As advertisers grow more sophisticated about behavioral targeting, and online privacy standards vary, regulators and privacy advocates are becoming concerned.

Microsoft is broadcasting the entire Olympics online in an effort to persuade people to download the software maker’s Silverlight browser plug-in.

A group, including Microsoft, has launched an initiative to distribute free software to personal computer owners to help them save on energy costs.

Deserved or not, the Windows Vista operating system from Microsoft gets a bad rap. But the company’s effort to repair Vista’s reputation did not win rave reviews either.

Aviv Nevo took a modest inheritance and parlayed it into a fortune by investing in media and Internet companies.

Aviv Nevo has become the media industry’s Zelig, often referred to among his media friends as “the international man of mystery.”

Because there are usually lower fees, buying off exchanges tends to be cheaper — though more labor-intensive — than buying through networks.

It failed in its pursuit of Yahoo. It is paying people to use its search engine. Now Microsoft thinks it has found a source of users for its foundering search service: Facebook.

Kevin Johnson’s exit comes as Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, is shaking up top-level staff in a bid to improve Microsoft’s Internet search and ad business.

Yahoo said that its revenue in the second quarter grew a sluggish 6 percent from the same period a year earlier as profits fell.