As Amazon continues to expand as the “Wal-Mart of the Web,” one of its more recent strategies has been to offer private-label brands that you can’t buy anywhere else… Tweet This Post

What’s the point of Google’s new FastFlip reader? Not to change the way you read news on the Web — it’s too ugly and simplistic for that. But because it loads pages very fast — and requires minimal effort to navigate — it could be useful for portable devices. Specifically, tablet-like gadgets with 3G modems [...]

Update: The “rumor that Google is buying Brightcove is in fact false,” claims Web video analyst Dan Rayburn. He cites an employee “I trust” at one of the companies, who would not talk on the record… Tweet This Post

A team of ex-Google employees won the top prize at the annual TechCrunch50 startup contest. Their company, Redbeacon, is sort of a modern-day Yellow Pages. It lets you search nearby service providers — plumbers, painters, personal trainers, etc. — and schedule appointments online… Tweet This Post

CNN yesterday launched an “à la carte” wire service which allows journalists, publishers and media organizations to buy individual CNN Wire stories for single use. Each story costs $199 and can be bought off the CNN Wire site using a credit card… Tweet This Post

Yesterday Adobe announced they had reached a deal to acquire Omniture for $1.8 billion, with Adobe expecting the deal to close in the fourth quarter. While on the surface it may seem odd that Adobe would buy a company and get into the Web analytics space, if integrated correctly, Adobe has the potential to provide [...]

Google (GOOG) held a conference call today to remind Wall Street about its search business.  Sounds like it was mostly a snooze except for the bit about some new ad formats.  We could see those driving per-click revenue up fast. JP Morgan’s Imran Khan summarized the call:… Tweet This Post

A tipster tells us that Intuit (INTU), the giant maker of personal and small-business software, is buying red-hot Mint.com, which provides online money management tools. We have no idea if this is true, and we’re skeptical, though it certainly makes sense. Intuit has a ton of cash and no growth. Mint is growing like crazy [...]

Google’s economist Hal Varian says Google’s search patterns show that the economy is recovering:… Tweet This Post

Google has rolled out a new set of bicycles at its Mountain View campus. They are custom made and branded with Google’s rainbow colors… Tweet This Post

Here comes Bing, version 2.0. Microsoft (MSFT) held a huge company meeting at Safeco field in Seattle yesterday and news of Bing 2.0 hit Twitter during the event… Tweet This Post

Microsoft started airing commercials by Crispin Porter + Bogusky for its forthcoming Windows 7 operating system last night. In this spot, a young girl makes a slideshow with goofy photos and quotes from blogs praising Windows 7. It’s cute, and carries two messages: People like the changes we’ve made since Vista, and even this young [...]