MediaFile wrote last week about Steve Ballmer’s world tour to promote Microsoft’s unsolicited takeover bid for Yahoo. Now that the Microsoft has walked away and the odds for Microhoo aren’t looking so hot, Microsoft execs have fanned out across the globe to explain the company’s decision. To Skhirat, Morocco, San Donato Milanese, Italy and Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, we can now add Seoul, London and Jakarta.

Let’s put them up on the big board!

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News of a possible explosion rippled through the popular online service Twitter on Tuesday, in a preview of what’s to come in the realm of breaking news and citizen journalism. Twitter is a so-called microblogging site that allows users to send and receive short messages.

At about 1:37 pm, software developer Dave Winer asked the Twitterverse: “Explosion in Falls Church, VA?” (Perhaps not coincidentally, Winer is a well-known blogger and podcasting evangelist). A flurry of posts, or “tweets,” followed, as users reported rumbles as far away as Alexandria.

The mainstream media entered the fray at 2:33 pm, with radio station WTOP reporting ground rumblings throughout Northern Virginia, citing a possible earthquake. Officials also told the radio station that the rumblings were part of construction blasts at nearby Ft. Belvoir, which had been scheduled for later in the afternoon as part of a new building for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.

Twitter users continued to pile on, pointing out data from the Maryland Geological Survey and adding their own commentary. Twitterer DataG wrote: “After the ‘Falls Church explosion’ event that was covered on Twitter, I saw the value in having a Twitter account at-the-ready.”

By 2:56 pm — nearly 90 minutes after Winer’s initial alert — WTOP had the official word from the U.S. Geological Survey: A not-exactly-massive 1.8 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter near Annandale, VA.

The “Falls Church Incident” was earthshaking only in the most literal sense, but it is an interesting proof of concept that news can be broken on Twitter. Reuters is looking at ways to use Twitter in the newsroom, although our feed is currently under renovation.

Christian video site GodTube has been blessed with a $30 million funding round from hedge fund GLG Partners, according to a report by paidContent.org, valuing the company at a whopping $150 million.

GodTube, billed by the L.A. Times as a "who's who of U.S. Christianity," has been racking up the page views with a "holy trinity" of user-generated video, social networking and a live webcasting service known as The Godcaster that allows churches to stream sermons and other events. In the same article, former CBS executive and GodTube CEO Chris Wyatt calls his site "Jesus 2.0".

As paidContent notes, video startups like Metacafe and Veoh consume huge amounts of expensive bandwidth and so must raise large amounts of money. Nevertheless, it called GLG's investment "ungodly big."

Photo: GodTube.com

It hasn’t been the easiest week for Craigslist, which is getting sued by minority partner eBay after spurning a buy-out offer. So pity Craig Newmark when he settles down for a nice, relaxing game of Grand Theft Auto 4.

The game, released this week, takes place in a ridiculously detailed virtual world that even has its own satirical Internet. Bloggers write on “blogsnobs.org,” porn sites abound, and there’s a free classified site called “craplist.org.” Real-life blog Some Bits has the description as it appears in GTA4:

“Craplist was started in San Fierro in 1995 by some basement dwelling sociopaths with the simple mission of creating a computer-based online forum where users can sell stolen bicycles and meet up at lunch time and [content bleeped out because MediaFile is a family-friendly blog] … Capitalists don’t understand us. Newspapers hate us. Stalkers love us. Craplist is here to stay. We are you.”

Actually, except for the stalker reference, maybe Craig will find some inspiration in that last bit.

Cox Enterprises, the parent company of Cox Newspapers and cable company Cox Communications, is buying online advertising firm Adify for at least $300 million -- not a bad multiple on revenues of $7 million in 2007 and an expected $35 million this year, according to paidContent.org.

"By any standards, it is a very rich deal," paidContent's Rafat Ali wrote. Adify creates custom online ad platforms for customers like the Guardian and Forbes. Reuters announced a deal with Adify in January to create an ad-supported network of small- to medium-sized publishers in areas like personal finance and football.

peHUB's Dan Primack notes that it's a "big day for Adify backer US Venture Partners, whose latest fundraising drive has been met with lukewarm enthusiasm." Venture capital backers, which also included Venrock, NBC's Peacock Equity fund and Time Warner, had invested about $27 million in Adify.

When Rupert Murdoch is poised to add another newspaper to his bulging portfolio of media properties, U.S. legislators voice their concern. In Italy, where prime minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi is poised to regain his hammer grip on the country's airwaves, it's time for V-Day.

The V in V-Day -- sensitive readers who know Italian, shield your eyes -- stands for "Vaffanculo," which roughly translates to "F&$@ off." The event was created by comedian/activist/blogger Beppe Grillo (left), aptly described by the New Yorker as "a distinctly Italian combination of Michael Moore and Stephen Colbert."

