. “We’ve had a little play around with it, and it is kinda neat.” 

Year-over-year, DC Comics’ digital comic sales are up 197%, the company revealed this week. But with an eye on even stronger growth, DC now plans to sell monthly comics in the Kindle Store, iBookstore, and Nook Book Store. “The company wasn’t exactly missing from those stores before, because it was already selling graphic novels,” TechCrunch notes. “However, if you wanted the newest content, delivered on a monthly basis … you had to turn to ComiXology … which the Time Warner-owned publisher created in partnership with ComiXology.” 

The New York Times takes a look at coupon Web site RetailMeNot, and its efforts to offer coupons for mall shoppers via their cellphones. “The idea is the same as the paper coupons that people used to clip out of newspapers,” NYT reports. “But now they are delivered by RetailMeNot’s new iPhone app … when a shopper walks near one of hundreds of malls across the country.” For the program, RetailMeNot has partnered with over 275 merchants, including Target, Macy’s and J.C. Penney. 

Google this week will begin rolling out a service that lets phones with Web connections -- but limited functionality -- access basic Google products for free. The service, dubbed Free Zone, is designed to “push millions of people in the developing world to access the Internet -- and Google's ads -- via basic mobile phones,” Reuters writes. With the help of local carrier Globe Telecom, the first stop for Free Zone will be the Philippines. 

Globally, consumers will buy 1.2 billion smartphones and tablets in 2013, according to new estimates from Gartner. In particular, “Tablet sales to businesses are set to grow substantially in the coming years,” notes TechCrunch, citing Gartner’s research. By 2016, Gartner predicts that tablet purchases by businesses will grow 300% tor reach roughly 53 million units.