The quest for new search features continues with the latest news that Yahoo! has launched a beta version of a tool that's designed to search the Web for information that can be shared, edited, and reused. Yahoo! dubs the tool the Yahoo! Search for Creative Commons. It's a useful tool for those who dabble with online content.

The number of people using peer-to-peer systems for sharing music and other files online dropped, as more people download files from iPods and other digital music devices, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Pew reports that while the percentage of Internet users who share files online hasn't changed much in the last year (24 percent), fewer people are using peer-to-peer file sharing. Twenty-one percent of people who download music files say they continue to use peer-to-peer file sharing software compared with 31 percent in February 2004. Use of systems like Apple's iTunes Music Store increased to …

There's more love in Yahoo! land. Just a few weeks ago, the Internet giant gave us a free scoop of ice cream (courtesy of Baskin-Robbins) to celebrate its 10th birthday. True, we never did redeem that scoop (the coupon was valid for one day and well, we didn't get around to B-R), but freebies are good.

One of the ugliest and most twisted chapters in the business of online media ended yesterday with the news that Time Warner agreed to settle a probe pertaining to allegations of improper accounting at its America Online unit for $300 million. The settlement, which came after more than two years of investigation and legal wrangling, pertains to charges that Time Warner overstated online advertising revenues and inflated subscriber numbers. But wait a minute, Time Warner hasn't admitted or denied any wrongdoing.

Our favorite butler, Jeeves, is headed to IAC/InterActive Corp., media mogul Barry Diller's company, according to this morning's news reports. IAC is poised to acquire search service Ask Jeeves for nearly $2 billion in stock. Diller's IAC will likely use Jeeves to drive traffic to its Expedia.com travel site, Match.com dating destination, Citysearch listings and reviews, and Home Shopping Network site. It will also use Jeeves to rack up search-related ads. About 70 percent of Ask Jeeves' revenue is drawn from ads negotiated by Google.

Do you set parameters on your kids' Internet usage? Most parents of teenagers who are online do, according to a new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The Pew study found that 54 percent of parents with online teenagers installed special filtering software to monitor the sites their kids visit, up from 41 percent in 2000. The parents surveyed try to set limits on the time spent online. The study also found that about two-thirds of parents with teenagers online set limits as to how much time their kids should spend online, and about three-fifths of …

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 …