Here are the weekly wrap up stories from 29th-4th April, 2009 in whatever happened in Web, technology and few more interesting stuff.

So last week’s happenings are as follows:

• Using Social Media to Listen to Consumers: AdAge ran a story about how a vocal few in internet don’t represent the majority but could signify a large issue taking cases like the recent Motrin outage or Skittles’ adoption of social media. Source
• Internet Advertising Revenues Surpass $23 Billion in ’08, Reaching Record High: Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. remain strong, topping $23 billion, according to the 2008 Internet Advertising Revenue Report, released today by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). Despite a difficult U.S. economy, interactive advertising’s continued growth, albeit at a slower pace, confirms marketers’ increased recognition of the medium’s value in reaching consumers online where they are spending more and more of their time. Source
• Skype for iPhone (Review): Probably, this news got me excited a bit more because I can see the way transformation is going to take place in telecom industry i.e. shift from voice to data services. Nonetheless, Om Malik puts his thumbs up for this news which came early this week about skype launched for iPhone and also read his review too.
• Google Inc launches its venture fund called *Google Ventures*: Google enteres VC land with its latest in the offering with Google Ventures. Also read my two cent post on the same! Read more
  
• Jimmy Wales giving up on Wikia Search: Wikia is announced on Tuesday that it is closing the Wikia Search product. The service was intended to be a user-generated search engine, through which users could influence the rankings of results for all other users. Source
• Reckitt-Benckiser to Shift $20 Million to Web From TV: Reckitt-Benckiser will cap off its fifth straight year of organic sales growth with a new recession-approved media strategy: moving TV dollars to online video. Source
• Microsoft Looks to JWT to Market its New Search Engine: Web Giant Expected to Spend Up to $100 Million in Bid to Win Share From Google, Yahoo. Too optimistic, I don’t know! You guys tell me? Source
• I.B.M. Reportedly Will Buy Rival Sun for $7 Billion: I.B.M. appears on the verge of acquiring Sun Microsystems, a longtime rival in the computer server and software markets, for nearly $7 billion. Source
• Google In Talks To Acquire Twitter (Rumor); Thanks Arrington and his sources: Though this week was one in which we all celebrate the day of pranks i.e. April Fools Day but this wasn’t a joke. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch reported this and the whole web followed. The way I feel it was more like a nudge to understand how much twitter is worth since neither it has come up with a solid business model nor it has revealed any revenue model as such (other than Paid Pro Accounts) BTW, later it was revealed that twitter won’t be selling itself for $1 Bn even.
• Twitter’s India Audience Profile: Sometime back, I was scurring for more information on how many inhabit twitterverse from India. Now @pluggdin did a wonderful job of plugging in data. Read more

Some more interesting tidbits from the industry:

• How Digital Marketing Can Move the Masses in India: In a market like India, it is easy to assume that something as “evolved” and technology-dependent as digital marketing can be used successfully only to target and communicate with an “evolved” target audience — perhaps in suitably cutting-edge categories like, say, the latest smartphones or gaming consoles or computers. It’s an assumption based on conventional thinking that cannot be faulted for its correctness…More
• Twitter’s “Garyvee” Vaynerchuk Gets A Book Deal: So here’s the deal – you want to be the next phenom – have more followers in twitter and you might land up with a book deal. Easy fix, huh! But I’m not kidding; HarperStudio has signed a seven-figure, 10-book deal with Gary Vaynerchuk, a 33-year-old Belarusian-born wine retailer from New Jersey, who, except for a talk show appearance here and there, is basically unknown in mainstream media circles. More
• Free Stanford course on developing iPhone software: Want to know how to write programs for the iPhone and iPod touch? Beginning this week, a Stanford computer science class on that buzzworthy topic will be available online to the general public for free. More