OpenX has long been angling for Google’s online ad dominance. And after a new multi-year deal with Microsoft, announced this morning, they’ll have an even bigger ally in the fight. The partnership has been in trials for over a year, but is now official. Explains TechCrunch:

Companies that sell software to monitor your child’s online activity are double-dipping by selling the collected data to marketers, according to AP. Not every software provider is engaging in the practice, but EchoMetrix Inc’s Sentry and FamilySafe brands are called out in particular. Because the software “listens” to the instant messenger conversations of kids, it’s [...]

The Internet is a-buzz with the latest offering from Firefox – the best browser available in my opinion – and the upgrades look absolutely tantalizing:

Before we get in a tizzy, “social search” here only refers to looking at what your friends are doing on a social network. But yes, Facebook is currently testing real-time search results for searches on the social network:

I just read an interesting report published by Nielsen that examines time spent on multiple Social and Micro Networks. The study compares total minutes in April 2009 compared to April 2008. The results are not as much surprising as they are revealing. According to Nielsen, total minutes spent on social networking sites has increased 83 [...]

Let’s face it, whether you love them or hate them, url shorteners are here to stay. However, all url shorteners are not created equal. The shortening service you choose to use can have a big impact on your site’s link building and rankings.

For listening to conversations on Twitter about your brand, your client’s brand or anything else you need to be paying attention to online, you are literally spoiled for choice.