An organization that reports news is now making it – Reuters, which actually earns most of its money through dealings in the financial market, plans to acquire ClearForest, “a provider of text-driven intelligence solutions.”

If you use the right euphemisms, it’s almost enough to give you warm fuzzies: the Chinese government, according the country’s president, is developing plans to "actively and creatively nurture a healthy online culture."

Unfortunately, China’s state television forgot to dress up the language, and instead disclosed the less comforting thought that "development and administration of Internet culture must stick to the direction of socialist advanced culture, [and] adhere to correct propaganda guidance."

Boing Boing via one of their readers reminds us that YouTube is still being blocked in Thailand, and also includes a screenshot of what a visitor saw from Bangkok (below – you gotta love the big brother eye).

In the virtual world of Second Life, one can engage in just about every imaginable sort of commerce. Industries spanning from standard retail to prostitution offer the average Second Lifer a veritable cornucopia of possibilities, but it’s the virtual casinos that exist in the online world that are drawing the attention and ire of government agencies in the United States.

It didn’t look good – Google released a new tool in China last week, and the thing bore an uncanny resemblance to a competitor’s product.  Now it’s definitely bad – Google has admitted that, because it used "some non-Google database resources," some of Sohu’s technology may have been recycled.

Baidu is China’s top search engine – the king, or, because or its relative youth, the prince.  But the search engine company is experiencing some difficulties in Japan, where another corporation has laid claim to the domain baidu.co.jp.  This pauper calls itself the “CBC Company.”

In September of 2006, the elected government of Thailand was overthrown.  In April of 2007, YouTube was shown the door.  That’s right – YouTube has (yet again) been banned in an entire country.

Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking sites can be fun and useful – many of them are quite valuable, as well – but they generally lack credibility in the

Today Microsoft and Reuters announce a deal which will bring Reuters News Alerts direct to consumers

When Google bought YouTube last year, most throughout the blogosphere saw the move as a natural fit for the search company and lauded the acquisition as an monumental success.

Nearly six months later, however, YouTube’s sparkle is beginning to fade amid the copyright complaints that are plaguing Google’s legal department.