McLean, Va. - Just months after raising $18 million in its third round of funding, Clearspring Technologies, the developer of a widget network designed to connect publishers and advertisers to audiences on social networking sites, has laid off an unspecified number of employees -- possibly up to 20%, according to a report in TechCrunch.

New York - Musicane, the operator of a social shopping network whose widgets are embedded on over 500,000 websites and social network profiles, said on Monday that it has signed deals to add the digital catalogs of major labels Sony Music and EMI to its offering. The company added DRM-free tracks from Universal Music earlier this year.

New York - Glam Media, a network of over 700 sites arranged by various content verticals, on Tuesday launched the Glam Applications Network, a platform that allows brand ad-enabled applications and widgets to be integrated into websites and blogs. Developer partners at launch include Sphere, Meebo, BuzzFeed, PollDaddy and PicApp.

McLean, Va. - Clearspring Technologies, the developer of a widget network designed to connect publishers and advertisers to audiences on social networking sites, said on Thursday that MTV Networks will use its syndication platform to deploy selected widgets and related content. The deal will allow MTV to distribute its content across social networking sites, blogs and start pages.

Redwood City, Calif. - RockYou, a developer and distributor of social media applications, announced on Monday that it has raised $17 million in new funding from Softbank and SK Telecom Ventures, which will cap its third round of financing at $52 million.

Los Angeles - JS-Kit, a developer of social media widgets that enable features like comments, reviews, ratings and polls on websites, has raised a $3.6 million second round of funding, led by Altos Ventures.

Berlin - Mufin on Wednesday announced the beta launch of its new audio fingerprinting and music discovery service. Co-developed at the Fraunhofer Institute -- which invented the MP3 format -- Mufin's (short for "Music Finder") technology automatically generates a unique audio fingerprint of a song, based on more than 40 acoustical characteristics. The company launched with over three million songs from major and independent labels in its library, and is offering a MySpace widget.

Palo Alto, Calif. - Gigya, a provider of widget distribution services, announced on Wednesday that it has closed an $11 million third round of financing, led by DAG Ventures.

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace online social network on Wednesday announced a partnership with online payment processor PayPal (NASD: EBAY), and the launch of a new fundraising widget that users can post to their MySpace profiles to collect donations from friends and family for non-profit organizations.

San Francisco - Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) and Intel (NASD: INTC) on Wednesday announced a partnership that will see them collaborate on the development of Web widgets that will bring interactive features to TV viewing.

New York - Warner Music Group's (NYSE: WMG) Atlantic Records on Monday launched Fanbase, an interactive desktop application that includes a music player, chat, and data on Atlantic artists that is pulled from a variety of websites. The application is based on Adobe AIR technology, and uses an integrated player from social music service imeem, chat from Meebo, and videos from YouTube and Brightcove. The download will be available from Atlantic's main website, as well as from the sites of participating artists, including T.I., Simple Plan and Shinedown.

San Francisco - TrueAnthem, an online music label that distributes ad-supported music widgets, announced that it has raised $2 million in angel funding from unnamed investors.

Los Angeles - Indie911 has announced plans to offer its first full-length feature, B-Side Entertainment's music industry documentary "Before the Music Dies," on its Hoooka online distribution service, Variety reports. Hoooka allows users to set up retail store widgets on their own sites and take 10% of revenues, while 20% goes to Indie911 and the rest to the producers. A hi-res download will cost $9.99, while a lower-resolution download will sell for $3.99; both will come free of digital rights management.

San Francisco - RateItAll, a distributed consumer rating Web application that lets users, find, share and solicit opinions on any topic, has raised an undisclosed sum of funding from investors including Accelerator Ventures, JAIC America, Pacific I&T Ventures and Eric Di Benedetto.

McLean, Va. - Clearspring Technologies said that its widget syndication and tracking service has been independently audited and accredited by the Audit Bureau of Circulations Interactive (ABCi). It marks the first time a widget company has had its numbers validated by an outside agency. The ABCi concluded that, as of June 16, Clearspring fairly stated the metrics for its widget platform and employed the necessary internal controls and processes to ensure proper delivery and tracking of widgets.

Seattle - Mpire, the parent company of WidgetBucks, a online ad network of retail and shopping widgets for online publishers, announced on Thursday that it has raised a $10 million second round of financing, led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

San Mateo, Calif. - Social media applications developer RockYou announced on Monday that it has raised $35 million in a third round of venture capital financing, led by DCM.