Xbox Vice President Peter Moore admitted to the Washington Post on Thursday what has been obvious all week:

Querying for risky keywords puts the searcher at risk of being sent to a site that could prove malicious, but even queries for popular keywords poses some risk too.

Many prognosticators have foreseen a great war–a battle for world domination. These soothsayers have named Wal-Mart, Google, and Starbucks as the most powerful of the behemoths that will be involved. And in a move that is not likely to ensure victory, or even confer an advantage, Wal-Mart is staking out a powerful claim by attempting to patent the humble smiley.

Social networking sites are bigger than ever, according to new data from Nielsen//NetRatings. The ten largest sites, taken together, grew 47 percent in the past year, and they now reach 45 percent of active Internet users.

“Wheeee! I got a Wii!” Within the next six months or so, small children throughout America will be rejoicing in this fashion. And with endless snickering and repetition, at that. The Wii is Nintendo’s next-generation gaming console, and up until the E3 expo, details about it were few and far between.

A new online bartering service is hoping to simplify the way people get (and get rid of) used goods. Swaptree intends to let consumers directly trade books, CDs, DVDs, and videogames, with up to four users able to participate in a single transaction.

Sprite decided to “get weird” ( reg. req.) to stand out from other, more bombastic, colas.

MySpace has stuck its finger in another pie with the launch of its own instant messaging network. Called MySpace IM, the company released a beta version on Tuesday that is closed to other IM networks, and that requires the operating system Windows 98 or newer. The tag line: “IM for Friends.”

AOL is taking a big step in the march to allow users to personalize their online experience. With a new open API release, individuals can add content from AOL Music Now to their personal web site or blog, or to their MySpace-style AIM Page.

A unit of German software giant SAP will offer technical assistance for Oracle’s Siebel products at about half the price Oracle charges for support

At first glance Nooz looks like another community edited news site. Au contraire.

In the first few articles of this series, we discussed key performance indicators and how to determine the right KPIs for your online campaign.

The second coming? No, silly, Bible-centered social media. Having trouble finding that particularly obscure Bible verse? Lose your Strong’s Concordance? eBible.com, still in private beta (shouldn’t that be alpha/omega?), promises a Web 2.0 soul searching experience.

TechWeb writes that the winner of Microsoft’s 2006 OEM Embedded Patner of the Year at their Mobile & Embedded DevCon is gas pump that runs Windows CE.

Sony Pictures enjoyed serious link love when Google UK dropped a link to them at the bottom of its search result pages.

The world’s longest-running game system may face a slow, quiet death. According to the president of Nintendo, the Game Boy line is not likely to be continued in the future.

CNET has details of Google’s annual shareholder meeting.

The movement of goods in and out of warehouses, distribution centers and final outlets like retail chains form an integral part of supply chain management.

Michael Arrington has secured some screen shots of Google’s soon to be launched Google Desktop.

There are a number of things one can’t sell on eBay, like an immortal soul or a baby; as it turns out, one can’t sell New Zealand on eBay either. Not even if the seller takes PayPal.

The Los Angeles Police Department has started a blog, joining the LA Fire Department which has had one for quite awhile.

Frequent media stories that aim at pushing Microsoft and Google into an all-out battle royale don’t really hit the mark according to Microsoft’s CEO.

The newspaper publisher picked up Planet Discover, a local search and integrated advertising technology company, for its publication websites.

Blogger Lance Dutson earned a victory against Warren Kremer Paino Advertising as the ad agency dropped its lawsuit against the web developer who criticized their business with the state of Maine.