Much like the cranky little guy who takes his basketball and storms home, Rupert Murdoch wants any and all stories published by his media outlets to be removed from the index of search engines. According to the Guardian, Murdoch recently told the Australian press (video after the break) that stories from News Corp. outlets (e.g., The Wall Street Journal, the Sun) would be pulled from sites like Google once the company's content becomes strictly pay-to-read. The chairman stopped short of saying exactly when all News Corp. content would become subscriber-based, and thus removed from such sites.

Still, this proclamation comes as no surprise. Last month, Murdoch called out Google -- referring to the site as "content kleptomaniacs." But if you ask us, Murdoch is fighting a losing battle. You can't expect people to start paying for content they're accustomed to getting for free. Despite supposed subscription walls on News Corp. sites, people have had a relatively easy time reading without paying -- and that's on the company's own sites. Before "taking his ball and going home," Murdoch might do well to consider this: Just as the people on the court will find another ball, people on the Web will find other ways to get their news. The game will continue. [From: Guardian and Newsweek]

Since it first launched in 1995, CNN's Web site has always delivered a broad variety of news to a broad audience. The site's design -- generally jam-packed with dozens of headlines that might be catnip to news junkies, but can be overwhelming to more casual browsers -- has generally reflected that content stream. On Monday, however, CNN.com will launch a new design (its first since 2007) that incorporates a roomier, less crowded look with a bigger emphasis on pictures, video, citizen journalism, social networking, entertainment, and pop culture. Last night, CNN general manager KC Estenson gave reporters an early look at the new site.

The biggest change is the overall look of the site. CNN.com's current home page features a main story with a big picture and then a bunch of different sections with text-based story links (some videos offer thumbnail pictures to break up all that text, but not much). The new design places a big playable video right at the top and a second big picture to the left that links to a citizen-journalist 'iReport.' Below that is a set of clickable pictures and videos leading to stories underneath. Yes, there are still plenty of headlines, but the revamped site generally offers a greater balance between images and text than the current one, making for a pleasing browsing experience.

Yesterday, both Bing and Google announced that they had respectively struck deals to index the 140-character bits of information found on Twitter and compile them in real-time search results. Twitter currently has its own tool for searching Tweets, but results are organized by chronology. Bing and Google will be applying algorithms to ensure users get the most relevant and trusted results, hopefully bringing order to the chaos that is finding info on Twitter.

Bing has already posted a beta version of its Twitter search tool -- www.bing.com/twitter/ -- providing a quick glance at the hottest topics and a collection of related links shared on Twitter. Google, on the other hand, has no concrete work to show off thus far. Google announced in a blog post that it will launch a "product" in the coming months showing how Twitter-aided search results might look. The Bing Twitter beta shows a short list of the most recent Tweets matching a search, and also lists the most popular links posted on Twitter (and tweets that include those links).

We've told you about people getting fired via Facebook and via text messages, but what if you learned about your termination by reading a news alert sent to your e-mail? Well, to no surprise, that's how Fox News operates.

According to Think Progress, analyst Marc Lamont Hill first learned he'd been axed when he received a Google Alert about the story October 16th on his cell phone. The professor at Columbia University, whom many call a liberal, says he received the alert before lunch, and that, later in the day, a representative from News Corp., which owns the television station, confirmed its accuracy. However, Hill says, "I haven't had any thorough conversations with anyone." Talk about the cold shoulder.

While no one can say for sure why Hill was terminated, reports indicate that it stemmed from unease among shareholders concerning rumors that Hill has a "reputation of defending cop-killers and racists." When a person asked News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch about these claims last Friday at a board meeting, Murdoch said Hill was already fired. As it turns out, right-wing pot-stirrer Cliff Kincaid is now taking credit in an editorial for being the person who quizzed Murdoch about Hill in the board room.

