Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Thousands of HBO viewers who met over the Internet are beginning a campaign to bring the series “John From Cincinnati” back for a second season. The group, known as SaveJFC.net, plans to take out a full-page ad in The Hollywood Reporter. HBO canceled the series this summer.  (http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Entertainment/2007/09/25/fans_campaign_to_save_cincinnati/8637/ 9/25)

Talk about how a brand lives online.  This is pretty amazing.  So far, the group has raised just under $5K in their attempt to take out a full-page ad in the Hollywood Reporter.  Those are some dedicated fans right there.

The witness list for the U.S. Senate hearing on Google’s proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of advertising firm DoubleClick doesn’t include any critics of the deal from among advertising and media companies. People are said to be “afraid of going against Google.” (http://www.nypost.com/seven/09262007/business/search_party.htm 9/26) 

Brian McAndrews, the head of Microsoft’s recently acquired Internet advertising company aQuantive, says he intends to beat Google’s DoubleClick. Microsoft aims to provide advertisers with a log of all the online locations where people see ads before going to advertisers’ Web sites. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/technology/26adco.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1190837600-8+i+lze5v4rYFZTiF7LByA 9/26) 

Facebook is overtaking MySpace for the first time in the United Kingdom in terms of the number of unique visitors, according to figures from Nielsen/NetRatings. The new ranking is “extraordinary” considering that, at the end of 2006, Facebook was one fifth the size of MySpace. (http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2199523/facebook-more-friends-myspace 9/26)

Steve Case, the co-founder of AOL, is backing a new online payment company, Revolution Money, which promises to let users transfer funds for free and offer a credit card with lower fees for merchants. Revolution Money will go up against online payment systems such as eBay’s PayPal. (http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2543203820070926 9/25) 

NBC Universal is realigning its digital operations abroad to reflect a greater priority on digital strategy and to position the company for growth in the area. The reorganization will be structured in two parallel strands: new-media licensing and digital assets. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i8a80cd781df0f1abce5115c6ee15cbcd 9/26) 

Compensating talent for work distributed online is central to current contract talks with writers. “The more it looks like television is migrating to the Internet, the more important it is that writers are covered,” says Patric Verrone, head of the Writers Guild of America, West. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-digitalstudios26sep26,1,3508203.story?ctrack=2&cset=true 9/26) 

WPP Group is joining in a $12 million round of funding for blog and social network tracking service Visible Technologies, which allows clients to monitor their online reputations — and get a read on how they are perceived by consumers — on search engines, blogs and social networks. (http://www.adweek.com/aw/national/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003646350 9/25)

TV Guide Broadband, an ad-supported video service offering entertainment-focused content, has signed a distribution deal with Comcast’s portal site. The service will also be available via Hulu, the joint video venture between News Corp. and NBC Universal. (Multichannel News 9/25) 

Meanwhile two digital music competitors are officially closing their doors for good. Online retailer AnywhereCD is holding a going out of business sale blowing out every MP3-based album in stock for $7. The site, which had only Warner Music as a supplier, offered DRM-free tracks only to those customers who also bought the CD of the same album. Meanwhile Virgin Digital stopped selling new songs and is going away for good on October 19. U.S. users have the option to transfer Virgin credits to Napster.

In taking a quick peek on the site, users can find everything from Stevie Nicks to Gnarls Barkley for $7 which includes a CD AND digital mp3 files.  The variety isn’t awe-inspiring but it’s worth checking out.  Your music will upload into iTunes automatically.

Anywhere CD 

Friendster has released a Chinese-language version of its social network, integrating it with the English-language URL to make it easy for English and Chinese speakers to interact with one another. More than 35 million of Friendster’s 50 million unique users are based in China, according to comScore.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo subpoenaed Facebook after setting up a sting operation testing to see how the site responds to sexual predators. Investigators set up profiles purporting to be 12-14 year old kids, and within a week they were contacted by predatory older users. In several instances, Facebook ignored written complaints to look into the matter, according to Cuomo’s office.

Layoffs are said to have started at AOL, with a number of middle managers let go Tuesday afternoon. The Time Warner Internet unit last week announced plans to move its headquarters to New York from Dulles, Va. “We’ll be scaling back parts of the business,” says chief Randy Falco. (http://valleywag.com/tech/rumormonger/aol-layoffs-begin-today-303637.php 9/25) 

Fashion designer Giorgio Armani is opening up shop in virtual world Second Life, with a store modeled on his flagship location in Milan. Armani will send an avatar of himself to celebrate the opening of the store. “Finally, I can really be in two places at once,” he says. (http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSHAR64832020070926 9/26)

Sugar Publishing, a social network and group of women-focused blogs, plans to acquire ShopStyle, an ecommerce site. The price is not being disclosed. Sugar Publishing is also changing its name to Sugar Inc. The company is backed by Sequoia Capital and NBC Universal. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/25/sugar-publishing-acquires-shopstyle/ 9/25)

Time Inc.’s Fortune and Money business magazines plan to contribute several hours of video news to the company’s CNN Money Web site each day to lure users and advertisers. Also, the titles are considering a way to allow small-business owners to communicate with each other online. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aT2.4PSmL4f8 9/25)