San Francisco - Linden Lab, maker of the online virtual world Second Life, is looking for someone to fill founder and chief executive Philip Rosedale’s shoes as he will step down, according to Reuters.

Palo Alto, CA - The popular social networking site Facebook has been testing a new instant messaging service and will be launching it to the public soon, perhaps in the next week, according to TechCrunch:

New York - DirecTV (NYSE: DTV), the No. 1 satellite-TV provider in terms of subscribers, is testing its own version of an on-demand movies and television service that it plans to launch in the second quarter with some 3000 titles, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The new services will potentially put DirecTV’s satellite service in direct competition with on-demand services that so far only have been available on cable or newer phone-company TV services.

New York - Broadband provider Verizon (NYSE: VZ) will not be policing its own network for illegal filesharing and reports that a recent test it conducted revealed that the new P4P protocol provides a significant boost in download performance while simultaneously reducing network congestion.

Redmond, Wash. - Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) today announced plans to acquire Rapt Inc., a provider of advertising yield management solutions for digital media publishers for undisclosed sum. The deal helps Microsoft build up its arsenal in the escalating arms race with Google (NASD: GOOG), which currently is building up its own "digital dashboard" for advertisers, which Rapt now will do for Microsoft.

The founder of blogger social network MyBlogLog, Eric Marcouillier, which sold to Yahoo last year for about $10 million, plans to launch a new site called Gnip, CNET reports.  According to TechCrunch, Marcouillier has already raised $1 million from the Foundry Group and Softtech VC for the site.  Few details about Gnip have been released aside from having “Web 2.0 infrastructure.”

Shanghai – Video-sharing site Youku.com, based in China, has teamed with social networking site MySpace to tackle the market, Reuters reports.  Trying to become China’s version of YouTube, Youku’s CEO Victor Koo said both companies hope to gain traffic from the partnership, and to share products in the future.  Launched in December 2006, Youku sees over 100 million daily video views, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

Seoul – Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest memory chip maker, said today it plans to spend $1.37 billion in 2008 upgrading semiconductor lines, Reuters reports.

New York - Despite concerns about the recession and a cyclical slowdown, the video game industry continues to grow in 2008. Monthly video game sales statistics from the NPD Group show that video game industry sales were up 34 percent to $1.3 billion, year over year, according to VentureBeat.

Hampshire, UK – Juniper Research has released a report saying that increased 3G penetration and made-for-mobile content will create $47.5 billion in revenue by 2010.  According to the report, however, improvement in three factors are key in making that happen: 1) User interface; 2) Network coverage; and 3) the High cost of data services.

Cupertino, CA – Apple has announced that over 100,000 iPhone developers have downloaded the Software Development Kit (SDK) in the first four days of its release.  The SDK gives developers the same tools (Application Programming Interfaces) that Apple itself uses to create applications for the device.

In its fifth round of funding, which included both old and new investors, mobile content retailer Thumbplay has received $18 million. According to MocoNews, the round included Softbank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, and Verizon.

Sunnyvale, CA – According to the Wall Street Journal, senior executives of Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) met on Monday to discuss Microsoft’s takeover over the internet giant. It was the first face-to-face meeting between the two since Microsoft’s unsolicited bid on January 31, the WSJ says.