Yahoo said it had begun testing a service that lets users search information on password-protected subscription sites such as LexisNexis, known as the "deep Web."
The move comes as Yahoo (YHOO), Google (GOOG) and Ask Jeeves (ASKJ) rush to give web searchers access to ever more information -- from books, blogs and scholarly journals to news, products, images and video.
The service, called Yahoo Search Subscriptions, allows users to search multiple online subscription content sources and the web from a single search box.
Users can see content from the sites they subscribe to, while nonsubscribers have the option of paying to see it. Content providers, for their part, get access to the vast audience of web search users.
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Meter maid: Drivers lacking coins now may use cell phones to feed parking meters in Coral Gables, Florida, purportedly the first city in the country to offer such a service.
The automated system allows drivers who subscribe to simply dial in from their cell phone and punch in the number assigned to their parking spot. The required costs -- plus a 25-cent usage fee -- will be billed to their credit card. When leaving, subscribers call back and end the billing cycle.
The Miami suburb began offering the system this month on its 4,573 meters; so far, more than 250 people have subscribed.
Even when being used by PayMint customers, meters without sufficient coinage will still continue to flash their "expired" signal. Parking enforcement officers use a wireless handheld device to identify which cars are using the system.
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Loud flights: Boeing unit Connexion expects to start selling cellular phone services to airline passengers as early as next year, despite opposition from the flying public.
The Federal Aviation Administration is reviewing its ban on the use of phones and other wireless devices on planes.
However, U.S. passengers overwhelmingly oppose lifting the ban, according to a poll by the National Consumers League and a flight attendants' union.
But Connexion said it expects some kind of compromise that would either mandate certain quiet periods on flights or create quiet zones, with the first being the most likely solution.
The broadband access service will be installed on 120 passenger jets by the end of the year, up from 64 now. There are 12,000 commercial airliners in service worldwide, of which 8,000 would be suitable for the service, Boeing (BA) estimates.
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Merging: Pfizer agreed to acquire Vicuron Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of new anti-infection medicines, for $2 billion in cash. Shares of Vicuron soared 76 percent in morning trading.
Under the merger agreement, Pfizer (PFE) would purchase outstanding Vicuron (MICU) stock at $30 per share, an 84 percent premium over its closing price.
The deal gives Pfizer two products under review for approval by the Food and Drug Administration: anidulafungin for fungal infections and dalbavancin for skin and soft tissue infections. Sales of Pfizer's antifungal Diflucan are down following expiration of its U.S. patent last year.
Pfizer and Vicuron already are collaborating and have made significant advances in the discovery of potential next-generation oxazolidinones, the first new class of antibiotics in more than 30 years.
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Compiled by David Cohn. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
