Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

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Hulu.com, the NBC Universal-News Corp. online video joint venture once described as a “YouTube killer,” will likely open to the public around the end of March, says CTO Eric Feng. The site will offer television shows, movies and other professionally produced video. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/24/hulu-discusses-private-beta-suggests-public-launch-time-frame  1/24)

MTV has become the first TV programmer to bring its content to Sony’s PlayStation Portable Universal Media Disc platform. “This collaboration with MTV is a key first step in meeting the needs of our consumers, who are utilizing PSP as a video player more than ever and are thirsting for more content, particularly short-form videos,” said Phil Rosenberg, senior vice president of sales and business development for SCEA. (The Hollywood Reporter 1/25)

Video entertainment site Veoh.com and horror-themed Fear.net announced a content and ad revenue sharing deal, giving Veoh.com’s 23 million monthly users access to its original and acquired content. Veoh will launch a branded channel featuring frightening Sony Pictures Television and Lionsgate titles, the studios launched FearNet with Comcast a year ago last Halloween.

The granddaddy of interactive serial dramas lonelygirl 15 wraps its second season today with a four-part cliffhanger. The lead up included a live event held earlier this week in San Francisco that invited fans to become extras in the drama and even post their own videos of the action. Expect new twists, turns, character deaths and interactive elements in season 3, to premiere immediately following the season 2 finale.

IAC/InterActiveCorp and chief Barry Diller are suing the company’s controlling shareholder, Liberty Media, in a dispute that threatens the Internet firm’s plan to spin off four of its operating units. Liberty boss John Malone opposes Diller’s plan for changing the firm’s voting structure. (http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUSN2428901920080125 1/24)

The growth in online advertising should not be derailed by any downward move in the U.S. economy, according to Nikesh Arora, head of the search engine’s activities in Europe. “Consumer behavior is moving to the Net and marketers want to follow the consumer.” (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f492a44e-cae6-11dc-a960-000077b07658.html  1/25)

European regulators are expected to approve Google’s $3.1 billion takeover of advertising firm DoubleClick, despite rivals’ worries the deal could squeeze them and make Web ads more expensive. The deal already won U.S. regulatory approval in December. (http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSL2589361220080125  1/25)

Who rules the world of widgets? It is difficult to measure, but comScore takes a stab at it with a new ranking of widget providers as measured by viewing audience. The Widget Metrix data is from November 2007 and “measures independent objects that can be embedded or downloaded onto another site and can be used as a tool, have automatic content updates, or are interactive.” (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/24/the-widget-kings  1/24)

The concept that online you own your own data and you should be able to take it with you from one social network or Website to another is gaining a lot of traction these days. Yahoo, MySpace, LinkedIn, Google, Plaxo, , and even Facebook have joined the Dataportability Work Group to figure out standards. Now, Microsoft is joining as well. With 420 million Windows Live IDs tied to user profiles, Microsoft’s involvement is encouraging. Are the days of data lock-in really behind us? (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/24/dataportability-gains-another-convert-in-microsoft  1/24)

Banking on the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, Tampa, FL.-based Redzee.com introduced a new visual search engine that replaces all text results with pictures. The system still utilizes text-based search tools to scan metadata tags embedded within web pages, but screen grabs of the web pages are displayed instead of the text snippets. 

Actor Barry Williams, who played Greg Brady on the ’70s sitcom “The Brady Bunch,” is reinventing himself online via a new social network for fans called The Greg Brady Project. The network is powered by MyLifeBrand, a platform that integrates profiles from other networks like Facebook. (http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/01/24/a-very-brady-social-network  1/24)

Speaking of the long tail in social networking, I think this community devoted to all things Brady would apply.  [sigh] Bonding over the Bradys.  Good times.