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Media companies longing to bring a paid-for culture to the Internet might just get what they want if they pay more attention to the smartphone revolution that is changing the way people access the Web.

Stock index futures fell on Thursday, pointing to a weaker start for Wall Street. By 0859 GMT (3:59 a.m. ET), futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq slipped 0.2 to 0.3 percent.

Motorola Inc has reached a deal with Microsoft Corp that will put Bing search and mapping services on its phones that use Google's Android operating system.

The Google Apps Marketplace launched Tuesday with third-party cloud apps from more than 50 other companies, which will use cloud-based applications to supplement Google's own online applications.

Google expects an outcome soon from its talks with China over a censorship and hacking dispute, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said on Wednesday.

Telecom firms risk losing a key revenue stream to rivals like Google by leaving valuable customer client data largely untapped and hesitating to invest extra cash to leverage customer information.

The United States is studying whether it can legally challenge Chinese Internet restrictions that hurt Google and other U.S. companies operating in China, but direct talks with Beijing might yield faster results, the top U.S. trade official said on Tuesday.

The United States would not have any standing to bring a case against Chinese Internet restrictions to the World Trade Organisation, a Chinese adviser on WTO strategy said in an opinion piece on Tuesday.

The Internet was built on freedom of expression. Society wants someone held accountable when that freedom is abused. And major Internet companies like Google and Facebook are finding themselves caught between those ideals.

Google Inc and No. 2 U.S. satellite TV operator Dish Network Corp are jointly testing a television programing search service, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

China has pledged to punish hackers who attacked Google if there is evidence to prove it, but said it has yet to receive any complaint from the world's top search engine.

Google Inc stepped up its assault on Microsoft Corp's productivity software business with the acquisition of a small start-up company that allows Microsoft users to edit and share their documents on the Web.

In bid to get more people to use Web-based applications, Google Inc. acquired DocVerse, a technology start-up that allows users to collaborate on Microsoft Office files online.

Microsoft said it will stick to its development strategy for the China Internet search market regardless of the outcome of Google's high-profile spat with Beijing.

China is in consultations with technology giant Google to resolve its dispute with the company, which has threatened to abandon the Chinese market over hacking and censorship concerns, said a Chinese official on Friday.

Microsoft is still seeing a lot of interest in its Windows 7 computer software launched last year and a new budget cycle will help a gradual recovery in business spending, its chief operating officer said.

YouTube announced Thursday plans to offer automatic close captioning service to all videos uploaded to their video-sharing site.

Google announced a new search application for its Android mobile operating system, designed to boost user productivity, but has Android users outside of the U.S. upset as it is only available in the U.S. market.

The hackers behind the attacks on Google Inc and dozens of other companies operating in China stole valuable computer source code by breaking into the personal computers of employees with privileged access, a security firm said on Wednesday.

Twitter plans to adopt Google's very successful Ad Model for its own website. Twitter will let advertisers sign up to have their ads show up as tiny 140-word posts when users search through Twitter or through other search engines that use its API.

Apple Inc sued Taiwan's HTC Corp, which makes touchscreen smartphones using Google software, accusing it of infringing 20 hardware and software patents related to the iPhone.

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC defended itself against a brought on by Apple yesterday, saying it doesn't infringe, but develops its own technologies.

Microsoft is still seeing a lot of interest in its Windows 7 computer software launched last year and a new budget cycle will help a gradual recovery in business spending, its chief operating officer said.

Yahoo Inc CEO Carol Bartz said she does not believe Yahoo needs to discuss Google Inc's Internet search practices with government regulators.

U.S. technology companies would face civil or criminal liability unless they take reasonable steps to protect global human rights under legislation a top lawmaker plans to propose.

U.S. technology companies would face civil or criminal liability unless they take reasonable steps to protect global human rights under legislation a top U.S. lawmaker plans to propose.

Technology companies that fail to make reasonable steps to safeguard human rights in foreign countries could face civil or criminal liabilities, lawmakers said Tuesday.

While Google called a cyber-attack against its network last January a highly sophisticated and targeted attack, security experts said the techniques show the attackers to be nothing more than amateurs.

Apple filed a lawsuit against rival handset maker HTC on Tuesday, over the alleged infringement of 20 patents related to the iPhone's user interface, according to reports.