Don Mattrick -- former head of Microsoft’s entertainment division, and now chief executive officer of Zynga -- has had his eye on the gaming company for some time. In fact, as sources tell Bloomberg, Mattrick came close to shepherding an acquisition of Zynga about three years ago. “The idea was to bolster Microsoft’s Xbox lineup with social games,” according to Bloomberg. 

So much for MSN TV. Microsoft plans to shut down the service before the end of September, AllThingsD reports. “MSN TV, of course, was born of WebTV, which was thought up by well-known entrepreneur Steve Perlman … The software giant bought it at the height of the Web 1.0 boom in mid-1997, paying $425 million. 

Facebook today is rolling out Graph Search -- a new feature that will help users find photos and other bits of information previously shared with friends and family. “Developing a sophisticated search feature is vital to Facebook’s long-term success, both to deepen users’ engagement and to make it more appealing to advertisers,” The New York Times writes. 

Advocating for digital content ownership, Image Comics now plans to sell its digital comics as “downloadable.” As Wired reports, that makes the comic book publisher the first major U.S. publisher to offer DRM-free digital versions of its comics. “Piracy is bad for bad entertainment,” Image Comics publisher Eric Stephenson tells Wired. 

In other Microsoft news, the software giant is expanding its Bing Audio service to an addition 14 countries, this week. “Already available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S., Bing Audio support on Windows Phone is now expanding to Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and Switzerland,” PC Mag reports. 

Microsoft’s research unit is testing a touch screen that displays 3D images, which can be “felt” and manipulated. “The project combines an LCD flat panel screen with force sensors and a robotic arm that moves it back and forwards,” BBC News reports … By controlling how much resistance there is to a user's fingertip the firm says it can simulate the shape and weight of objects shown on screen.” 

Privacy watchdogs in Europe are calling on Google to amend its privacy policy or face the legal consequences, The Guardian reports. “The move [led by groups the UK, Germany and Italy] follows similar complaints to the US company last month from the equivalent organisations in France and Spain, and ratchets up the attention over its handling of the huge amounts of personal data that it collects from users every day.” 

In the past year, several federal agencies have filled in the history on their Facebook timelines all the way back to their founding dates. The White House went first in the spring of 2012, filling out its Facebook history all the way back to George Washington's inauguration. Since then, other agencies have followed suit. The State Department added articles from its Office of the Historian on diplomatic accomplishments and initiatives.

As if Apple wasn’t stylish enough, the company is bringing in Paul Deneve, former CEO of venerated fashion brand Yves St Laurent Group, to work on special projects. “Apple is also hiring Hulu LLC executive Pete Distad to help with negotiations to acquire content for Apple TV,” Bloomberg reports, citing sources. “While Apple has traditionally promoted from within, the move shows that Cook is looking outside the company to fill some senior roles.” 

Under Google’s corporate umbrella, can Motorola reclaim its former glory in the mobile space? Can an ad campaign help? The answers to these questions should come sooner rather than later as the mobile unit is expected to run a new ad in newspapers, today. “The ad, however, won’t show a phone,” as The New York Times’ Bits blog reports. “It’s all about how the handset will be made in America … And it looks a lot like an ad by a company in Cupertino, Calif.”