Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

As the buzz increases for rival Facebook, News Corp.’s MySpace plans to accelerate business partnerships and tech initiatives in 2008. The goal is to make MySpace the starting point for all Internet users, “where people are in control,” says co-founder Chris DeWolfe. (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2007-12-20-myspace_N.htm  12/21)

Time Warner’s AOL is completing its acquisition of online advertising firm Quigo. AOL is also inheriting more than 500 Quigo online publishing partners, including a recently cemented deal with Time that boasts a network of around 3,000 advertisers. (http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=605D3E8F-5261-4764-B287-8E47CBA6FF9C  12/21)

Google’s planned acquisition of online advertising giant DoubleClick may create an ad powerhouse of unrivaled knowledge of Internet users’ lives. Google is set to become “the world’s private ministry of information,” says Jeff Chester, head of the Center for Digital Democracy. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/20/AR2007122001218.html  12/21)

Macintosh computer owners are more likely to download and purchase music tracks online than PC users, and they are also more likely to buy CDs, according to The NPD Group. “Mac owners are the kinds of people that like to engage in digital music,” said Russ Crupnick, an NPD analyst. “The entertainment management is done extraordinarily well on the Mac.” Mac sales rose from 6% of the consumer market last year to 9% in the first nine months of 2007, according to NPD. (The Sacramento Bee (Calif.) 12/20)  

MTV’s 7 virtual sites built for Laguna Beach, The Hills, Pimp My Ride, Real World Sydney, Newport Harbor, Kaya and the VMAs attracted over 1.5 million registered users in 2007, who spent an average of 30.54 minutes logged on to the sites.

Events based social network Going.com have launched their 3.0 version with several new features. Central to Going.com 3.0 is a new events and people recommendation engine that allows users to discover events and people in their area. The new features takes Going.com’s event focused social networking service to nearly a dating service. Where as before Going.com recommended events and tied together friends, the new version recommends new friends based on a users event history. Essentially it’s pattern based matching combined with Going.com’s event engine. For example if you’ve been to three or more events in the one city, and someone else has as well, they may recommend that person as a friend match. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/21/goingcom-gets-extra-social-on-events  12/21)

Photobucket has announced inline support for inclusion of Photobucket photos within MySpace. To use, MySpace users click on “Add Image From Photobucket” when leaving a comment, which then provides them the ability to browse their Photobucket photos. Users can also search Photobucket for images other than their own for inclusion in a comment. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/21/photobucket-now-available-inline-for-myspace-users  12/21)

Uncov has a very funny post on the demise of Kevin-Rose-founded-Twitter-clone Pownce, noting that their traffic seems to have fallen to the point that “Even TechCrunch can’t save you now.” The image above is taken from their post.That may or may not be true, but when you look at Pownce v. Twitter on Compete.com, the difference doesn’t look quite so brutal. Still, there is probably only room for one Twitter in this world, and Twitter itself seems determined to hang in there. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/20/is-pownce-going-to-the-deadpool  12/20)

More viewers are turning to the Internet as an entertainment option, according to a survey by Harris Interactive. Online video viewing is “virtually ubiquitous” among the under 30 set. Also, YouTube is widening its lead as a one-stop site for watching online video. (http://www.bizreport.com/2007/12/tv_viewers_turning_to_internet.html  12/20) 

Lifetime plans to roll out a slew of original digital content offerings tied to three soon-to-premiere reality series on the recently launched myLifetime.com. The new series “How to Look Good Naked” is hosting a contest inviting users to submit personal photos to the site. (http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003687815  12/20)

Click below for a preview of How to Look Good Naked

I’ve had about all the Carson Kressley that I can take. . .

In 2002, blogging evangelist Dave Winer made a “long bet”: “In a Google search of five keywords or phrases representing the top five news stories of 2007, weblogs will rank higher than the New York Times’s Web site.” Five years later, the clear winner is turning out to be Wikipedia. (http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/21/blog-future-vs-nyt-f.html  12/21) 

It’s not every day that a senator takes to the floor to defend “Internet blogs and other Web-based forms of media,” but Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) did just that in his recent push to pass a Freedom of Information Act reform bill he coauthored. The reforms in the bill “make it easier” for bloggers. (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071220-foia-reform-bloggers-are-journalists-too.html  12/20)

On Wednesday during the show Billboard will sponsor an all day event examining the state of digital music and how new technologies are impacting the industry. Keynotes include Gregg Latterman of Aware Records, Bryan Perez from Live Nation Digital, Tim Riley of Activision and Producer/Musician Don Was. 

Advertising spending for the first three quarters of 2007 dipped 0.1%, but spending on the Internet continued to soar, with a 15.9% increase over the same period last year, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Spending declines were noted in media such as spot TV and newspapers. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/business/news/e3i3b664324ba4ea5c05a45b1031b3fe785  12/21)

NBC’s Deal or No Deal increased its lead over its rival TV show sites, according to this week’s Hitwise data, receiving almost half of the broadcast website visits.

Rank     Network     Website                           Market Share of Visits
1          NBC         Deal or No Deal                            47.53%
2          FOX         America’s Most Wanted                   3.78%
3          NBC         Heroes                                         2.59%
4       The CW       America’s Next Top Model                2.44%
5          NBC         The Biggest Loser                           2.27%
6          FOX          American Idol                               1.88%
7          ABC          Grey’s Anatomy                             1.72%
8          CBS          Kid Nation                                     1.72%
8          NBC          The Office                                    1.68%
10         ABC           Lost                                            1.59%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise