Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Yahoo! is testing an experimental social network service called Mash that makes it easy for Yahoo users to share tidbits of their lives with friends and family online. The new service aims to compete with the likes of Facebook, Bebo News Corp.’s MySpace and Google’s Orkut. (http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1627585720070917 9/17)

Up, there goes the neighborhood. . .  Do we really need yet another social networking site?  Users can add modules (or applications) to their own profile as well as to the profiles of their friends.  Personally, I don’t like this idea because I want to have control over the applications that I listed within my profile.  Yahoo! plans to open these modules to 3^rd party developers much in the way that Facebook has done with their applications.  My sense so far is that this new social networking site does not offer enough differentiation to grab hold of a large enough market share to become viable.

MTV Films plans to bring YouTube viral-video hit “Million Dollar Strong” to the silver screen. Mike O’Connell and Ken Jeong, who star in the satirical music video clip, are set to repeat their performances as a delusional rapper and his foreign exchange student friend. (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117972056.html 9/17) 

What’s It Gonna Be? Music Video

(Warning: Heavy language and sexual content.  Hey, it’s your office, not mine.)

Very funny concept.  There’s just something about a man in a full body silver jumpsuit.

The piracy-ravaged record industry has a new offer for consumers: SpiralFrog.com, a New York-based company, which lets users download music in exchange for watching ads as they navigate the site. The first-of-its-kind service offers a library of 800,000 songs. (http://www.nypost.com/seven/09172007/business/spiralfrog_blending_ads__onlin.htm 9/17)

Seattle-based BuddyTV, a TV community site, is being acquired by Comcast. BuddyTV took a loan of $250K from the Charles River Ventures’Quick Start Seed Funding program back in May, before taking a $2.8 million inv*stm*nt from Gemstar-TV Guide this summer. The site competes with a wide range of TV-related blogs and communities, but co-founder Andy Liu told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer this summer that the site was receiving 3 million uniques per month and that it now has 20 employees. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-draft-comcast-buying-buddytvcom  9/16)

MySpace launched a new web series with Seventeen Magazine it hopes will attract more collegiate users. The companies are teaming up to produce Freshman 15, a web-based reality show following 15 girls as they start their college careers. Each girl will avidly update their MySpace profiles with party videos and gossipy blog entries, with Seventeen providing print coverage of their ordeals.

President Bush went around the filter of the traditional news media by holding a first-ever White House interview session with 10 bloggers who focus on military issues. “These are influential people who have a big following,” says White House communications chief Kevin Sullivan. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/15/AR2007091500759.html 9/15) 

Time Warner’s AOL is moving its corporate headquarters to New York City from Dulles, Va., and creating a new unit to help advertisers measure their effectiveness online. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aI.iub0aLu70 9/17)

The Screen Actors Guild extended SAG benefits to actors on the new online series Quaterlife, the web’s latest high profile project from producers Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick set to debut November 11 on MySpaceTV.com. The move is indicative of the guild’s commitment to add new media productions to its sphere of influence, insuring its members get SAG pay rates and benefits when working on digital productions. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-sag15sep15,1,1343974.story 9/15) 

Broadcasters including NBC and Fox are offering free sneak peeks of the pilot episodes of their new shows online. But the television industry is divided over whether distributing shows on the Web before they air on TV is a promotional boost or a move that cannibalizes ratings. (http://www.nypost.com/seven/09152007/business/click_to_watch.htm 9/15)

Former Vice President Al Gore collected an Emmy Award on Sunday for his fledgling youth-oriented cable network, Current TV. The network, which launched in 2005 with video clips and other short programs made by viewers, received the “interactive television services” Emmy. (http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1341763520070917 9/17)

Brightcove will cease developing its video portal, according to Adweek, choosing instead to focus on building up its other online video services. Brightcove.com user generated video content can now be seen on Brightcove.tv. 

Handheld Entertainment launched ZVUE Networks, an online video ad network offering advertisers pre- and post-roll ads, in-stream flash overlays, banner ads and other rich media options. After closing on its planned acquisition of eBaum’s World, ZVUE will rank as one of the top online video networks.

Microsoft is testing a new research service called Gatineau to offer targeted analysis to web advertisers, in direct competition with Google Analytics. The software will integrate with Windows Live and offer demographic segmentation, marketing campaign analysis tools and behavioral data features. Click here for a beta invite request.