Editor's Choice: Lala building iTunes friendly music service

Silicon Valley startup Lala is building the next generation in digital music. Last year, Lala unveiled a service that provides web access to an existing music library such as iTunes. Lala is trying to move beyond the approach of uploading MP3 files from a PC. The Palo Alto-based firm gives users the option of paying 99 cents to download one song, or paying 10 cents for a Web-hosted song that they can access from any internet-connected device. The service allows you to sample any song in the their catalog once for free, and keep up to 50 songs in their online collection.

"Music belongs online," say CEO Geoff Ralston. Before taking the helm at Lala, Ralston helped to create RocketMail, the predecessor to Yahoo! Mail.

Lala was launched in 2007. It initially started as a CD-swapping service. They later morphed into internet radio. Last year, however, they finally found their niche. All four major music labels and many independents are now onboard. Unlike other similar music services, Lala does not have a subscription fee, and it is free of advertising. The downloads are also DRM-free.

Lala and a host of streaming music sites with free content are being used by a growing number of listeners as a substitute for buying music, reports BusinessWeek. Read more

Editor's Choice: New Sony HDTV connects with Yahoo widgets

Sony recently announced a new line of HDTVs with Yahoo Widgets. The Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year was a coming out party for internet-friendly, or "connected TVs." Most Connected TVs support streaming video from services like Netflix and news feeds through widgets.

Sony's new Bravia W-Series HDTVs do both. Bravia uses the Yahoo Widget Engine to track news, finance, sports and weather as well as photos posted on Flickr. The Bravia Internet Video service allows you to stream video from YouTube and others. Watch the Yahoo TV Widgets demo here.

Editor's Choice: Yahoo previews new search tool like one dropped by Google

Watch a sneak video preview of Yahoo's new Search Pad feature. In a blog post yesterday, Yahoo said it was testing a tool to help people better organize information they collect while doing research on the web. Search Pad is similar to Google Notebook, a product the internet search leader halted development of last month.