Trade talks could go "into the freezer"

The European Union's trade chief raised the prospect of world trade talks going "into the freezer" and not coming back out for at least two years.

Monday's resumption of World Trade Organization talks in Geneva "will determine whether we could achieve a breakthrough this autumn or see the whole round put on ice indefinitely," EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told a news conference in the Hague.

WTO negotiators intensified efforts to clinch a global trade compromise worth billions of dollars and avoid a surge in bilateral accords if efforts fail.

Negotiators aim to agree in coming months on the outlines of a deal to expand world trade by lowering barriers and opening markets.

Political changes such as the U.S. presidential election next year mean "it will be very difficult to take the round out of deep freeze if that's where it's heading to a breakdown rather than a breakthrough in talks this autumn," Mandelson said.

Double Fusion

TV ad model for video games

Double Fusion, a private company that connects advertisers and video-game publishers, rolls out new technology today to allow advertisers to mount last-minute ad campaigns in games the same way they use spot TV ads.

Game designers now designate and hard-code locations for in-game advertising during the development process. After the coding is completed, ad content can be changed via an Internet connection, but ad locations can't be changed or added.

Double Fusion's new program separates in-game advertising from game development, allowing developers to create new placements in completed games, including back catalog titles.

Double Fusion shares the marketplace with Microsoft's Massive, Google-owned Adscape and smaller, independent companies.

Google

Stakes increase in Chinese Web

Trailing Baidu.com in China's online-search industry, Google plans to increase investments in content providers to win share in the world's second-largest Internet market.

The company bought a minority stake in Shenzhen Xunlei Network Technology, whose software lets users download music and videos. Google also bought shares in Tianya Internet Technology, a developer of social-networking sites.

Google plans to hire 100 engineers each year in China and Taiwan to develop Web services.

Google has almost 200 engineers in Shanghai, Beijing and Taipei, Kai-Fu Lee, the company's China president, said last month. Its development team in the region is Google's biggest outside the U.S., he said.

China is second only to the U.S. in Internet users.

Compiled from Bloomberg News and Reuters