AP - Google Inc. will continue to provide the search results on AOL Inc.'s websites under a new, five-year deal the companies signed this week.

Reuters - Apple Inc unveiled a smaller, cheaper version of its Web-to-TV device on Wednesday, stepping up a battle with Google Inc and Microsoft Corp for control of the digital living room.

Reuters - Baidu Inc, operator of China's dominant search engine, said on Thursday that it will focus its future mobile Internet investments on its core search business as it takes aim at the next big Internet space.

Virtual appliances are great for the same reasons physical appliances took the IT world by storm: They make deployment a snap -- even instantaneous -- while at the same time reducing costs. It's a formula that made hardware-based appliances immensely popular for network security, backup, storage networking, file services, email, and many other single-focus solutions.