With U.S. antitrust clearance for its DoubleClick purchase, Google's focus now turns to European regulators, who are expected to be more critical of the top search engine linking up with a market leader in online advertising.

The proposed $3.1 billion transaction, which is strongly opposed by privacy advocates, cannot be completed without approval from the European Commission, whose review deadline is April 2.

The three largest Internet companies have agreed to pay a combined $31.5 million to settle federal civil allegations they took ads for illegal gambling, the U.S. Attorney for eastern Missouri said Wednesday.

Microsoft ..., Yahoo ... and Google ... also agreed to stop accepting ads for sports wagering and other online gambling, U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said.

As a team, we’ve spent the last year heads down working hard on IE8. Last week, we achieved an important milestone that should interest web developers. IE8 now renders the “Acid2 Face” correctly in IE8 standards mode. ...

While web developers will immediately recognize what Acid2 means, I want to step back and offer some context for other readers of this blog who may not be familiar with web standards. Briefly: Acid2 is one test of how modern browsers work with some specific features across several different web standards.

Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) and Microsoft Corp. today announced a broad-based, strategic alliance under which major divisions of both companies will collaborate on advertising, content distribution, event promotions and games over the next several years.

The comprehensive agreement spans across the two companies and includes a number of significant components. Among them:

• Microsoft will license, on a non-exclusive basis, long- and short-form television and theatrical content from across Viacom’s cable network and motion picture businesses, including MTV, Comedy Central, BET and Paramount Pictures, for use on Microsoft properties such as MSN and Xbox 360.

• Microsoft’s Atlas division will become the ad server for Viacom’s U.S. Web sites and Microsoft will have the exclusive right to sell remnant display advertising inventory on Viacom’s U.S. Web sites.

• Microsoft will buy advertising on Viacom broadcast and online networks over a five-year period and the companies will work together on promotions and sponsorships for MTV Networks and BET Networks award shows.

• Viacom will work with Microsoft on opportunities to become a preferred publishing partner across Microsoft’s casual gaming platforms.

Detailed financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal has a projected base value of approximately $500 million in financial considerations and business services between the two companies over the initial five-year length of the agreement. The deal includes a combination of revenue sharing provisions, guarantees and content licensing agreements. The agreements contemplate the potential for expansion of the transactions. ...

Content Distribution

Viacom will provide Microsoft with a broad selection of short-form and long-form audio-visual content from MTV Networks, Paramount and BET Networks for distribution by Microsoft on MSN.com and Xbox 360. A wide range of content from Viacom properties is already distributed to Xbox 360 users through Xbox LIVE Marketplace and this deal adds popular content from BET Networks. In addition, Viacom will work with Microsoft’s casual gaming platforms (MSN, Windows and Xbox) to provide downloadable casual games to the substantial base of consumers playing quick-to-develop, easy-to-learn games on these platforms.

Ad Serving

Microsoft will provide Viacom with its proprietary ad serving solution, known as Atlas AdManager. AdManager is an offering that Microsoft obtained upon completion of its $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive Inc. in August 2007. AdManager — which operates within Microsoft’s newly created Advertiser & Publisher Solutions Group — will enable Viacom to better monetize its U.S. Web properties, such as MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central, by serving graphical and video ads on those sites, providing an ad serving solution, optimization features, inventory forecasting, real-time reporting and precise audience advertising targeting.

Ad Syndication

Viacom will provide unsold display advertising inventory on its digital sites for Microsoft to sell and serve through both Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions and DRIVEpm. Revenue generated from the sale of this inventory by Microsoft will be shared between the two companies.

Events and Promotions

During calendar year 2008, Microsoft and Viacom will partner to promote a co-branded Web site with exclusive content from at least four MTV Networks and BET Networks events, such as the MTV Video Music Awards and BET Awards, and will share certain advertising revenue generated by the site. Microsoft will provide a pre-determined amount of online promotion for each event.

When asked about consumers' reaction to the Xbox 360 ad campaign, Bell responded, "The reaction has been very positive. In fact, we saw incredible sales of Xbox 360 for the week of November 18, including Black Friday of more than 310,000 Xbox 360 in the U.S. alone. This is really strong momentum for us given that we're already in our third year on the market. We've also seen a strong response to both Halo 3 sales with more than 5 million, and Mass Effect which has sold more than a million copies in less than three weeks."

