By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

On Thursday, Amazon.com announced it has reached an agreement to buy Audible, which if you haven’t already “heard,” is the leading audiobook reseller. The deal is valued at $300 million, which is a 20% premium over Wednesday’s closing price for Audible (ADBL).

In a press release, Steve Kessel, Amazon.com’s senior vice president for worldwide digital media said:

“Audible.com offers the best customer experience, the widest content selection and the broadest device compatibility in the industry. Working together, we can introduce more innovations and bring this format to an even wider audience.”

We Say: This is a natural extension of Amazon’s earlier release of the still-in-short-supply Kindle, as it gives Amazon.com still another entry into the digital media market. And of course, let’s not forget Amazon MP3.

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

In late December AOL indicated it would end support for Netscape on February 1st, but it’s now extended that date to March 1st. If you check the announcement blurb at the top of their webpage, you’ll see it’s changed to March 1st, although the informational post still says February 1st.

There is an additional blog post (they ought to update the informational link to point to this one, cough, cough) AOL gave the reasons why - relatively user-friendly ones, to boot.

AOL’s suggested alternatives for when the hammer falls are Flock and Firefox, both built on the Mozilla Firefox codebase. As such, AOL, Flock and Mozilla are working to “provide tools to ease the migration of existing Netscape browser users to our recommended Flock and Firefox alternatives.”

We Say: A good decision for those still using Netscape. This update will be pushed out via the browser update feature, natch.

For those who can’t stand the idea of losing the Netscape look, there’s a skin called “Foxscape” for Firefox based on Netscape 4.8, compatible with Firefox 2.0 - 2.0.0.x.

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

No one can dispute the Asus Eee is a great success, with a second-gen version already announced. So why not bank on the product name and branding? That’s what Asus aims to do, as they have announced expansion of the branding to a full product line.

Here’s what will be coming later this year:

• The E-DT, a desktop PC: Expected to ship in the April / May timeframe. The first generation will sport an Intel Celerton but will move to Intel’s Shelton platform with Diamondville CPUs later. They are hoping for as a price point of as low as $199 (sans monitor).

• The E-Monitor, an all-in-one PC like Dell’s XPS One (and of course, the iMac): To me the name is a bit confusing, as it sounds like … well, a monitor. Screen sizes of 19″ - 21″ and a $499 price point? It’s hard to scare Apple or Dell, but this just might. Expect a September ship date and the Shelton platform.

• The E-TV, an LCD TV line. Expected to be in the 42″ and greater LCD TV market, this will have Linux-based PC functionality built-in. Asus wants to price the sets at around $200 more than a standard LCD TV in the same class. This is also expected to launch in September.

The desktop and all-in-one PCs I agree with, but a TV (granted a TV with PC functionality)?

We Say: I understand the branding is hot right now, but let’s not overly dilute the Eee name, eh? Anyone remember what happened when “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” showed up 7 nights a week? Right.

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

No matter what people think, Google is not an unstoppable force in advertising and search. Microsoft proved it today by inking a deal with the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, becoming their exclusive third-party provider of contextual and paid search advertising.

This means Microsoft is providing ads for not just The Wall Street Journal Online, Barrons.com, MarketWatch.com, AllThingsD.com as well as others. Their ad program will get exposure to 20 million unique users and over 330 million page views per month.

In a press release, Brian McAndrews, senior vice president, Advertiser and Publisher Solutions at Microsoft said:

“This deal is a significant win for Microsoft for two key reasons. First, it makes the extended Microsoft advertising network the premier destination for advertisers interested in reaching financially minded users, as it complements our offering in this vertical through MSN Money and other syndication partners. Second, this deal is a strong indicator that we’re gaining significant traction with our advertising platform. The Wall Street Journal Digital Network is one of the largest financial services publishers in a very dynamic vertical segment, and we’re delighted to add it to our portfolio.”

Contextual ads will begin appearing on the WSJ Digital Network in February. No information has been given on paid search advertising.

Unlike recent deals Microsoft signed with Viacom (Dec.) and Edgar Online (this month) which use the Atlas technology acquired as part of Microsoft’s Aquantive purchase, the WSJ is using Microsoft’s own AdCenter product.

We Say: Including those two deals, as well as the expanded ad-offering at Facebook in October, Microsoft is on a roll. Not that Google is hurting, mind you.