Yahoo!'s news that it will create a service that combines blogs with social networks is a kind of window on the current cultural zeitgeist. Yahoo! 360, launching on March 29 as an invitation-only service, will enable users to cull content from Yahoo! services and publish it to their Yahoo!-hosted blogs. The content will come from the portal's discussion groups, movie, restaurant, and music reviews, as well as photo albums. The service will also allow users to peak at their friends' blogs via their My Yahoo! page, mobile service, or RSS reader.

Microsoft Corp.'s MSN today unveiled its new adCenter product, an online ad platform that puts MSN squarely in the paid search advertising business. MSN says adCenter will expand to offer brand campaigns and e-mail advertising, and eventually be delivered via mobile devices. MSN has depended on a relationship with Yahoo!'s Overture unit to attract advertisers that pay to have text ads and Web links displayed on search results pages. That relationship ends in June 2006, but MSN will continue to work with Overture until adCenter is up and running.

Here's an interesting news item that flew over the transom. Microsoft, it seems, agreed to settle a patent infringement and antitrust suit with Burst.com for $60 million. Burst, a Santa Rosa, Calif.-based company that makes software for streaming audio and video over the Web, filed suit against Microsoft in June 2002 alleging that the software giant infringed on its patent and store trade secrets for distributing A/V content over the Internet.

Apple Computer has won its latest battle. A California judge last week ruled that the company can subpoena e-mails to an Apple fan site so that it can find out the source of leaked details referencing forthcoming products. While the ruling favors Apple, it's not so great for bloggers and reporters who depend on secret sources to break news. The ruling could also help clarify the increasingly murky situation of who counts as a journalist. Notably, Kurt Opsahl, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Reuters: "Anyone who reports on companies or the trade press should be concerned …

Yahoo! is preparing to introduce an ad network for small online publishers that's designed to take on Google's AdSense product, according to a report appearing today on CNET News.com. The plan to deliver text ads to small sites and blogs indicates Yahoo! doesn't plan to cede this market to Google, not by an inch. According to the CNET report, Yahoo!'s product will offer text ads that are relevant to various Web pages; advertisers pay when a reader clicks on their ad. Yahoo! and partner publishers split the fees in a revenue-sharing arrangement, according to the report.

How many kids own cell phones? Take a guess. According to NOP World Technology, 16 million teens and tweens in the United States own cell phones. NOP's mKids Study reveals that nearly half (44 percent) of 10- to 18-year-olds own a wireless phone.

Now here's a sign that the authorities are getting serious about cracking down on illegal music downloads. The other day, Parvin Dhaliwal, a University of Arizona student pleaded guilty to possession of counterfeit marks, or unauthorized copies of intellectual property. The FBI discovered more than $50 million in music and movies on Dhaliwal's computer. The illegally copied property spanned the gamut from "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," and "Matrix Revolutions," to "The Cat in the Hat," and "Mona Lisa Smile." Talk about variety. A federal task force that monitors the Web got wind of the situation and secured …

When it comes to political news, more Americans turned to the Web for information and analysis during the last presidential election than newspapers, according to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Pew reports that 18 percent of adults used the Web as one of two main sources for news about the 2004 presidential election, versus 3 percent in 1996. Adults' reliance on newspapers fell to 39 percent last year, versus 60 percent in 1996, while their reliance on TV for political news increased …

Google has officially made its desktop search tool available; a test version has been out for a few months. Google's desktop search, like offerings from Microsoft's MSN and Yahoo!, is designed to help consumers quickly locate e-mail and files stored on their PCs. Google Desktop Search can also find AIM (AOL Instant Messaging) chat sessions, previously accessed Web pages, audio, video, and photo files, as well as PDFs and Microsoft Word files.

Amid a whirl of search-related news, the Minute has gone phishing for something else, something that aims to remove the swish from the phish. That is, if it's possible. An anti-phishing bill was introduced yesterday in Congress that if passed, would levy fines and impose jail terms for people who create fraudulent Web sites and send misleading e-mail, like phony e-mail attempts to lure important financial tidbits from unsuspecting consumers.