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E-commerce Plateaus As Web’s Purchasing Influence Surges - Does the Internet spell doom to today’s brick-and-mortar shops? No, says new research from JupiterResearch. Ecommerce will probably hit a wall in the not-too-distant future, eventually leveling out at between 10% to 15% of total retail sales, according to the report by Patti Freeman Evans, Jupiter’s senior retail analyst.

Yahoo’s Puzzling “Brand Universe” - After a decidedly unsuccessful foray into the content generation business (which led to the departure of several top executives), Yahoo got the bright idea to construct pages using content created by others. In an effort to exploit the Web giant’s good standing with major entertainment brands, Yahoo is building a “Brand Universe.” It includes popular celebrities, video games, movies and TV shows with dedicated pages decorated with nice graphics and aggregated content from Flickr, Del.icio.us, Yahoo Answers and other Yahoo properties.

Online Ad Spending Projected to Grow Nearly 20% - A survey of advertisers who control $6.5 billion in spending projects that the print and broadcast shares of US ad budgets will continue to decline in 2007, while the online ad share grows. The “Annual Ad Spending Study 2007,” from Outsell, shows that US companies plan to increase their online spending by 18% this year, more than for any other major media type.

Earnings: NYTCO Writes Down New England Media Group; About.com Revenue Up 50 percent For Year - Internet revenue accounted for 9.1 percent of NYTCO revenues, up substantially from 6.7 percent in 4Q05. For the year, internet represented 8.3 of the company’s revenue compared with 6 percent in 2005. NYTCO projects income from the internet to hit $350 million in 2007, up approximately 30 percent from $273.9 million in 2006 and $193.9 million in 2005.

@ AO Media: Forbes On The Relationship Between Print And The Web - Roger McNamee, managing director of the Menlo Park private equity firm Elevation Partners and Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief, Forbes took on the subject of managing the relationship between a print magazine and its online counterpart. “Too many print publishers and editors just took the print articles and just threw it up on the website,” Forbes said. “Print and the web are fundamentally different.”

Earnings: Google’s Good 4Q; Earnings, Revenue Up Significantly - Ending its day on an up note across the board by dint of its increasing market share in online search and advertising, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) reported revenues of $3.21 billion, an increase of 67 percent compared to 4Q05 and an increase of 19 percent compared to Q306. Operating income for 4Q was $1.06 billion, or 33 percent of revenues. This compares to operating income of $931 million, or 35 percent of revenues, for the previous quarter.

Earnings Call: Google CEO On YouTube Pay Plan; Nothing Formal Yet; Sometime This Year - Echoing YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley’s comments at Davos last week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said during Wednesday’s earnings call that the video-sharing site would start to share profits with uploaders “sometime this year.” According to Marketwatch, Schmidt said there was no formal program yet but one would begin “sometime this year.” Schmidt talked at length about YouTube, and said that the early returns on the acquisition are “very positive.”

Earnings: TW Execs See No Online Ad Slowdown in 2007 - Lot of digital nuggets strategically placed throughout the prepared remarks during the Time Warner Wednesday morning—and, of course, a lot of attention to AOL in this first call since the change in management and latest re-org. Advertising revenue was up 49 percent in 4Q06 for the third consecutive quarter of 40 percent-plus advertising growth. Growth was strong across all revenue sources. AOL brand advertising was up 38 percent, search was up 34 percent, and Advertising.com increased over 100 percent.

Priceline, Travelocity, Cingular Fined For Adware - Online travel sites Priceline and Travelocity and telecom Cingular Wireless have agreed to pay fines ranging from $30,000 to $35,000 to settle allegations stemming from the companies’ use of adware. The settlement appears to mark the first time that marketers have been fined for using adware purveyors that allegedly engage in deceptive practices.

SI.com Revamps With Added Video, Personalization And Gossip - As part of a push for online ad dollars, Sports Illustrated has redesigned its Web site. The revamped site offers new marketing opportunities, including home page roadblocks and additional streaming video inventory.

Harris: YouTube Fans Reject Pre-Roll - As YouTube prepares to share ad revenues with contributors, it may want to think twice about slapping pre-roll ads on videos. Nearly three-quarters of frequent YouTube users said they would visit the site less if it started including short video ads before every clip, according to a recent Harris Poll released Monday.

