Whether they’re used for the benefit of the hard of hearing, people who speak a different language, or just folks who want to watch videos while at work or in a library, captions can be helpful in all sorts of circumstances.  And now, captions should become much more common, as all YouTube users will be able to take advantage of an auto-caption tool.

Watch the Keynote live at live.webpronews.com.

The NCAA has unveiled a new website NCAA Vault, which features video highlights and full games of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament going back to 2000.

The NCAA Vault lets users search for individual plays and highlights from their favorite NCAA men’s basketball teams and players from the Sweet Sixteen through the championship games.

At his keynote at SMX in Santa Clara this week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made it pretty clear that the company wants more people using its products regardless of the device they’re using. While his focus in that address was mainly on Microsoft’s Bing search engine, the company is keeping with this philosophy, as it has now released its first Android App.

Nearly a quarter (24%) of all U.S. households have a television connected to the Internet, according to a new report from the Leichtman Research Group (LRG).

The report found consumers connect to the Internet via variety of devices including a video game console, a Blu-Ray player, or a compatible TV.  While Internet connectivity has become a common built-in feature in many devices, consumers are just beginning to use this feature to watch video from the Internet.

Never mind the associated cubicles, desks, chairs, and monitors that, for many people, have become part of everyday life.  A Google exec believes desktop computers will be irrelevant in three years’ time.

Google has a new way for Android users (2.0 and up) to search on their mobile devices. The company has introduced a new Google Labs application that lets users search for apps, bookmarks, music tracks, etc. by drawing alphabet gestures on their touch screen.

It looks like Facebook will soon begin trying harder to bend the ears of our nation’s leaders.  Listings for a public policy manager and public policy associate have both been posted on the social network’s "Open Positions" page, and Facebook’s decided that these people will work in Washington, D.C.

This isn’t a simple matter of having a couple of folks sit around, answering questions and maybe defending the company when necessary.  Facebook wants the new hires to be quite active.

Facebook and Twitter access via mobile browsers has grown by triple-digits in the past year, according to the latest research from comScore.

More than a quarter (30.8%) of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January, up 8.3 points from 22.5 percent one year ago.  Access to Facebook via mobile browser climbed 112 percent in the past year, while Twitter soared 347 percent.

TiVo said today it will begin offering two new set-top boxes starting in April.

TiVo Premiere will sell for $300 and will have the ability to hold up to 45 hours of HD content or up to 400 hours of standard definition content.  TiVo Premiere XL will retail for $500 and hold up to 150 of HD content or 1,350 hours of standard definition.

Premiere’s search functionality offers user the ability to find content on cable, YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, and Blockbuster On Demand.

More people have the web in the palm of their hands than ever before. Smartphone usage isn’t exactly slowing down, and for that reason, the search market might get shaken up considerably in the coming months. Google has long dominated the search market, and to this day continues to do so. There is nothing indicating that will change in the near future, but the rise of smartphones and deals among different players could conceivably shake things up, and make things a bit more competitive.

Update: Stay tuned to live.webpronews.com for an exclusive interview ith Peter Norvig, Google’s Director or Research.

Online analytics firm Omniture and Facebook said today they have partnered to offer marketers tools to improve Facebook as a marketing channel.

Initially the two companies will focus on the ability to automate Facebook media buying and access analytics that measure customer engagement on Facebook. The partnership builds on Facebook analytics the companies introduced last year to help marketers join the conversation and have more relevant interactions with their customers.

Almost exactly one month ago, the Yahoo Mobile Blog launched, and nine new posts have been made since, signaling that the company really is interested in mobile tech.  Unfortunately, one of Yahoo’s mobile execs has decided to part ways with it at this juncture.

It’s no secret that Google delivers personalized search results on a user-by-user basis. In fact, software engineer Bryan Horling reportedly said at SMX West in Santa Clara that Google personalizes as much as 20 percent of any user’s web searches, which would be one in five searches. One way that Google personalizes search results is with its social search feature, which it launched in January. At SMX, WebProNews discussed this feature with Google’s Johanna Wright.

Mobile device maker Nokia said today it has made Skype available as a free download in its online Ovi Store.

The new Skype for Symbian software will allow more than 200 million Nokia smartphone users globally access Skype over a WiFi or mobile data connection.

Skype for Symbian will allow Nokia smartphone users to make free Skype-to-Skype calls to other Skype users, save money on international calls and texts, and share pictures and videos.

Two of the most popular shows on Hulu will be pulled off the site after March 9th.  Hulu announced late yesterday that it and Comedy Central have been unable to reach an agreement concerning the distribution of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

Google is looking to improve upon its own internal SEO efforts. The company has created what it calls an "SEO Report Card," designed to improve the user experience and visibility of some of its own properties. The company says it aims to identify potential areas for improvement in Google’s product pages, which could help users find them more easily in search engines, and fix bugs that annoy visitors and hurt the pages’ performance in search engines.

In case you missed it, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spoke at SMX West in Santa Clara yesterday, addressing the search marketing industry for the first time (you can watch that at our new site live.webpronews.com). Obviously, much of the conversation was centered around Bing.

Update: I finally got word back from Facebook, who confirmed that the feature is indeed only a test. "The "Promote" feature is just a test and is unrelated to our Promotions Guidelines," the company says. They  did not give any specifics about a possible full launch.