Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

So much for Joost’s carefully prepared plans to release a browser version of their TV over IP service later this month. News leaked this morning that Joost would be abandoning their year old XUL based desktop client in favor of a browser based service that’s more like Hulu and YouTube. Users will still be required to download a plugin that facilitates P2P transfers of files, which is still an adoption hurdle. But at least users can watch videos directly in their browser. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/05/screenshots-of-the-new-joost 9/5)

On the heels of a major upgrade earlier this week that added facial recognition and video-editing features to its Picasa photo management service, Google added a new Explore page today that shows off the most popular public photos uploaded by members. In addition to the featured photos, shown in a 3 X 4 grid, the Explore page also shows the most recent photos uploaded in a slide-show widget.

On Wednesday, dozens of short cartoons by “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane will start rolling out through Google to a variety of sites. The new “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy” series could change the way entertainment is distributed on the Web. (Iwantmedia 9/5, http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB122057832909402221.html 9/5)

In what is heralded as the seeds of an Internet-age emergency broadcast system, MySpace is teaming with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to spread news on hurricanes through users of the online social network. A new widget will feed hurricane data to MySpace users. (Iwantmedia 9/5, http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080905/tc_afp/usitstormweatherinternet 9/5)

U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama is running a more advanced online campaign than rival John McCain, according to comScore. Obama leads McCain in both candidate searches and display ads. (Iwantmedia 9/5, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2329529,00.asp 9/4)

According to a new study by research firm TNS, about 20% of homes that log on to the Internet also watch TV shows online for a variety of reasons: they can watch episodes when and where they want and they can, for the most part, skip ads. “The shift from appointment TV to content on demand is well under way,” said Michael Saxon, senior vice president of brand and communications at TNS. “Fundamentally, consumers expect content to be available when they want it, and on the screen of their choice — TV, PC or mobile.” InformationWeek (9/4) , Variety (9/4)

Almost one of every five Internet users — 19% — have downloaded a podcast, according to a new study from The Pew Internet & American Life Project. That’s an increase from the 12% that reported downloading a podcast in an August 2006 study and the 7% who said they did so between February and April 2006. Radio Ink (9/4)