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It's not in the build handed out at last week's Professional Developers Conference, but CNET News' Ina Fried gets an in-depth look at the taskbar and other new features.

People-search engine Wink has joined forces with Reunion.com, a hybrid people-search/social networking site, to create one giant hub for finding people you once knew but forgot to keep in touch with. The two companies have merged and will be launching a new website (and brandname) in early 2009, which the sites say will feature a total of 700 million user profiles.

Wink allows users to simultaneously search for profiles across social networks including MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and a number of others. The site originally launched in 2005 as a people-powered search engine, and reinvented itself as a people search in 2006. In September the site reported a search index of over 500 million user profiles, though some of these seem to lead to profile pages that either don’t work or are blank.

Reunion.com combines the elements of people search with a social network. The site, which raised $25 million last year, allows users to quickly join the network by entering basic contact information, and then charges for more advanced (and snoopy) features. Premium accounts allow users to see who has searched for their profiles, and have become popular enough that the site operates at a profit and claims 50 million registered members.

The two companies have a history together, as Reunion and Wink forged a “multi-year, multi-million dollar agreement” in 2007 giving Reunion members access to Wink’s people search.

There’s a definite need for social network profile aggregators, especially as users find their online identities scattered across multiple social networks and blogs. But if the Wink/Reunion hybrid is going to become a mainstream search engine (a “Google for people search”), it badly needs to focus on the accuracy of its results. Hundreds of millions of profiles may sound like a lot, but when many of them are virtually useless the numbers really don’t mean much.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

People-search engine Wink has joined forces with Reunion.com, a hybrid people-search/social networking site, to create one giant hub for finding people you once knew but forgot to keep in touch with. The two companies have merged and will be launching a new website (and brandname) in early 2009, which the sites say will feature a total of 700 million user profiles.

Wink allows users to simultaneously search for profiles across social networks including MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and a number of others. The site originally launched in 2005 as a people-powered search engine, and reinvented itself as a people search in 2006. In September the site reported a search index of over 500 million user profiles, though some of these seem to lead to profile pages that either don’t work or are blank.

Reunion.com combines the elements of people search with a social network. The site, which raised $25 million last year, allows users to quickly join the network by entering basic contact information, and then charges for more advanced (and snoopy) features. Premium accounts allow users to see who has searched for their profiles, and have become popular enough that the site operates at a profit and claims 50 million registered members.

The two companies have a history together, as Reunion and Wink forged a “multi-year, multi-million dollar agreement” in 2007 giving Reunion members access to Wink’s people search.

There’s a definite need for social network profile aggregators, especially as users find their online identities scattered across multiple social networks and blogs. But if the Wink/Reunion hybrid is going to become a mainstream search engine (a “Google for people search”), it badly needs to focus on the accuracy of its results. Hundreds of millions of profiles may sound like a lot, but when many of them are virtually useless the numbers really don’t mean much.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Intel's Core i7 processor are expected to launch later this month--appearing first in fast gaming desktop PCs.

The company announces Force.com Sites, an extension to their existing service that lets businesses build external-facing Web sites.

Since YouTube heralded the era of user-uploaded videos, media corporations have been fighting a hopeless battle to regain control of their content, sending out endless waves of DMCA notices in a vain attempt to take down countless clips scattered across the web. In the last year sites like Hulu have made progress - it’s finally possible to legally embed of a clip of The Office in your blog, but publishers continue to lose out on millions of video clips that weren’t upload with permission.

Now MySpace - a site that once seemed the antithesis of innovation - has implemented an exciting new ad platform called Auditude that may change the way content owners treat uploaded video entirely. The new platform will automatically identify any uploaded video clips from a number of shows produced by MTV Networks (including my personal favorite “The Daily Show”), and will display an overlay when the clip is played that shows which episode the clip originally came from, its original air-date, and links to online stores where users can buy the entire episode.

In the past it has been nearly impossible to effectively monetize user-uploaded videos because they are typically tagged with such informative titles as “REally cool!” and “hilarious”. The Auditude platform ignores this information, relying solely on fingerprints taken from the clip’s audio and video data. These fingerprints are matched to prints in Auditude’s massive database, which spans over 250 million videos and 4 years of television content, all sorted by show and airdate.

Even more impressive: Auditude can fingerprint a portion of a video that is only a few seconds long and identify which show it was originally taken from. Once the clip is identified Auditude will overlay an ad within the video, allowing publishers to monetize their content even when it was uploaded by someone without permission and without any legible tagging information.

MySpace will be implementing the system with initial support for content from MTV Networks, with shows including The Colbert Report, Punk’d, and Sarah Silverman. So every time you post a clip of Jon Stewart ripping on the presidential candidates, someone is going to get paid, and users won’t have to deal with the often-clunky proprietary video players offered by each network. And instead of trying to prevent these clips from making it onto MySpace in the first place, content owners will want users to upload as many as possible.

Unfortunately, this may prove difficult: after years of being told not to upload these videos, users will probably take a while to warm up to the idea. But if it catches on (and it probably will), expect to see content owners flock to form partnerships with MySpace - there isn’t currently another video platform out there that is able to identify and monetize content this effectively. We’ll probably also see the Auditude platform implemented elsewhere as other sites try to catch up.

