Ctrip.com has recently signed a deal to become strategic partner with Microsoft’s MSN China Web site, offering the Chinese travel agent to tap over 20 million MSN Messenger users in country China.

Ctrip will assist MSN China to build its online travel channel where MSN users and visitors could book hotels, plane tickets and even holidays through Internet-based services, according to reports.

Software publishers R-Comp have recently rolled out an updates for number of their Internet-related packages by this month – including chat client Grapevine that reportedly locked punters out of chatter to friends electronically on MSN and ICQ, prior to last week’s update. This new version of GV, namely 2.12, is predicted to address problems with two instant messaging networks.

R-Comp told its users: “Due to a variety of changes to the MSN and ICQ protocols, we have come across a few difficulties with logins, so we have updated Grapevine accordingly to solve things. We have also tracked an assembly timeout problem with MSN.”

The Oakland Press is now launching a partnership with Yahoo! HotJobs – the online help-wanted site, it offers local employer’s an exposure to a national audience of job seekers.

The Oakland Press is providing the advertising service by its way of parent, the Journal Register Co. The Yardley, Pa.-based newspaper group has also joined with Belo Corp., MediaNews Group, Cox Newspapers Inc., Hearst Newspapers, Lee Enterprises Inc. and E.W. Scripps Co. to sort the online network.

Twenty-two JRC daily newspapers would take part in the network. More than 150 daily newspapers would be a part of the consortium.

Yahoo now pulls a discussion features from its news site in coming weeks. Before, readers were permitted to post comments on individual news stories. The message boards were actually suspended, according to a note from Yahoo’s general manager for news, Neil Budde, as they permitted “a small number of vocal users to rule the discussion.”

Commenter on Yahoo message boards are not really mild mannered bunch – they could range between thoughtful and eloquent to downright loony. Comments on any random Yahoo news story may even have included bizarre rants about the war in Iraq or may be in odd observations about Jon Stewart’s hair.

Yahoo says it is taking comments on news stories offline until it is completely rolls out discussion forums based on news topics that it hopes, would “foster a better discussion for all of our readers.”

Google is on the way to release the latest version of the Company’s enterprise search system by next week. It is planned for small and medium-size businesses. The Google Mini 2.2 would enable companies to perform searches on intranets with internal business applications, said Kevin Gough, enterprise product manager for Google.

The software that goes on sale immediately is well-matched with leading security standards and allows administrators to wall off responsive information from searches, such as financial records or legal documents.

Google launched an enterprise search business four years ago, and the Mini upgrade represents a step forward, said Gough.

The Coming challenge for Microsoft is to address the treat posed by advertising supported commercial business models such as Google’s, Steve Ballmer, chief executive, signaled last week as the software group launch Vista, its new operating system.

Mr. Ballmer stated to have focus on treat posed by open source software over the last few years, the company had been turned its concentration to advertising-funded business models, during an interview with Financial Times. Further the chief raised the prospect that Microsoft may also take a various approach to that of rival Google.

Freedom Interactive, the Internet group of the nation’s 12th biggest media company, Freedom Communications, recently announced that it is working with Google to bring up industry-leading search services to all the Freedom Interactive web sites across the country.

By working with Google, the Internet giant, Freedom Interactive is serving the online audiences of more than 40 Freedom Interactive web site from coastline to coastline quickly find the information they desire on the web. Users would be able to use Google search from any page of Freedom’s web sites by just accessing the Google search bar prominently displayed at the top of all pages. Search results would be displayed on site-branded pages offering relevant, accurate search results.

Google Inc now plans to share the advertising revenues from YouTube with their users of the video-sharing website, according a report by Financial Times.

The newspaper quoted Chad Hurley – the co-founder of YouTube who sold the site to Internet giant Google for the amount 1.65 billion dollars previous year. The system would be introduced within a month’s time.

Chinese Software Company Incesoft (xiaoi.com) has recently deal with online game company Square Enix China to allow users of Incesoft’s MSN instant messaging (IM) robot XiaoI to use the robot to search for prepaid game card retail locations, reports Sina. Users could add a robot to MSN by adding map@xiaoi.com as an MSN contact. The existing map service offers few other functions, with public transportation routes and information on local merchants. Square Enix operates its MMORPG Crossgate in China.