Yahoo will soon introduce a voice of Internet Protocol (VoIP) service to gain an edge over its rivals, according to prominent Internet analyst Safa Rashtchy of Piper Jaffray, reports Red Herring. The service would be similar to Skype, a peer-to-peer program allowing users to make free calls over the internet. Rashtchy expects that Yahoo may support one VoIP service via advertising service while making another a paid premium service.

Meanwhile, speculation has swirled that Google might be considering offering free internet access to all, including via Wi-Fi - and has access to technology capable of sending targeted advertising to users' locations - making Google the world's largest internet service provider and most powerful seller of advertising, according to a Business 2.0 article by Om Malik.

Apparently, Google has been shopping for miles and miles of "dark," or unused, fiber-optic cable across the country, and it is sponsoring an effort to make free Wi-Fi available in San Francisco, which "matches Google's goal to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible," according to Google spokesman Nate Taylor. "Today San Francisco, tomorrow the world," concludes Malik.

And on Monday, Reuters reported that News Corp. is eyeing an acquisition of search provider Blinkx, citing persons close to Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate who told the Los Angeles Times, however, that negotiations with Blinkx were not as far along as Murdoch had implied during an earnings conference call with analysts. News Corp. this summer launched Fox Interactive Media, its new Internet division comprising all of its online properties.

Murdoch last week said his company was in advanced talks to buy a controlling interest in a search engine, which he did not name, and said it had budgeted up to $2 billion for investments and strategic acquisitions. Blinkx is best known for providing searches of video and audio files on the web.