Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
IAC/InterActiveCorp is launching a comedy news site as part of its broader push into online media and entertainment. The site, 236.com, a partnership with the political site the Huffington Post, plans to satirize people in the news through funny articles, videos and photos. (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119457984441687652.html 11/9)
Best line on the site (in reference to Facebook’s new ad strategy): And who wouldn’t love to share a few laughs with a bag of Doritos?
NBC is said to be in talks to acquire Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz’s high-profile Web offering Quarterlife.com ahead of its Sunday debut on MySpace. The Internet series might be used by the broadcast network as strike-contingency programming. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3idd293825dd51c45c92a1eb6066d86e2d 11/9)
Quarterlife Trailer
In the uphill effort to dent Google’s dominance over online search, some challengers, like Ask.com, have tried to raise awareness by spending heavily on ads. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) layers on a different approach: try Live Search and you just might win a prize. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-microsoft-offers-prizes-in-return-for-trying-its-live-search-tool 11/8)
We mentioned this briefly in the earnings report yesterday, but now more details: AOL has divested itself of Wildseed, a company which developed intelligent faceplates for mobile phones and was bought by AOL for an undisclosed sum two years ago. In parent company Time Warner’s 10Q (PDF) it reveals it has transferred the assets of Wildseed LLC (“Wildseed”), a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL, to a third-party. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-aol-ditches-mobile-faceplates-company-wildseed 11/8)
Despite some economic weakness, and diminished display ad spending from the mortgage industry, online ad spend will be up 26.8 percent over last year-$21.4 billion-accounting for 7.4 percent of the total ad spend, according to the latest forecast from eMarketer. And online ad spend is still on track to attract one in every 10 dollars spent in 2008. Gazing further ahead, online’s part of the pie could reach at least 13 percent by the end of 2011 with a total ad spend of $42 billion. More near term, eMarketer predicts that Q4 ad spend will hit $6 billion. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-interview-david-hallerman-emarketer-despite-economic-weakness-online-ad 11/8)
Hours after a brutal shooting in Finland left nine people dead, YouTube removed the alleged gunman’s videos and profile page. Some observers point out that the video-sharing site is “a community” of users. “And they should be allowed to negotiate criteria for censorship.” (http://www.news.com/Should-YouTube-play-the-censor-and-sentinel/2100-1025_3-6217712.html 11/9)
Multiple pages on News Corp.’s MySpace are said to be hacked, including the page for Alicia Keys, the site’s fourth most-popular music artist. Visiting the page exposes visitors to an exploit that installs malware. Social-networking sites are said to be increasingly targets of attack. (http://www.informationweek.com/security/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=202804073 11/8)
The New York Post’s iconic gossip column, Page Six, is hiring staffers to launch an ambitious Web site heavy on photos and video — much like TMZ.com, the hit celebrity gossip site co-owned AOL. “The dumbing down of the culture is a competitive field,” notes TMZ exec Alan Citron. (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_47/b4059086.htm 11/19)
San Francisco media company CNET is acquiring FindArticles.com in an all-cash deal worth $20.5 million from online advertising firm LookSmart. FindArticles.com houses some 11 million resource articles from 3,000 sources, including magazines, trade publications and newspapers. (http://venturebeat.com/2007/11/08/cnet-buys-findarticlescom-from-looksmart-for-205-million 11/8)
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