Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Google took another step towards ingesting all the world’s printed knowledge. In addition to books and newspapers, Google Book Search now archives millions of pages of magazines from New York Magazineand Ebony to Popular Mechanics. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/09/google-adds-print-magazines-to-book-search 12/9)

Kosmix, a new Internet search site by Indian entrepreneurs that aims to compete with Google, has won $20 million in funding led by Time Warner. Kosmix’s “innovations around the traditional online publishing model could represent a paradigm shift,” said TW exec Rachel Lam. (Iwantmedia 12/9, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/3687748/Search-engine-to-rival-Google-gets-20m-from-Time-Warner.html 12/9)

As a search engine, is it a requirement to have a whack ass name?  Hey, you should ‘kosmix’ that.  Without knowing anything about this search engine, that certainly doesn’t roll off the tongue in verb form.  And frankly, when I tried to open the site several times, it froze my computer.  Hmmm. . .

The Screen Actors Guild has asked its members to authorize a strike, saying there is no other way to force film and television studios to restart contract talks over Internet pay. A strike by SAG’s 120,000 members would have a “bigger impact” than the recent writers’ strike, some believe. (Iwantmedia 12/9, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=a0jMvZOPIcOA 12/9)

Sundance Channel announced that award winning documentary Crazy Love, directed by Dan Klores (The Boys of Second Street Park) will debut on the network’s YouTube channel on Jan. 5, five days prior to its premiere on The Sundance Channel. Crazy Love won Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary in 2008. (Cynopsis 12/9)

MySpace, in an all out war with Facebook over this year’s prize (socializing the web), is relaunching their Data Availability product today under a new name and announcing some snazzy new partners.  MySpaceID is roughly analogous to Facebook Connect, which had their own coming out party last week. Sites can add various elements of MySpace ID to allow their users to log in via their MySpace credentials, display their profile information, and find MySpace friends who are using those sites. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/08/myspace-data-availability-now-has-a-catchier-name-and-two-new-partners 12/8)

It’s hard for computers to give good recommendations for movies or music. That is why the recommendation systems that tend to work on the Web include a human or social element (see eMusic). ClerkDogs is trying to do that for movie recommendations. Its database includes about 5,000 movies, all categorized by film buffs, including some former video store clerks. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/09/clerk-dogs-takes-a-curated-approach-to-movie-recommendations 12/9)

Online advertising growth at Hulu, the NBC Universal-News Corp. online video venture, had proved disappointing recently, said Jeff Zucker. “That marketplace has really, really slowed dramatically. It’s still a growth area, but I don’t think it’s what we thought it would be.” (Iwantmedia 12/9, http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=96264 12/8)

Hearst Magazines Digital Media and MTV Networks Program Enterprises Group launched the first-ever virtual issue of Seventeen magazine, tying together Seventeen’s print edition and Seventeen.com with an interactive program within MTV’s virtual world. Readers who pick up the print edition will be invited into a closed-beta, sneak peek of MTV’s new web-based 2D virtual environment (no client download required.) The full Virtual MTV is required for goodies such as digital hand-held version of the magazine along with Seventeen-branded virtual T-shirts, bags and other accessories. (Cynopsis 12/9)

Just because Twitter won’t place advertising on its pages doesn’t mean others aren’t trying. Third-party services such as Twittad allow users to embed ads into the backgrounds of their Twitter pages. The service has attracted 170 advertisers since it launched in August. (Iwantmedia 12/9, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/12/twitter-ads.html 12/8)