If you've ever suffered the crushing heartbreak of being cast asunder by an online pal, you're probably pretty familiar with the term "unfriend".

Well, it look as though even the internet-phobic are set to become accustomed to the phrase, as "unfriend" enters next year's edition of the New Oxford American dictionary.

The term, which originated on social-networking sites such as Facebook beat "sexting", "intexticated", "netbook", "funemployed", "hashtag", "paywall" and "greenstate" for the title of Word of the Year.

According to a senior lexicographer, the term has (we kid you not) "lex appeal"...

Via: Silicon Republic

Myspace have acquired music streaming service Imeem for an undisclosed sum that industry experts estimate is a figure in the region of $8 million.

The service pioneered ad-based music streaming, but the $8 million sum will not go far towards covering the $30 million dollar investment the company initially received.

As a result, up to half of Imeem's workforce now faces unemployment.

The Imeem buyout follows Myspace's acquisition of iLike, another troubled music streaming website. Both iLike and Imeem could not support licensing costs from the major labels on ad-based revenue alone, despite Imeem receiving heavily subsidised licenses from all four majors.

Myspace itself has fallen on hard times, recently conceeding defeat in the social-networking race to Facebook. How it plans on incorporating Imeem and iLike into its Myspace Music service, which the company now claim is its main focus, could decide whether Myspace sinks or swims.

Via: CNet

Business-orientated social-networking site LinkedIn has today announced its new partnership with Microsoft.

Coming hot on the heels of their partnership with Twitter, LinkedIn and Microsoft aim to join forces on Outlook 2010. The planned integration of LinkedIn will see Outlook 2010 users able to maintain their professional network through the program, keeping up to date with all the latest developments and activities via Outlook Social connector.

The business network currently has 50 million users worldwide.

It's an important move for LinkedIn, with integration to a native Windows program offering huge exposure to the network.

To find out more, check http://blog.linkedin.com/2009/11/18/linkedin-microsoft-outlook/

If you want to get your kids web-aware at an early age, why not introduce them to the KidZui web browser?

KidZui are launching version 5.0 of their browser today, which is set to help parents and children share and discover new experiences through the Internet.

Children can send KidZui approved content to friends and parents with the browser's new "KidConnect" functions. KidZui have trawled the web to find over 2 million websites, games, photographs and videos suitable for children, jointly approved by parents and teachers who already use the service.

ZuiTube has also recently been launched, acting like a kid-friendly YouTube lite.

Parents will also be able to connect with one another through in-built Facebook support, as well as receive weekly emails reporting on their children's web habits.

For more information, visit http://www.kidzui.com/

LinkedIn, the social networking site aimed mostly it seems at young professionals touting for work, has announced a partnership with microblogging platform Twitter. As a result of the deal, members will now be able to share status updates between their LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.

The integration of the two networks through the Tweets app allows members of LinkedIn to automatically share their updates on the professional network with their Twitter followers. They can also select Twitter status updates to share with their LinkedIn network by adding the #in hashtag to tweets on the microblogging site. LinkedIn members will be able to track and manage their Twitter feed from within their LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network with over 51 million members, including 11 million in Europe and almost 3 million in the UK. However it seems that many people who have LinkedIn pages spend very little time updating their status or their profile. LinkedIn will no doubt be hoping that the Twitter integration will make their service a little more dynamic. The new Twitter integration facility will be available in the next few days.

For more information check out the LinkedIn blog at: http://blog.linkedin.com/

Microsoft is set to launch an overhauled design for its MSN.com web portal.

Social media and customisation are high on the agenda, with users able to import streams from both their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Video content will also feature more predominantly, as the site gets rid of its cluttered look of old. Bing, Microsoft's search engine, will also be a more prominent feature of the site.

With so many changes set to feature, Microsoft are planning a staggered release of the new-look site. With MSN.com attracting huge numbers of visitors and the new design pushing Bing to the foreground, nailing an aesthetically pleasing design could swing the web-search wars Microsoft's way.

You can see a preview of the new site here. There's no news yet on when it will debut in the UK.

The Google and Bing search engines are set to feature results pooled from Twitter. The landmark licensing deals will represent the first major revenue stream for Twitter, a company notoriously tight-lipped about their business plans.

Bing and Google will now have access to the real-time "fire-hose" stream of micro-messages created by Twitter users around the globe. The real-time information will be invaluable to those looking for up-to-the-minute news, with Twitter now allowing the search robots full access to index its feed.

Links that are being re-tweeted often will likely move up the page rankings lists, and spikes in keywords too will affect results.

But will the search engines be able to ensure results are relevant, with so many thousands of messages being published every minute? Will the Twitter results be organised by publication time or the notoriety of the Twitter user?

While the answers to these questions pose the biggest problems for real-time search, a Beta version of Bing's integration of Twitter has already gone live. Test it for yourself (if you are in the US, the service isn't live in the UK at the moment) at www.bing.com/twitter .