Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

MySpace yesterday announced that it would allow users to finally upload videos directly to the site. According to the company, users can hook up a camcorder, go to MySpace TV, and click the “Record” button to record a video to the site on-the-fly. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/11/myspace-will-allow-direct-uploads-but-is-it-too-late 9/11)

Seth McFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy is up and running with cheeky take offs on $25,000 Pyramid and Super Mario Bros. – the first major programming effort of the Google Content Network. The plan is to freely distribute a total of 50 shorts, each with an animated ad as a pre-roll such as the BK spot in this week, across thousands of websites that match his target demo. Each time someone watches a video on any site, the sponsor pays a fee shared between McFarlane, Google and production partner Media Rights and the site the video is actually seen on. Seth is also guest editor of YouTube this week. (Cynopsis 9/11)

Amazon has again announced that it will start selling US-produced wine to its American customers by the beginning of October. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/11/amazon-is-getting-into-the-alcohol-business 9/11)

Google fell to $414.16, the lowest in six months, after Time Warner said some Internet advertising sales are slowing. Waning growth at the AOL network, which buys and sells ads on third-party Web sites, may hamper Time Warner in meeting sales goals, says CFO John Martin. (Iwantmedia 9/11, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=awgc4_H_Gr1g 9/10)

Google repeatedly says it has no interest in rolling out a broadband service. But its actions may speak otherwise. The search giant is one of several new investors in 03b, a satellite-based broadband provider. Still, several analysts doubt that Google wants to “own or manage the pipes.” (Iwantmedia 9/11, http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/09/will-google-eve.html 8/9)

Hollywood producer Rob Fried (Rudy, Collateral) launched SpiritClips, a video greeting card site featuring professionally-produced 3-5 minute shorts that can be purchased for viewing or sharing on an a la carte ($1 each) or subscription basis. The site also invites people to submit their own inspirational stories online, which the SpiritClips team will consider for themes of future SpiritClips films. Watch Sally, starring Nancy Travis as a harried diner waitress, for free – it’s quite well done. (Cynopsis 9/11)

Bebo founder Michael Birch is teaming with TV producer Edward Baker on his next project. Wordia.com, sort of a blending of YouTube and Wikipedia, is described as “the world’s first digital and democratic online video dictionary.” The gentleman sent out invites to the launch party next week, to be held at Dr. Samuel Johnson’s former home at 17 Gough Square in London on the anniversary of the literary giant’s 299th birthday. (Cynopsis 9/11)