But I am going to surprise him by telling him that I think he is so very clever today.

Why? He signed the obvious deal with social network Bebo to sell its display ads in the United Kingdom and Ireland, renew its search deal and add its excellent Answers product and market a branded toolbar.

Could this be a first kiss in a possible bigger deal, such as a Yahoo acquisition of Bebo, which has been rumored? The fact of the matter is that this pair, despite reports, have never held such talks.

That said, such a purchase would be a good one for Yahoo. Provided, of course, that its CEO Jerry Yang got it into his mind to do something bold and initiate a possible game-changer. (Sorry, Toby, I know you think I am being mean again, but the truth hurts!)

While Yahoo cannot hope to buy either MySpace or Facebook (too pricey), what it could do with a smaller, less expensive and internationally oriented site like Bebo, especially when integrated with some of Yahoo’s better properties, could be interesting and even invigorating for the company.

Bebo, which runs behind powerhouses MySpace and Facebook in the U.S., is a little engine that could in Britain and Ireland, where it dominates the market with 11.6 million members.

The ad deal is exclusive and, while the parties did not say so in their joint statement, is likely to be along the lines of those handing-out-the-candy-to-social-networks guaranteed ad arrangements both Facebook and MySpace have signed (with Microsoft and Google, respectively). This is Yahoo’s first plunge into this game.

Under terms of the deal, Yahoo will sell Bebo’s display ads in the U.K. and Ireland, leaving Bebo to concentrate more on ad sales for its innovative original entertainment offerings, like its “KateModern” and the more recently announced “Sofia’s Diary.”

Yahoo’s own most innovative property, Answers, a community-based knowledge service, will be integrated into Bebo. And the pair will develop and distribute the Bebo toolbar, which will let its users get info about their Bebo accounts when not on the site. Yahoo also renewed its deal to provide search on Bebo.

Neither Coppel, who is managing director of Yahoo Europe, nor Joanna Shield, Bebo’s president of international, were available for an interview, so I politely refuse to quote from their meaningless press release statements.

Still, here’s a post I did about Coppel (pictured here, as he refused to be the subject of my withering video camera lens) after a visit on a recent trip to London, as well as a post I did of Shields and her sharp team at Bebo there too (as well as a video posted below).

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

What can we say about AOL’s ad miss, reported in the New York Times today by Miguel Helft, except to quote an email I got from a former AOL executive today: “Ad sales and no surprises were the reason these guys were supposedly brought in.”

Oops. Indeed, more analysis of this issue tomorrow, but it’s not a very good sign for AOL head Randy Falco, the television guy brought in to inject a dose of ad savvy to the service.

AOL has had by necessity to move its business from a subscription model to one supported by ad sales, hoping to take advantage of the 90 million visitors to its sites every month.

Not quite yet, it seems. AOL execs are calling a recent decline in growth of its ad revenue, which was 40% in the previous quarter and is 16% in the most recent (compared to overall online ads in the U.S. that are expected to increase close to 29% this year), temporary and due to vast changes being made in its offerings.

Well, renovation must hurt, because AOL also lost ad market share year over year.

Another big destination, Yahoo, is suffering from the same problem, with a falloff in ad growth and also market share (only Google, which is a horse of a different color from a portal perspective, is gaining). The culprits are small sites gaining ads, as well as savvier marketers looking for better results.

Top O’ the Blogging to You!

Walt and I are considering a European edition of our D: All Things Digital conference, which we are calling EuroD, as you might know from my various posts from our trip to the Emerald Isle recently to scope out sites.

While there, we met the Irish Times’ very sharp tech reporter, John Collins, to talk about the project. He did a nice story then and last week did a very nice post about BoomTown, too.

Here is one of the many videos I did from there with Walt, where we visit Dublin Castle and Walt turns into a tour guide:

MIT Geeks Continue to Invent Scary Geeky Stuff

And here is a great video by The Wall Street Journal’s Jennifer Saranow about some new stuff being created at MIT’s Media Lab’s Computing Culture Group.

Projects include an energy-consuming meter worn on the thigh that shocks you when you use too much (for those, its inventor notes, “with global-warming guilt”) and a jacket that also delivers a jolt to those who seek to mug its wearer. Ouch all around!

