Silicon Alley Insider - Michael Learmonth | July 3, 2008 3:40 PM

Google (GOOG) isn’t shy about telling everyone what a bad deal its $900 million search pact with MySpace (NWS) turned out to be. The company basically laid its Q4 earnings miss on the deal, claiming social network inventory “is not monetizing as well as expected.”

But what if Google, and not MySpace, is the problem? Pali Research media guru Rich Greenfield thinks MySpace is doing just fine selling ads ($500 million excluding the Google deal in FY 2008) but Google isn’t doing such a good job on search, and thus is not delivering the right ads to MySpace users.

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FORTUNE - July 3, 2008, 12:40 pm

By Alex Taylor III

The words “Toyota” and “fun” are natural opposites, like “government” and “intelligence.” Toyota cars are well-made, durable, sensible, economical – but seldom whimsical, engaging, or thrilling.

So it is with the Scion tC sport coupe that I borrowed for a weekend’s driving. Inlogging more than 150 miles on a combination of highways and back country roads, it never failed to perform reliably. But by the time Sunday evening came around, I felt like our relationship had run its course. There was nothing more that I could learn from the tC.

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Silicon Alley Insider -  Vasanth Sridharan | July 3, 2008 3:30 PM

Google (GOOG) confirms the tips we’d heard the last two days: It’s shutting offices in Dallas and Denver. A company statement made to Google Blogoscoped:

Following an operational review, we are consolidating our offices in Dallas and Denver, as we currently have at least two offices in each of these markets. This reorganization is designed to ensure we are serving the needs of our customers, stakeholders and Googlers [Google employees] efficiently. These are the only two cities affected by this review, and all affected Dallas and Denver Googlers will be offered opportunities within the company.

Google’s U.S. jobs page shows an ad sales opening in Dallas. In Colorado, jobs are available in Boulder and Thornton, just north of Denver.

source: SAI

Silicon Alley Insider - Henry Blodget | July 2, 2008 9:18 PM

All major Internet companies not named Google are in talks about mergers, partnerships, spinouts, and other proposals to quiet irate shareholders and stop getting their butts kicked, says the WSJ. No news on when they finally plan to stop talking and actually do something.

• Yahoo’s talking to Time Warner about merging with AOL. Time Warner would get a minority stake in the combined company, diluting the hell out of Yahoo shareholders and leaving Time Warner shareholders wondering why they bothered.

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Silicon Alley Insider - Michael Learmonth | July 2, 2008 6:20 PM

It’s official: Mozilla (SAI 25 #5) says it now holds the Guinness World Record for “largest number of software downloads in 24 hours,” recorded after the release of Firefox 3. Mozilla counted 8,002,530 downloads of the latest version of its Firefox Web browser during that period. Impressive, given their servers were crushed under the weight of the demand — which means they spent significant time turning away visitors.

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BusinessWeek - Autos March 2, 2008, 8:05PM EST

According to Continental Automotive’s Bill Kozyra, the cars of the future will be super-efficient—and they may even drive themselves

by Bradley Berman

Carmakers spend big bucks to establish their brands as leaders in the race toward greater fuel efficiency and reduced emissions. Yet many of the eco-friendly and high-tech innovations in our vehicles begin in the research and development departments of large auto suppliers—the companies that supply components and systems to automobile manufacturers.

For example, you might know Continental Automotive Systems as a maker of tires, but you probably don’t know its role in the development of next-generation hybrids, diesels, lithium batteries, stability control, and wireless connectivity technologies for automobiles. Bradley Berman, editor of HybridCars.com, spoke with William Kozyra, president and CEO, Continental Automotive Systems North America, which is a subsidiary of German tire giant Continental (CONG), about what he sees as the three largest trends in automotive technology: “sustainability, safety, and connectivity.”

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