A summary of search related news items that occurred this week including Microsoft to be the exclusive third party ad provider for CNBC.com, Ask launches AskEraser privacy feature, Mahalo, the human powered search engine has added social networking features, Movable Type releases open source version of their blogging platform, Flickr pro users now have  the option of seeing statistics of how their images are being accessed and used, and finally, Google is private testing a new knowledge sharing service called Knol.

Monday

• Microsoft Will Be Exclusive Ad Provider for CNBC.com - Greg Sterling reports that Microsoft has clinched a deal making them the exclusive third party provider of contextual and display advertising on CNBC.com, which reportedly has 2.6 million monthly uniques. Greg points out that while NBC and Microsoft already have a relationship, this deal is indicative of a bigger push by Microsoft for third party ad syndication.
  

• Ask Launches AskEraser - Ask has launched AskEraser, a new privacy feature that provides searchers with unprecedented control over their search activity data. Searchers can turn on AskEraser at any time and start searching with the confidence that search activity data will be completely deleted from the Ask.com servers within a number of hours. The project was announced earlier this year and Ask has been working hard to make sure that AskEraser hits on all key pieces of user data across all their servers and most importantly, is drop-dead simple for users. More information as well as how to use it on official Ask blog.

• Human Powered Search Engine Mahalo Goes Social - Human-powered search engine, Mahalo, has gone social in an update that now allows users to create profiles in which they can add information about themselves as well as share recommendations of links and search queries. Some of the new features include your profile can contain information about your other social networking profiles such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Pownce; you can recommend new links for Mahalo search results; you can track your submissions on Mahalo; you can discuss on any page on Mahalo, and of course, you can add friends and follow their activity on Mahalo, too. More at Mashable.
  
  
• Movable Type Goes Open Source - What has been expected for some time now has in fat come to pass as Movable Type goes open source with their blogging platform. TechCrunch suggests that this is a response to the success of Wordpress, the open-source blog-publishing software that is increasingly popular, especially among bloggers who like to tweak their own code. MT claims that the open source version has every feature in Movable Type 4.0 along with several new minor improvements and bug fixes.
  

• Flickr Add Stats for Pro Users - From Mashable, Flickr has added an option of statistics for Flickr pro users. This makes is easier to see how your images are being used by others such as slide shows or feed readers and then help you decide if you want to restrict that usage (or enhance it). Stats are updated once a day, and do not include your views of your own photos. Other Flickr members will not be displayed as referrers, and search engine referrers are counted as a group, which includes major engines Yahoo, Google, AOL, MSN, Ask.com and Live.com.
  

• Google To Launch Knol - Danny Sullivan provides an in-depth review of a new service Google is currently private testing - Knol, which stands for "a unit of knowledge." Google Knol is designed to allow anyone to create a page on any topic, which others can comment on, rate, and contribute to if the primary author allows. If Knol goes live, pages will be hosted by Google and authors will have the option to enable Google ads and share in revenue. Furthermore, the pages will be made available to be found through a Knol-specific search as well as through Google itself or via other search engines, as they won't be blocked from spiders. More details can be found via the official Google blog.