Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

People flocked to CNN.com, MSNBC.com and other news Web sites Tuesday afternoon to witness President Obama’s inaugural speech, setting records, and in some cases, causing technical hiccups. CNN.com set an all-time record, serving more than 21.3 million live video streams. (Iwantmedia 1/20, http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090120/FREE/901209967/1064 1/20)

Pandora Radio, the cool personalized radio station that recommends songs based on its Music Genome Project, has started serving audio ads. The high royalty costs associated with streaming licensed songs seem to have finally caught up to the service, which until now has primarily used image-based advertising. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/20/pandora-radio-starts-serving-audio-ads 1/20)

YouTube chose Barack Obama‘s ChangeDotGov channel to preview a new feature. Visitors can choose to download mpeg4, H.264-quality, DRM-free video files directly from the site. The “click to download” feature is a first for YouTube, which until now has been exclusively a streaming site. (Cynopsis 1/20)

According to Hitwise, last week visits to Twitter surpassed visits to Digg for the first time. Hitwise measures visits in terms of “market share,” which isn’t a very helpful metric (both have 0.021 percent market share, but Twitter is ranked No. 84 and Digg is No. 85). This data is of last week, when visits to Twitter surged following the much-Tweeted emergency landing of a plane on the Hudson. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/20/did-twitter-just-pass-digg 1/20)

As the music business scrambles to find new revenue streams, some performers are reaching out to fans with new ideas to get paid. Kanye West makes money from his prolific blogging activities, with his Web site turning a profit thanks to advertising and sponsorships. (Iwantmedia 1/20, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7837605.stm 1/19)

One of the best things about Facebook is that you know who you’re dealing with. You’ve verified every friend connection and nearly everyone has a collection of personal photos proving they’re who they say they are. Now it looks like some scammers are using this trust to their advantage, hacking accounts and exploiting the wealth of personal information available to trick your friends into giving them cash. In the past Facebook has had its fair share of spam and phishers, but now it looks like these scammers are getting smarter by engaging in a form of identify theft. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/20/latest-facebook-scam-phishers-hit-up-friends-for-cash 1/20)

Social networking kingpin MySpace is teaming with production shop Endemol to create a marriage-themed online reality web series slated to debut in May. “GetMarried on MySpace” will recruit couples from the site, who will compete for the honor of having their nuptials hosted live on the site. The 13-episode will invite the community to get involved in everything from casting the couple to selecting a wedding gown for the bride. Advertisers will have also have ample sponsorship opportunities including deep product integration. MySpace also announced it has finally cleaned up the MySpace Video channel, offering improved navigation and far less clutter. Browse by genre, TV show, popular video channels or top viewed by day, week or month. (Cynopsis 1/20)

Google’s dreams of world domination may be dwindling (at least its dreams of ruling the advertising world). Today, it announced that it will no longer be selling print ads in newspapers. (Yes, Google sold contextual ads that appeared in 800 papers. It also sells radio and TV ads). (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/20/google-bails-on-print-ads-and-newspapers 1/20)