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Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) is planning to introduce a net neutrality bill in January, according to Reuters. President-elect Barack Obama has said he supports net neutrality, though it is not yet clear whether he backs Dorgan’s bill.

The bill would prevent Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from blocking web content. Net neutrality supporters say some ISPs have blocked content because of concerns over the amount of bandwidth used by customers. Others have slowed downloading activities for the same reason.

Internet service provider AT&T told Reuters it would be crazy to block content because the customers would just jump ship to an ISP that doesn’t. Blocking content would be akin to shooting themselves in the foot.

Indeed, the bill would pit ISPs such as AT&T, Verizon Wireless and cable companies against content providers such as Google and Microsoft.

Yes, in Washington, enemies make the strangest bedfellows.

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Microsoft has struck a deal with Sun Microsystems to have the MSN toolbar downloaded with Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The agreement will give Internet Explorer users in the United States the option of downloading the toolbar when they download JRE. The toolbar offers access to Live Search features, the MSN network, Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger.

“This agreement with Sun Microsystems is another important milestone in our strategy to secure broad-scale distribution for our search offering, enabling millions more people to experience the benefits of Live Search,” said Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of the Online Audience Business at Microsoft. “With the vast array of Java software-based Web applications that are downloaded every month, this deal will expose Live Search to millions more Internet users and drive increased volume for our search advertisers.”

Earlier this year, Microsoft reached a deal with HP to have the toolbar shipped on 2009 PCs.

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Live Search and Windows Live Toolbar Now Offer Translation

No, the two are not related, as far as I can tell. But Congratulations to Firefox (my personal browser of choice) for reaching 20% of market share. They reached the number for 2 out of 4 weeks in October. For a browser that doesn’t come pre-installed on most computers, that’s quite impressive.

The new privacy feature is included in a pre-release version of Firefox 3.1. It’s called “Private Browsing” and you can turn it on via the Tools tab. When you do, it won’t store data such as history, cookies, and cache. But it only prevents such storage for the browsing you do when the feature is turned on. To store that info again, just turn it off.

What Private Browsing does NOT do is keep you anonymous on websites or your ISP. It also is not a security tool to prevent spyware downloads and such.

A good use of the tool is if you’re looking online for Christmas gifts but you don’t want your husband to find out what you’re getting him! (Just make sure to take note of the things you want to remember.)

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I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that election day is next Tuesday. Whether you’re observing or you’re breaking out the campaign gear for some hardcore get out the vote effors this weekend, here are some tools to help you keep up with the news and your efforts:

Google Earth

You can download a KML file that lets you search results from past elections, since 1980. The data is broken down and can show you how different regions of the country voted - even by county. I used to work as a political consultant, and let me tell you - this kind of data is heavily relied on. It’s a bit of a late release for campaigns, who already have this data. But it’s great for political junkies.

Google News

Trying to remember what a candidate said on an issue? Just type their name into Google News. If Google has indexed a quote by that person, it will appear on top of the search results in the one box.

Google Mobile

Want to know your precinct location? The Google Mobile team has created a special tool just for that purpose. Go to m.google.com/elections on your mobile phone, type in your address and you’ll be directed to your precinct.

The tool did not point me to early voting locations, which in my state are not the same as Election Day precinct locations.

As cool as that is, always verify with your local elections office. Google even helps you do that. They have a box where you enter your state’s abbreviation, and it will pull up relevant links to voting information.

Yahoo Elections Hub and Political Dashboard

Yahoo makes the most of its successful portal platforms with its Elections Hub and Political Dashboard. The dashboard is a super slick map showing the latest poll results. Hopefully they update it with real time results on election night. I can totally see myself keeping the dashboard open while watching results come in on the tv.

Microsoft Live Search xRank

xRank, Live Search’s buzz tool, has a politician section. It’s no surprise that the Rep and Dem presidential and vice presidential candidates take the top 4 spots today. The rest of the top 20 is filled with senate and gubernatorial races, with Hillary Clinton and George Bush thrown in for good measure.

MSN Election Live Q&A

Q&A is Live Search’s answer product, and over at the MSN Election Guide, you can find the Election Live Q&A. It’s pretty straightforward. You can ask and answer questions about the election in real time.

AOL Elections Toolbar

AOL has a toolbar for IE and Firefox that can keep you up to date with election news. If you like to surf the net while watching TV - this could be an ideal toolbar for you come Tuesday night.

Well, hopefully that’s enough to keep you busy and up to date.