Last year YouTube launched a similar service called Video ID that gives publishers the option of either taking down illegal content or placing ads on it.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Since YouTube heralded the era of user-uploaded videos, media corporations have been fighting a hopeless battle to regain control of their content, sending out endless waves of DMCA notices in a vain attempt to take down countless clips scattered across the web. In the last year sites like Hulu have made progress - it’s finally possible to legally embed of a clip of The Office in your blog, but publishers continue to lose out on millions of video clips that weren’t upload with permission.

Now MySpace - a site that once seemed the antithesis of innovation - has implemented an exciting new ad platform called Auditude that may change the way content owners treat uploaded video entirely. The new platform will automatically identify any uploaded video clips from a number of shows produced by MTV Networks (including my personal favorite “The Daily Show”), and will display an overlay when the clip is played that shows which episode the clip originally came from, its original air-date, and links to online stores where users can buy the entire episode.

In the past it has been nearly impossible to effectively monetize user-uploaded videos because they are typically tagged with such informative titles as “REally cool!” and “hilarious”. The Auditude platform ignores this information, relying solely on fingerprints taken from the clip’s audio and video data. These fingerprints are matched to prints in Auditude’s massive database, which spans over 250 million videos and 4 years of television content, all sorted by show and airdate.

Even more impressive: Auditude can fingerprint a portion of a video that is only a few seconds long and identify which show it was originally taken from. Once the clip is identified Auditude will overlay an ad within the video, allowing publishers to monetize their content even when it was uploaded by someone without permission and without any legible tagging information.

MySpace will be implementing the system with initial support for content from MTV Networks, with shows including The Colbert Report, Punk’d, and Sarah Silverman. So every time you post a clip of Jon Stewart ripping on the presidential candidates, someone is going to get paid, and users won’t have to deal with the often-clunky proprietary video players offered by each network. And instead of trying to prevent these clips from making it onto MySpace in the first place, content owners will want users to upload as many as possible.

Unfortunately, this may prove difficult: after years of being told not to upload these videos, users will probably take a while to warm up to the idea. But if it catches on (and it probably will), expect to see content owners flock to form partnerships with MySpace - there isn’t currently another video platform out there that is able to identify and monetize content this effectively. We’ll probably also see the Auditude platform implemented elsewhere as other sites try to catch up.

Last year YouTube launched a similar service called Video ID that gives publishers the option of either taking down illegal content or placing ads on it.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

So much of this long protracted struggle for political change has rubbed off on the tech community. In the partisan windup to this long election process, we've become almost inured to the fact that as much as things will continue to be the same, already the "choice" between the two candidates has produced one sure thing. That is, either of the two candidates represents fundamental change from the status quo, no matter how much you want to differentiate further. So it is with the shift to the Cloud. Whether you're betting on Google, or Amazon, or Microsoft, or less obviously Apple, IBM, Oracle, or Cisco, the sure thing is that Web services has gone main stream. If this is a horse race at the vendor level, it's about each company's ability to harness its innate strengths and migrate its weaknesses. Put another way, the battle is within, not between.

So much of this long protracted struggle for political change has rubbed off on the tech community. In the partisan windup to this long election process, we've become almost inured to the fact that as much as things will continue to be the same, already the "choice" between the two candidates has produced one sure thing. That is, either of the two candidates represents fundamental change from the status quo, no matter how much you want to differentiate further. So it is with the shift to the Cloud. Whether you're betting on Google, or Amazon, or Microsoft, or less obviously Apple, IBM, Oracle, or Cisco, the sure thing is that Web services has gone main stream. If this is a horse race at the vendor level, it's about each company's ability to harness its innate strengths and migrate its weaknesses. Put another way, the battle is within, not between.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Wanna go to this week's Dreamforce conference but don't have $1,200 bucks to spare for a full three-day pass? TechCrunch scored 100 one-day passes at $99 each (these are exclusive for TechCrunch readers—you cannot get a one-day pass anywhere else). These will let you attend the conference any one day (November 3rd, 4th, or 5th), see all the keynotes that day (Marc Benioff, Michael Dell, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, and Google Enterprise's Dave Girouard), check out the booths and schmooze at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. And if you go on Monday, you can catch the Foo Fighters. Anyone interested should call Dreamforce ‘08 Registration Headquarters at 888.382.7112 and reference the "$99 Tech Crunch Day Pass." The promotion code you need to give is: DAYTCB99

Wanna go to this week's Dreamforce conference but don't have $1,200 bucks to spare for a full three-day pass? TechCrunch scored 100 one-day passes at $99 each (these are exclusive for TechCrunch readers—you cannot get a one-day pass anywhere else). These will let you attend the conference any one day (November 3rd, 4th, or 5th), see all the keynotes that day (Marc Benioff, Michael Dell, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, and Google Enterprise's Dave Girouard), check out the booths and schmooze at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. And if you go on Monday, you can catch the Foo Fighters. Anyone interested should call Dreamforce ‘08 Registration Headquarters at 888.382.7112 and reference the "$99 Tech Crunch Day Pass." The promotion code you need to give is: DAYTCB99

Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie is leading a risky but unavoidable Manhattan Project effort to build a planetary scale cloud computing platform.