Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Twitter, the subject of endless business model speculation, added another weapon to the arsenal today – house advertisements on the home page when you’re logged in, and some search results. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/16/twitter-experimenting-with-text-advertising 3/16)

U.S. traffic on social networking sites rose in February compared with last year and Facebook‘s traffic more than doubled year over year, says Hitwise. Facebook’s traffic jumped 149% in February. Visitors over age 35 increased on Facebook — and decreased on MySpace. (Iwantmedia 3/17, http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/reporting/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=215900415 3/16)

Internet Movie Database hopes to add one-button streaming for all of the 1.3 million titles it indexes, says founder Col Needham. While the vision will take some time to come to fruition, the site already offers 14,000 television episodes and a few thousand movies. (Iwantmedia 3/17, http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10197486-93.html 3/16)

An online petition FixCNBC.com, prompted by Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart‘s savaging of CNBC’s Wall Street coverage, is receiving about 400 signatures an hour. Among those listed as sponsoring the letter are reps for Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting and Free Press. (Iwantmedia 3/17, http://www.multichannel.com/article/190087-FixCNBC_Push_Gains_Momentum.php 3/16)

A big difference between Facebook and MySpace has always been how the two companies approach the privacy of user data. At MySpace your profile is public by default and users can choose to make it private (except under 18 users, who default to private). At Facebook, your profile information has always been private and shared with your friends and, optionally your network (your school, company or geographic location).  Starting today, though, users can change their privacy settings to make virtually all of their profile information public. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/16/facebook-privacy-now-optional 3/16)

TheWB.com unveils it latest scripted original series today – Rockville CA, from Gossip Girl, Chuck and The O.C. show runner Josh Schwartz. The series, set in a fictional rock club in Echo Park, LA, features performances from an impressive line-up of up-and-coming acts personally selected by Alexandra Patsavas, the woman responsible for finding all the hip bands featured on Schwartz’s shows. Following the 4 initial episodes already posted, theWB.com will introduce 17 additional episodes each Tuesday, viewable on the site or via a downloadable widget available on RockvilleCA.com. (Cynopsis 3/17)

Google accounted for 72.11% of all U.S. online searches conducted in February, an 8% increase over the same period last year, according to Hitwise. Google’s February performance extended its search dominance over Yahoo, with 17.04% of all U.S. searches. (http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090316/FREE/903169979/1078#seenit 3/16)

Hulu this week will premiere another network prime-time ad, with a preview of it at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Following a Super Bowl ad featuring Alec Baldwin of NBC’s “30 Rock” and a February ad featuring Eliza Dushku of “Dollhouse,” the new spot will continue the theme of promoting Hulu as a way to watch TV shows and movies online. TVWeek.com (3/16)