The HowStuffWorks website was sold to Discovery Communications for $250 million. HowStuffWorks.com leverages the exclusive digital rights to over 30,000 books, 800,000 images and more than 180,000 maps and receives around 11 million monthly visitors.

Gifts.com, a site providing gift ideas and owned by IAC announced the acquisition of GiveFun.com, an online gift certificate provider.

Google acquired Jaiku.com for an undisclosed amount. Jaiku is a micro-blogging websites that has been a part of the recent Web 2.0 revolution. Jaiku’s site is an activity stream and presence sharing service that works from the Web and mobile phones.

MSNBC.com acquires Newsvine. Newsvine is a site that pioneered the social media and participatory news space. Offerings include contributor columns, user profiles, group commenting and conversation tracking.