Yahoo! Inc., today introduced Yahoo! Buzz, an extension to Yahoo.com that opens up the Internet’s leading starting point by uncovering the most interesting and relevant content from websites across the Internet and bringing more buzz-worthy stories to the homepage of Yahoo!. Currently in beta, Yahoo! Buzz measures consumer votes and search patterns to identify interesting and timely stories and videos from large news sources as well as niche blogs around the Web. Top stories are then given primary editorial consideration for feature placement on Yahoo.com.

AOL today announced the release of Xdrive Desktop Lite (www.xdrive.com), an all-new version of the Xdrive software on Adobe® AIR™, which was also launched today.  The Xdrive Desktop Lite product features an enhanced user interface as well as desktop integration and offers consumers the opportunity to use the Xdrive software on a Mac computer for the first time.  

MySpace, the world’s most popular social network, and Skype, the leading Internet communications company, today announced a partnership to empower the MySpace community with voice communications. With more than 110 million monthly active MySpace users and 220 million Skype™ registered users around the world, this partnership connects two of the most popular communications platforms on the Internet to create the world’s largest online, voice-connected community.The announcement unveils MySpaceIM with Skype, a new product that integrates MySpace’s popular IM client—currently the world’s fastest-growing IM platform with more than 25 million installed users—with Skype’s free, high-quality voice-calling capability. The partnership will also enable users to link their MySpace profiles and photos or avatars to their accounts on Skype. Both products will be available to users starting in November.

Today at the eMetrics Summit in Washington, D.C., Google announced new features to its Google Analytics™ web service such as site search reporting and event tracking, and an updated version of Urchin™ software. This enhanced feature set makes essential Web 2.0 information more accessible and comprehensible, and enables Google Analytics users to better understand their users and to act on reporting information in more sophisticated ways.

Microsoft Corp. today announced the final updates to the fall release of its Live Search service, introducing a broad array of new services and features to its local and mobile search offerings. The new features and enhancements are designed to make it easier for people to find what they need at home or on the go through significant innovations in mapping, imagery and driving directions as well as new services to make the mobile search experience easy and powerful.

Close on the heels of HP which recently unveiled a new services portfolio designed to help customers unify their communications to improve collaboration, Microsoft is to launch its own initiative.

Microsoft Corp. executives and partners will launch the next wave of unified communications software, which will rapidly advance and improve the way people communicate and collaborate.

Virtual explorers can now discover and watch YouTube (http://www.youtube.com) videos while they traverse the globe. Starting today, a YouTube layer will be available in the Featured Content folder of Google Earth (http://earth.google.com).

Google Inc. today announced the fifth generation of the iconic yellow Google Search Appliance™ hardware, version 5.0, which provides universal search capabilities for secure access to enterprise content systems—including EMC Documentum, IBM FileNet, OpenText Livelink, and Microsoft SharePoint. The company also announced significant improvements in reach, security and relevance, in addition to business search technology developments available at the new Google Enterprise Labs™ site.

As media becomes more and more fragmented, content providers and advertisers are looking for new ways to distribute their messages to the right audiences at scale. To better connect content providers with consumers and to give publishers new ways to further engage their audiences, Google today announced the availability of video units, the first offering for content distribution on AdSense™. Video units enable AdSense publishers to display relevant, targeted video content within a customized, embedded player that’s ad-supported. Google is working with select YouTube content partners including TV Guide Broadband, Expert Village, Mondo Media, lonelygirl15, Extreme Elements, and Ford Models to supply the video content. The video units are user-initiated and will play only after a user has clicked to play the video.