Looks like Microsoft will have an opening to enter the mobile payment fray through the partnership with Nokia announced Friday. Sony, Philips spin-off NXP Semiconductors and Nokia in 2004 created the NFC Forum, a consortium that works to define standards for the technology to ensure compatibility. The relationship will enable Microsoft to go head on with Google, which announced last year it would build in NFC capabilities into Android.

Mobile ad network Greystripe has expanded operations to Europe through partnerships with three other ad networks there--Hi-media Advertising, madvertise and Mobile Ventures. Already, Greystripe has run more than 50 campaigns across countries including the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. The company will be offer its full product line to European advertisers, including its in-app Immersion and Flash ad units.

Nokia threw its Hail Mary pass today, teaming up with Microsoft to rejuvenate its  business and adopt Windows Phone as its smartphone operating system. Under the alliance, the two companies will jointly create mobile products and services and collaborate on marketing initiatives. Bing will power search services across Nokia devices and Microsoft's' adCenter will likewise provide search ad capabilities. The deal also calls for Nokia's Ovi content and application store to be merged Microsoft Marketplace and Microsoft development tools will be used to create apps that run on Nokia phones. At the same time, Nokia Maps will become a …

The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) just announced two "proof-of-concept" pilot tests -- one with Arbitron and the other with comScore -- to measure "three-screen" users and their behavior with content and advertising across television, Internet and mobile devices. CIMM claimed the tests would be the first to measure mobile Internet usage – including mobile video and apps – in "single source" cross-platform studies. Arbitron will recruit a single sample of three-screen users from its panel of roughly 70,000 people who already carry one of Arbitron's portable people meter devices, which passively measure what media people are exposed to …

Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) on Thursday reintroduced an online privacy bill that would require Web companies to obtain users' permission before sharing their personal information with third parties. The measure calls for ad networks and others to obtain explicit consent unless they participate in an opt-out program operated by self-regulatory groups and overseen by the Federal Trade Commission. Rep. Jackie Speiers (D-Calif.) will introduce a do-not-track bill on Friday.

Lowe's, in an effort to get its share of looming consumer tax refunds, is offering a Tax Refund Card as part of a "Load Up For Spring" promotion. It enables consumers to spend their tax refund on a prepaid Lowe's debit card, and earn an extra 10% for home-improvement purchases. TV spots are advertising the program, which runs until March 14, with a minimum purchase requirement of $500, and a maximum of $4,000. While marketers wooing refund money isn't new, Lowe's plastic version--sweetened by the 10% discount--is innovative. And the government isn't far behind: This tax season, the feds …

Steve Jobs, whose health has been in doubt since taking a medical leave of absence last month, is looking well, according to eyewitness reports. "An eyewitness spotted Jobs on campus a few weeks ago and said he was looking good," according to Business Insider. Detailing the citing on his own blog, Matthew Cross, an author and consultant, says he saw Jobs walking out of Apple's Cupertino headquarters on January 31. According to Cross, Jobs had "a healthy spring in his step," his "voice was strong, it sounded like him on stage," and "he had a nice smile on …

Since Google first debuted Boutiques.com last November, the search giant claims that hundreds of thousands of boutiques have been created. Powered by visual search and image recognition technology, Boutiques lets literally anyone create a working ecommerce site. Google is also introducing a Designer Analytics feature, which will let boutique owners see which products, designs, and colors are selling. "With easy-to-understand data visualizations, Designer Analytics shows what colors, shapes and patterns are most loved and hated broadly (in categories such as shoes, dresses and handbags) and even down to how specific items are performing," Google explains. According to Softpedia: "The …

Proving that the market has room for more than one location-based service, Gowalla is on the verge of hitting the 1 million-user market. By comparison, location-based service leader Foursquare presently has about 6 million users. All told, Gowalla's growing community has now created and visited over 2.5 million locations -- dubbed "spots" -- around the world. To keep the party going, the start-up is improving its Highlights location review feature, and further integrating them into the Gowalla experience. "When Highlights were introduced to Gowalla back in September 2010, we described them as a useful way of simplifying location reviews," notes …

As rumors circulate about the size of Arianna Huffington's payday post AOL acquisition, some are suggesting that she share it with the thousands of bloggers who've showered HuffPo with free content. As Bloomberg-Businessweek reports, Dan Gillmor, the director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University, wrote that Huffington should cut checks to "the most productive contributors on whose work she's built a significant part of her new fortune." Fat chance, says Roy Sekoff, HuffPo's founding editor. "If people want to express their opinions, they do so on the site for free," he tells Bloomberg. …