Upon visiting Facebook’s brand-new Palo Alto offices, Om Malik had a few revelations regarding the relationship between the social network and Twitter. For better or worse, he says, “The future of these two companies are intertwined! They are the Kane & Abel of our new pulsating two-way, near-real-time Internet … Together, they dominate the zeitgeist.â€� Rather than coexisting peacefully, however, Malik believes that Facebook and Twitter are “competing for essentially what is the next evolution of the Internet: The People Web.â€� What’s more, Twitter’s presence conflicts directly with Facebook’s vision of the Web, i.e., a Web where every action …

Never one to shy away from big projects, Google is making every Tweet ever Tweeted on Twitter searchable. The feature is expected to be available worldwide in the next few days, and while it presently only goes back two months, it is eventually expected to include every tweet dating back to the first one on March 21, 2006. “This is the next step in the product evolution of making this type of content available,â€� Dylan Casey, Google’s product manager for real-time search, tells The Los Angeles Times. “We’re really excited to give users the ability to replay a conversation.â€� …

ESPN again has turned to U2 as the soundtrack for its World Cup promotional campaign. Spots have been running with the Dublin band's music for some time, but now ESPN says four new spots with four hits will back the event that kicks off in June. Ireland failed to qualify. ESPN's description of the ads: --ROBBEN ISLAND communicates the historic nature and importance of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, through the prism of soccer. This spot was filmed on location at Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. It is the site where …

The Del Taco restaurant chain has introduced a new, Santa Fe version of one of its most popular items, the Chicken Soft Taco. The Santa Fe version features the chain’s signature marinated grilled chicken, lettuce and cheddar cheese, plus a new roasted corn and black bean salsa sauce with a “kick.� The item, priced at $1.49, will be on Del Taco’s menu for a limited time. Del Taco has more than 515 restaurants in 16 states.--Karlene Lukovitz

Google announced Wednesday the launch of a Twitter timeline tool that lets you view historical tweets. The tool lets you "zoom" in on any time in history to "replay" what people said publicly about a topic on Twitter. Go to the Twitter timeline and click on "Show options" on the search results page, then select "Updates." The first page shows you the familiar latest updates from a set of sources. Look for the chart at the top. That's where you will can select the year, month or day, or click any point to view the tweets from that …

With ESPN receiving affiliate fees for its ESPN3.com, it's willing to stream live NBA playoff games on the site in full. TNT has rights for online streaming, too. But perhaps looking not to pique cable/satellite/telco TV distributors, it's not going as far -- per its usual practice. Some games during each round will include what it calls "mosaic" coverage, where four angles from a game are available on NBA.com, but each sphere is limited and there is no sound. Turner (TNT owner) operates NBA.com and bills it as "companion coverage," hoping people watch the games on TV with their …

Luxury carmaker Infiniti is supporting the launch of its M sedan and QX SUV via a multifarious deal with American Express Publishing and Time Inc. that gives the Franklin, Tenn.-based automaker top billing in a Food & Wine magazine series, “Supercharge Your Senses.â€� The epicurean series, which has sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell elements launches in May print issues and this week on the web. There are also mobile elements and events. Central to the program are food and culture recommendations around the country, cooking secrets from assorted chefs and wine tasting lessons. Said Ben Poore, VP, Infiniti …

ESPN has just launched ESPNNewYork.com, a Web challenger to the city's sports pages. And today it ran an ad on the back page of the New York Post, where the tabloid leads into its sports coverage. Either the Post isn't afraid of the competition -- ESPN has become such a sports media behemoth, it's the Yankees of that world -- or needed the ad money. Media companies often turn down ad requests from would-be opposition.

Volvo Cars of North America has redesigned its consumer web site to be more social by adding, among other things, a “Community� section. The community includes an official blog, at Volvoblog.us. Volvo says the blog launched in Nov. 2008 as TheCarThatStopsItself.com to promote Volvo’s XC60 crossover and the “From Sweden with Lov� experiential tour. Dan Johnston, Volvo’s product communications manager in the U.S. writes the content, but the company is adding guest contributions about safety, the environment and quality of life. The company says it is also expanding its efforts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

Broadpoint AmTech has kicked off a new quarterly report looking at display advertising trends across four key Web properties: Yahoo, AOL, MSN and YouTube. The findings were based on tracking over the past few months. Here are the highlights: Yahoo: Other than YouTube, had the highest percentage of homepage ads classified as purely for branding purposes, at about 33%. AOL: Deemed by far the most creative of the traditional media sites (excluding YouTube) analyzed in terms of its willingness to use non-standard, "expandable" rich media advertisements, at almost 23% of the total homepage ads we came across. …