Viacom is now being blamed for secretly uploading copyright infringing content by YouTube's chief counsel, Zahavah Levine. This announcement comes as the court prepares to render a decision in the $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit Viacom (VIA) brought against Google's (GOOG) Internet video giant, YouTube.

Attorney Levine has stated in a blog post: "For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there."

Twitter's a pretty lucky company. Few get two bytes at the hype apple in rapid succession, but this social media platform has found a way to make up for its disappointing announcement about its advertising model. According to VentureBeat, Twitter might unveil its long-awaited, heavily-hyped and possibly investor-satisfying corporate accounts. Next month, at its inaugural Chirp developer conference, we could finally see what might just be the foundation of Twitter's business model.

Palm (PALM) got hit in yesterday's after-hours session after announcing its third-quarter earnings report to Wall Street. According to BusinessWeek, an adjusted loss of 61 cents per diluted share was recorded on the bottom line. Analysts thought the loss wouldn't be so severe; they projected red ink of 42 cents per share.

Shares of Palm were down over 15% in extended trading. That's enough to scare any shareholder into rethinking the investment thesis with this business.

U.S. stock futures were flat as investors take stock of a recent run-up in stock prices and four days worth of economic releases, with no new data scheduled for Friday.

Ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes were lower fractionally. Stocks ended Thursday's trading mixed, with the Dow Jones adding 45 points in its eighth straight day of positive sessions. The broader S&P 500 ended slightly lower Thursday, while the Nasdaq gained about 1%. Renewed concerns over the European nations' support for Greece in its debt crisis were countered by reports showing a decline in weekly jobless claims and tepid inflation.

Google, Inc. (GOOG) has pretty much conquered the PC as the default search and information service for the majority of internet users. It's also taking on Apple, Inc. (AAPL), as it wants to become the provider of the next-best-thing wireless platform from the iPhone (a fight that's just now getting started). It's YouTube internet video service is being embedded in millions of new Blu-ray disc players and internet-enabled televisions. Where else does Google has aspirations? How about actual Google TV?

Even though the consumer electronics industry wants to have some company -- any company deliver an Apple (AAPL) iPhone killer, that company won't be Google (GOOG). Google, on the other hand, has become Apple's Microsoft (MSFT) from the late 1980s. What's that, you say?

Microsoft took the personal computer market by storm by not tightly controlling every piece of hardware and software that was used with its now-ubiquitous Windows operating system. Apple, on the other hard, guaranteed a solid user experience by tying its excellently-designed hardware with only its own operating system software. It's been said that Microsoft, more than any other company, enabled the PC era by not controlling the hardware it's software rode on top of. Google has the same goal in the mobile space, which is where the future of consumer computing is headed.

Google's (GOOG) problems in China have been well-publicized in recent years. The world's most populous country and its own Baidu.com search engine have managed to stave off Google to a minority market share. At the same time, the Chinese government has been no friend of the world's leading search engine, requesting censored results in comparison to Google's "all information is free" stance. So, Google stands prepared to leave China for good.

I'm sure everyone knows about the growth problems at the social-networking site. This recent article at Reuters discusses them. Morale at the company appears to be waning. Unique visitors aren't what they used to be. An ad agreement with Google (GOOG) is about to expire; any new transaction on that front may not be as valuable now that MySpace has been relegated to not-as-cool-as-it-used-to-be status.

Baidu.com (BIDU - option chain) shares are rising today on reports that Google (GOOG) advertisers in China have been advised to switch to its rivals, including Baidu and Sohu.com (SOHU). This is on the heels of this weekend's report that Google will shut down its Chinese search engine rather than bow to the countries strict censorship rules. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on Baidu.

BIDU opened this morning at $570.48. So far today the stock has hit a low of $563.20 and a high of $628.50. As of 12:35, BIDU is trading at $581.05 up $30.81 (5.6%). The chart for BIDU looks neutral and S&P gives BIDU a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.

Google, Inc. (GOOG) has been referenced by more than a handful of journalists in recent years as the company most closely competing with Microsoft Corporation (MSFT). In reality, that's not very true: Google derives almost all of its revenue from internet advertising while Microsoft gets its cash buckets from operating system and productivity software. The lines are blurring, but even in 2010 there are way more closer competitors to Microsoft than Google.

Yahoo! (YHOO) received an analyst upgrade from JMP Securities Monday. The thesis is that online advertising is improving, so now may be the time to get in on the possible capital appreciation of the business. The stock closed yesterday at $16.52 per share -- a gain of 2.8%. Volume was active.

The upgrade also comes with a price target of $21. Yahoo!, like many stocks, has bounced off its 52-week low quite strongly. Over the 12-month period, the company has risen by better than 20%. From one angle, I like the idea of this trade. Technically, the shares might be ready to move.

Google Inc. (GOOG) has been on a mobile tear recently with its Android mobile operating system, and the Android Market may become a more potent competitor to Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) App Store if a new "business market" is introduced. Whereas most of Apple's App Store for the iPhone is filled with consumer-level applications, Google may have ambitions to take its Android platform higher than Apple's lofty perch here.

Apparently, all the hype wasn't worth it. After Twitter COO Dick Costolo explained that the company was going to unveil a "non-traditional" advertising model and claimed that "people will love it," what we're seeing is a foray into decidedly charted territory.

According to AllThingsD, Twitter's ad model will resemble the one that has been so successful for search and online ad giant Google (GOOG). Ads, essentially, will be tied to search.

Yawn.