Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA by Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Disney-ABC’s Oscar.com unveiled a new original web series “Road to the Oscars,” featuring Bachelor and Bachelorette host Chris Harrison. The series, which will feature Oscar news, exclusive interviews and behind the scenes footage, consists of nine episodes with a new show premiering everyday through Monday, February 23. The site also launched its “Oscars Designer Challenge: Behind the Dress” competition hosted by “Project Runway” alum/ fashion designer Nick Verreos. (Cynopsis 2/19)

Facebook has just launched its first widget for Facebook Connect, its recently-introduced platform that allows users to authenticate themselves using their Facebook logins. Dubbed ‘Comments Box’, the new widget allows site owners to integrate a comments section into their webpage. But unlike normal commenting systems, comments left in Comments Box will be relayed back to the users’ Facebook profiles, where the conversation can continue (users can also choose to receive notifications through Facebook whenever someone responds to their comments on other websites). (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/19/facebook-connect-gets-easy-with-new-comments-widget 2/19)

Online TV firm Next New Networks and Verizon FiOS are launching an online network called $99 Music Videos to showcase the talents of emerging musicians and filmmakers. The companies say they are looking to create an “MTV for the digital and iTunes age.” (Iwantmedia 2/19, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3iee816b19c15d56f1b3e2b5da7f3676cb 2/19)

A new interactive site dubbed Fashionology.com launched yesterday as a web extension to a hands-on shop in Beverly Hills that allows tweens to design and make their own clothing. Building on tools popularized by dress up sites, Fashionology uses animated avatars to allow young users to play around with designs, share and borrow ideas with others and order finished products. (Cynopsis 2/19)

Despite the well publicized failure of Bud.tv, sneaker maker Adidas is rolling out its own video portal this week to promote its brands the viral video way, per Adweek. The portal began with basketball page featuring celebrity endorsements from NBA stars such as Dwight Howard, but plans are to ramp up content to include hundreds of embeddable videos, photos and integrations with social networking sites. The portal is the brainchild of EVB, San Francisco. (Cynopsis 2/19)

Nickelodeon‘s portfolio of sites claimed the top spot in comScore’s Family & Lifestyle category in Jan., posting a 13% gain in unique visitors (28.7 million) over a year ago. The group, which includes Nick.com; NickJr.com; The-N.com; Neopets; Shockwave; AddictingGames; ParentsConnect and NOGGIN.com; also ranked first in video streams among kids brands according to Nielsen’s VideoCensus. Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group was fifth among the top brands overall by video streams, behind only YouTube, Yahoo, Hulu and Fox Interactive Media. It delivered 204 million streams and 6.3 million unique video viewers. (Cynopsis 2/19)

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