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It’s finally over, or at least it will be by the end of the week.

The recruiting process for Jeannette, Pa., quarterback Terrelle Pryor, the nation’s No. 1 player, will end this week when he announces where he will play college football. Pryor has said publicly it is down to two schools, but won’t say which two. Here’s Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Mike Farrell’s take on the situation.

Pryor led his basketball team to a 76-72 overtime win over Strawberry Mansion in the Pennsylvania Class AA title game Saturday.
“I spoke to Terrelle late Sunday night after hearing about the Associated Press article where he said he was deciding this week,” said Farrell. “I knew he was going to say something about his football recruiting situation after that game, but wasn’t sure if he was going to narrow things down, give a date of his decision or what. We had discussed some things off the record; he just didn’t want it out there and he had some good reasons. I think he knew last week.”

The timing of the 6-foot-6, 235-pounder’s public comments shouldn’t be overlooked according to Farrell.

“Terrelle was hoping he would be playing for a state title in basketball on Penn State’s campus on Saturday, so there were certain things he didn’t want public last week and still doesn’t really want out there,” Farrell continued. “He has done his research. He has talked to the coaches - as well as players and recruits - from his top two teams. Now it seems like he’s ready to get it over with even though he has until April 1.”

Farrell feels the two schools he’s choosing between are obvious.

“To me, it’s Ohio State and Michigan,” Farrell said. “Had he eliminated Penn State before the basketball title game in State College, things could have gotten a little ugly or at least distracted the basketball team. There could have been some signs, some hecklers, just some general distractions that he didn’t want. I also don’t think he has ever wanted to disrespect Penn State in any way. Some of the things he’s said about Penn State like not liking the area and such, that’s just who he is ? he’s honest and tells it like it is. He loves coach Tom Bradley and has great respect for Joe Paterno, he’s always said that. I know he really wanted to win the state title and didn’t want his football issues to get in the way of things for his basketball teammates.”

Pryor scored 23 points and pulled down eight rebounds to lead his team to a 76-72 overtime win over Strawberry Mansion in the Class AA title game Saturday. Shortly thereafter, he told the AP he’s going to sign his letter of intent and end the recruiting process.

“He didn’t even remember saying that he narrowed it down to two or whatever and didn’t know who he said it to, but he said it was accurate,” said Farrell. “He has a great deal of respect for all the coaches that have recruited him, so he doesn’t want to say one team finished second or third. I expect to see four hats (Oregon, Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State) on the table if he does the hat deal when deciding, but he’s down to two for sure.

“He wouldn’t tell me which two though, and I didn’t press him,” Farrell said. “But look at it this way. He waited until after he finished his game at Penn State to make this announcement, and he was on campus strictly for hoops - which means he never took his planned official visit to Happy Valley. He has never been to Oregon, so that leaves Ohio State and Michigan.”

Ohio State and Michigan look to be the final two for Pryor.
Pryor will talk to the head coaches at his final two schools this week before deciding.

“He spoke to Joe Paterno Sunday night and I got the impression that coach Paterno was not one of those two head coaches,” Farrell said. “I think he talks to Rich Rodriguez and Jim Tressel this week, talks it over one more time with his family and then decides.”

Farrell said Pryor had hoped to visit Penn State as well as take day trips to Ohio State and Michigan with his mother before deciding.

“He said that’s not happening now,” Farrell continued. “He said it’s his decision and his parents are backing him all the way. Is there a chance he sneaks in a visit to Penn State between now and when he decides? There’s always that chance, but it didn’t sound like it was in the plans reading between the lines.”

If Penn State is truly out, is Pryor’s father, Craig, OK with that? After all, it was Craig who wanted his son to delay signing so Penn State could get an official visit.

“I think he wanted to take his time and make sure he was making the right choice,” Farrell said. “He respected his family’s input, which is why he held off on Signing Day. His dad wanted him to give another look to Penn State. I know Terrelle talked to a few Western Pennsylvania guys currently on Penn State’s team recently about the coaching situation up there and the atmosphere. He did some research on his own, and I think his dad is good with that.”

So if it’s Ohio State and Michigan, who wins?

“To me, I’d be stunned if he picked anyplace but Ohio State,” Farrell stated. “He did say he was still doing research on Michigan and that he didn’t know, as of Sunday night, where he was going. But I think he’s pretty sure. He took that one-day trip to Ohio State for a basketball game recently, and he’s friendly with Ohio State signees like Michael Brewster and J.B. Shugarts. He really likes the area, the coaching staff and everything. There have been stunning decisions before and I’ve been wrong before, but Ohio State is my guess and has been for a long time.”

Did Pryor ever attempt to get to Penn State for that official visit?

“I think he was going to take it the same weekend his father, Craig, had emergency heart surgery a couple of weekends ago,” Farrell said. “There was a small window of opportunity to visit Penn State, but it didn’t happen.”

As for a date for the decision, Pryor indicated to Farrell he was still unsure of the particulars.