Newspapers Advised: Offer Free Merchandise Ads - When it comes to competing with arch foe Craigslist, newspapers and other local publishers should stop charging for merchandise ads and develop an online classifieds brand separate from their traditional Web site. That’s the advice offered by market research firm Classified Intelligence, based on an 18-month study of Craigslist in a dozen markets.  

eBay Nixes Sales Of ‘Virtual’ Goods - Online marketplace eBay has begun delisting all auctions of “virtual property,” such as currency or avatars used by players in online role-playing games like “World of Warcraft,” “Everquest,” and “Neopets.” eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said the move stemmed from growing legal concerns surrounding the sale of virtual property.  

IFILM Hosts Super Bowl Spots Online - MTV Networks’ iFilm is again this year offering up Super Bowl commercials online as they post immediately after they air during the Feb. 4 telecast on CBS. This is the sixth year in a row that IFILM has brought the big game’s ads online. IFILM is also featuring an archive of Super Bowl ads from the 2002-2007 seasons at ifilm.com/superbowl.

Microsoft Chief: Time To Zero In On Google - Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer offered some fresh words on the software giant’s struggle to compete with Google in the world of online advertising. Now that Vista is out, Ballmer says Microsoft’s next big challenge is to tackle Google’s territory. But wait a minute? Hasn’t Microsoft been saying that for years? Ballmer says that heretofore, the threat of open source software has been Microsoft’s principal concern. Well, Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie may have been piping on about the Google threat since mid-2005, but this time, Microsoft is serious. 

YouTube To Unveil Ad System, Rev Share With Producers - BBC News interviewed YouTube founder Chad Hurley shortly after the announcement at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland this weekend that the online video provider would begin sharing ad revenue with producers. Hurley said this is one of a number of major announcements YouTube is set to make over the coming months. The other big one–is the “audio fingerprinting” technology that would be used to identify copyrighted material as it’s uploaded by users.

Questions Surround YouTube’s New Ad System - After speaking with CEO Chad Hurley at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, search luminary John Battelle surmises that the new rev share program would likely present producers with a series of options, as well as middle, after, banner or even button, ads. Battelle also says Google Video, the advertising system, will become a crucial component to AdSense, its publisher network. 

MTV On Course To Break New “Laguna” Ground - The broadcaster, realizing that kids don’t pay television the kind of attention they used to, is moving into virtual online worlds, long the domain of tech geeks, mostly 18-34 males. For teens and 20somethings that want be like the kids on the highly successful reality show “Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County,” MTV is making that possible (sort of), through a 3-D rendered Southern California world in which avatars piloted by the show’s main characters, Kyndra and Cami, lounge by a virtual pool with scores of their fans, also piloting their own avatars.

Search Engines Try Out New Variations - The biggest names in Internet searching are spinning off some siblings — test sites for trying out new features that could spell big changes for Web search as it exists today. In September, Google launched SearchMash.com which displays a subset of the normal Google search results in an entirely different interface, with video, blog and image results on the same screen. IACI, Yahoo, and Microsoft have also launched similar initiatives with AskX.com, AllTheWeb.com and MsDewey.com, respectively. 

‘MySpace’ the Top Search Term in 2006 - The Hitwise “Top US Search Lists of 2006″ report provides a valuable view into the minds of Internet users over the last year, showing what they took the trouble to type into search boxes. “MySpace” “MySpace.com” occupied the #1 and #2 spots, followed by “eBay”, “yahoo”, and “mapquest” amongst others. Included are rankings of the top search terms in the “television” category, “television shows” category and “fashion” category.

Online TV Revenues Set To Increase 10-Fold Over Five Years - The latest report to try to nail down the future benefits of online TV projects downloads of TV shows and films will grow 10-fold in the next five years, amounting to $6.3 billion worldwide in revenues by 2012. The report from British market researcher Informa views growing broadband penetration and the trend towards legal peer-to-peer services as the main drivers advancing greater acceptance of IPTV. Despite the incredibly upbeat view of online TV profitability, Informa says there is one major obstacle: the persistence of internet piracy. 

Tribune Outsources Certain Classifieds and User-Gen Content Functions - Tribune has made two deals amidst its continuing probable-sale saga. The first one: It has tied up with news aggregator Topix.net to power classified ads in the general merchandise category on Tribune’s newspaper sites. The papers will include their ads on their sites along with ones submitted directly to Topix. The companies plan to share revenue they get from advertising that will run on the classified ad pages. The second deal is with Vmix, the San Diego-based social media platform white label firm…the online publications for Tribune properties will manage user-generated videos, photos and blogs using Vmix’s technology.

Nickelodeon Jumps On “Virtual City” Bandwagon: Nicktropolis For Tweens - Viacom-owned Nickelodeon previewed its latest interactive offering Monday, a “virtual city” called Nicktropolis, its most ambitious digital venture yet. The launch is strategically before Disney.com relaunch, which competes with Nick’s properties and plans to include some similar social networking and gaming experiences. 