Sure, Hill's firing was classless, but he should look on the bright side. At least he doesn't have to listen to Bill O'Reilly anymore. [From: Think Progress, via Huffington Post]

TV producers and news outlets have been working hard to figure out how best to leverage this whole social networking thing. So far, most efforts have been rather disappointing. Rick Sanchez kick-started CNN's addiction to Twitter and Facebook, before the network quickly veered into complete self-parody, by replacing reporting with tweeted opinions. Then, last year George Stephanopoulos used the micro-blog to interview John McCain with less than stellar results. Now, CBS and Katie Couric are looking to incorporate these powerful, but often misused, Web resources into a new show called '@KatieCouric.'

Thankfully, despite what the title implies, the show will not feature Katie Couric interviewing news makers via Twitter, or feature Twitter at all. Instead, it will offer viewers live Webcasts of one-on-one interviews, along with the opportunity to engage via Facebook chat. Theoretically, the chat will allow viewers to sound off on topics and pose questions -- though its unclear whether Ms. Couric will absorb the talk into the show. But, as anyone who has ever read comments on a blog could tell you, the 'dialog' will likely devolve into mindless shouting matches that would make even '@Couric's' first guest, Glenn Beck, seem like an insightful and rational commentator.

Yesterday, Google debuted its 'Fast Flip' feature, a news hub that simulates the experience of flipping through a newspaper or magazine. The site, part of the experimental Google Labs, lets readers view articles from over three dozen major publishing outlets.

Thumbnails of stories load extremely fast, and the site's design, like that of most Google sites, is sparse and simple. Likely to contribute to our chronic cases of Web ADD, the site lets you zip (with the click of a button) from a New York Times article about President Obama's house in Chicago to a Popular Mechanics story about how to make your own battery-powered gadget chargers. To read the entire article, just click on it and you'll be sent to the publisher's site. You can sort each section by popularity, headlines, date, and headlines.

Such problems seldom affect major Web sites, but an "unauthorized advertisement" has been causing trouble for some visitors to The New York Times site, CNET News reports. Even more odd, the Times isn't sure how the ad got on the site or even if the site has been compromised by the attack. In a note to readers, the Times said that it is "working to prevent the problem from recurring."

While the ad doesn't appear to be very dangerous, it's certainly very annoying (Update: see below). When you visit the site, the ad warns that your computer might be at risk of infection and sends you to a site that supposedly offers anti-virus protection. (Although there have been no reports on the subject, and we certainly aren't going to download it ourselves to find out, this 'anti-virus' program is likely malicious.) Here's where it gets annoying. A reader told CNET News that the scam "hijacked his browser," forcing him to close out of it, since he couldn't leave the page. Another reader (who also took the screen capture above) told All Things Digital that he realized the ad was a scam, since he runs OS X and the ad mimics a Windows XP page.

Every second, millions of people log on, browse blogs, chat online, do research on a project or a topic they fancy. All Web users want to make a connection: to a band, an old friend, or a new love. Or a poor lady who will unsuspectingly cater to a baby-fetish, or even an extra-terrestrial who happens to have the same cell-provider as you. Whatever, we don't judge. Maybe you have bigger plans, like linking up with a nerdy virtual gang, hacking Sarah Palin and flooding obscenities across your enemies' servers. Anything anyone is looking for, thanks to the Web, it's out there. Just don't let your cat on the computer -- apparently, felines have a taste for child porn. Here are some other love connections you may have missed this week:

• Screw iTunes, music labels are sick and tired of letting Apple dictate the MP3 game. So they are joining together and forming an über-squad to promote .CMX, which won't be compatible with iTunes. Maybe not such a smart idea.
• Smokey the Bear turns 65, and hops onto the Web, twittering and Facebooking away.
• He might not be straight outta Compton, but Ice-T still exercises his beef with Apple using nothing but good, old-fashioned violence.
• Guess what, America? Kids search for porn, says a study conducted by Symantec (apparently the overseers of all that is obvious).
• A computer script can play Mario at a super speed, mesmerizing and tantalizing anyone who may have dreaded the moment Bullet Bill appeared on screen.

