SAN FRANCISCO — To distinguish itself from Google and other online big players, Ask.com is going to buy loads of internet reference sites including Dictionary.com.

In its purchase of Lexico Publishing Group LLC, Ask.com is also trying to get Thesaurus.com and Reference.com besides Dictionary.com. The terms of this deal have not been disclosed but expected to be announced on Thursday.

Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com are widely used as reference tools and with their addition, Ask is trying to make more money by showing ads to people who want answers about their basic questions.

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AT&T released a list of the Top 10 most downloaded ringtones this week, realizing the fact that the mobile users are crazier for music by popular artists instead of polyphonic sounds created specifically for cell phones.

Gartner, the research firm predicted recently that the worldwide end-user spending on mobile music is expected to reach at a new level of $32.2 billion by 2010 from a level of $13.7 billion this year. It is in fact an ortho-shift where the growth in ‘ringtone revenue’ is on down side and the ‘realtones’ are becoming new “cash cows” for carriers, reveals the research firm Gartner.

‘Realtones’, or the ‘True Tones’ or the ‘Real Music Tones’, are snippets of real songs that are used as ringtones. Polyphonic ringtones, on the other hand, are simple instrumental versions of songs made with a synthesizer and intended to play on any cell phone.

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Up until now, Google Video’s bigger video size limit has made it the leading video website for larger, higher quality videos. However, YouTube just announced a new windows desktop uploader that will allow the users to upload a large amount of videos each time. The file size limit has also been raised a whooping 900 megabytes (900 MB), which brings it to 1 gigabyte (1GB) per video. Even though the limit has been raised 10 times the previous amount, the maximum duration of each clip remains at a mere 10 minute - so it looks like YouTube will not be competing too much with Google on the longer videos.  This response seems to be in conjunction with a competing video site, Vimeo, which recently allowed High-Definition video uploads.

Even with YouTube’s setbacks on their video length limits, it seems that many people would still rather split their videos just so they can put it on the world’s largest video website - and it is possibly due to the higher exposure they will get. This new limit on video size should bring even more people to YouTube and for the existing members; this will further justify the reasons to stay a loyal user.

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Fox and NBC have set up their plans in launching the online video site which supports advertisement as a whole. They are also in the intention to host programming from different viewers including Google Inc.’s You tube.

The company officials have planned to launch the test version by Monday and they are putting success steps to launch the original in a few months time. The hosting would probably take place from two networks along with films and TV shows from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc and Sony Corp.

The focus is sure to be laid on shows and films rather than networks as they are going to make things easier. The debut buds out in the middle of entertainment companies and other video sites which are online. They include You Tube which is popular in screening illegal clips often.

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Customer response to the Apple’s iPhone is so strong, there are a lot of predatory re-sellers taking advantage of the opportunity already. The company was quick to note this and they immediately imposed a ban on all purchases using cash. They are relying on using credit cards as a way to screen those who are looking out to re-sell the gadgets for a quick and nice profit. Hopefully it will stem the number of those who are preying on late buyers this coming holiday. The sales projections are seriously strong on this prospect that the company is estimating a major number of those who initially purchased the innovative gadget were actually intending to re-sell the products.

The company is trying to provide everyone an equal opportunity by limiting the amount of phone purchase for every person to about two only as compared to the previous limit of five units per person. The move might be too late though as there are about more than a million units already sold since its launch from June. Only time will tell how much has been accumulated by unscrupulous re-sellers.

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Filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi has set her eyes on making fiction movie which will be based on the documentary she filmed for HBO by the name “Journeys with George”. Avid HBO viewers will remember that this documentary followed President George W. Bush’s presidential campaign of 2000.

The film, which is not yet titled, centers around a young, very impressionable news story producer, finding herself starting to deal with the huge challenges of professional life and personal love in the middle of covering and reporting on a much publicized presidential campaign.

Oscar-winner screenwriter, Mr.Steven Zaillian is producing the film. Zillian said that the tone of the movie “The Devil Wears Prada” seemed quite apparent in the documentary and he encouraged Alexandra Pelosi to use and film her experiences to give a stunningly beautiful screenplay for the movie. The project is also one which will mark Alexandra Pelosi’s debut as a screenwriter.

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