Since Microsoft introduced the browser ballot screen for European users of Windows 7, the downloads of the Opera browser have increased substantially, and we suspect it’s the same with the other browsers as well.

Opera revealed that the amount of downloads doubled since Win 7 debuted in Europe, and from some countries, it even tripled. We’d love to see how the rest of the browsers compare, with Chrome, Safari and Firefox, which each should have seen quite an increase in downloads as well.

It has been reported that Google is looking to launch a TV service, with a set top box made in partnership with Intel, Sony and Logitech, and the software will reportedly be Android.

This will pit Google up against Apple in another segment, as Apple has its Apple TV, which hasn’t really been doing that great for years. In fact, Google TV might just spark Apple to evolve its TV product the same way it evolves its Macs and iPods.

PowerReviews, which offers customer review technology for e-tailers, has announced that it raised $6 million from Menlo Ventures and Tenaya Capital, bringing the total investment in the company to $30 million.

The company has recently launched a few new products for online retailers, which, in addition to reviews, can now also post reviews on Facebook.

Tracking and estimating corrects web statistics isn’t particularly easy, there are plenty of trackers — Compete, Alexa, Hitwise — each with their own systems and their own rankings. Google.com has long been known as the most visited site in the US, but now, according to Hitwise, it’s been pushed to second place, with Facebook now at the top spot. Yahoo Mail is third and Yahoo is fourth.

Sonos, makers of home theater solutions (and some good ones, too), has announced that they’ve raised $25 million in Venture Capital from Index Ventures Partners, bringing the total funding Sonos has got to $65 million.

The company makes home theater and music solutions, and have recently launched an iPhone application where users can control their home theaters from their phones.

Apple has finally opened the gates for pre-ordering their upcoming tablet, iPad. The new device, which pretty much works as a much larger iPhone and is build on the same platform, retails from $500. And while all iPhone apps will be compatible with the iPad, the new device will give media publishers a new platform to distribute their magazines, and, especially ebooks.

The iPad will ship to customers on April 3.

Lucid Imagination has announced that the company has raised $10 million in a Series B round of VC funding from Shasta Ventures with Granite Ventures, and Walden International.

Lucid was launched in 2005 and offers a search technology based on open source platforms. Its product is used at Zappos, Nike and Netflix, among others. The latest round of funding brings the total amount to $18 million.

Search engine Evri has acquired competitor Radar Networks, after Radar Networks has been trying to find a buyer for the past few months. Both companies are funded by Vulcan Capital, and while the price for the acquisition wasn’t revealed, it’s suspected to be an equity-based transaction, meaning little or no cash changed hands. radar Networks is mostly known for making Twine, a semantic web application.