Powerset is building a consumer search engine based on natural language processing.

Unlike other conventional search engines that index keywords, Powerset claims to do a deep linguistic analysis on every sentence it reads.

Powerset extracts and indexes facts about every sentence in every page, making its index the first truly robust semantic index of the web. Powerset will offer a transformative search experience, with better, more relevant results. Powerlabs is an online community that will contribute to the development of Powerset and allow the company a direct line of communication with consumers to better understand the potential, possibilities, and challenges of building a large-scale search engine. [Powerset]

Using Powerset’s semantic search engine, a user could ask, “When did earthquakes hit San Francisco? ” and potentially get more on-point search results than from typing in mere keywords such as “San Francisco earthquakes.” Another advantage of the Powerset approach is that it gets to the meaning of words, so queries for one word will fetch results that contain words which are synonyms.

The project is backed by a team comprised by industry leaders from companies such as Altavista, Apple, Ask.com, BBN, Digital, IDEO, IBM, Microsoft, NASA, PARC, Promptu, SRI, Tellme, Whizbang! Labs, and Yahoo!.

For now, Powerset’s is currently under development. The search engine is testing the system based only on Wikipedia content before they go for the huge expense of indexing the entire Web.

ooVoo, a videoconferencing and Instant Messaging startup, has launched a new VoIP phone service that allows users to make free phone calls from a computer to any landline or mobile phone in the US and Canada.

ooVoo provides a high-quality video communication service that delivers a more meaningful way for people to call and connect over the Internet. ooVoo’s technology enables people to experience a face-to-face conversation and share a full range of emotions as if they are in the same room together, whether they are across the street or across the globe from each other. ooVoo’s superior quality video and audio is available to anyone with a computer, broadband connection and a web camera, for real-time video calls with up to six friends, relatives and colleagues simultaneously. ooVoo’s high quality video chat service includes video conversation recording, telephony, video messaging, instant message chat and file sharing amongst other capabilities. [ooVoo]

Unlike competitor Skype, ooVoo does not use a P2P network. The company offers a wide range of capabilities such as face-to-face conversation with up to six people, video stream recording, file transfer, in-call video effects and chat.

Sony has partnered with Skype to enable users of its latest slim PlayStation Portable (PSP-2000) to make free calls around the world through the Internet.

By introducing Skype on PSP, the following features and services will be made available to PSP users:

• Free voice calls between Skype users
• Skype contact list management (view existing contacts, add new ones)
• Skype presence (see which friends are online and available to talk)
• SkypeOut™ calls to make calls to landlines and mobile phones anywhere in the world (requires the purchase of Skype credit)
• Optional SkypeIn™ number that lets users receive calls on Skype from landlines and mobiles anywhere in the world (requires the purchase of Skype credit)
• View and modify Skype settings and account details (including username creation, SkypeOut settings, voicemail settings and call forwarding) [Sony Pressroom]

PSP users worldwide will be able to start using Skype features and services through a simple system software update scheduled in late January. After updating the PSP system software, a Skype icon will be added to the Network category in the home menu. PSP users who do not yet have a Skype username can register by clicking the icon and following the instructions. PSP users who already have a Skype username can immediately sign in by clicking the Skype icon and entering their username and password.

Google and Panasonic (Matsushita Electric Industrial) are partnering in the development of televisions that display Internet content like video and photos.

Users will be able to browse videos from YouTube and photos from Picasa Web Albums directly through the new TVs starting next spring.

“We are thrilled to introduce Panasonic VIERA PZ850 series Internet-Connected HDTV’s with virtual one-click access to YouTube and Picasa Web Albums from Google,” said Toshihiro Sakamoto, President of Panasonic AVC Networks Company. “This is the first time mainstream consumers will be able to easily enjoy YouTube videos from the living room with the enhanced quality of a fully integrated widescreen TV experience. YouTube is already a huge worldwide sensation, and Panasonic VIERA Internet-connected HDTV’s will greatly expand users’ entertainment options.” [Panasonic Pressroom]

In addition, Matsushita has unveiled a 150-inch plasma television, which it says is the world’s biggest, during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas by Toshihiro Sakamoto, president of Panasonic AVC Networks Co.

The new HDTV screen measures 12.5 feet diagonally and offers four times better resolution than full high-definition 1080p picture quality. It will be launching in 2009 at an undisclosed price.

Startup social networking site imeem, which lets users listen to and share their favorite music online, said that it signed a deal to access the catalog of Universal Music Group. This makes imeem the first company to offer free unlimited songs and music videos from all four major record labels.

imeem is the leading social media network where users create, recommend and discover music, film/video, art, and pop culture media and connect directly with people with similar tastes. By offering innovative media expression tools and social discovery features, including custom music playlists, video channels, photo slideshows and blogs, the imeem community can share their tastes with friends and fans on imeem and across the Web.

imeem is the first social network to partner with all four major labels as well as thousands of indie labels and video providers to offer free, on-demand streaming of all music and video content on an ad-supported basis. Since the launch of its Web-based service www.imeem.com in March 2006, the community has attracted over 19 million unique users each month. imeem was the fastest growing social site in the U.S. in September and October 2007. [imeem]

Imeem allows users to stream, but not download, an unlimited number of songs and videos and makes money by selling advertising. It shares ad revenues with its label partners. This represents a big challenge for imeem, since the music industry is very hesitant about ad-supported business models due to labels not making as much profit per song from advertising as they make through downloads. However, the site includes links to both iTunes and Amazon in case users want to purchase the tracks.

