Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Microsoft is said to have informally approached Facebook to gauge its interest in selling itself. Microsoft contacted the social-networking site as the software giant looked likely to back away from buying Yahoo. Discussions between the two are not believed to be active. (Iwantmedia 5/8, http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB121017846020274243.html 5/8)

Social networking platforms are still waiting for traffic to translate into revenue. MySpace parent Fox Interactive Media’s revenue actually fell during Q1 from $233 million to $210 million as News Corp. CEO Peter Chernin admitted in a conference call that FIM will fall about 10% short of its optimistic $1 billion revenue projection for FY ‘08. The company is still dealing with several challenges, he said, including an abundance of inventory, a dearth of top shelf sponsors and the difficulty of establishing new metrics to prove FIM’s value to advertisers. (Cynopsis 5/8, http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSWNAS255720080508 5/8)

Google is considering running display advertisements alongside the results of Web queries for pictures, moving beyond text-based ads. “There’s lot of potential for advertising revenue there,” says VP Marissa Mayer. Google is seeking new revenue sources as its growth slows. (Iwantmedia 5/8, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a1t9ASFGIJlY 5/7)

Google and Viacom are prepared to take their battle over whether or not YouTube is responsible for pirated uploads all the way to the Supreme Court, according to comments made executives from each company. (Cynopsis 5/8, http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/05/07/google-viacom-draw-lines-in-youtube-suit 5/7)

Beginning Thursday, the latest news, scoops and analysis from the blog TechCrunch will appear on washingtonpost.com. TechCrunch, founded in 2005, describes itself as “a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies.” (Iwantmedia 5/8, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2008/05/07/LI2008050701103.html 5/7)

Women’s content is all the rage in the digital world these days. NBC unveiled a new Virtual Woman’s Network dubbed Women@NBC that will differentiate itself by firing on multiple platforms and brands including Bravo, Oxygen, iVillage and Green is Universal as well as other female-skewing properties such as the Today show, The Biggest Loser and Lipstick Jungle. Bravo & Oxygen Media President Lauren Zalaznick has been chosen to oversee the venture with the new title of President, Women and Lifestyle Entertainment Networks, still reporting to Jeff Gaspin, President & COO, Universal Television Group. Women@NBC gives the company another shot at mastering the demo after the $600 million iVillage acquisition has failed to bear much fruit. (Cynopsis 5/8)

Former CBS Early Show anchor Rene Syler will join Meredith’s multiplatform network Parents TV hosting its first long-form show, It Moms, beginning in June. Parents.tv is available as a Comcast VOD channel, a Sprint TV offering and on broadband at parents.tv. (Cynopsis 5/8)

Facebook’s webmail platform is so inefficient that even minor changes (like adding the ability to send to outside email addresses last year) can make a big difference in usability.  They are now adding basic search functionality to email (see screen shots). Previously there was not way to find emails other than scrolling through the pages one by one. Some users have thousands of emails in their inbox, so old messages became essentially unfindable. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/08/facebook-email-gets-better-with-search 5/8)

Viacom’s MTV Networks, which is building hundreds of Web sites around its content, is launching video hub from its Logo network for gay audiences that will feature 3,000 ad-supported clips. LogoOnline.com aims to be the largest central library of videos for the gays and lesbians. (Iwantmedia 5/8, http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9938035-7.html 5/7)

The MPAA won their copyright infringement case against P2P file sharing site TorrentSpy.com. Site operator Valence Media was ordered to pay $30,000 per violation for facilitating nearly 3,700 illegal movie and TV downloads. The site has been shuttered since March. (Cynopsis 5/8, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080508/ap_on_hi_te/mpaa_torrentspy 5/7)

Comcast, with 14.1 million Internet subscribers, is weighing a plan that would set a limit for monthly online downloads and charging those who go beyond that amount, the company confirmed Wednesday. One plan being bandied about would set the limit at 250 gigabytes per month, which is enough to download about 250 standard-definition movies or 6,000 songs. (MSNBC/Associated Press 5/7, INQUIRER (U.K.), the 5/8)

Brad Greenspan’s Live Universe continues its acquisitions spree: they’ve bought troubled Silicon Valley startup MeeVee, we’re heard from multiple sources. This comes less than a month after they announced the acquisition of Pageflakes, another northern California startup. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/07/meevee-acquired-by-live-universe 5/7)

Adobe has beefed up the beta version of its new online Photoshop application by including support for the Flickr photo service and introducing other features. (Pocket-lint.co.uk 5/8)

Forbes.com is announcing the launch of AnswerNetwork, a social network for business execs. The network, which Forbes is developing with Cisco Systems, allows business professionals to set up profiles and exchange data on industry topics and business issues. (Iwantmedia 5/8, http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080507/FREE/842905424/1078 5/7)

MySpace received nearly 3/4 of the market share of U.S. visits to social networking sites in April 2008, according to a custom report from Hitwise. (Cynopsis 5/8)

Top 5 Social Networking Websites Ranked by Market Share of U.S. Visits
Rank       Name                Apr. 08     Mar. 08   Apr. 07    YoY% Change
1         MySpace            73.82%      73.59%  77.87%       -5%
2         Facebook            14.80%     14.70%  11.21%        32%
3         myYearbook          1.33%       1.29%     .23%      475%
4         Bebo                    1.09%        1.20%   1.25%       -13%
5         BlackPlanet             .98%          .95%     .85%       15%
Source: Hitwise