At a Congressional hearing this morning led by Ed Markey of Massachusetts, NebuAd CEO Bob Dykes faced far more critical questioning than last week at the Senate. How critical? Consider this: He opened his testimony by comparing himself to Galileo -- yes, the same one who faced the Inquisition for asserting that the earth revolved around the sun.

Senators at a hearing about the Google-Yahoo search deal reacted as if Microsoft counsel Brad Smith handed them a smoking gun when he testified that Yahoo chief Jerry Yang once boasted that the agreement would hurt Microsoft.

Google and Viacom have reached an agreement to mask the identities of YouTube users before their viewing records are disclosed as part of a copyright infringement lawsuit.

Viacom's lawsuit against YouTube is continuing to roil digital rights advocates, who say that the case has already had ramifications far beyond the scope of intellectual property protections.

FCC Chain Kevin Martin hasn't made a secret of his feelings that Comcast shouldn't have interfered with peer-to-peer traffic. Now, Martin says he will recommend ruling against Comcast when the FCC holds a public meeting on Aug. 1.

With the FCC still investigating Comcast for its traffic shaping practices, the company has announced a deal to work with Voice over Internet Protocol provider Vonage to address network management practices. Comcast's critics reacted with skepticism to the company's announcement. Net neutrality group Free Press called Comcast's announcement "baffling." The group said there's no reason for Comcast to say it's working with Vonage when the company is already supposedly committed to net neutrality.

To hear NebuAd CEO Bob Dykes tell it, the controversial company is the best thing to come along for online privacy in a very long time. Not everyone agrees.

Rosetta Stone, a company that sells software to teach foreign languages, has become the latest company to sue over keyword advertising on Google. Rosetta Stone is miffed because its name is being used by rivals as a trigger for search ads, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Now that it's facing a genuine privacy crisis, Google has decided to quell a completely insignificant privacy dust-up. The search giant has finally placed a link to its privacy policy on the home page. Previously, users had to click on multiple links, or search on the terms "Google privacy policy," to reach the information

Privacy advocates are condemning a federal judge's ruling ordering Google to give Viacom information about which users watched what videos on YouTube.