Got any tools to share? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

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Local business publisher Yellowbook has launched a new mobile application for the G1, the brand new Android-powered phone. Yellowbook already has apps for Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Palm, and the iPhone.

If you want to download it to your phone, follow these instructions:

1. Tap the Browser icon on the home page.
2. Tap Go to URL.
3. Enter yellowbook.com in the URL bar.
4. Tap Go.
5. Tap the pictures of the phones on the lower right side of the page.
6. Expand the screen to view instructions for this phone, located at the top right.
7. From your phone, TAP HERE to start the download process.
8. Follow your phone prompts for downloading the application.

For more information on Yellowbook’s mobile apps, visit http://www.yellowbook.com/iphone-windows-mobile-blackberry/.

Blip.tv CEO “Mike Hudack revealed that his company has found a way to dynamically insert ads from DoubleClick into video downloads on iTunes and elsewhere,” the Washington Post reported.

Given the huge use of the tube sites such as YouTube and the increasing popularity of downloading ITune videos this new technology should prove a good revenue source for Google - owner of DoubleClick.

“For the past six months or so, blip.tv has been experimenting with placing pre-roll, post-roll, and overlay ads in some iTunes videos. These ads are served by DoubleClick and have hyperlinks that make it easy to track when somebody clicks on an ad,” the Washington post noted. Videos downloaded to Ipods and other offline players will not be tracked at this stage - though given the synching technology this could be adapted to soon.

Google’s My Location technology is cool. When I’m using my iPhone, I just hit a button and it gets a pretty close assessment of where I am, using cell triangulation (yes, I still have a first gen iPhone).

Now, Google is outfitting My Location with the ability to use WiFi access points in determining location. The feature is also included on the Gears Geolocation API.

Blackberry users can download the newest version of Maps for Mobile to access this feature. Other mobile devices will get the feature soon.

The new AdWords Editor Version 6.5 has been released and it includes the following updates:

• A new Keyword Opportunities tool
• Horizontal scrolling in the data view
• Auto-sizing columns
• The column chooser stays open until you click away or hit the Escape key
• A calendar added to date picker
• Improved HTML export

Existing AdWords Editor users will be prompted to upgrade, while new users will automatically get the new version.

Have you tried version 6.5? Any new features stand out to you? Let us know in the comments.

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Microsoft is today launching a new incentive program for Live Search. The program is called SearchPerks, and it works very much like a credit card reward program.

Every time you search, you earn tickets. You can earn up to 25 tickets a day. Tickets can later be redeemed for all sorts of rewards including music downloads (5 for 525 points) and airline miles (1000 miles for 1800 tickets).

Here’s how it works. Sign up for the program, and download a simple piece of code. That will give you a Perk Counter for your desktop.

You can begin earning tickets today, October 1, all the way through April 15th of next year. You can begin claiming your rewards on April 16. However, you can only sign up for the program through December 31, 2008 and the program is capped at 250,000 people.

Microsoft will be evaluating the program and could possible expand it if all goes well.

Microsoft’s Frederick Savoye, senior director at Live Search, assured me that this is an incentive program that fits into their three overall pillars of search:

• Delivering the best search results
• Simplifying key tasks such as booking airline, travel, shopping, finding user opinions, etc.
• Innovating the business model

So while programs like SearchPerks and Cashback may seem like Microsoft is just trying to pay people off to use Live Search, the team remains strongly devoted to improving technology and the user experience.

What do you think of this program? Will you sign up? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

WebTrends is rolling out a new feature to help web markters and developers track specific analytics. The tool is called TagBuilder. It’s online, it’s free and it generates WebTrends data collection tags, which have been rewritten as standardized, object-oriented JavaScript code.

Here’s what you can do with TagBuilder:

• Access automated click-event tracking for download links, offsite links, form submissions, image maps and navigation areas
• Automate parameter mapping and the capture of information from custom META tags for detailed reporting
• Flexibly define the site with options for single or multiple first-party cookies and the choice of single or multiple on-site domains for accurate cross-domain tracking
• Integrate conversion tracking with WebTrends Ad Director, an automated search marketing optimization service
• Easily create cookies compliant with the U.S. Office of Management & Budget policies for federal government web sites

“WebTrends TagBuilder greatly simplifies one of the most arduous, error-prone tasks of web analytics,” said Eric Rickson, product manager for WebTrends. “This free utility lowers the barriers to rich reporting and analysis by providing our customers with a direct way to take advantage of our innovations in data collection.”

What do you think of this new tool? Let us know in the comments.

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