Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

The letters keep flying back and forth between investor Carl Icahn and Yahoo. On Wednesday, Icahn called for Jerry Yang’s head and characterized its employee retention plan as a “poison pill” intended to kill the Microsoft deal.  On Thursday, Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock responded, saying that Icahn was misrepresenting the facts.  Icahn, who wants nothing more than to keep this public dialog going, fired back with another letter today, detailing his plan for Yahoo, should his alternative slate of directors take over the board.  (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/06/icahn-sends-yahoo-another-love-letter-yahoo-says-keep-dreaming 6/6)

Google’s experiment with selling and measuring TV ads on the Dish satellite network just got a lot more interesting. A month ago, Google incorporated the ability to buy TV ads into AdWords. Now, it is taking all of that ad impression data and layering it on top of Google Analytics (click on the screen shot above for a larger image). This is very basic and imperfect, but it hints at the future of how advertising will be measured: all in the same place. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/06/tv-meet-the-web-google-analytics-starts-measuring-tv-ads 6/6)

Click on the image below to enlarge.

With the P2P iPlayer such a success – more than 75 million shows have been streamed or downloaded since December – the BBC is ready to dive headfirst into digital distribution and begin streaming all of its channels online in the UK by year-end. Brits are worried the move will slow broadband connection speeds and result in higher prices as ISPs are forced to upgrade network capacity. (Cynopsis 6/6)

Mobile users can now search Google Maps for public-transportation information for dozens of cities, including more than 40 in the U.S. Features include a location finder that identifies nearby stops. (Webware 6/5)

Apple, Google and Facebook all want to build the next great platform, writes Josh Quittner. “The winners of the platform wars stand to make billions. The future of the Internet — how we get information, how we communicate with one another and, most important, who controls it — is at stake.” (Iwantmedia 6/6, http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1811814,00.html 6/6)

Emerging music and artist discovery site OurStage helped spawn its first “Artist to Watch” signing: Alternative rock artist Plushgun signed a contract with Tommy Boy Entertainment. OurStage helps promote artists by building fan communities on social networking sites then reaching out to labels to help broker deals. (Cynopsis 6/6)

CBS’ Last.fm branched out into concert promotion, launching a series of live concerts with New York promoter The Bowery Presents. The first live gig will feature Lightspeed Champion tomorrow night at the Bowery Ballroom, viewable online at Last.fm/Presents. (Cynopsis 6/6)

Facebook is experimenting with allowing a portion of its users to vote for or against the small “social” ads that appear on the online social network’s sidebar. A spokesperson says: “We are evaluating the response to the tool and considering whether to make it more broadly available.” (Iwantmedia 6/6, http://venturebeat.com/2008/06/05/facebook-lets-you-vote-against-lame-ads 6/5)

ConnectU wants out of its settlement agreement with Facebook after the company turned up new forensic Instant Messaging evidence proving that Mark Zuckerberg stole trade secrets from ConnectU’s founders to build Facebook, reports Bloomberg. (Cynopsis 6/6)

Slide, RockYou and other developers of applications for social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are turning to advertising to help monetize their products, reports the WSJ. Success could bring much needed revenue to the platforms. Social-networking sites attracted just $600 million in ad revenue from U.S. marketers last year. (Cynopsis 6/6)

The Federal Communications Commission is postponing its June 12 consideration of a plan to auction a piece of wireless airwaves to buyers willing to provide free broadband Internet service without adult content. The agency wants to look into “concerns” raised by wireless carriers. Iwantmedia 6/6, (http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN0542343120080606 6/6)

The Drudge Report, among the Internet’s most popular news sites, maintains a spare design that seems unconventional by today’s Web 2.0 standards, writes Richard Siklos. Comparing Drudge with the upstart Huffington Post is “off point” because HuffPo is a “news hybrid.” (Iwantmedia 6/6, http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/06/technology/drudge_report.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008060607 6/6)

Time Warner’s AOL will provide access of its Platform-A advertising effort to European customers. Difficulty in integrating Platform-A led the ad-revenue growth at AOL to slow to 1% in the first quarter. AOL has said that the success of Platform-A is critical to its future. (Iwantmedia 6/6, http://www.smartmoney.com/breaking-news/ON/index.cfm?story=ON-20080606-000462-0648 6/6)

News Corp. is selling off all its shares of Macrovision Solutions, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based video technology provider. Macrovision’s stock has lost almost 42% of its value since the announcement in December that it would purchase Gemstar-TV Guide for $2.3 billion. (Iwantmedia 6/6, http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/06/02/daily70.html 6/2)

Microsoft’s two-year-old online classifieds site, Windows Live Expo, will “discontinue service” in late July, it says. The people behind its launch “would have liked for the thing to overtake Craigslist.” However, Microsoft “deserves credit for letting one of its weakest products go.” (Iwantmedia 6/6, http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/06/05/microsofts-live-expo-scheduled-to-be-executed 6/5)