One of the nice things about Gmail is that, even though the e-mail service generates ads by scouring messages for keywords, certain terms and phrases turn the paid content off. Therefore, breakup letters might promote dating sites, and angry notes might inspire anger management online courses, but e-mails about serious stuff typically produce nothing but blank space. Call it contextual advertising with a conscience. A good practice, especially because we bloggers enjoy finding drastically inappropriate ads and grabbing screen shots, creating awkward galleries of 'Shark Week' promos running alongside delicious and fishy 'Long John Silver's' banners (see above).

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines...

• Google is in hot water with the National Writers Union, even after the Big G offered the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers $125 million to begin scanning America's dusty tomes for Google Books. The NWU claims that it's a 'grossly unfair' agreement. [From: Wired.com]
• A consortium of networks, including Time Warner and Viacom, has banded against Nielsen's choke-hold on the television ratings game. Hoping to come into effect in September, the new system aims to more accurately gather viewing information. [From: FinancialTimes.com]
• Digsby, the combination chat program that rounds up all your contacts into one convenient place, has been accused of shady practices. Apparently, deep in the user agreement, Digsby says it might use idle computer cycles towards 'solving distributed computing problems' (i.e., making itself money). The company, on its blog today, pledged to make itself 'crystal clear.' [From: Digsby and DownloadSquad]
• While the rest of the economy was plummeting, video game sales remained steady -- until five months ago, that is. Now with the stock market tentatively on the rebound, games appear to be in a free fall with manufacturers posting severe losses from last year. Hopefully, the typically robust fall season will give things a boost. [From: CNet]
• Reports are coming in that Netscape founder Marc Andreessen may be making a Web browser dedicated to Facebook. It is unclear whether or not the browser will be meant to view Facebook, or incorporate the site so that Facebookers can monitor their feeds at all times. [From: DownloadSquad]
• Despite a campaign to kill Internet Explorer 6, Microsoft has said it will keep supporting the browser until 2014. [From: BBC.co.uk]

Illinois governor Pat Quinn signed into law this week a bill that bans all registered sex offenders in his state from engaging in online social networking. The bill defines a social networking site as one containing: "profile web pages of the members," "photographs placed on the profile web pages," and "any other personal or personally identifying information." Taking effect in January, the bill ensures that any registered offender who violates the ban will be charged with a felony.

Though the bill's aim is limiting the contact between sexual predators and potential victims, there is a small problem. It's not the definition of 'social networking' that's the issue; it's the definition of 'sex offender.' Back in 1994, 33-year-old Jesse Timmendequas (who had already twice been convicted of sexual assault) used a puppy to lure seven-year-old Megan Kanka into his New Jersey house, where she was beaten, raped, and killed. Her parents helped push a series of what came to be colloquially known as Megan's Laws into effect, forcing convicted offenders to register as sex offenders. In 2006, laws passed requiring all states to make those registries public.

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines....

• Do you fear having a n00b boyfriend? Worried that the 'rents will think he's a total FAIL? Don't worry, the L33ts are the perfect family for you. (Check the end; the white-out on the laptop screen is FTW!) [From: Mashable]
• Think health care reform is bad, America? Don't even get us started on cell phone reform. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development surveyed 30 countries and identified the U.S. as having the most expensive cell coverage. Apparently, Americans spend an average of $635.85 a year on coverage, compared to Sweden, which has the cheapest service at $137.94. [From: CNet]
  
• Oh, the shabby life of a professional 'footballer.' One unfortunate run-in with an audio installation and UK soccer star Andrew Taylor decides to launch Platinum Players -- a 'luxe, footballers-only service aimed to identify 'trustworthy' (and extremely high-end) companies that aren't trying to scam the poor athletes. [BBC.co.uk]
• We speculated over the reasons for Twitter's lack of service last week, but it seems like the micro-blogging site hit another snag on Tuesday, when it was down because of another hacker-fueled attack. Luckily, for our many followers, it was only a brief outage this time. [From: USAToday.com]
• As if the last-minute drama with the first Netflix competition wasn't enough, Netflix has annonced a second contest, this time with more "twists." Fortunately, chief product officer Neil Hunt said this time around, the contest will be quicker. [From: USAToday.com]
• For the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, borders are just lines on a map, especially when it comes to the Web. Federal agents are now policing virtual boundaries, making sure that child pornography, violent videos, and other dangerous data don't make it past America's cyber-shores. [From: Reuters]

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines....

