Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg just posted a message on the company blog confirming the number of users for the social networking service that’s been floating around for some time now. The blog post, titled ‘200 Million Strong’, says the milestone will effectively be achieved today (no more speculation needed). (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/08/zuckerberg-welcomes-200-millionth-facebook-user-wants-to-know-how-it-affected-your-life 4/8)

That’s a whoooole lot of users considering of that 200 million, 100 million  sign on to their accounts every day.  Just in case there was every any question, Facebook = media company.

Facebook’s members may have initially reacted with horror at the new homepage redesign which introduces a Twitter-like stream as the main interface. But Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg thinks that advertisers are going to love it. In a speech today at a digital advertising conference, and a subsequent blog post, she preached the many benefits of the stream and even had some data to back it up. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/08/facebooks-sheryl-sandberg-preaches-that-the-stream-will-bring-us-closer-together 4/8)

Youtube is doing everything it can to turn the professionally-produced content on its site into a big source of revenues. Through its Content ID program, it digitally fingerprints the video libraries of 600 content partners and offers those media companies and video creators the option to place ads against any video that contains their copyrighted material. They also have the option to automatically take those videos down, but more than 90 percent opt for the additional ad revenues. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/08/youtube-quietly-rolls-out-adsense-for-video-to-claimed-copyrighted-content 4/8)

Google CEO Eric Schmidt, speaking at the Newspaper Association of America conference, says he foresees media services mixing professional content with user-generated material. Online newspapers, he adds, will be supported by subscriptions, micro-payments and advertising. (Iwantmedia 4/8, http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/04/07/schmidt-describes-future-media-still-driven-by-advertising/ 4/7)

To fight “misappropriation” of its content, the Associated Press plans to build its own online news aggregator. Local newspapers will be showcased. Importantly, participating news outlets will share advertising revenue, which is “different from the Google ecosystem.” (Iwantmedia 4/8, http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2009/tc2009047_310532.htm 4/8)

Social networking features available on sites like Facebook will soon become part of many of Yahoo’s sites. The Yahoo home page, Flickr and the Internet company’s other products will add social media elements, including a common user profile, to tie the properties together. (Iwantmedia 4/8, http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSTRE53562820090407 4/7)

The new firm Twitter Partners aims to help brands and media companies harness the power of the microblogging site. Twitter Partners is being endorsed by Twitter itself, which is said to be taking an equity stake in the outfit. The firm helps “broker brands” onto Twitter. (Iwantmedia 4/8, http://www.nma.co.uk/Articles/42113/Twitter+backs+first+UK+ad+partner.html 4/8)

The Federal Communications Commission is beginning work on a national broadband plan, with the goal of ensuring that all U.S. consumers have access to services that are fast and affordable. The plan could guide “the future of telecommunications regulation and the Internet.” (Iwantmedia 4/8, http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2009-04-07-fcc-broadband-internet-service_N.htm 4/7)

CBS is launching MoneyWatch.com, a personal finance site supported by partnerships with LinkedIn and others. The site’s editorial talent will be featured as contributors on CBS News shows. Top editor Eric Schroenberg is a former managing editor of Money magazine. (Iwantmedia 4/8, http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=103634 4/7)