Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

YouTube is beginning the first phase of a redesign that will highlight its gradually expanding library of premium shows and movies. The changes are motivated largely by the need to enhance YouTube’s appeal to advertisers, and to increase the available quantity of its in-stream ads. (Iwantmedia 4/20, http://www.clickz.com/3633444 4/17)

Check out this video which highlights user backlash to a YouTube with far less “you.”

Some marketers are neglecting their own Web sites in favor of building a brand on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms in order to reach consumers where they congregate. Also: Land Rover is the first national brand to execute a national Twitter campaign. (Iwantmedia 4/20, http://www.nypost.com/seven/04192009/business/web_social_studies_165093.htm 4/19)

The Web’s top news sites are losing little if any audience in the nearly six months since Barack Obama was elected president. MSNBC.com and CNN.com and seeing slight dips slight dips since their November peak; FoxNews.com is actually seeing its audience climb this year. (Iwantmedia 4/20, http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/digital-downloads/broadband/e3iea8ace6c886b7bf643cd740dc5ae3505 4/19)

Today sees the public launch of Tweetie for Mac, the desktop-based big brother of what many (myself included) consider to be the iPhone’s best Twitter client. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/20/tweetie-for-mac-a-powerful-native-twitter-client-for-the-masses/ 4/20)

Late last night, former Engadget editor-in-chief Ryan Block tweeted out that he had done some research to attempt to quantify the “Oprah Effect” — that is, the number of users who signed up for Twitter after Oprah featured the service on her show on Friday. The number he came to? 1.2 million. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/20/how-many-new-twitter-users-post-oprah-a-lot-maybe-over-a-million/ 4/20)

A couple of days ago, on its Twitter API Wiki, Twitter quietly unveiled a “Sign in with Twitter” feature. It’s a very simple idea: It gives you the option to use your Twitter ID as your login for third party services. But what’s more interesting is what Twitter could do with this. Basically, this could be the first step at launching a “Twitter Connect” of sorts, the same type of platform that Facebook is building with Facebook Connect and Google is building with Friend Connect. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/17/did-twitter-just-quietly-start-twitter-connect/ 4/17)

Blog publisher David Hauslaib is said to be folding his flagship media-and-celebrity gossip site Jossip. The site’s two editors, Cord Jefferson and Drew Grant, are being let go. The blog has been for sale for more than a year, and Conde Nast was once rumored to be circling. (Iwantmedia 4/20, http://assme.org/2009/04/18/jossip-folding/ 4/18)

FOX News and MySpace are partnering to launch Fox’s citizen journalism social media platform on MySpace, called uReport. MySpace members can share citizen produced content with the MySpace community, as well as have the chance to be featured on FOX News. FOX News and MySpace are both owned by News Corp. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/20/fox-news-and-myspace-launch-ureport-not-to-be-confused-with-cnn%E2%80%99s-ireport/ 4/20)