Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

If you look at YouTube’s numbers, one thing is clear: It completely dominates online video. YouTube accounts for 37 percent of all videos watched on the Internet and attracts about half of the audience, according to comScore. (And if you add in Google Video, that brings the total to 38 percent of videos watched). The No. 2 player, Fox Interactive Media (i.e., MySpace), accounts for only 4.2 percent of videos watched. And as the Forbes chart above shows, YouTube is still growing at a faster pace in terms of traffic than Google overall. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/30/is-youtube-building-market-dominance-at-the-expense-of-building-a-business 5/30)

Google had a 20% jump in clicks on its U.S. text advertisements in April, a reversal from slowing growth the month before. Also: Google is the biggest recipient of Barack Obama’s online ad dollars. The Democratic presidential hopeful is said to prefer “performance-based” ad buys. (Iwantmedia 5/30, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=az_wRHyfCE94 5/29, http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3629685 5/29)

With the Olympics set to start in Beijing in August, Chinese officials are vowing to crack down on online video piracy. Billions in broadcasting fees are at stake. NBC and other rights holders plan to use new technology from Silicon Valley to flag unofficial clips that end up online. (Iwantmedia 5/30, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_23/b4087073685542.htm 5/29)

Revision3.com, home of Web TV show “Diggnation” and other tech shows, shut down for three days after its computers were overwhelmed by traffic sent by the anti-piracy company MediaDefender. Both Revision3 and MediaDefender are claiming the outage was accidental. (Iwantmedia 5/30, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-outage30-2008may30,0,976031.story 5/30)

AOL announced it will be supporting Google’s OpenSocial platform as part of a broader integration, beginning with the adoption of Google Gadgets on myAOL.com. (Cynopsis 5/30)

Comcast Interactive Media (including sites such as Comcast.net, Fancast, Fandango, Ziddio and now Plaxo) is on target to turn a profit later this year, according to an interview in Reuters. Apparently ad revenue sharing partnerships with Google and Yahoo are bringing in more cash than expected. (Cynopsis 5/30)

Hackers took over and defaced Comcast’s Web portal for several hours Wednesday night, leaving a cryptic message on the site that the company’s 14.1 million subscribers use to access e-mail, news and technical support. Hackers posted that they had “RoXed” Comcast. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080529/ap_on_hi_te/tec_comcast_web_hack 5/29)

Local online advertising should deliver an eleven-figure payday to site publishers, according to a forecast from Borrell Associates. Also, yellow pages companies, despite the relentless assault by myriad competitors, appear to be the “big winners.” (http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/05/29/borrell-local-sites-to-earn-131-billion-in-2008 5/29)

Sci Fi Channel’s SciFi.com has got game fever. After launching a successful casual Game Center the division rolled out a stand alone gaming blog called Fidgit on Thursday featuring reviews, galleries, news and insider dope. (Cynopsis 5/30)

Redlasso is refusing to be hogtied by that decease and desist letter set by the TV networks. The company pledged it will continue to collect footage for its video embedding service, and it has recruited former Westinghouse and CBS CEO Michael Jordan (not the Bull) as an advisor. (Cynopsis 5/30)

New York-based MenuPages.com, an online compendium of restaurant and take-out menus for eight major U.S. cities, is rumored to be close to being acquired by an unknown buyer. The advertising-supported MenuPages pulls in some 300,000 visitors per month. (Iwantmedia 5/30, http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9954617-36.html 5/29)

Polly Blitzer, former assistant editor at Time Inc.’s In Style magazine, is starting her own site, BeautyBlitz.com, which she is marketing as the first national beauty magazine to be published entirely online. The site will feature celebrity guest editors and blogs. (Iwantmedia 5/30, http://www.wwd.com/memopad/article/125321?page=2 5/30)