You can see videos of Walt Mossberg and me undertaking that arduous effort (visits to Dublin Castle, fancy hotels in the city of Dublin, a stroll in the streets and a trip to the Wicklow Mountains to see a bit of the lovely Irish countryside.

But we also went to visit the Dublin offices of Google, which has its biggest facility–outside of its Mountain View Googleplex headquarters in California–here in the Docklands section of the city, with 1,300 employees. We got a tour of the facility from John Herlihy, who is director of online sales and operations for Google’s European operations.

The search giant has grown its presence here in Ireland, like a lot of other U.S. Web and tech companies, including Dell, Apple, eBay, Amazon, IBM and many others, because of its educated and multinational population and the country’s digitally friendly government.

Here’s a video of our tour by Herlihy, where we talked about innovation in Europe, explored new Web trends and, of course, encountered those same annoying exercise balls as at Google’s California HQ. While futile, I know, it is my personal goal to eliminate them entirely from the corporate ethos for their sheer irksome “Googley-ness.”

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

After visiting Dublin Castle and then perusing fancy hotels in the city of Dublin and then strolling the streets, Walt Mossberg and I head out to the Wicklow Mountains to see a bit of the lovely Irish countryside.

It’s the last stop on venue visits for us, to see a different kind of experience that is out of the city in a more rural setting. So we visited the construction site for a new Ritz-Carlton on the Powerscourt Estate, near the adorable village of Enniskerry, about 40 minutes south of Dublin.

Walt and I are here in Ireland, because our D conference might be going international.

After our success with our annual flagship version, which just took place for the fifth time in late May in Carlsbad, Calif. (D6 is scheduled be held in late May of 2008), we are deciding whether to expand by adding a new conference outside the U.S.

If we do it, we hope to hold the first one next fall and are strongly considering Dublin as the location of the event, which we are calling EuroD. We like Dublin for a lot of reasons, including its fast-growing tech sector.

Here’s the next video:

After visiting Dublin Castle and then the fancy hotels in the city of Dublin, Walt Mossberg and I take to the streets of the city to check out the scene and also sample the local fare.

Walt and I are here in Ireland, because our D conference might be going international.

After our success with our annual flagship version, which just took place for the fifth time in late May in Carlsbad, Calif. (D6 is scheduled be held in late May of 2008), we are deciding whether to expand by adding a new conference outside the U.S.

If we do it, we hope to hold the first one next fall and are strongly considering Dublin as the location of the event, which we are calling EuroD. We like Dublin for a lot of reasons, including its fast-growing tech sector.

Here’s the next video:

So we sucked it up and headed to see the recently renovated and quite historic hotel, the Shelbourne, as well as the Four Seasons, where we are staying. (Our annual flagship D conference has been held for five years at the Four Seasons Aviara in Carlsbad, Calif., and will be again in late May of 2008.)

Both luxury hotels are obviously lovely, and present different experiences–one more urban and the other slightly out of the city center.

Walt and I are here in Ireland, because our D: All Things Digital conference might be going international.

After our success with our annual flagship D, which just took place for the fifth time in late May (D6 is scheduled be held in late May of 2008), we are deciding whether to expand by adding a new conference outside the U.S.

If we do it, we hope to hold the first one next fall and are strongly considering Dublin as the location of the event, which we are calling EuroD. We like Dublin for a lot of reasons, including its fast-growing tech sector.

So, here is our second video of our efforts to decide where to hold EuroD, if we end up doing it.

And, as at Dublin Castle, the venues are much fancier than we are:

Our D: All Things Digital conference might be going international.

We have had a lot of success with our annual flagship D, which just took place for the fifth time in late May in Carlsbad, Calif. (D6 is scheduled to be held in late May of 2008.)

This past year was particularly memorable, especially because of the joint interview Walt and I did with longtime rivals and tech legends, Apple’s Steve Jobs and Bill Gates of Microsoft (pictured here, but you can see the highlights video of the interview here).

Thus, we are on what you might call a fact-finding mission, to see if we should make the leap and expand our successful conference brand by adding a new conference with a focus outside the United States.