In a rant before a crowd of 45,000 that lambasted politicians of all leanings, Grillo said on Friday that Berlusconi's dominance of the media would be unthinkable in other countries. Critics say Berlusconi as prime minister -- through his family-controlled Mediaset empire and through state television RAI -- will at least indirectly control nearly 90 percent of Italy's television audience.

"Imagine if (Barack) Obama as president was also the owner of Fox, of ABC and other TV networks," he said. It was the second "V-day" for Grillo, who first launched the protest last September when he gathered petitions that sought to clean up politics.

He reiterated calls to bar convicts from entering public office, and read the names out loud of a handful convicted criminals who were elected to parliament. After each name, the crowd thundered back "Vaffanculo!"

(Reporting by Phil Stewart)

Steve Ballmer has been leading reporters on a globe-trotting chase as he tries to keep the pressure on Yahoo ahead of the Saturday deadline he imposed earlier this month. The results? A lot of column inches filed from obscure datelines like Skhirat, Morocco, San Donato Milanese, Italy and Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, along with a clarification about which of Ballmer’s Facebook entries is real. (Answer: the one with the golfclub)

Check out the Google Map below, or open this file in Google Earth for a virtual fly-by.

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It’s a tough time for the news business, so Time Warner’s venerable CNN is looking for a new revenue stream: custom-made t-shirts . Click on a tiny icon next to the site’s top news stories, and you can add the headline to an attractive “high quality American Apparel t-shirt” for the low price of $15.99. The Web 2.0 goodness doesn’t stop there: You can also share your t-shirt on Facebook or submit photos to CNN’s iReport citizen journalism site.

There’s more! Waxy.org ’s Andy Baio discovered that with some rudimentary URL hacking, you can create a shirt — at least online — that displays whatever message you choose (it doesn’t seem to be possible to order up the shirt itself). This presents mischievous blogger-types with the opportunity to poke fun at various scandals and controversies.

Here’s one that’ll never see the light of day:

Submit your own CNN T-shirt headline in the comments section.

(Photo: Screenshot of CNN’s t-shirt site)

Steve Ballmer may be feeling a bit of bidder's remorse.

Speaking to a group of nearly 2,000 Microsoft enthusiasts at a technology conference in Seattle, the Microsoft CEO asked people to raise their hands to show what search engine they used. The overwhelming majority raised their hands for Google. A few arms went up for Microsoft's Windows Live search. Yahoo, which Microsoft is trying to buy in the hopes of taking on Google in search advertising , received even fewer hands.

Ballmer was incredulous at Yahoo's poor showing.

"Wow! We offered 31 bucks a share," he said, prompting much laughter in the room. Yahoo and Microsoft rank No. 2 and 3 in Web search, respectively.

(Reporting by Daisuke Wakabayashi)

You may have read recently about an Internet phenomenon called “rickrolling ,” which sends unsuspecting Web users to YouTube videos of Rick Astley’s ’80s pop single “Never Gonna Give You Up.” The New York Times wrote up the supposedly hilarious phenomenon on Monday, referencing a prank that purportedly interrupted a women’s basketball game:

“Two men on the sidelines surprised the crowd by blasting the British singer Rick Astley’s 1987 hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up” through the gym, while one, dressed as a look-alike in Mr. Astley’s signature trench coat, lip-synched and mugged to the music: a popular prank known as rickrolling.”

Unfortunately for the Times, it was the paper itself that got rolled. The Times originally reported that the pranksters interrupted the game and bewildered the crowd. Turns out it was just the result of some clever video editing, leading to a correction on Thursday:

An article on Monday about a popular Internet video prank known as rickrolling referred incorrectly to its use during a March 8 women’s basketball game at Eastern Washington University, based on information provided by Pawl Fisher, a student; Davin Perry, who shoots game videos for the university; and Dave Cook, its sports information director. The stunt, which involves a person lip-synching the 1980s hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up” while dressed as the British singer Rick Astley, was performed before the start of four separate basketball games, and the pranksters distilled the performances into a YouTube video. The March 8 game, between Eastern Washington and Montana State, was not interrupted by a performance.

Local TV station KHQ flagged the error, noting: “After confirming the video was a fake, KHQ did not run the story. The New York Times did.”

And what does Mr. Astley himself think about this? The LA Times blog Web Scout managed to track him down.

“Listen, I just think it’s bizarre and funny. My main consideration is that my daughter doesn’t get embarrassed about it,” he said. “If I was a young kid now looking at that song, I’d have to say I’d think it was pretty naff, really.”

(Photo: Amazon.com)