Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Google ended the year with 63.5 percent market share of all search queries performed in the U.S., estimates comScore. And that market share has inched up steadily from 58.5 percent in January, 2008. But the market share numbers mask the absolute growth in searches and how Google has ben able to Gobble up all of that growth. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/28/google-gobbled-up-90-percent-of-all-us-search-growth-in-2008  1/28)

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Google announced today class=”snap_preview_icon”> that it will give end users the tools to figure out whether internet service providers are interfering with their broadband connections by blocking or “throttling” certain applications. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/28/google-introduces-a-new-weapon-in-the-fight-for-net-neutrality-measurement-labs  1/28)

Way to fight back Google. Loves it.  If empowerment is all about access to information, Google’s just turning the light on.

Google’s YouTube and the William Morris Agency are close to signing a deal to place the Hollywood talent agency’s clients in Web productions. The deal will give William Morris clients ownership in videos they create for YouTube, bypassing traditional television networks. (Iwantmedia 1/29, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/business/media/29youtube.html?_r=1  1/29)

Yahoo aims to extend its brand to television by developing a half-hour newsmagazine with Twentieth Television, a unit of News Corp. The program, called “Yahoo Buzz” and inspired by the Web feature of the same name, will be syndicated to TV stations as early as this fall. (Iwantmedia 1/29, http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/yahoo-buzz-leaps-from-internet-to-television  1/28)

The more ads the merrier on ABC.com, according to new research Disney-ABC TV Group commissioned from Nielsen Media Research. Doubling the ad load in a full-length program shown on ABC.com didn’t decrease customer satisfaction, according to the study. (Iwantmedia 1/29, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/technology/news/e3iabb39aac80c6a278c5b91ad791a61ed6  1/28)

Of the top 100 sites on the Web, which ones grew the fastest in 2008? In a report it is preparing to release tomorrow, The comScore 2008 Digital Year In Review (which you can sign up for here class=”snap_preview_icon”>), comScore ranks the 20 fastest-growing Web properties. These are out of the largest 100 sites overall. They are shown below, as measured by growth in unique visitors. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/28/comscore-report-fastest-growing-sites-and-top-ten-advertising-magnets  1/28)

Anyone who has turned digital photos into a printed photo book via Apple iPhoto or any of a variety of competitors knows how great they are. They make a perfect gift, if you can afford the $20 – $30 they generally cost to create, plus shipping.  Enter UK-based HotPrints, which I was introduced to at the DLD conference in Munich earlier this week. The company is using new printing technology from an undisclosed partner to create high quality photo books on the cheap – just $2.99 plus shipping to the U.S. of $0.75. That’s significantly less than any of the competing products.  And they’re focusing on Facebook, which has a rich collection of already-tagged photos just waiting to be turned into printed books. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/29/299-printed-photobooks-now-available-on-facebook-hotprints  1/29)

Super fun and even better, the application copies captions and tagged friends to print in the book.  Way to make my life that much easier HotPrints.

MTVN’s Spike.com is back with its live “Commercial Bowl” at halftime, encouraging users to vote for the best ads online after they air on NBC. Editors will be live blogging and allowing users to voice their selection for the best advertisements, then feature their own picks for The Top 10 Funniest and Top 10 Sexiest Super Bowl Commercials. (Cynopsis 1/29)

Cashing in on American’s renewed concerned of money matters, CBS is launching a new personal finance site MoneyWatch.com this spring as an extension of B-to-B portal BNET. The site’s editors, led by former Managing Editor of Money Magazine Eric Schurenberg, will also contribute to other CBS properties on business and personal finance matters including The Early Show, CBS Evening News with Katie Couric and CBS owned-and-operated stations and sites. (Cynopsis 1/29)

Hoping to attract new product ideas from some of the best and brightest developers, MySpace is co-hosting a developers workshop or DevJam event on Feb. 5 at its offices in San Francisco. The workshop will focus on monetization through virtual currency, which has emerged as one method to deliver value throughout the social networking ecosystem. (Cynopsis 1/29)