So, here’s a longish video, with others to follow, of our quest (along with D staffers Lia Lorenzano and Jill Pendergast) to decide on where we would hold EuroD.

First up, a visit to the historic Dublin Castle (circa 1204), where we might hold part of the event and where we are woefully outclassed by the tony surroundings:

A focus on international digital issues is something we all need to do more of in the tech space, considering most of the growth and perhaps innovation will be coming from all over the world in the years ahead. We hope to bring together both U.S. and international tech figures onstage, and are aiming to have the same multinational audience.

We will not decide on whether to move ahead quite yet. But, if we do, we hope to hold the first one next fall and are strongly considering Dublin as the location of the event, which we are calling EuroD (although we also hope to bring D to other parts of the world if we can someday).

While the Irish Development Agency Ireland (IDA Ireland) has been a sponsor of D for the past two years, we’re more interested in the city for its charm, easy access and, most of all, because of its growing tech sector.

That includes both local companies, as well as a clutch of U.S. ones with major facilities here, such as Intel, Microsoft, HP, Apple, Google, Amazon.com and Palm. They’re attracted by a highly educated population and a government intensely interested in developing its digital industry.

In fact, its Taoiseach–the Irish title for the leader of government–Bertie Ahern has been particularly aggressive in pushing for things like broadband and other moves to improve the country’s prospects.

The booming economy is obvious to anyone, evidenced by a plethora of new businesses, stores and all the construction now taking place around the small but bustling city.

Nonetheless, we press on and serve up some interesting items from around the Web–this time with a Euro-focus.

First observation: If you want to make a friend abroad, carry an iPhone. They are not for sale here yet, as deals between Apple and major European telecoms are still pending.

But Apple is likely to sell the iPhone here later in the year, with one of the major carriers, which include Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile, France Telecom’s Orange or ultra-hip Telefónica’s 02.

Until then, with it visible in my hand, I made about 53 new friends at Heathrow Airport where I was changing planes. I also scored free first-class champagne from the stewards on board British Airways for giving them a test run of the device.

Most people treated the phone as if it were Paris Hilton suddenly appearing in their midst, with a lot of pointing and gaping at it, as I watched the first season of NBC’s “Heroes” I had downloaded. (Save the cheerleader, indeed! From her creepy adopted Dad is more like it!)

And I could elicit visible oohs when I kept shifting the screen vertically and horizontally, as if I were performing some sort of “Harry Potter” magic.

Since I am in Ireland, here is a link to an Irish blogging site talking about the iPhone.

And check out the video Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert did especially for Philippe Dauman’s appearance at D5 this year–his impression of using an iPhone midway through skewers the ridiculous fascination with the iPhone perfectly.

And there’s a race here to figure out which European companies will be the best imitations of hugely popular sites in the U.S., such as Facebook and YouTube. Of course, both those companies are here on their own aggressively and hope to keep their share in Europe as strong.

Next week, I will be visiting the London offices of social-networking site Bebo, which has a strong presence in Britain and was rumored to be entertaining offers from Yahoo.

There are scads of other social networks here that are likely to get bought up by the big ones. And while MySpace is increasing its dominance here too, it is much more of a race than in the U.S.

There are a lot of YouTube wannabes here too, of course, like France’s Dailymotion, which has a lot more esoteric stuff, as well as boatloads more explicit nudity (one of the more popular videos on the site today, for example, is all you want to know about a particular woman’s body part).

Here’s an interesting animated video on Dailymotion from Britain called “Solar,” as an example of the fare:

And, of course, there is a recently launched European Commission channel on YouTube itself, called–of course–EUtube.

It got into a little controversy (and got lots of traffic), when it posted this short video on sex scenes from European films (here’s the link, as it is a bit racy with a very funny tag line at the end).

Of course, because it is Europe, the European Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr brushed off the prudishness: “The European Union is not a Bible belt, we believe in freedom of expression and artistic creativity.”

Most of the channel is more tame, like this depressing video about AIDS, which has been viewed 150,000 times.

Hopefully, I will find a Web connection in my travels there to post really interesting videos I did last week with Business.com’s Jake Winebaum and Polaris VC Mike Hirshland for tomorrow.

May the road rise to meet you!