“I got a text from him Monday morning telling me I’d know when he does,” Farrell said. “He’s trying to work that out with his coach and principal. It is looking like it will be either Thursday or Friday of this week. He knows he’s going to have to do a news conference, although he’d rather just pick a school and end this.

“A lot of people said he did this for the attention, but I know that’s not true. He barely spoke to any media following Signing Day and some of the criticism really hit him hard. Once he decided to delay his decision, he wanted to wait until basketball was over to choose. It’s over now, and it’s decision time.”

And so the Terrelle Pryor saga, arguably the most hyped college football recruiting decision in history, is coming to an end.

Google plans to make an unspecified number of job cuts at DoubleClick Inc following the closing of its $3.1 billion acquisition of the advertising technology company.

“An immediate task we’ll undertake over the next few weeks is matching and aligning DoubleClick employees with our organizational plan for the business,” Google said in a blog post.

“As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount. We expect these to take place in the US and possibly in other regions as well,” the company said. DoubleClick has 1,500 employees. Outside of the United States, Google will begin consultations with employee organizations on potential job reductions in line with local laws, it said.

Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer pledged that the company would gain share against Google Inc in online advertising and Web searching, even if it’s his “last breath” at the company.

“So it may be my last breath at Microsoft, but we’re going to be there, working away, building share,” said Ballmer during a bantering question-and-answer session with Guy Kawasaki, a venture capitalist and one of the first employees at Apple Inc.”In online, yeah, it’s Google, Google, Google, and we’re in the game. We’re just the little engine that could,” joked Ballmer, whose company is the world’s largest software maker.

In the wide-ranging chat with Kawasaki, Ballmer addressed criticism about Windows Vista, launched a few subtle jabs at Apple, and even re-enacted an infamous dance that earned him Web video fame and earned him the unflattering nickname of “Monkey Boy” in some Internet circles.

“We’ve made an offer, and it’s out there, baby,” said Ballmer. The deal was originally worth $44.6 billion, but Microsoft’s stock slide has pushed down its value. The Microsoft CEO said if a deal should go through, the two companies will look to reduce overlapping areas.”We shouldn’t have two of everything. It won’t make sense to have two search services, two advertising services, two mail services, and we will have to sort some of that through,” said Ballmer.

Kawasaki did not hesitate to bring up past embarrassing moments for Ballmer, including references in an lawsuit that claimed Ballmer threw a chair at a former employee who said he was leaving Microsoft for Google. “Don’t pick up a chair and throw it at me,” Kawasaki said with a laugh. “Don’t go monkey on me either.”

I know we can’t always expect our friends in New York to stay completely up to date on the latest Silicon Valley product developments. But Silicon Alley Insider’s report on a redesign and rebranding at Delicious is just a tad late. Like 6 months late (the screen shot they show is even dated August 2007).

It was announced and shown to the public last September along with word that the entire back end had been rewritten as well. And the rebranding of del.icio.us to delicious? Delicious.com has redirected to del.icio.us for at least a year.

The real question is when this will actually launch. We were teased in January on the delicious blog but the promised update never happend. Now it’s March and Yahoo is still silent on the issue.

Don’t think I’m being too hard on SAI. It’s one of my favorite blogs. And we have a history of friendly jabs at each other.

Facebook has been testing a new instant messaging service and will be launching it to the public soon, perhaps in the next week.

Our understanding is that the service will be built into user’s Facebook pages and allow them to web chat with their Facebook friends. We’ve also heard that, like Gtalk, it will be built on the Jabber open source platform, allowing users to add the service to many popular Instant messaging clients like Trillian (Windows) and Adium (Mac). I’d also expect web chat services like Meebo and eBuddy to add support for the service.

This spells trouble for a slew of instant messaging services that third parties have built on Facebook. Social.IM, for example, is one (funded) startup we’ve written about a couple of times. (As is FriendVox from UK startup Techlightenment). Those applications are now basically dead.

The timing on this certainly is interesting. Yesterday AOL talked extensively about marrying their AIM platform with their newly acquired Bebo social network.

There’s a screen shot of this floating around out there somewhere. We’re trying to get our hands on it now.

Update: I’m now hearing that this won’t be Jabber-compliant, at least at first. That means access will be Facebook only unless they create an API and/or third parties figure out a way to hack into the service as they’ve done with Yahoo, MSN and AIM in the past. Also, just to be clear, I have not heard that Facebook intends to launch any desktop software around this.

Japan has decided to beat France and the United Kingdom (both who have similar proposals) to become the first country to ban file sharers from the internet.

Oddly the agreement to do so has not come from the Japanese Government, but from Japan’s four internet service provider organizations after pressure (not surprisingly) from the record and movie industries. According to Torrent Freak, the agreement would see copyright holders tracking down file-sharers on the Internet using “special detection software” and then notifying ISPs of alleged infringers. File sharers will initially receive a warning for a first offense, then be disconnected for subsequent offenses, eventually be disconnected from the internet permanently (it wasn’t clear whether the agreement is a three strikes proposal).

The process will formally commence in April and will primarily target users of Winny, the most popular file sharing network in Japan.