Will aQuantive Help MS Catch Google?–(Forbes.com) According to this article, “Not a chance. In the most recent quarter, which ended March 31, Microsoft’s online services business lost $200 million on $623 million in sales, and aQuantive brought in $14.2 million in net income on $142.6 million in revenues. In contrast, Google sucked in a cool $1 billion in net income on $3.7 billion in revenues for the quarter ending March 31, 2007. CIQ: These big and (in our opinion) overvalued deals remind us spookily of 2000.

Niche Websites Get Venture Backing–(NYT) Above, we have the scary reminder of 2000. Here we have the good reminder. Boot-strapped niche sites that use content, community and commerce and that advertisers love. “Take NaturallyCurly.com for instance. The site, founded in 1998 , has grown its readership to about 180,000 monthly readers, without marketing. More impressively, it has built a stable of hair care advertisers, like Aveda, Paul Mitchell and Redken, among others, and generated annual revenue in excess of $1 million. CIQ: We like a vision of the web built on singles and doubles, not huge $6 billion homers.

Print Bright Spot: Times Travel Mag Pages Up 6%–(DM News) In an industry that is declining, this is a big gain. CIQ: It proves that travel is hot. We hear that on the web, travel advertisers are insatiable