A small reward for the best idea

Amazon.com is redefining outsourcing with its bizarre new Web service called Mechanical Turk.

Transcribe a podcast and earn $5, or rank your top three cricket batsmen of 2006 and earn a penny. The site mostly pays visitors to share opinions on random topics.

Amazon calls it "artificial artificial intelligence," relying on humans to complete tasks that computers can't. Developers submit tasks and put the answers into their software applications.

Chief Executive Jeff Bezos unveiled the service at the company's annual meeting last week. In addition to the micropayments for each task, there's a big reward at the end of the week for the No. 1 ranked worker: $75.

Game words

Nintendo of America last week promoted Reggie Fils-Aime from executive vice president of sales and marketing to president and chief operating officer.

On the same day, the fiery executive known for introducing himself through rap lyrics had breakfast with visiting Mexican President Vicente Fox. Fils-Aime wasn't shy on voicing his concerns about Nintendo products being copied in Mexican markets.

While he might have gotten an intimate audience with Fox, that didn't compare to the love Fox showered on a passing stranger's towheaded little boy.

Seizing a good photo-op, Fox surprised his media entourage by scooping up Aron Feller, 4, in his arms and talking to him in Spanish.

His mother, Kelly Feller, a Portland resident and Intel employee, happened to be visiting Seattle for the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference. Fox's gesture caught her by surprise.

Roundup of giants

Turns out Microsoft is once again losing market share in the Web search business, while Google continues to gain, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Last month, Google accounted for 50 percent of all searches, up from a 47 percent share at the same time last year.

Yahoo! Search remained flat with a 22 percent market share. But MSN Search dropped by one point from 12 to 11 percent.

MSN head honcho Yusuf Mehdi found himself explaining to analysts at a Goldman Sachs Internet conference that MSN hasn't done such a good job with e-mail.

He called it "mostly a secondary mail account" instead of people's primary mail service. He's counting on Windows Live Mail coming in summer to help lure more customers with its improved storage, usability and performance.

By that time, Google software will probably be on a fair number of Dell PCs, as it announced plans to pay the PC maker for real estate on its already overpopulated screen.

Still unseen

A week after its chairman was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission of scheming to artificially inflate the company's stock, Seattle-based Infinium Labs said it's changing its name to Phantom Entertainment.

Since its gaming console, called Phantom, has yet to materialize, the name seems entirely appropriate.

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