Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Google saw healthy growth in the number of search queries on its core U.S. search engine in January, according to comScore qSearch numbers that came out last night. Google’s query growth rate was 38.4 percent, compared to January, 2008, outpacing the industry’s overall 28.6 percent growth in search queries. Any way you slice it, people are still doing more and more searches, which suggests that the search market is far from saturated. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/18/google-shows-healthy-january-growth-in-us-search-volume 2/18)

After trying to calm everyone down first, Mark Zuckerberg has now posted a new blog post stating that the company will revert to its previous ToS while they “resolve the issues that people have raised” (the post is being hammered right now so it’s going up and down). (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/17/facebook-backtracks-under-community-pressure-goes-back-to-old-tos-for-now 2/17)

CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s ultimate goal is to turn Facebook into the world’s standardized communication — and marketing — platform, as ubiquitous and intuitive as the telephone but more interactive and indispensable. Facebook plans to “build one worldwide platform,” he says. (Iwantmedia 2/18, http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/16/technology/hempel_facebook.fortune/index.htm 2/16)

Hulu.com rose to No. 4 among unique visits to online video distributors in January, but, according to this analysis, its hold on that position is tenuous because it has only a two-year contract for the exclusive rights to play NBC and Fox shows (outside of the media giants’own sites). If NBC Universal and News Corp. decide to distribute their content on a wider scale, Hulu will have to differentiate itself from its competitors based on quality and features, this writer says. Advertising Age (2/17)

Something is up at TV.com, the CBS-owned site that recently relaunched as a competitor to Hulu. Since last summer, when TV.com was owned by CNET and was still primarily a community hub, the site has featured content from NBC and News Corp through a partnership with Hulu. Now, only two months after TV.com relaunched as a CBS-supported direct competitor to the popular media portal, it looks like much (if not all) of the content served through Hulu is no longer working. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/17/did-hulu-just-pull-the-plug-on-its-deal-with-tvcom 2/17)

Boxee, the powerful software package that can convert computers, Apple TVs and other popular products into media centers, has just been kneecapped by major studio content owners. One of the product’s most popular features since its implementation last October has been the ability to watch Hulu’s entire catalog for free, on your TV. Today, Boxee has announced that Hulu will no longer be supported. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/18/content-owners-force-hulu-to-kill-boxee-support 2/18)

In another apparent coup for Microsoft’s Silverlight platform, CBS Interactive is adding an “HD quality” player for its comprehensive ad supported streaming of 2009 NCAA March Madness on Demand on CBSSports.com next month. Microsoft’s traditional Windows Media player will continue to serve the standard 550 kb/second feed while Silverlight will power enhanced video of up to 1.5 MB/second. CBS reported a 164% year-over-year growth in total unique visitors to NCAA March Madness on Demand in 2008 with 4.8 million total unique visitors and 81% year-over-year growth in total hours of live video and audio consumed. (Cynopsis 2/18)

In the landmark trail against Sweden’s The Pirate Bay prosecutors were forced to drop half of the charges against the site just two days into the proceedings. Prosecutors acknowledged that the site didn’t actually copy the files being uploaded by users and thus should no longer face charges of producing copyrighted material unlawfully. Both sides claimed victory of course – the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) issued a statement explaining that scaling back the charges will only simplify the case for the prosecution. (Cynopsis 2/18)

Twitter is starting to test ways to put its real-time search front and center. It is just bucket-testing the change right now with a few randomly selected users, so you might not see it. But you should expect it to be rolled out to everybody eventually. The search and trend features, which currently exist on a separate page, are being placed on the home page of the test accounts. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/18/twitter-moving-to-make-real-time-search-more-central 2/18)

SoundExchange, a group that collects royalties for music artists and recording companies, is agreeing to reduce rates for U.S. radio stations that also play songs online. Internet radio station operators had complained that the rates originally set could force them to shut down. (Iwantmedia 2/18, http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090217/na_us_internet_radio_royalties.html 2/17)

President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion economic-stimulus package Tuesday. The package contains more than $7 billion for broadband deployment for unserved and underserved areas of the country. Broadcasting & Cable (2/17) , The Washington Post (2/18)