Google Inc will buy Israel-based Quicksee, whose software enables users to turn video into interactive virtual tours, for about $10 million, financial newspaper TheMarker said on Monday.

Officials at Quicksee declined to comment.

TheMarker said Quicksee’s technology is regarded as the missing link in Google’s Street View service, used by both Google Maps and Google Earth.

Internet search and advertising giant Google Inc fired an engineer in July for violating users’ privacy, the company said on Wednesday.

The engineer, David Barksdale, was accused of accessing information about teenagers he had met in a Washington state technology group, according to gossip website Gawker, which first reported the incident on Tuesday. Google would not confirm details of the firing.

Microsoft Corp. unveiled the “beta” test version of Internet Explorer 9 on Wednesday, the first of a new generation of Web browser programs that tap into the powerful processors on board newer computers to make websites load and run faster.

IE9, which is free, also arrives with a more minimalist look and a few new tricks that start to blur the distinction between a website and a traditional desktop application.

Following the lead of Google Inc.’s stripped-down Chrome browser, Microsoft’s IE9 comes with far fewer buttons, icons and toolbars cluttering up the top of the screen. Its frame is translucent, and as people browse the Web, IE9 can be subtly adorned with small icons and signature colors of the websites being viewed.

If you’re thinking of buying a 3-D television set this year based on the belief that you’ll be able to purchase a lot of the 3-D movies that have hit theaters in the past few years, think again.

U.K. research firm Screen Digest says more than 70 percent of the 25 3-D movies expected to be available this holiday season will be tied to the purchase of a TV from a certain manufacturer.

For example, a Sony 3-D TV buyer won’t immediately be able to watch DreamWorks Animation’s “How To Train Your Dragon” because that movie will be tied to the purchase of a set from Samsung Electronics Co. Meanwhile, the Walt Disney Co. said last week that home copies of its 3-D movies “Alice in Wonderland” and “Bolt” would be available exclusively to people who buy certain sets from Sony Corp.

Screen Digest says that so far, only three Hollywood movies, including Disney’s “A Christmas Carol,” and three documentaries will be available on retail shelves without being tied to a specific TV brand.