Daily Marauder

Microsoft announced that it has improved its Mediaroom IPTV service to bring more show producers and IPTV networks to its platform.  According to Microsoft, its plan for increasing the value of Mediaroom IPTV contains three parts: increase advertising opportunities, make it easier for IPTV networks to port shows to the platform, and make IPTV more interactive. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/12/microsoft-improves-mediaroom-iptv 9/12)

Google’s new joint venture to sell television ads with NBC Universal is said to be laden with caveats. The deal could turn out to be another Google media experiment — like “Googlizing” the magazine, newspaper and radio industries — that “we will not hear of again for a long while.” (Iwantmedia 9/12, http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/12/technology/siklos_google.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008091209 9/12)

Yahoo announced plans to open up its online music site to feature information about songs and artists from competing services such as Apple‘s iTunes or Amazon’s MP3 store, reports Reuters. The step will be the beginning of a decentralization strategy throughout the Yahoo network to allow outside content flow more freely into the portal. (Cynopsis 9/12)

YouTube is planning to roll out a new feature called HotSpots according to AdAge, helping producers to distinguish what bits and pieces of their videos audiences are actually watching from which parts they are fast forwarding through. The tool is part of YouTube’s Videos Insight analytics software package which tracks views, demographics and popularity of producers’ works. (Cynopsis 9/12)

Google’s YouTube is banning submissions that involve “inciting others to violence,” following criticism from U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman that the site is too open to terrorist groups. YouTube earlier removed videos that Lieberman targeted, many of which were affiliated with al-Qaeda. (Iwantmedia 9/12, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091103447.html 9/11)

Bebo’s new Model.Live series is off to a promising start. The fashion-themed reality show, which allows viewers to follow along via video diaries, text messages, photos and blogs, racked up more than 1 million views since launching three weeks ago on Vogue.TV. The total includes views on syndication partners Hulu, Tivo, Tidal TV, Veoh and Juice Caster. (Cynopsis 9/12)

Glam Media introduced its newest vertical online network Glam Black Life – its first focused on the lifestyles of African American women. The network is made of more than 50 blogs including TheYBF.com, Shake Your Beauty, Afrobella and Brown Girl Gumbo. Lexus has agreed to be the network’s charter advertiser. (Cynopsis 9/12)

The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, a consortium of media companies including Sony, Toshiba, Microsoft and Cisco, plans to create a digital-standards framework so people can virtually store their digital content and retrieve it anywhere they go. DECE members are expected to reveal full details of their plans at January’s Consumer Electronics Show. paidContent.org (9/11)

At one time, it was tough to cover your tracks after visiting some, uh, questionable sites, but now it’s getting easier than ever. According to Mozilla, Firefox is joining Safari, Internet Explorer 8, and Google Chrome in providing its users with a “private mode” that will not collect any of your browsing history or cookies in the upcoming release of Firefox 3.1. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/12/porn-mode-coming-to-firefox 9/12)