Microsoft Corp. this morning delivered a holiday surprise for customers and partners, unveiling a public beta for its hypervisor-based server virtualization technology called Hyper-V, a feature with some versions of Windows Server 2008. Customers and partners today can download Windows Server 2008 RC1 Enterprise with the beta version of Hyper-V to evaluate the new technology, test applications and plan future consolidation, business continuity and high-availability projects. The beta was previously expected to be ready in the first quarter of 2008 with the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Server 2008. The beta is available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/ws08eval.

Web browser developer Opera Software ASA said Thursday it had complained to the European Commission about Microsoft Corp., calling on regulators to make the company give users a choice of Internet software with its Windows operating system.

The small Norwegian company also alleged that Microsoft was holding developers back from making programs that work with each other "by not following accepted Web standards."

Microsoft Corp. has acquired Multimap, one of the United Kingdom’s top 100 technology companies and one of the leading online mapping services in the world. The acquisition gives Microsoft a powerful new location and mapping technology to complement existing offerings such as Virtual Earth, Live Search, Windows Live services, MSN and the aQuantive advertising platform, with future integration potential for a range of other Microsoft products and platforms. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. ...

One of the best-known online mapping companies worldwide, Multimap provides a publicly available personal mapping service at http://www.multimap.com, as well as a range of integrated business services. ...

Multimap will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, as part of the Virtual Earth and Search teams in the Online Services Group. The acquisition is the latest in a series of moves as Microsoft seeks to expand its online services to deliver software, services, and premium content and applications to consumers and businesses.

Microsoft Corp. and CNBC today announced a strategic alliance in which the two companies will collaborate to bring relevant advertising to the more than 2.6 million unique monthly visitors to CNBC.com. Microsoft will be the exclusive third-party provider of display and contextual advertising for CNBC.com and its global audience. ...

Advanced technology from Microsoft will help connect advertisers with CNBC.com users in more relevant, innovative ways through a combination of graphical ad placements and automated text-based advertisements targeted to content. Over time, the technology will enable the anonymous aggregation of user behavior. ...

The companies expect to begin execution of the agreement immediately, with contextual advertising appearing later this month. Execution on display advertising will begin in March 2008.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) will employ Microsoft Silverlight on NBA.com to further enhance the online video experience for NBA fans around the world. Microsoft Silverlight, a cross-browser, multiplatform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web, will also be utilized on WNBA.com and NBADevelopmentLeague.com.

NBA.com will feature a full-screen NBA photo gallery, offer video highlights and deliver additional interactive applications throughout the site using Microsoft Silverlight. Through the use of Microsoft Corp.’s new application, the NBA will be able to provide further access to its extensive digital video library, integrate the video experience seamlessly into the site, and ultimately provide fans with access to more online video features.

Microsoft Silverlight enables the fast delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers running on the Mac OS or Windows operating system. As a part of its relationship with Microsoft, the NBA will continue to explore additional opportunities to display video and photos throughout the site.

Mobile display advertising is now available on MSN Mobile for the first time, Microsoft Corp. announced today. Starting today, MSN Mobile customers in the U.S. will begin to see banner and text ad placements that conform to the U.S. mobile advertising guidelines provided by the Mobile Marketing Association to deliver a more consistent and engaging experience for consumers. Paramount Pictures and Jaguar Cars North America are among the first companies to launch an MSN Mobile campaign in the U.S.

Carolyn Gudmundson, who was responsible for managing and registering Microsoft's Internet domain names between 2000 and 2004, has been indicted on allegations of stealing more than $1 million from Microsoft and Expedia, according to court papers and a statement released today by the U.S. Attorney in Seattle.

The Volta technology preview is a developer toolset that enables you to build multi-tier web applications by applying familiar techniques and patterns. First, design and build your application as a .NET client application, then assign the portions of the application to run on the server and the client tiers late in the development process. The compiler creates cross-browser JavaScript for the client tier, web services for the server tier, and communication, serialization, synchronization, security, and other boilerplate code to tie the tiers together.