MSFT joins smartphone hustle

Biz Buzz:

• Bell and Microsoft are wrapping up their five-year online partnership in Canada, allegedly to pursue "separate internet strategies."
• "Green funds" have hit the $1 billion mark at certain venture firms.
• Sony personal computers shall now come outfitted with Google's Chrome browser.

Legal, Government and Regulation:

• Privacy and consumer groups link behavioral ads to "being followed by an invisible stalker."

Mobile:

• Microsoft preps its smartphone software for an October launch.

Opinion:

• John Battelle contemplates the politics of how to friend on Facebook, versus gathering followers on Twitter, for example.

Publishing:

• The CEO of Hachette Livre insinuates e-books could spell the end for hardbacks, that most lucrative of trades.
• One blogger flips her tale of homeless woe into an Elle internship.

Search:

• Yahoo board member and shaker-upper Carl Icahn has reduced his holdings in the company by about 12 million shares, a sign he's finally at peace with the direction Yahoo has taken.
• Google has incorporated a search suggestion feature.
• Wolfram Alpha is enabling an API that enables others to integrate its capabilities.

Social Networks:

• 10 ways to be a great social media user.
• Poll leak tweets on Twitter both alarm and alert Germans preceding regional elections.