CNetNews.com reports that “

[t]hanks in part to armies of compromised computers, click fraud reached an all-time high in the fourth quarter.  Click fraud lets Web sites increase revenue from ads supplied by services such as Google's AdSense or the Yahoo Publisher Network, though those companies take measures to screen out bogus links so advertisers don't have to pay. But that doesn't stop people from trying, according to a new report from Click Forensics, a company that monitors for click fraud and sells detection services.”

Yahoo!Tech reveals that “Cox Communications, the third-largest U.S. cable company, stepped on to the battleground of the ‘Net Neutrality’ issue Tuesday, saying it will be trying out a new way to keep its subscribers' Internet traffic from jamming up.  Starting on Feb. 9 in parts of Kansas and Arkansas, Cox will give priority to Internet traffic it judges to be time-sensitive, like Web pages, streaming video and online games. File downloads, software updates and other non-time sensitive data may be slowed if there is congestion on the local network, Cox said.”

The Mercury News writes that “[a]mid the layoffs, foreclosures and other signs of economic gloom, the entrepreneurial ecosystem seems to be holding up better than most sectors.  The latest MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters, showed that venture capitalists invested $28.3 billion in 3,808 deals in 2008 — an 8 percent decrease in dollars and a 4 percent decrease in deal volume from 2007.  Silicon Valley companies took an even larger share than usual, receiving $10.98 billion of the $28.3 billion in venture funding for 2008, compared with $11 billion out of $30.8 billion in 2007.  Nobody is expecting 2009 to be nearly as strong, of course. Not surprisingly, the sharpest decline came in the fourth quarter as the financial system lurched into crisis. VC investments in the fourth quarter totaled $5.4 billion in 818 deals, the lowest amount of dollars invested since the first quarter of 2005.”

According to the Register, “Google has finally added offline support to Gmail, allowing US and Blighty-based users to read and write email while unconnected to the interwebs.  The firm said it was rolling out an ‘experimental feature in Gmail Labs’ that will probably be a bit cranky and frustrating due to the fact that there are still ‘some kinks that haven't been completely ironed out yet.’  Gmail engineer Andy Palay said in a post on the company’s offical blog yesterday that Google has been testing the offline version of Gmail for some time.”

The New York Times reports that “[a] top European Union court rejected on Tuesday a request by Intel, the chip maker, to delay an investigation into whether the company broke antitrust laws.  The commission suspects Intel of abusing its dominant position in computer chips by giving large rebates to computer makers, by paying computer makers to delay or cancel product lines and by offering chips for powerful server computers at prices that are below actual cost.”