Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA by Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Blockbuster today is expected to announce that it will serve up its inventory of films and TV shows via a wide array of digital platforms, including the Internet, mobile phones, Web-connected TVs and Blu-ray players. “We want it to be ubiquitous,” said Kevin Lewis, senior vice president of digital entertainment for Blockbuster, which is in a competitive battle with Netflix. The Wall Street Journal (1/14) , The Hollywood Reporter (1/14)

The Golden Globes telecast may have taken it on the chin on Sunday night (recording its second-worst ratings since ’95) but at least one online venue saw an increase in eyeballs. AOL‘s Moviefone.com site notched 81 million page views on Monday, with close to 67 million views coming directly from the site’s Golden Globe’s hub, according to internal Omniture numbers. (Cynopsis 1/14)

It might be too late for Time Warner to sell its battered AOL unit, analysts say. “I just don’t see bidders out there.” Time Warner is still looking at whether AOL has the “right ownership structure,” says CFO John Martin. Also, the company is “reviewing” some of its smaller magazines. (Iwantmedia 1/14, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=asCgPLoBQD7g 1/14)

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes

Google launched Gmail only four years ago, and it is now the fourth most popular e-mail service on the Web after Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, and Windows Live Hotmail. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/14/gmail-grew-43-percent-last-year-aol-mail-and-hotmail-need-to-start-worrying 1/14)

Today Google added a new feature to its extremely useful Maps service, allowing users to quickly view the layout of public transportation systems in more than 50 cities. While Google’s Transit site has offered automatic trip-planning for a number of areas for some time, the new feature makes it easy to determine at a glance if public transportation is even a viable option. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/13/scope-out-public-transportation-at-a-glance-with-googles-transit-layer 1/13)

As someone who has been using Hopstop for quick some time, it’s a neat feature but one that I have been used to using elsewhere.  That said, my iPhone always appreciates added features packed into its lovely little Google map.

MTV.com earlier this week launched “MTV Detox,” an online series about one of the portal’s best-known topics: itself. The Sunday-through-Thursday series, which also is available for mobile streaming, is composed of clips from MTV shows such as “The Real World: Brooklyn” and “The City.” Mediaweek (1/13)

I don’t quite understand the need for yet another series which pokes fun at on-air reality shows.  I mean, this one only covers what happens on one MTV series per night.  Give me some InfoMania with a side of Talk Soup and I’m happy.  I don’t need the MTV-specific version.  I don’t have quite that much MTV love to give…

Adobe’s experiment with allowing publishers to place contextual ads directly inside PDF documents is coming to an end. The Adobe Labs project was launched just over a year ago in November, 2007. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/14/dept-of-bad-ideas-those-adobe-ads-in-pdf-documents-just-werent-working 1/14)

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