• NASA is calling all space-cab drivers, asking developers to submit proposals for commercial space programs to be competitively evaluated. Awards will be announced by the end of September. [From: USAToday.com]
  
• Hoping to sprint ahead in the race for search-engine superiority, Google has introduced to its search function a "next generation architecture," which aims to more accurately index sites. Try it out here, and remember that Google encourages feedback. [From: Google and SearchEngineLand]
  
• Joshua Schachter, the founder of the now-Yahoo!-owned social-bookmarking site Delicious, told Hacker News that he wished he hadn't sold his creation to the corporation. Money can't buy happiness, we suppose. [From: Mashable]
• In an effort to reclaim market share (and save the company from destitution), GM has partnered with eBay Motors in California, allowing Golden State users to browse new vehicles and even bargain with the "Best Offer" capability. No word on whether or not the program will spread from Cali. [From: Yahoo!]
• News flash: Facebook still lusts after Twitter. The social media megalith has rolled out a service that will search not only personal profiles, interests, and public profiles, but also status updates, wall posts, and applications. [From: PaidContent]
• High art will meet low art in the hallowed halls of Britain's Royal Opera House, soon to be the venue of the world's first Twitter Opera. Composed only of tweets volunteered by the public, the production will be on stage in September and is, at this moment, about a man kidnapped by birds. Witness a performance here. Contributions can be made at the ROH's Twitter feed. [From: BBC.co.uk]

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines....

• Been seeing cryptic ads for "230?" AdAge hypothesizes it's the work of GM, which has a press conference scheduled for August 11th. The number could refer to anything, from hybrid cars to the amount in dollars the car company made last quarter. [From: AdAge.com, via AutoBlogGreen]
• Sounds like something out of a futuristic sci-fi, but a U.K./U.S. team of scientists is trying to prevent global warming by creating a fleet of 'cloud ships.' The ships would traverse the seas, sucking up water and blasting it into the atmosphere, all the while reflecting sunlight, forming clouds, and making for the strangest cruise ever. [From: TimesOnline.co.uk, via LiveScience]
• Jay Mariotti, sports journalist and ESPN panelist, has a message to athletes: Stop tweeting. "[Twitter] provides the immediate and unfiltered dissemination of thought by people with no brains. Some of these people happen to be athletes," he writes. Does this mean no more Martellus Bennett tweeting about urine samples? [From: Jay-Mariotti.Fanhouse.com]
• Microsoft seems to be moving along nicely with its two new brick-and-mortar locations, placed inside malls in Arizona and California. Rumors of Bill Gates brokering a deal with Auntie Anne's are flying. [From: Engadget]

There are people who will go through a lot to avoid having to look at advertisements online. There are add-ons for all of the major Web browsers completely dedicated to stripping pages of their revenue-generating ads. Somehow, though, the sponsored ads that show up next to messages in Gmail manage to escape any and all blocking efforts. Until now, that is.

Lifehacker has discovered a trick that will banish the keyword ads from your e-mails forever. The advertisements are generated by looking for certain keywords in a message, but there are certain phrases that Google doesn't allow. Obscenities and violent words, if used in a certain ratio, will stop paid content from showing up in Gmail.

The trick is to come up with an inoffensive sentence that will effectively block the sponsored links. Lifehacker came up with the idea of using the following phrase as a signature:

"I enjoy the massacre of ads. This sentence will slaughter ads without a messy bloodbath."

Apparently, advertisers don't want to be associated with "slaughter," "massacres," and "bloodbaths." Best of all, it's safe for work, if a little goofy. [From: Lifehacker]