Daily News Links

• Google is shutting down its answer service, after it failed to gain much traction with users, especially when compared to a rival service offered by Yahoo, which is free.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• In the UK campaign is to launch warning youngsters of the cost of reality TV voting.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• Sydney Airport mulls the use high-tech tagging for baggage.  Read more here (from the Sydney Morning Herald).
• The New York Times is launching the beta version of its new reader, delivering a more seamless, intuitive experience.  Read more here (from Media Post's Media Daily News).
• The Huffington Post is preparing to venture into original reporting, with plans to cover Congress and, already, the 2008 presidential campaign.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• The new Nike+ iPod Sport Kit provides a wireless link between your running shoes and your music player.  Read more here (from Wired).
• Google appears to be testing a new display ad network that will sell ads on a cost-per-thousand impression basis, according to a report that surfaced this week on the blogosphere.  Read more here (from Media Post's Media Daily News).
• An annual report examining the web's impact on society highlights a boom in social activities online.  Read more here (from CNet News.com).
• A dozen high school students were expelled for an on-campus brawl over who got invited to a party, a fight school officials said was arranged on the social-networking hub MySpace.com.  Read more here (from FindLaw).
• There is a debate whether cheap laptops are the best way to improve education in the developing world.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• The Sydney Morning Herald reports on how film studios are scrambling to find a viable method of selling their wares on the web. Read more here (from Sydney Morning Herald).
• Yahoo’s refusal to talk about its efforts to create digital copies of books is another setback for Google as it prepares to fight a copyright infringement suit.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt offers this advice to Republicans: make better use of the Internet's electioneering power if you want to win next time.  Read more here (from CNet News.com).
• Is the golden age of the US sitcom over?  Read the transcript from ABC Radio National's The Media Report here.