Google is making moves to make itself the leading source of everything, from information, videos to news. Presently the search giant is inviting publishers to upload their video content at YouTube. YouTube news manager, Olivia Ma says anyone who has  their site indexed at Google can register as a news partner. These videos will be featured at YouTube’s news channel, like wise the advantage with doing so will be that publishers will be able to share revenue generated via the videos, unlike how things happen at Google News. Whatever the case be and no matter how big a reach that YouTube has, it will take quite some time before publishers actually start migrating from the platforms they usually use like Brightcove, etc. Especially given the fact that they are allowed to sell their own ads at the same time expanding their reach to various other networks. However the attempt by Google is definitely worth a mention as it continues to focus more on professional content.

LNK.LY is a new URL shortener. That’s it, I don’t want to extend this description anymore save that like quite a many out there it also keeps track on the URL you have shortened and shared. Drag its bookmark button to your browser so that you can simply hit the button and generate the short URL of any page you are on or take a longer and more tiring route of copy/pasting the URL on the Homepage and then shortening it. You can even keep a track on the number of hits the shortened URL has received as well.

The biggest problem faced with bringing everything to the web is that not everyone in the world has access to it. However if things got a bit more simple and marketing could come to the plainest of cell phones that provide the very basic services like text messaging and voice calls the reach can be expanded. Coming over to Google which has most definitely put all the information on the web just a search away, it could go further if it were to capitalize on building up on the cheap cell phone market and provide access to those in the developing nations. Google is set to launch multiple services in Africa associated to SMS which include search via Text messages and a marketplace based on the SMS. Its quite easy to work with, simply enter a a search query and you are responded with results via a text message. You can of course refine your search with keywords. However the Google Trader app appears to be more useful as it lets you post for numerous items on sale or search for a job, all that by using the vary basic SMS feature.

Good morning Monday and Hello to a new scam and its Twitter where all the phishing is being done. Be warned that scammers are throwing in the baits that read omg!! is it true what they wrote about you in their twit blog? and a link to a Twitter blog. Don’t be fooled by the appearance which is exactly that of Twitter and provide your username and password. While many would think that this is very easy to point and neglect, but it has been spreading like wildfire as some trigger happy users have fallen prey to it. One advice as always, no matter who sends you a link, just be careful and assure it’s not suspicious, whatsoever.

Twitter has become the need of an hour, or should I say of every instant as we see conversations building up around topics at the micromessaging service. Twitterboard is a startup that lets you bring all those conversations as a forum on your site. All that you have to do is simply add the code to their site. Every time a a person visits your site and feels like becoming a part of a conversation, they can log in with their Twitter credentials. While you can be a part of a discussion a Twitter itself, the problem there is that you are dealing with a very large audience and the @replies simply make things difficult to follow. With Twitterboard you are able to keep track with relevant discussion, much like you do on FriendFeed and Facebook.

Microsoft has finally decided to sell off its interactive ad portal, Razorfish. Reports state that its current worth is in the range of $600 Million to $700 Million. WPP Groupe  had shown interest in acquiring it for as much as $800 Million but eventually took a bow when recession hit the economic market, however  it is possible that the same group may acquire it but probably at a lower price than it had offered. Let’s see what price is fetched for the ad firm and who actually throws the bid for its acquisition.

Online auction site that lets users hunt for bargains has expanded its business as it launched its portal in  Canada. Along with that its adding a buy it now option to its German portal. The option would enable users to make direct purchases for the products for their normal market value. Though the initial working of the site can bring in a very expensive item at a very low price but that also involves bidders losing the 75 cents they use to buy bids, which often don’t prove lucky enough. The startup is pretty  useful as it already has more than 2 million users.

Almost everyone on the Internet is looking for some sort of information, be it stock rates or simply learning what your friend is up to on a certain social network. The same goes for those in business and professions, they all require a resource for information and FiredNetwork is just the right place for them. The startup boasts of having more than 1,500 such resources that range from head hunting firms to graduate test prep courses. Since its a community based startup, it therefore depends on the members to add up more resources, be it a book or a website, etc. This helps in many ways, from sharing information to adding more to your PR on the Web. So if you are one of those folks looking forward to getting some useful information, FiredNetwork is just a click away to provide you with all that.

Nokeena the online video infrastructure firm has raised $6.5 Million in its second round of funding. This adds to the $8.7 Million it raised earlier, bringing its total funds to $15.2 Million. The current round was led by Mayfield Fund along with participation from its existing members. It’s primary product is the Media Flow Director that helps better the quality of video streaming as well as lowering the costs.

If you have got tired of the fonts you have and need new ones for a change then FFont is the place where you can get a countless to suit your taste. FFont offers thousands of fonts that can be used by casual users or by professionals alike. The site has all fonts are put into various categories and provides a neat overview for each so that you know exactly what you will be using once the font has been downloaded.

