Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Last night at an event in NYC dubbed “Videocracy,” YouTube gave marketers a sneak peak at some upcoming initiatives. Silicon Alley Insider’s Michael Learmonth tried to get in, but was thrown out. Luckily, Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer took notes. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/14/whats-next-for-youtube-video-editing-recommendations-advertiser-analytics  2/14)

Here’s what I think is most exciting.  1) Personalized recommendations for video similar to what Amazon.com does for music and book recommendations. 2) New video editing tools. (the existing tools aren’t very exciting) 3) New analytic tools that allow video watchers to be tracked by geogrphic locations.

Time Warner and Viacom are rumored to be close to entering deals to have their video content run on Hulu.com, the Web video joint venture from NBC Universal and News Corp. (http://valleywag.com/356221/hulu-lands-time-warner-viacom-deal-still-closing  2/13)

(Below) Way to point out the obvious Mediapost. . .  Hulu intends to be a central point for search and discovery of all video across the internet, not just video provided from Fox and NBC.  This is their strength, not the content from their own content partners.  What I am desperate for is one portal on the internet through which I can gain access to ALL the professionally-produced content I’m looking for.  I don’t want to go to NBC.com for NBC shows, to ABC.com for ABC, etc.  I’m already developing carpal tunnel as it is.  Sheeeeeeeet.

Hulu, the online video venture from NBC and News Corp., is in the process of “indexing” all video content on the Internet, with the goal of providing links to video content that isn’t licensed to play on its own site. “It’s about letting the consumers grab your content,” says Hulu exec Kevin McGurn. (http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=76518  2/14)

Time Warner’s AOL and IAC/InterActiveCorp’s Citysearch site will announce a partnership to share local content and advertising resources. Citysearch will provide its local business reviews and other content for AOL Web sites; AOL will open its sites to Citysearch’s local advertisers. (http://www.reuters.com/article/mediaNews/idUSN1346164820080214  2/14)

Ad supported music streaming site Imeem acquired digital music wholesaler Snocap, reports TechCruch. Snocap announced a number of distribution deals with sites such as MySpace and Imeem last year, offering paid music downloads but the service has failed to gain much traction.

TNT.tv is upgrading its online coverage of NBA All Star Weekend, offering live streaming coverage during NBA All-Star Saturday Night and the 2008 NBA All-Star Game on Sunday Feb. 17 to complement TNT’s broadcast coverage of the events. TNT will also host an interactive poll that allows users to pick the players they’d like the All-Star Access cameras to follow during game, with a different player from the East and West being isolated live each quarter.  

CBSSports.com, in the midst of absorbing the assets of CSTV.com and high school sports site MaxPreps, announced it will stream all 63 games of March Madness this year for the first time. More than 1.38 million users watched the games on the site last year.

After launching a major redesign, MSNBC.com reported record web traffic in Jan., registering 1.4 billion page views – up 22% from its ‘07 average. The site averaged 94 million uniques and delivered 32.2 million video streams for the week ending Feb. 9, its 3rd biggest video week ever. 

Plaxo finally got bought, say valley whispers, and blog after blog have speculated incorrectly about who the buyer might be (first Facebook, then Google). Finally, someone may have gotten it right - Valleywag is saying that Comcast is the buyer, for $175m. That makes sense based on what Techcrunch heard earlier today, too: that one of the cable players bought them, for something just under the $200 million previously rumored. Comcast is the most active buyer in the bunch. In fact, they’re getting a bit of a reputation as the guys who’ll look at any deal, and don’t quibble much on price. If no one else will take you, there’s always Comcast. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/13/plaxos-buyer-not-facebook-not-google-likely-comcast  2/13)

French internet entrepreneur Loic Le Meur assembled a list of investors which reads like a who’s who of Silicon Valley to back his latest project called Seesmic. The site, currently in alpha, adds video to the popular social conversational model pioneered by Twitter and others, allowing users to post videos straight from their webcams. Seesmic has secured $6 million in financing led by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis’ Atomico, with contributions from other such luminaries as Steve Case, Michael Arrington and Reid Hoffman.