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Are emotional TV ads making a comeback in the age of the edgy, MTV-style spot? The answer appears to be yes, as Snap.com won an Emmy on Saturday for a heart-tugging spot in which a boy struggles to teach himself sign language so he can communicate with a deaf schoolmate. "New Friend" was produced by the Gartner agency in Santa Monica and created by NBC On-Air Promotions, the in-house agency for NBC, which is a part-owner of Snap.com.

Internet search engine Snap.com is hoping to expand its sparse audience by making Web surfing more like channel surfing on a TV, but the start-up might attract more attention with another change that further blurs the lines separating ads from listings retrieved by objective formulas. Under a new format to be unveiled today, Snap will lump search results financed by advertisers in the same column as non-paid Web links that are the most relevant responses to a user's request.

Internet search engine Snap.com is hoping to expand its sparse audience by making Web surfing more like channel surfing on a TV, but the start-up might attract more attention with another change that further blurs the lines separating ads from listings retrieved by objective formulas. Under a new format to be unveiled today, Snap will lump search results financed by advertisers in the same column as non-paid Web links that are the most relevant responses to a user's request.

People scoffed nearly a decade ago when Bill Gross proposed an online search engine that ranked results based on how much advertisers were willing to pay to have their links tied to specific requests. But the concept developed into a revolutionary idea that turned Internet search engines into massive moneymaking machines. Now Gross hopes to shake things up again with Snap.

San Francisco-based Snap.com, an Internet portal owned by NBC and CNet, will buy into a New Zealand firm and receive a limited exclusive licensing agreement for its customization and search technology, the companies will announce today. Snap.com will use the technology from GlobalBrain.net to develop Internet portal services that will serve a variety of affinity groups, demographic sets and geographical regions.

Home Box Office collected the most honors at Saturday's nighttime Emmy Awards presentation in Pasadena, including multiple statuettes for dramatic series "The Sopranos" and its movies "The Rat Pack" and "Winchell." Saturday's nontelevised event encompassed more than 50 categories, primarily in technical areas such as cinematography, editing and sound. An additional 27 awards, recognizing programs and performers, will be presented Sept. 12 and televised on Fox.

People scoffed nearly a decade ago when Bill Gross proposed an online search engine that ranked results based on how much advertisers were willing to pay to have their links tied to specific requests. But the concept developed into a revolutionary idea that turned Internet search engines into massive moneymaking machines. Now Gross hopes to shake things up again with Snap.

RealNetworks Inc. and Snap.com today will announce a distribution and content partnership that will pair the Internet's largest streaming audio and video company with the first Web portal focusing on people with high-speed Internet connections. RealNetworks' users searching for streaming media will be sent to a co-branded site on Snap.com, a venture between NBC and CNet Inc. Also, RealNetworks' directory listings and other content will be integrated into Snap.com's site.

Boston forward Glen Davis stated it simply Wednesday in assessing a Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals Game 7: "This is what the NBA wants. This is what the fans want." Included in the confirming evidence: Ticket demand and prices. StubHub.com reported Wednesday afternoon the most demand for NBA Finals tickets in the website's 10-year year history, with the average asking price of more than $1,100 a ticket double what it was for last year's Finals between the Lakers and Orlando Magic.

NBC Internet Inc. unveiled a restructuring and warned of lower-than-expected earnings and sales for the second quarter and the remainder of 2000 because of a soft advertising market from "dot-com" companies. Under the restructuring, all of NBC Internet's Web sites and products, including Snap.com, Xoom.com and VideoSeeker, will be combined under a single banner, NBCi.com. The site will debut in the fall.

Are emotional TV ads making a comeback in the age of the edgy, MTV-style spot? The answer appears to be yes, as Snap.com won an Emmy on Saturday for a heart-tugging spot in which a boy struggles to teach himself sign language so he can communicate with a deaf schoolmate. "New Friend" was produced by the Gartner agency in Santa Monica and created by NBC On-Air Promotions, the in-house agency for NBC, which is a part-owner of Snap.com.

San Francisco-based Snap.com, an Internet portal owned by NBC and CNet, will buy into a New Zealand firm and receive a limited exclusive licensing agreement for its customization and search technology, the companies will announce today. Snap.com will use the technology from GlobalBrain.net to develop Internet portal services that will serve a variety of affinity groups, demographic sets and geographical regions.

A deaf mother shares a cookie with her hearing-impaired son in a commercial for Oreos. In a spot for Johnsonville Sausage, a deaf boy uses sign language to explain how the smell of breakfast awakens him. A boy learns sign language to befriend a deaf classmate in a Snap.com ad. More and more commercials are using deaf actors. Advertisers say sign language is a powerful attention-getter.

Advertisers spent $19.1 billion pitching their products in the first quarter, a 4.6% increase over last year, a survey found, as the U.S. economy remained strong and Internet companies advertised more. General Motors Corp. was the leading advertiser, spending $622.7 million, a 16.4% increase, Competitive Media Reporting said. Pampers and Crisco oil maker Procter & Gamble Co. was the second-biggest advertiser, even though it cut its spending 10% to $393 million.