Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA by Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

You’ll notice very few ad units while surfing YouTube, and none at all while watching videos contributed by ordinary folk like you or me. The reason? Google fears the legal repercussions of monetizing user generated content that may infringe on somebody else’s copyright.  But YouTube’s homepage is different since it merely displays thumbnails that may lead to infringing content. And it has capitalized on that page by selling a video ad unit in the upper right-hand corner for $175,000 per day (plus a commitment to buy $50,000 more in advertising elsewhere on YouTube or Google). (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/28/youtube-to-squeeze-more-money-out-of-homepage  8/28)

Looking to make its broadband network as fast as possible for all users, Comcast has announced that on Oct. 1 it will set a limit on monthly downloads/uploads at 250 gigabytes. Charlie Douglas, a spokesman for Comcast, said the current median level for the company’s broadband users was in the range of 2 to 3 gigabytes, but he added that the country’s second-largest broadband provider had “some extremely high-bandwidth users that consume a disproportionate amount of data, and that can degrade service for others. To maintain a high quality of service for users, we’ve gone with this.” San Francisco Chronicle (8/29)

The FCC has set a deadline of Sept. 19 for the MSO to disclose details of how exactly it has been blocking access to P2P sharing sites and to submit a plan detailing how it will cease and desist the practice. (Cynopsis 8/29)

First came 360, launched in 2005 as an early attempt to get Yahoo into social networking, was unceremoniously shut down earlier this year. In 2006 Yahoo was unable to close a transaction with Facebook, despite being willing to pay up to $1.62 billion. Nor could they pull the trigger on a $1 billion Bebo deal (Bebo went to AOL for $850 million). Now Yahoo has shut down Mash, which launched less than a year ago and is best known for sporting a Darth Vader playing guitar and eating a banana image when it was in private beta. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/28/yahoo-shuts-down-mash-0-4-on-social-networking 8/28)

Can traffic to a Presidential Candidate’s homepage be used to gauge who will win this year’s election? Hitwise has published recent data on the traffic both American presidential candidates have seen in the last month (ending 8/23), and while the results may not shed much light on the forthcoming election’s outcome, they reveal a few interesting trends. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/28/which-presidential-candidates-home-page-is-more-popular-and-can-it-predict-the-election 8/28)

Most Viewed Political Videos on YouTube – August 2008 (as of 8/28)
Rank           Candidate             Video Views
1             John McCain 7,131,224
2             Barack Obama 5,301,090
3             Al Franken 103,553
4             Dennis Kucinich 101,462
5             Ralph Nader 88,515

Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment