Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

HBO on Demand has given its web site a bit of a creative overhaul.  Added video functionality and a more creative user interface.

Google unveiled Sky, providing images of the heavens from several third party science organizations here on Earth. Google Earth users will be able to see as many as 100 million individual stars and 200 million different galaxies through high-resolution cameras pointed into space. Like Google Earth, the user interface allows dragging, zooming and scanning. To try it out, download the latest version of Google Earth.

A user can check out images from the Hubble Telescope of animate the orbits of the planets.  Oh yeah, I was one of those kids that watched Space Camp, thereafter convinced of my future as an astronaut.  Now at least, I can pretend on Google Earth.  Nicely done Google.  Very nice indeed.

(Below) This sure sounds like it would be annoying and intrusive to me the viewer.  Monetization good.  Frustrating the viewer bad.

YouTube finally unveiled its plans to use in stream overlay ads on its video sharing site. The semi-transparent ads, which appear on the bottom fifth of the video player, begin to appear 15 seconds into a clip and last up to 10 seconds. User can click on an ad to pull up a separate video trailer. Advertisers can use the system to target viewers by age, s#x, geography, daypart and even video genre. Google will sell the InVideo ads at a rate staring at $20 per thousand impressions, initially only to partner video makers. Also, the ads will only come up when the videos are played on YouTube.com. (Computerworld/IDG News Service 8/23)

Vloggers on YouTube are increasingly meeting offline in informal gatherings across the country. Members are curious to get a real-life look at many of the faces they know only through webcams. A YouTube meet-up held in New York on July 7 drew several hundred attendees. (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070822/on_the_net.html 8/22)

Facebook is quietly working on a new advertising system that will let marketers target users with ads based on the massive amounts of information people reveal on the site about themselves. The ad plan is said to be the company’s top priority. (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118783296519606151.html 8/23) MySpace and MTV are partnering to launch the first ever interactive, real-time Presidential dialogue series. The inaugural dialogue will begin with former Senator John Edwards in New Hampshire on Thursday, September 27, webcast live on MySpaceTV and MTV.com. (Sen. Edwards is the first of 11 candidates confirmed to participate.) Viewers can participate by uploading videos, participating in real-time polling and chatting via instant messaging. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070823/tc_afp/lifestyleinternettelevisionpoliticscompanymyspacemtv 8/23)

“Afterworld,” an online animated series debuting today on MySpace, marks one of the most ambitious Internet shows to date, with a budget of some $3 million. The production spans 130 episodes, each lasting two to three minutes. The show is free and supported by advertising. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-afterworld23aug23,1,1291316.story?ctrack=1&cset=true 8/23)

All of these episodes are currently available on YouTube.  Not exactly exclusive.

Playboy is getting into the social networking craze with PlayboyU.com, a new attempt to market to the student body in the language it is most comfortable with. It’s free to join, but enrollment is by invite only and limited to college students with .edu email address. Not unlike Facebook, it is all about letting your friends know how much of a party animal you are, allowing users to upload photos, videos and messages visible to only those within your group. Playboy says it will keep nudity off the site but not necessarily scantily clad women and will do its best to bar non-student campus personnel from joining. (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070822/playboy_college_students.html 8/22)

Social video networking site Broadcaster.com debuted new “remote video” embeddable tags allowing users to integrate live video streams into their personal profile pages.

Goldstone Technologies entered into an agreement with US-based Echelon Studios to boost its video library content for its Video-on-Demand subscribers. The revenue-sharing arrangement will add more than 3,500 Echelon titles to the IPTV service, available in several Asia Pacific countries. 

PBS Kids Sprout relaunched its website adding preschooler generated content, parent blogs, new casual games and other web 2.0 features. For instance, “My Refrigerator” allows preschoolers and their families to create a virtual refrigerator displaying their photos and artwork, which can be sent via email to their friends and other family members.

Robert Greenwald, the director of the documentary “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism,” is joining with independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders to start an online viral video campaign calling on television news outlets not to follow Fox News Channel “down the road to war again.” (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070823/ap_en_tv/tv_fox_iran 8/22)

Ticketmaster, the largest U.S. ticket seller, says it is not able to reach a new agreement with its largest client, concert promoter Live Nation, which generates much of its revenue. Ticketmaster is a key driver of profit growth at IAC/InterActiveCorp, the Internet firm controlled by Barry Diller. (http://www.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUSN2220150020070823 8/23)

A new global survey of consumer digital media habits by the IBM Institute for Business Value found that the internet is severely cutting into TV-watching time. Among respondents, 19 percent stated spending six hours or more per day on personal Internet usage versus 9 percent who reported the same levels of TV viewing. One to four hours of TV usage was reported by 66%, compared with 60% for the Web. Online and mobile video adoption is on the rise. Eighty-one percent surveyed said they’ve watched or want to watch PC video; 42 percent indicated they’ve watched or want to watch mobile video. Social networking usage is also increasing rapidly across the world.
 
Top Ten Visited U.S. Broadcast Network TV Show Websites (week ending Aug. 18, 2007)
Rank       Network                 Website                     Mkt. Share of Visits
1              CBS              Big Brother 8                            29.84%
2              NBC              America’s Got Talent                 12.63%
3              FOX              So You Think You Can Dance       8.83%
4              FOX              American Idol                            3.50%
5              FOX              Hell’s Kitchen                             3.28%
6              FOX              America’s Most Wanted               3.06%
7              CBS              Pirate Master                             2.99%
8              FOX              The Simpsons                            2.11%
9              NBC              Deal or No Deal                          1.60%
10            ABC              Grey’s Anatomy                          1.58%
Source: Hitwise