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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and President, Entertainment & Devices Division Robbie Bach took to the stage at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to make three major announcements about Live Search.

They are:

What do you think about these announcements? Let us know in the comments.

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Live Search to Be Integrated with Blackberry Browser and Maps
Live Search and Windows Live Toolbar Now Offer Translation
Microsoft to Work on Live Search Reputation

Brad J. Ward is an online communciations coordinator at Butler University. Though he hails from a small academic institution, he’s unveiled a whale of a problem going on at Facebook (read, don’t skim, for the exciting conclusion).

As high school seniors across the country are being accepted into Universities for the Fall 2009 semester, groups for 2013 grads are popping up on the popular social network. There’s just one problem. It seems that one Patrick Kelly of Plano Senior High School is planning on attending a bunch of colleges - 500 to be exact. For that is how many 2013 groups he has created.

Ward rightly points out that the big problem here is that Patrick Kelly likely represents a data collection company that could end up being lifelong “friends” of millions of incoming freshman each year.

They also control the administrative privileges for each group.

But Brad Ward didn’t stop at just blogging about this problem. He’s got people talking on Twitter, organizing via Google Docs, and submitting Flickr pics regarding the problem.

The effort has identified other names associated with the group squatting including Ron Tressler and Justin Gaither, and he even has a company suspect: College Prowler. What a fitting name!

He even found an ad by College Prowler seeking unpaid interns to set up all this, as Ward rightly deems it, “dirty work.”

But get this: College Prowler responded by pulling the fake names that are associated with their company (Patrick Kelly was not, as it turns out) and pulling the administrative privileges. That is quite impressive. College Prowler says that they see social media as essential to their college guides business, but I think most of us would agree that they could go about social media in a different way.

Here’s a solution: College Prowler could create a community around its brand of college guides by identifying their Facebook groups with their brand. The group could be “College Prowler’s Guide to Butler University Class of 2013.”

So, College Prowler, and others interested in using social media, check out these posts from Search Engine Watch and sister site ClickZ to learn how to truly leverage social media to maximize those marketing dollars (and time!):

Facebook: Get Educated on the Hottest Social Media Platform
Understanding and Aligning the Value of Social Media
SocialTwist’s Tell-A-Friend Button Enables Word-of-Mouth and Social Media Marketing
A Social Media Marketing Primer
Social Media Link Building: From Fantasy to Reality
18-34 Year Old Responds to Email Marketing Over Social Network Marketing
How Blogs Drive More Sales Than Social Media Sites
93% of Americans Expect Companies to Have Social Media Presence
Using Twitter as an Education Tool
Less is More: What Social Media and Electronics Can Teach the Establishment
Go Slow With Video Ads in Social Media

The Wall Street Journal has caused quite a stir by publishing a story saying that leading proponents of net neutrality have been softening on their positions. Few blogs fell for the embellishment and Google and Lawrence Lessig have defended their not-so-shifty positions.

Google’s Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel, took to the company’s public policy blog to clarify:

Lessig, a professor of internet law at Stanford and keynote speaker at last week’s SES Chicago, explained how the Journal got his position correct, but the idea that his position new is wrong:

When it comes to net neutrality, no matter what side of the issue you tend to take, one thing is for sure: journalists and PR people who misunderstand how the internet works are only adding to the confusion.

Google also seems to be learning little from its recent failure in Washington, which cost them a search advertising deal with Yahoo!. Unless they learn to be proactive instead of reactive, they’re going to consistently lose to more experienced players. Then again, being against regulation for search advertising and for regulation regarding net neutrality is a delicate stance to balance.

AOL has some good news regarding their homepage since they relaunched in late October.

The click-through rate for the primary 300×250 ad banner increased 30% in November. Unique visitors and daily visitors grew by 13% and the minutes spent on the page increased by 29%.

“This week, the new homepage was rolled out to all AOL.com users, so we anticipate that our consumer usage numbers will continue to grow in the coming year,†said Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A. “Even in a tough economy, advertisers are finding ways to maximize their returns on investment, and our AOL.com homepage ad units have proven that consumers will respond positively to brand messaging within a new, highly customized consumer environment.â€

If you’re looking for an iGoogle theme with a little more meaning, then look no further than iGoogle Themes for Causes. These new themes feature charitable partners representing a variety of causes to be passionate about.

One of the participating charities (and a favorite of yours truly) is Doctors Without Borders, one of the only charities assisting in the current crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo and helping Somalian refugees who arrived in Yemen this week. Here’s what their theme looks like:

That “I’m Feeling Lucky” button sure does take on a whole new meaning when you are reminded of what millions of less fortunate people face every single day of their lives. These people would love to have the “problem” of cutting back on Christmas.

It’s far too easy to forget the needs of people around the world and here at home. But these iGoogle Themes for Causes can help you keep charity constant in your life.

Other charities include:
The One Campaign
Charity:Water
Heifer International
American Red Cross
Save the Children

Related Reading:
Blogger Releases Two Updates Regarding iGoogle and Commenting
iGoogle: O Pop, Where Art Thou? Jeff Koons, Wiggles, La Cicciolina
Google’s iGoogle Announcement

It turns out yesterday’s news about former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller trying to gather money to buy Yahoo was false. Miller has been raising money, but it’s for his own venture capital firm, not for buying Yahoo.

Miller’s firm is Velocity Interactive Group and it does invest in digital media.

This is the second false rumor in a week regarding a purchase of Yahoo. Over the weekend, media reported that a new Microsoft-Yahoo deal had been reached.

Drop Ship Directory by Worldwide Brands

links for 2008-11-17

Civil Complaint Brought Against Mark Cuban for Insider Trading Regarding Mamma.com

China Central Television (CCTV), the largest state-owned television network in China, recently ran a report accusing Baidu of questionable practices regarding medical search advertising. The accusations suggest that Baidu was allowing non-licensed medical companies to advertise while preventing some of the licensed ones from bidding on popular medical terms.

Baidu engaged in talks with CCTV to learn more about their accusations. They also removed paid search listings of medical companies who did not have proper licensing on file with Baidu.

Baidu maintains that they do not prevent the licensed companies from advertising. Advertising by medical companies makes up about 10-15% of Baidu’s revenue.

Of course, this is not the first time that state entities in China have caused unnecessary, undemocratic problems for Baidu.

Related Reading:
Baidu’s Profit Increases 91% in Third Quarter 2008

Fox Business is reporting that a civil complaint has been brought against Mark Cuban for insider trading regarding “The Mother of All Search Engines” Mamma.com, which is owned by Copernic (CNIC).

Cuban learned that the company would be issuing a PIPE: a public investment and private equity. In other words, they were about to issue an additional stock sale. When he learned about it, he sold his stake, about 600,000 shares before the public announcement. He avoided losses of $750,000.

If the charges Cuban will have to give back the money with interest.

Related Reading:
Cuban’s IceRocket Sold To Think Partnership
Yahoo Confirms Icahn Proxy Fight

Blogger has released a cool new feature that lets readers offer quick responses. It’s called Reactions, and it allows bloggers to create a variety of responses for their readers to choose. One possible implementation of the feature looks like this:

You’re not limited to “LOL” or “Fail.” You can set your own annotations:

To use the feature, go to Layout > Page Elements. Click the “Edit” link under the Blog Posts element. Check the Reactions box and enter words, separated by a comma. Hit Save and you’re ready to go.

Related Reading:
Blogger Releases Two Updates Regarding iGoogle and Commenting
Google Upgrades Blogger With Privacy Features & More