Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

A rumor surfaced last week that News Corp. is looking at buying business networking site LinkedIn. A well-placed source confirms that these talks are serious. News Corp.’s strategy is said to be to integrate LinkedIn’s network with the Wall Street Journal and other company newspapers. (http://venturebeat.com/2007/11/27/source-yes-linkedin-and-news-corp-are-working-on-a-deal/ 11/27)

Murdoch continues to build his social networking empire. . .

Marking its first content foray exclusively for digital platforms, HBO Sports has debuted a series of shorts about NFL fanatics called “Fan Life.” The segments, which run from three to six minutes in length, are available through HBO.com, HBO Mobile and HBO Podcasts. (The Hollywood Reporter 11/28)

MySpace, Facebook and YouTube won’t become the ABC, CBS and NBC of the 21st century, predicts Jim Nail, an exec with Cymphony, the online advertising analytics firm. Social media is unlikely to generate much revenue from advertising, he says. There are “too many” social-networking sites. (http://mediabiz.blogs.cnnmoney.cnn.com/2007/11/27/web-bubble-20-for-social-networks/ 11/27)

Online media syndication company Pluck says it will give traditional media companies the ability to link their Web sites to online social networks like MySpace and Facebook, allowing people to leave comments on news Web sites that then show up on their social-network profiles. (http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN2754272920071128 11/28) 

Ticketmaster launched its first ever online affiliate network in the U.S., allowing participating third party sites to earn commissions for online ticket sales by driving traffic to Ticketmaster.com.

Brightcove is shutting down its user generated Brightcove.tv platform as of Dec. 18, part of its evolution toward focusing on singularly serving the online video needs of its corporate clients.

Data culled from comScore’s Ad Metrix service revealed that MySpace’s ad platform is far more developed than Facebook’s, at least through September. MySpace attracted 68.4 million uniques during the month compared to 30.6 million for Facebook. MySpace also delivered 2.2 times more ads on each page viewed and enjoyed 1.4 times more pages viewed per visitor than its rival.