Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Earlier this week the Google Earth team released a new plugin that allows users to view Google Earth tours directly from their web browsers. These tours, which were introduced in the 5.0 release of Google Earth in February, allow users to create virtual flythroughs through any location on Google Earth, which can lead to some pretty impressive results. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/10/google-earth-flythroughs-come-to-the-browser/ 4/10)

Portal rivals Microsoft and Yahoo have once again resumed their search partnership talks, reports the WSJ. The two companies are also discussing content-sharing agreements with Demand Media, which operates niche web sites and publishes and syndicates online content. (Cynopsis 4/13)

Time Warner Cable is receiving some backlash over it’s recently announced tiered pricing structure for broadband access.  Users are up in arms over the new plans priced from $22.95 to $54.90 a month for 5GB, 10GB, or 40GB of data.  To put this in perspective, stream 9 HD movies per month and you will exceed the 40GB cap.  That may not sound like a big deal to you know but as availability increases, so will your usage.

ESPN chose the day of the Cubs home opener to launch its first hyper-local site, ESPN Chicago. A collaboration between multiple divisions including ESPN Digital Media, ESPN production, ESPN Radio and local and regional sales teams, the site is the company’s first attempt to super-serve the interests of a single city’s sports fans with localized content including streaming audio feeds from Chicago’s ESPN Radio 1000, local blog posts and a daily video news report ESPN Chicago SportsCenter. (Cynopsis 4/13)

The online video industry pulled in more than $80 million in venture capital funding in the first three months of 2009, about the same as the last quarter of 2008, according to a report from VideoNuze. “People realize that video on the Internet is going to happen, and you know in four years that’s how people will be watching content,” said Neil Sequeira of General Catalyst, a VC firm that has closed four online video deals so far this year. TVWeek.com (4/12)

Google continues to increase its share of the U.S. search marketplace capturing 64% of all searches increasing its market share by 16% over the past year, according to Nielsen Online. (Cynopsis 4/13)

Top 10 Search Providers for March 2009, Ranked by Searches (U.S.)
Provider                    Searches (000)     YOY Growth  Share of Searches
All Search                       9,522,853          16.7%             100.0%
Google Search                 6,113,906           27.6%             64.2%
Yahoo! Search                 1,505,426           1.7%              15.8%
MSN/Windows Live Search    982,661           0.3%              10.3%
AOL Search                         356,569           6.6%              3.7%
Ask.com Search                  197,957          -0.7%               2.1%
My Web Search Search         59,597         -15.1%               0.6%
Comcast Search                   57,605          30.2%               0.6%
Yellow Pages Search             37,295           N/A*                0.4%
NexTag Search                     22,432        -23.7%               0.2%
Dogpile.com Search              19,461           0.7%                0.2%
Source: Nielsen Online