Daily Marauder

ONLINE/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Google’s social networking site Orkut, little known in the U.S., has made a splash in Brazil but is attracting the wrong kind of attention from prosecutors, reports The Wall Street Journal. The head of Orkut’s Brazilian operation is facing criminal contempt charges for refusing to turn over personal records of users accused of using the site for criminal activity. Advertisers, who began using the site on an experimental basis, are running for cover. More than half of the site’s 25 million unique visitors hail from Brazil. And their usage is so heavy, the site ranks in the top 5 global web domains in terms of page views per month, according to comScore Media Metrix.

The official NBC channel has been pulled from YouTube, increasing speculation that NBC and partner NewsCorp. may be ready to launch their Hulu online video joint venture. NBC and YouTube have helped one another considerably during the past two years, points out Valleywag – the network giving the start-up legitimacy before it was acquired by Google and the video site helping boost shows like Saturday Night Live and The Office. (http://valleywag.com/tech/online-video/nbc-pulls-youtube-channel-313276.php 10/21)

Facebook is getting ready to make its comprehensive Applications Directory available to users who are not registered or logged in to the site and enable them to be indexed by other search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Windows Live. One of the newest Facebook apps links to Second Life, allowing users to bring their avatar into their Facebook profile.

With all the rumors and gossip out there, it’s nice to be able to report a legit piece of Google-Facebook news. Google News, which is on a bit of a bender when it comes to trying new things of late, went live today with a Google News app for Facebook. As explained on the Google News blog, “this experimental application enables users to create custom sections or select from a set of pre-defined topics, then browse and share stories with their friends on Facebook.” It’s still in beta. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-a-real-google-facebook-pairing-google-news-experiments-with-facebook-ap 10/19)

Sony Pictures Television’s Minisode Network, the studio’s online repository for shortened TV classics, is branching out from its home on MySpace to receive distribution on Sony’s user-gen video site Crackle, as well as on AOL and Joost, the NYT reports. By extending its network among different sites, Sony will offer different advertisers special sponsorship deals tailored to match their respective campaigns. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-sony-expands-minisode-network-distribution-shrunken-retro-tv-shows-to-r 10/19)

At the recently held Google Zeitgeist ‘07, a panel on social networking featured Chris Alden, Michael Birch, Reid Hoffman and Esther Dyson. On the official Google channel on YouTube, a full video of that panel is here. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-social-networking-panel-discussion-at-zeitgeist-07 10/20)

Growth in the number of people signing up for social-networking sites like MySpace and Facebook will peak by 2009 and plateau by 2012, according to a report by U.K.-based Datamonitor. The firm warns investors of being overconfident about a Web phenomenon that is not proven. (http://www.news.com/Analyst-Social-networking-faces-uncertain-future/2100-1025_3-6214355.html 10/19)

(Below) Someone I respect in the digital space recently said, “If you can count it, it’s not innovation.” Interesting thought. Staying ahead in the new media universe sometimes means blazing ahead in uncharted waters. Sometimes, that is.

Big media companies are frustrated that their counts of Web visitors keep coming in vastly higher than those of the tracking companies. The growth of online advertising is being stunted, media industry execs say, because nobody can get the basic visitor counts straight. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/technology/22click.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 10/22)

CEO Randy Falco is trying to make AOL into a global Internet media firm that can compete with Yahoo and Google. Such a shift means AOL needs staff with different skills, he says. AOL plans to help people find Internet content, he adds, especially user-generated video. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/21/AR2007102101157.html 10/22)

(Below) This digusts me. The internet should not be policed by cable/telco affiliates. Granted, illegal file sharing is illegal file sharing, but the affiliates should not be the arbitors of right and wrong on the internet. Anything less than net neutrality is unacceptable in my book.

The Motion Picture Association of America is said to be talking to companies that offer high-speed cable and DSL Internet service — including Comcast and AT&T — about adopting technologies to discourage users from illegally swapping movies and television shows over their networks. (http://www.nypost.com/seven/10222007/business/hollywood_piracy_fight_widens.htm 10/22)

While pundits predict the Internet will make dinosaurs out of big media, execs from CBS and Comcast at the Web 2.0 Summit insist that getting TV clips on YouTube or Facebook actually attracts more viewers. The Web isn’t “cannibalistic to television,” says CBS digital head Quincy Smith. (http://www.informationweek.com/software/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=202404948 10/19)

News Corp.’s MySpace is unveiling a new online video series called “Roommates” that will air exclusively on MySpaceTV, marking the first time the social-networking site develops its own show. User feedback is expected to help shape story arcs for the advertising-supported series. (http://mediabiz.blogs.cnnmoney.cnn.com/2007/10/22/myspace-goes-hollywood/ 10/22)

This could be the worst acting I’ve ever seen in a piece of content of any kind. Quality is still important here folks. While the internet is overrun with quantity, I would ask that content producers still focus on quality.

Episode 1

Christian video site GodTube became the nation’s fastest-growing Web property for August, with 1.7 million unique visitors. The Plano, Texas-based site, whose partners include the top U.S. “megachurches and Christian retailers,” is supported by both religious and secular advertising. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-ca-webscout21oct21,1,1997188.story 10/21)

And just in case, you were wondering what God was thinking, check out my favorite banner ad on the site below. Are sarcasm tags really necessary here?

Michael Arrington’s tech-industry blog TechCrunch is said to bring in $240,000 per month in advertising. However, no self-sustaining blog media business has ever weathered a downturn, says Gawker Media boss Nick Denton. “So it would be unwise to sound too triumphant.” (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/10/21/BUVJSNSTC.DTL 10/21)

Top 10 Parent Companies Web Sites, Combined Home & Work (U.S.), September 2007

Rank Parent site Unique Audience Time Per Person
1 Google 118,003 1:34:34
2 Microsoft 117,677 2:00:29
3 Yahoo! 109,085 3:08:30
4 Time Warner 102,252 3:50:34
5 News Corp. Online 73,506 1:51:52
6 eBay 65,105 1:56:03
7 InterActiveCorp. 61,108 0:25:05
8 Amazon 49,759 0:25:14
9 Wikimedia Foundation 47,575 0:16:33
10 Apple Computer 44,291 1:00:04
Source: Nielsen/Net Ratings