Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Better late than never. Testifying in the high-profile Viacom-Google lawsuit on Friday, a Google lawyer told a federal judge that video fingerprinting technology should “hopefully” be available on YouTube by September, allowing the company to quickly identify and remove copyright-violating clips. It is the first time the company has set even a tentative date for the long-awaited filtering system. (http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135197-c,video/article.html 7/27)

Copies of NBC’s “Bionic Woman,” ABC’s “Pushing Daisies” and several other shows are already available for illegal download on Web sites such as Torrent Spy. Network reps are expressing surprise that the full-length pilots are on the Web and alerting their studio partners. (http://www.tvweek.com/news/2007/07/top_fall_pilots_leaked_online.php 7/29)

Can someone approve my application already?  I want in on this testing action.

The BBC launched its iPlayer for users who applied to be beta testers, laying the groundwork for full release in November. The player allows users to download full versions of most BBC shows up to 7 days after they originally air. Downloads can be saved on the user’s hard drive for up to 30 days before automatically expiring. The current version can only be used on computers running Windows XP though, excluding Mac and Vista user from the trial. (The New York Times/Reuters 7/27)

This would be even cooler they added video functionality was overlaid across the comic art.  Regardless, the graphics are brilliant.  I’m not a comic book fanatic but if I was, this would be pretty intriguing indeed.

MySpace and Dark Horse Comics launched a free online anthology series featuring the work of some of the best-known names in the fantasy/sci fi genre. The inaugural August issue of “MySpace Dark Horse Presents” includes Sugar Shock, from artist Fabio Moon and Buffy the Vampire Slayer showrunner Josh Whedon, as well as The Umbrella Academy, from artist Gabriel Ba and Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance.

An Internet video brainchild of three former University of California grad students is winning financial support from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Clear Channel co-founder Red McCombs. The moguls are backing Hotswap.com, which plans to bring e-commerce to Internet video. (http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2724266220070727 7/27)

Microsoft told analysts last week the company will focus more on web-based services and consumer devices in the future, according to reports, presumably taking pages from the playbooks of Google and Apple. Nearly every Microsoft software application will add web-based services within the next 3-10 years, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told analysts.

Kid-targeted music site Kidz Bop reported a huge increase in traffic following an upgrade that allowed kids to upload their own music videos to the site. Video streams, which totaled just 238,000 before the July 3 relaunch, increased ten-fold to 2.8 million. Kidz Bop also kicked off “Be a Kidz Bop Star,” a national talent search culminating in a live world tour this October.

This may be the most talented child dancer I’ve every seen in my life.  Here, Kendall dances to Beyonce’s Work It Out.  Ah, there’s nothing like a small child imitating Beyonce. . .[sigh]

Top U.S. Online Streaming Video Properties (By streams May 2007)
Property                Video Streams (million)  Share (%) of Video Streams                  
Total Internet                  8,357                    100.0%                                            
Google Sites                   1,796                    21.5%
Fox Interactive Media      680                       8.1%
Yahoo! Sites                    387                       4.6%
Viacom Digital                 237                       2.8%
Time Warner Network      185                       2.2%
Microsoft Sites                171                       2.0%
ABC.com                         100                       1.2%
Disney Online                 84                         1.0%
ESPN                              62                         0.7%
NBC Universal                 58                         0.7%
Source: comScore Video Metrix, July 2007

P2P video start up Babelgum launched a dedicated channel to highlight content from the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival running through August 3 in London. The festival showcases short films from both established filmmakers and newcomers, judging entries based on six categories. Babelgum will also provide access to a wide selection of films produced for past festivals.

Wikia, the commercial start-up of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, is acquiring Grub, a Web crawler that will enable his forthcoming search service to scour the Web to index relevant sites. Wikia aims to shift the balance of power “from the search companies back to the publishers.” (http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN272470320070727 7/27)

The New York Times is adding long-form sponsored videos to its Web site. The first videos, produced by FedEx, tell about five employees of the overnight delivery service from around the globe. The clips, running under five minutes each, are identified as “Video Advertisements.” (http://www.beet.tv/2007/07/the-new-york-ti.html 7/27)

The National Black Programming Consortium opened the application process for this year’s New Media Institute, a 6-week virtual workshop and one-week onsite residency digital training program for emerging and seasoned filmmakers. Projects will focus on creating content about the history of the Delta region and the impact of Blues in America. Applications will be accepted until August 22. 

Monster Worldwide, the world’s largest network of online job-hunting sites, said it will cut 800 jobs, or 15% of its staff, after reporting lower second-quarter profit. According to one analyst: “There’s concern about both the job environment and the strategic direction of the company.” (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=a.2oOArdhU4g 7/30)

The second annual gathering of the Daily Kos liberal political blog starts this week in Chicago. The YearlyKos convention has become so influential that five top presidential candidates plan to attend, including Hillary Clinton, even though the Kos bloggers “don’t like her that much.” (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/29/MNGRVR91RU1.DTL 7/29)