Imeem will face several ad-supported competitors such as SpiralFrog, which lets users download free tracks, and Rhapsody, which lets users stream only 25 songs per month.

Yahoo is set to complement its successful Yahoo Finance site with the launch of a new program aimed at technology investors.

The site, to be called TechTicker, will report exclusively on technology stocks and will offer streaming video and blog posts covering breaking finance news on a daily basis.

Although TechTicker will face tough competition from television networks CNBC, Bloomberg TV and Fox Business Network, the initiative offers immense advancement opportunities for Yahoo, allowing the firm to move closer into content areas (which set it apart from its main competitor, Google) and to continue to develop strategies beyond just search.

An exact date of launch has not been revealed yet, but among the online staff considered for the project are Henry Blodget (editor in chief of Silicon Alley Insider), Sara Lacy (columnist at BusinessWeek) and Paul Kedrosky (CNBC Analyst).

The major search engines (with the exception of MSN) have released their lists of top search terms of the year. (The lists do not include adult-oriented queries).

The lists differ notoriously from engine to engine. Celebrity queries remained very popular on Yahoo’s list, while Google’s list reflects an audience highly engaged on social networks. Interestingly, Ask’s list includes competitor Google and presents very broad terms as the most searched.

Yahoo has announced the acquisition of online advertising network BlueLithium for $300 million in cash.

Blue Lithium specializes in selling performance-based display ads across a network of Web sites. Like search-related text advertising, performance banners let advertisers pay for exposure to customers only when people respond to the ad, whether it’s by agreeing to receive more information or by taking some action. The privately held company, which also sells behavioral targeted advertisiments, is ranked the fifth largest ad network in the United States and second largest in the United Kingdom with 145 million unique visitors per month.

The acquisition of BlueLithium enables Yahoo! to accelerate its advertising, product, and engineering roadmaps, and gives the company increased capabilities to sell and measure performance-based campaigns both on and off the Yahoo! network.

BlueLithium and Yahoo! share a common goal of providing both advertisers and publishers with high quality inventory and the essential targeting and analytical tools that are necessary to reach the right consumers at the right times. The addition of BlueLithium is the logical next step in creating the largest and most effective online ad network globally, which also includes inventory on Yahoo!’s owned and operated properties, the Yahoo! Publisher Network, and the Right Media Exchange. We believe that together Yahoo! and BlueLithium will help drive the next evolution of the online advertising industry. [BlueLithium]

The deal comes five months after Google bought online ad giant DoubleClick for $3.1 billion and less than four after Microsoft acquired aQuantive for $6.1 billion.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of the popular Internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia, has revealed more details about the development of his new for-profit search engine Wikia. During the O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) held in Portland, Jimmy Wales announced the acquisition of from search engine LookSmart and the release of the software under open source.

Grub, a distributed search spidering technology, will enable Wikia to index the millions of websites on the internet.

“We’ve had a tremendous response from very interesting commercial players in the search space,” said Jimmy Wales, co-founder and chairman, Wikia, Inc. “The desire to collaborate and support a transparent and open platform for search is clearly deeply exciting to both open source and businesses. Look for other exciting announcements in the coming months as we collectively work to free the judgment of information from invisible rules inside an algorithmic black box.” [Wikia]

LookSmart will be providing text and display ads in Wikia’s free wiki communities and eventually on the Search Wikia site, Wales said. Wikia will sell ads a cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-thousand (CPM) models. Unsold inventory will be back-filled by ads from LookSmart’s distributed ad network.

Microsoft continues to invest in online advertising to be able to compete with major rivals Yahoo and Google. In the last few months, the firm has made three digital acquisitions; first it was European mobile advertising firm ScreenTonic, then big aQuantive for $6 billion (Microsoft’s biggest acquisition in history) and now online advertising exchange firm AdECN. According to Microsoft, AdECN would add the final element to its online advertising portfolio.AdECN is a real-time, auction-based, marketplace for buying and selling display advertising. It is similar to that offered by Right Media, the firm Yahoo acquired last April for more than $680 million.

“It works much like a stock exchange. A member of the AdECN Exchange buys on the exchange for its advertisers and sells on the exchange for its publishers. This guarantees members the best possible liquidity – fewer campaigns go unfilled, less inventory goes unsold – and more liquidity means higher revenues.The member’s advertisers and publishers benefit, too, from the extreme targeting and impression-based pricing in the AdECN Exchange, which helps members attract and retain the best clients.” [AdECN]

Founded in 2003, and with nearly 30 employees, AdECN brings new capabilities and expertise to Microsoft’s online advertising network AdCenter.