Sharing whatever you want to on Twitter  has become easier. But Twi.tt simplifies that even more as it lets users share everything on Twitter from pictures, to videos, audios and documents. The startup is pretty useful, especially given that it removes the need to find or browse through services that let you do the same. Sign up with your Twitter account and get along sharing your favorite pictures, videos with people on Twitter.

Apple is pushing its stake higher in Imagination Technologies as it bought 2.2 million more shares. The shares were brought for $2.35 a share, meaning that Apple spend close to $5.17 Million. Intel made similar moves earlier as it bought around 5 million shares, pushing its stake in shares to 13%. While this would simply mean like a usual move but reports state that this happened because a Saudi group Saad had to lessen its  stake in the chipmaker as its accounts were frozen by the Saudi Central Bank.

Fox Interactive Media continues to shed weight on its budget as it laid off close to 75 employees across its properties. Gladly enough those weren’t from MySpace, which has seen a lot of that already. However, Photobucket suffered the most as it lost about a third of its 120 employees. We aren’t sure if this is the last of the layoffs we hear as its fiscal year comes to an en on June 30 and hope they don’t make some more cuts just till then.

This wouldn’t be related to Tech in any way, but its hard to gulp the fact that a legend is no more amongst us. Michael Jackson is history as he passed away owing to a cardiac arrest. The reports were pretty confused as there was no confirmation when he was taken to the hospital as some sources said he was in a coma while others confirmed his death. Whatever that confusion was, he is no more a part of the living and as reports broke forth, the surge in traffic across many sites just brought them down and those included LA Times, Twitter. While Twitter failing shouldn’t surprise anyone but the list included Perez Hilton’s blog, TMZ (which first broke the  news of his death) to name a few. It had to happen, the celebrity was popular across the globe and music is going to miss the legend.

Social network for families, Glubble has raised $1 Million in Series B round of funding provided by European investors. Along with this the network will also be releasing numerous new features soon that will make sharing photos more efficient. The site is more like FriendFeed for families and lets each one have their own homepage to share photos and leave messages, etc as well as set reminders for important dates like birthdays, reunion, etc. Users can also take advantage of its latest feature, the Family Timeline, which lets you scroll through family events, photos in a time line. Pretty neat and definitely popular amongst the families eager to use the web to keep track of all their family activity.

While the news about Apple letting porn stuff through on the App Store might have surprised a few and made other rejoice, Apple was quick to spill water over  it. In less than a day, Apple has rejected one such app, Hottest Girls from the store. Perhaps the app just got overboard with naked women and enjoyed the burst while it lasted. No more sweating over the hottest girls on your iPhone.

Update: Reports state that the app hasn’t been removed from the app store, rather it has been sold out. The reason why it wasn’t available was that the app had become an instant hit and in order to prevent from the servers crashing, further sales of the app have been stopped. Users who already have bought the app can continue using it. Talk about quite a scene all this porn in creating. While Apple is doing a good job with all the parental controls, etc, it just seems a bit pointless given that if porn is to be watched by kids under that age, they can do so in any way, beginning with desktop systems all the way to using Safari for the purpose. Still its a drama big enough to report on every now and then.

YouTube has for long dominated the video sharing ring and will continue to do so as the site is continued to be the center stage for sharing videos, both user generated and professional. Today YouTube decided to do the movie trailers a favor as it organized them all in one channel. The channel consists of a countless trailers that users can organize in any manner they like based on the most recent, popularity or to be released, etc. This is sounds more than helpful as I just got to learn about the many movies I hadn’t heard of.

There are many reports in the wild that Yahoo is planning a complete overhaul of its brand over time. Now I am not sure if the complete overhaul is about a mere change in the layout or does it include everything that Yahoo is? Why would I even think that the complete overhaul is to be taken in a literal sense? Primarily because there have been mass exits within its ranks plus shutting down of numerous services and that a change in the layout of the homepage (of which there have been reports here and there) would only be a part of it. Putting my suspicions aside, the current makeover is more or less limited to the redesign of the page. Lets just wait and see how our home on the web turns out after this.

Eterno Infotech, a pioneer in innovative mobile applications released its latest mobile app, NewsHunt. The app read popular newspapers in both English and local languages on the mobile phones. Presently it offers a total of 15 newspapers in several languages and include Indian dailies on more than 500 devices. I guess such an app that brings the local dailies to the phone makes reading news on the go a very easy thing, making sure everyone is well informed.

Redlasso the site that lets users to search Radio and TV broadcasts has raised $1.25 Million of the $2 Million round of funding. The round was led by a local real estate exec, Daniel Keating III and was participated by previous investors Guggenheim Venture Partners and Osage Ventures. With the current, the startup heads closer to the break even point.