Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Yahoo dipped again today (as did the market in general), down nearly 9% to $10.34. That means they’ve officially destroyed $31 billion in shareholder value since turning down Microsoft’s acquisition offer earlier this year. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/12/yahoo-almost-to-10-referee-please-call-this-fight 11/12)

The woman’s cable network has launched a co-branded retail site with Shop.com. myLifetime.Shop.com features buying guides and a comparison shopping engine that allows you to drill down by department and compare prices with tax and shipping factored into your purchase. (Cynopsis 11/12)

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Time Warner film studio Warner Bros. is getting out of the business of distributing DVDs in South Korea because of Internet piracy, marking the latest Hollywood withdrawal in the leading wired country. In April, Disney switched to licensing for releasing DVD and Blu-ray discs. (Iwantmedia 11/12, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122643080489917991.html 11/12)

Tapping into recession fears, Yahoo Shopping just launched a new site in beta called Yahoo Deals that lists daily deals in different categories (computers, home & garden, clothing). It also offers online coupons, notices of storewide sales, and a place to browse through digital circulars. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/12/in-time-for-the-penny-pinching-holidays-comes-yahoo-deals 11/12)

Superfans have elevated recent HBO and A&E viral marketing campaigns far beyond what was planned, according to this article. A&E’s “Parking Wars” game is so popular that fans want it to be expanded, and HBO’s print and convenience-store ads for a fictitious vampire drink helped it build a 6.5 million weekly viewing audience for its new series “True Blood.” Multichannel News (11/11)

YouTube is set to venture into webcasting, in an effort to take the video-sharing site’s popularity to a new level by showcasing the talent behind its most viewed videos. On Nov. 22 in San Francisco, it is launching “YouTube Live,” a show featuring YouTube “sensations” like Esmee Denters. (Iwantmedia 11/12, http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSTRE4AB40U20081112 11/12)

Music blogging ad platform Mog.com says it has tripled its traffic in less than three months citing Quantcast metrics, surpassing 3 million unique visitors a moth. The Mog Music Network is now comprised of over 200 blogs. (Cynopsis 11/12)

The U.S. military, with help from Seattle startup Delve Networks, has launched a video-sharing Web site for troops, their families and supporters, a year and a half after restricting access to YouTube. The new TroopTube site will have uploaded videos screened by a Pentagon rep. (Iwantmedia 11/12, http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20081111/ap_on_hi_te/tec_techbit_trooptube 11/11)

Universal Sports is presenting its entire 28 hours of coverage of the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games on air and online this week with 4-hour programs each night from 7 p-11 p ET. (Cynopsis 11/12)

Mny digital pundits are saying Obama couldn’t have won without the internet – you know, those series of tubes all connected together. Facebook tends to agree. The site says candidates and their campaigns used Facebook as a means of engaging with potential voters in record numbers this year:

• 5.4 million + shared that you voted with your friends on Facebook
• 15 million + users of voting age in the U.S. logged into Facebook on Election day
• 1.5 million mentioned Obama, McCain, Palin, Biden or Election on their Facebook wall

• 2.4 million joined the Facebook Election Day event to help get out the vote