Global Web

Pinterest has raised $100 million in a round of funding led by Japanese company Rakuten, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, and other angel investors.  The goal is to use the funds to help improve Pinterest’s service and continue to attract new users.

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China is home to a staggering consumer base and Baidu, as we’ve previously reported, is no slouch when it comes to attempting different ways to take advantage of it. Now the wildly successful search engine company and social media entrepreneurs are looking to expand even further, offering Chinese audiences legal music downloads through the recently released Baidu Ting.

The Shanghai-based corporation previously offered listening experiences through Baidu MP3, a service that came under heavy fire for its reliance on directing users to copyright-infringing websites. Baidu’s new music offering looks to rectify this mistake by starting off with a sturdy foundation: the support of several major labels.

Warner Music, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group have all signed an agreement that will allow Baidu’s social music platform to provide users with a wide selection of content without breaking the law. These companies will receive payment in exchange for Ting’s ability to host an extensive streaming and downloadable catalog.

Luckily the service itself is, apparently quite good, offering a number of handy features. Baidu Ting comes equipped with music browsing and streaming, free downloads, popularity charts and social networking aspects like personalized playlists and more.

While Baidu Ting looks to have the recipe for success set in place, the company will still have to compete with existing Chinese music services in order to eke out its share in the highly competitve market.

Want to take a look at Baidu Ting for yourself? Either know/learn how to read Chinese or take a stroll through a horrendous, automatic translation!

Google aims to eliminate the language barrier faced by users who wish to share messages of support for earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged Japan with its launch of Messages for Japan, which serves the dual purpose of automatically translating posts into Japanese and helping to raise funds for the country’s recovery efforts.

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The debut of the 2011 Tribeca (Online) Film Festival offers a chance for film enthusiasts from all over the world to experience a film festival, utilizing the latest digital video and web technology. The concept is to “deliver an immersive, interactive experience unlike any other, re-contextualizing Festival content and presentation.”

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Didn’t make the cut for the Royal Wedding guest list? Fear not: Yahoo! has you covered. The Royal Wedding website, which launched Monday, is an extension of women’s lifestyle site Shine from Yahoo!.

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YouTube announced the launch of the YouTube Person Finder, a channel dedicated to video messages from victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. More from product marketing manager Tai Hasegawa via the YouTube Blog:

We’re in the process of adding more than 80 video messages shot at the shelters by TBS, a major TV station in Japan, and we’ll try to increase the number of videos by adding more content from other TV stations and news network in the coming days.

We’re also trying to include videos shot by the individuals impacted themselves, but we have to wait until the infrastructure situation there recovers.

You can search for videos via the search box within the module: Enter the names of a missing person in Kanji, Katakana, or Hiragana letters (sorry Japanese letters only); the name of the place they lived; or the name of the shelter locations. You can also browse videos by Japanese alphabet on the playlist embedded within the video navigator in middle of the channel.

Our hope is that this channel will help victims and their families to establish each other’s safety, and that the video messages will reach many viewers and motivate them to contribute to the recovery and restoration of the disaster-stricken areas.

The Prime Minister’s Office of Japan established @JPN_PMO, an English-language Twitter account to supplement disaster information from Japanese-language @Kantei_Saigai, which was established March 13, Mashable reported.

@JPN_PMO had accumulated more than 8,000 followers at the time of this post. Information Tweeted includes evacuations, press conferences, and news about the overall welfare of Japan, according to Mashable.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will answer questions submitted by YouTube users in a live interview Wednesday, March 23, in a joint effort by YouTube World View and Israel’s Channel 2 News.

Questions must be submitted by midnight GMT Monday, March 21, and they can be in English or Hebrew. They can also be submitted via Twitter by using the #askNetanyahu hashtag.

LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/) announced the opening of a sales office in Paris to be led by newly appointed marketing director for Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Laurence Bret-Stern.

Bret-Stern joined the professional networking site from AOL, where she had been leading European marketing efforts.

The Paris office joins other LinkedIn outposts in London, Amsterdam, and Dublin.

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BBC News launched several online components for its coverage of Friday morning’s massive earthquake in Japan and the resulting tsunami in the Pacific Ocean.

Its coverage includes a live events page, featuring a video stream of the latest news; a wave map to help predict the height of waves throughout the region; a video page offering clips of the earthquake’s impact across Japan; and up-to-date analysis and updates on a reports page.