The co-founder of a Web site that investigators claimed was one of the largest online centers for trafficking in stolen identity information and credit cards was sentenced Thursday to two years and eight months in prison.

The sentence for Andrew Mantovani was the longest of the five imposed to date involving the site http://www.shadowcrew.com which had about 4,000 members who dealt with at least 1.5 million stolen credit card numbers and caused more than $4 million in losses, federal prosecutors said.

Mantovani, 24, of Scottsdale, Ariz., was also fined $5,000 by U.S. District Judge William J. Martini.

Mantovani was among 21 people arrested around the nation in October 2004 after federal agents gained control of the site during a year long undercover investigation by the Secret Service and other agencies. He and 17 others have pleaded guilty. Several people were also arrested overseas.

After months of rumors and reports, Google today launched Google Checkout, which enables shoppers to purchase items securely from participating stores with a single Google login.

Shoppers who want to use Google Checkout have to create a login or use their existing Google login. For user privacy, the service will also conceal a buyer’s credit card number and e-mail address from the vendor.

Stores that accept Google Checkout will have an icon on next to their AdWords advertisements.

AdWords merchants can use the product to process all or a portion of their checkout sales for free, according to the company

Analysts say the move will help keep Googles search revenues growing by making it more likely searchers will convert into customers, thus making their clicks more valuable.

Yahoo Inc. will consider refunding money to thousands of advertisers dating back to January 2004 and pay $4.95 million in attorney fees to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging the Internet powerhouse has been profiting from bogus sales referrals generated through a sham known as click fraud.

The agreement, given preliminary approval Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder in Los Angeles, doesnt limit Yahoos liability - one of several contrasts to a settlement reached in March by online search engine leader Google Inc. to resolve a class-action lawsuit over the same issue.

Googles financial commitment in its case, overseen by an Arkansas state court, is capped at $90 million. Thats a sliver of the $13.3 billion in ad revenue that the Mountain View, Calif.-based company has collected since 2001.

As much as $30 million of the Google settlement could be paid to the attorneys who filed the case.

Users of peer-to-peer file-sharing services may be sharing more than they bargained for, a former White House cybersecurity advisor warned last week.

Security researchers have found thousands of files with sensitive information by searching through file-sharing networks, said Howard Schmidt, chief executive officer at R&H Security Consulting. Schmidt, who has also worked as chief security officer for Microsoft, made the comments during an SDForum seminar in Palo Alto, California, last week.

Medical records, financial information, and router passwords have all popped up on P-to-P networks, often after users inadvertently share folders containing the data. People dont realize youre not just sharing your music, Schmidt said. Youre sharing your personal files.

Millions of U.S. households still use P-to-P services, though the practice of illegally downloading music from these services has been on the decline, according to the NPD Group research firm

And with all of those possible victims, criminals see an opportunity to search these networks for sensitive information, Schmidt said. These are real live search strings the bad guys are using: bank such-and-such statement for August, bank such-and-such May statement, account summaries, account stop payment, Internet scams, bank routing information, he said.

In keeping with an emerging trend in ad-supported CGM, a just-launched podcast service is offering audio content creators the chance to earn a cut of its ad revenues. Week-old TalkShoe, a free service that allows anyone to create audio podcast content or listen to it via phone, cellphone or VoIP, will offer its podcast hosts a percentage of revenue based on the number of people who listen in on their shows.

Were trying to connect people through a combination of voice and text, said TalkShoe CEO and founder Dave Nelsen, who noted that audio ads inserted within podcasts will be enabled roughly within the next 90 days.

The site currently runs Google AdSense text and banner ads targeted contextually according to show name, description and content category. However, added Nelsen, The larger revenue opportunity over time will come from the audio insertion into the podcast.

We have three clients right now that are exploring very seriously [advertising in TalkShoes podcasts], commented John Brady, president of marketing communications agency Brady Communications which is located in TalkShoes home base of Pittsburgh. A healthcare advertiser client of Bradys that sells supplements has expressed interest. That audio tag would be a nice non-traditional way to get the message out there, he continued.

Brady also anticipates corporate clients using the service to create their own podcasts for internal purposes or for B-to-B marketing. A product development company client might have each employee involved in the product cycle explain his role to help promote its services to potential clients.