Feed: All Things Digital - AggScore: 60.2

Katherine Boehret looks at Clicker.com, which helps viewers find their favorite shows online faster.

There certainly is a lot of noisy swirl of late around the escalating fight between Google and some traditional media companies over content online. The loudest voice in this fight has clearly been News Corp. kingpin Rupert Murdoch, who seemingly has not met a television interviewer of late he did not regale with tales of the search giant's nefariousness. He's also tried to get Google biggest nemesis, Microsoft involved in what has become a wrestling match over the future of news. But what's really happening here? Here are five possibilities to consider.

I'd like to say this is a half-full, half-empty scenario. But the more I think about it, the more I'm thinking the latter. Web ads improved over the last three months, but compared to last year, we're still behind. And last year was terrible.

With more people emailing and fewer people sending physical mail in recent years, the U.S. Postal Service is taking steps to move into the digital world--and using a venture-backed company to do so. Goodmail Systems Inc. has partnered with Epostmarks Inc. to launch a product, Postmarked Email, that has the approval and protection of the U.S. Postal Service.

They’re grinning like a shot fox up at Microsoft today now that the company’s advertising partnership with Yahoo has been cleared by antitrust regulators in Australia and Canada.

Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell is leaving the software giant at the end of the year and will be replaced by longtime Microsoft finance exec Peter Klein. A Microsoft spokesman said Liddell wants to pursue jobs beyond his finance role outside the company. BoomTown always enjoyed his adorkable New Zealand accent, even when it was talking econalypse 24/7. I have no idea what Klein sounds like, but he currently serves as CFO of Microsoft's Business Division, which is one of the company's largest units.

With Twitter exploding--and the focus on real time data exploding along with it--there are a number of new companies that are seeking to develop more specific applications of this technology.

This year, Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter, will put on some 22,000 live shows--each one attended by carping about the asinine “convenience” and “courtesy” charges the company likes to tack on to ticket purchases. But much as concertgoers might loathe the idea of giving Live Nation even more of their money, they may soon do so. Because beginning today, the company is offering exclusive audio and video recordings of some of its events through iTunes.

[ See post to watch video ]

Google’s chief executive Eric Schmidt said during a trip to Baghdad this week that Iraq’s stabilization could lead to business opportunities in the country. Mr. Schmidt was part of a delegation, led by Peter Pace, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to encourage business development in Iraq.

Yet another goofy Silicon Valley name did not prevent Asana--the productivity software start-up founded by former Facebookers Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein--from nabbing $9 million in funding from Benchmark Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. The round, which was announced today, will be used to turbocharge Asana and its small team, who are aiming at the very dull and unexciting but very large and problematic workplace collaboration and communications market. In Sanskrit, "asana" means "sitting down" and refers to strong but relaxed postures in yoga--so presumably, Moskovitz and Rosenstein are trying to help frustrated workers achieve a digital form of nirvana.

Will Brocade be tech’s next big buyout? Evidently not. During a post-earnings conference call Monday, Brocade CEO Michael Klayko said the company has not “quietly put itself up for sale.”

What if somebody made a version of "Mad Men," but replaced the nostalgia and sex appeal with timeliness and accuracy? It would be sort of amusing, in small doses. Like this clip Yahoo made with other pitchmen in mind.

QOTD [Digital Daily] “After this tremendous investment in Iraq, we see business recovery finally happening. The creation of a new Iraqi state ultimately means business opportunities for global firms. Google’s interested in making sure that Iraq ends up being an open and transparent democracy–after all, information makes a big difference in everybody’s lives.” – Google CEO [...]

Nokia is taking the ax to its research and development group. Again. This morning the company said it would cut around 220 R&D jobs in Japan. This, just four days after announcing plans to eliminate 330 jobs in Finland and Denmark.