Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Amazon.com is rolling out a handheld electronic book-reading device, the Amazon Kindle, costing $399. In addition to downloading books, the Kindle also downloads subscriptions to newspapers, magazines and select blogs. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says: “This isn’t a device, it’s a service.” (http://www.newsweek.com/id/70983 11/26)

A new patent granted to Google, titled “Customization of Content and Advertisements in Publications,” suggests that the Internet giant may soon begin to offer users the ability to create customized, printed magazines from Internet content, along with customized advertising. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/19/google-magazine 11/19)

It looks as though Quarterlife creators Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick have managed to get their show on the air after all. NBC picked up the rights to broadcast, sell on DVD and stream the show in the U.S. and internationally, planning to premier it on air sometime in February or March after it completes its initial 36 webisode run on Yahoo TV. The deal breaks mold in various ways. It is the first primetime show to debut online then secure a network spot. (Herskovitz and Zwick first pitched Quarterlife to ABC 3 years ago, but the network ultimately passed on it.) Although NBC will contribute to production and development costs, the two producers will retain ownership and creative control of the show, according to reports. Finally, the show may be strike proof as it’s primarily an independently-financed online venture not subject to the strike embargo. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-quarterlife17nov17,1,1514429.story 11/17)

After watching the first episode, I was decidedly against.  That said, after four episodes, it’s now growing on me.

Yahoo shares rose on Friday on renewed speculation, sparked by blogger Henry Blodget, that the Internet company could be a takeover target for Microsoft. Blodget, a Wall Street analyst during the dot-com boom, is now banned from working in the securities industry. (http://www.reuters.com/article/hotStocksNews/idUSN1641176320071116 11/16)

Yahoo employees in Europe are being given until the first quarter of 2008 to revitalize poorly performing areas of their operations or face closure or sale. Yahoo is already considering “strategic options,” including a possible sale, for Kelkoo, its comparison shopping service. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21869332 11/18)

AOL’s advertising division, Platform-A, is developing a video ticker ad format as an alternative to conventional pre-roll spots for online video. The video ticker appears 10 seconds into the video stream. When a viewer clicks on the ticker ad, it expands within the video player’s window. (http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/11/19/aol-rolls-out-video-ticker-ads 11/19)

Facebook has offered $85 million for college social network Zhanzuo, buying its way in to the lucrative Chinese market, The Times reports, without attributing a source. On the record, Facebook only said Zhanzuo CEO Jack Zhang and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ”were acquainted but this did not mean that they intended to reach a deal”: “There could be more information by the end of the month”. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-facebook-offers-85-million-for-chinese-social-net-zhanzuo  11/19)

Barry Diller, with his CollegeHumor.com and 236.com sites, is joining fellow “old media” mogul Michael Eisner, the backer of the online drama “Prom Queen,” in the race to develop a business model for iTV. Also: The future of original productions for the Internet is not clear, Eisner says. (http://www.thedeal.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=TheDeal/TDDArticle/TDStandardArticle&bn=NULL&c=TDDArticle&cid=1193281691463 11/16, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/magazine/18wwln-Q4-t.html 11/18)

Music discovery site Last.fm launched an OpenSocial-compliant music application for the 122,000 social networking sites currently using the white label Ning platform.

Online video venture Vuze has petitioned the FCC to adopt net neutrality regulations to prevent internet service providers from interfering with P2P downloading activity. Vuze argues the FCC should use the internet traffic throttling issue to forge a workable solution fair to all.

BBC shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and The Mighty Boosh and content based on BBC Worldwide and Greenlight Media’s Earth natural history feature will be made available on social networking site Bebo.  Other broadcasters offering up free footage for viewing to subscribers are Channel 4, BSkyB, MTV, and smaller television producers such as Sumo.TV and Kontraband.  Each broadcaster adds footage to its own Bebo page, retaining copyright.  Bebo has 40 million members worldwide including 10.7 million in the U.K., mainly in the A13-24 range.

SyncTV is a new company spun off from electronics company Pioneer, and is says it is trying a slightly novel tactic: it is offering a la carte channels to subscribe to, for online viewing. Not really. Sites such as JumpTV (TSE: JTV) have been offering international/ethnic channels for some time now, as are others. The spin here is that SyncTV will offer the shows not just as streaming, but also for download. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-pioneer-spinoff-synctv-tries-a-la-carte-online-channel-subscriptions-an  11/18)

Venture capitalists at the NewTeeVee Live conference say they aren’t optimistic about the future of many online video start-ups. There are “too few ideas.” (http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2007/11/online-video-si.html 11/14)

Internet video services — including Heavy, Joost, Blinkx and Babelgum — have started or are planning television-like offerings. But so far, most leading advertisers remain wary about the Internet, partially for fear of undermining their brand image by associating with edgy Web fare. (http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/18/business/video19.php 11/18)