Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Big media companies have always had a love-hate relationship with YouTube. They don’t know whether to sue YouTube for abetting copyright infringement or get in bed with it because it is the biggest Web video game in town. YouTube is trying to convince them that love is better than war by giving them a cut of advertising revenues from their videos that appear on YouTube, regardless of who put them there. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/21/exclusive-youtube-will-soon-let-big-content-partners-bring-their-own-ads 1/21)

Here’s the moral of the story kids.  Don’t try to control the uncontrollable.  Monetize it instead.  If only media companies could start thinking this way, consumers everywhere would rejoice.

New York City has just launched a revamped webportal at NYCgo, which now offers an extensive database of events, restaurants, hotels, and other points of interest. All of these are tied into the Google Maps API, making it easier for visitors to quickly find things to do in their vicinity without having to hunt down their hotel’s concierge. The site will also include a listing of promotions and discounts, like the incredibly popular Restaurant Week, during which upscale restaurants offer meals at a flat (and heavily discounted) rate. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/21/nyc-teams-with-google-to-launch-its-own-citysearch 1/21)

Online video sites such as TV.com, Hulu and Joost, which offer much of the same content, are building more social-networking applications into their portals as a way to differentiate themselves and build loyalty. TV.com, for instance, allows viewers to comment on and review videos, enter discussion forums and even create their own blogs. BusinessWeek (1/19)