Earnings: CNET’s Profits Fall Due To Costs Of Options Investigation - CNET Networks reported its Q4 2006 results today, and its profits fell to $6.3 million, compared to $20.7 million in the year ago quarter, as a result of higher costs related to its stock options investigation. Revenues rose 14 percent to $118.4 million. The company also filed its amended earnings statements up to date with SEC, thus fulfilling Nasdaq’s conditions for continued listing. The total stock option investigation costs came in at $6.5 million…the investigations resulted in longtime CEO Shelby Bonnie resigning last year.

YouTube and Google: Quantifying the Synergy - Hitwise leverages its daily data on market share and clickstream and provides a quick analysis on the synergies between the two sites after YouTube was included in the Google Video Search Index. On the Saturday prior to the Google Video index integration (January 20th) YouTube received .54% of all Internet visits in the U.S. , and 37.98% of all visits to the Entertainment - Multimedia category. For the Saturday following the integration (January 27th) YouTube’s market share rose to .64% for all site visits in the U.S. a one week growth rate of 18.5%.

MSN Ad Revenue Increases 20% - MSN’s advertising revenue increased to $462 million last quarter–marking an increase of $77 million, or 20%, from the last three months of 2005, Microsoft reported Thursday. The surge was led largely by growth in display advertising on home pages, portals, channels, email and messaging services.

Brand Marketers: Google Should Open Ad-Serving Doors - As it expands into new ad mediums, including radio, print and TV, Google is no longer enjoying the favorable opinion of many brand advertisers. They feel its approach to ad-serving is actually more limiting than expansive. “If I’ve got a brand campaign and a tenth of the campaign is running through Google, in my mind it takes away the advertising efficiencies,” Jeff Marshall, managing director and vice president of media agency Starcom IP. 

The Significance Of Google And AdScape - What does it mean if Google buys the video and online gaming ad-server Adscape? That Google is gearing up for the future. Many gaming analysts believe “World of Warcraft,” with 10 million monthly subscribers worldwide, sets a precedent for the growing world of massively multiplayer online gaming. 

Social Media Leads To New SEM Paradigm - Search guru Danny Sullivan writes that search marketers should shift their approach from Google first, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, et al second, to Google first, social media search engines second, and the rest, third. What are social media search engines? Sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit. Why do they matter more to publishers than search’s entire second-tier? Because the Web 2.0 blog receives most of its traffic from Google organic, followed by direct URL entries, to referrals from Digg.com, Google direct, BBC (randomly), Net Vibes, StumbleUpon and Reddit. Yahoo was 10th, but its referrals came from MyYahoo, not Yahoo Search.  

MSN Endures Flagging Search - Even eBay and Yahoo were able to post nice turnarounds in their Web businesses, and though Microsoft proper also scored better than expected fourth-quarter results (thanks in part to the Xbox 360), its MSN business continues to sputter. The division continues to lose market share in search to Google and was forced to revise its ad sales growth forecast down from 11% to between 3% to 8 %. The company’s software chief responded by saying he’s simply “not happy.” 

Wikia Brings Useful Ways To Search Together - Our search behavior will change is something better comes along. The Web 2.0 movement calls for a better kind of search–or at least, a wider variety of searches. Wikia, the search project of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, makes sense. Why not let the community help write the search engine and decide which answers are most relevant? 

YouTube, Wikipedia Among World’s Most Influential Brands - Internet brands YouTube and Wikipedia have shot up in the global rankings of the world’s most influential brands, both debuting in the top five this year in the annual survey conducted by Brandchannel.com. The Web site has thrown up controversial results in the past, naming Arabic TV station Al Jazeera as the world’s fifth-most-influential brand in 2004. 

Golf Network of Sites Bought By Investor Group In “Multi-Million” Deal - WorldGolf.com, a network of sites focusing on golf information and news, has been bought by an unnamed group of investors. The company, based in Myrtle Beach, S.C, has a network of about 477 sites, and currently receives more than two million unique site visits per month, the company says, and includes such sites as WorldGolf.com, TravelGolf.com, WorldGolfWire.com and Golf Publisher Syndications. 

Video Provider Roo Buys MyVideoDaily - White label online video provider Roo Group, which powers video services for MSN, Excite, FT and others, has bought out a small online video sharing site MyVideoDaily. The price: $350K and half a million Roo shares (Roo is traded on OTC board), which by yesterday’s price would be a total of around $1.7 million. Besides MVD’s own site, it operates 18 domains and distributing multiple video software titles, the company said. The site had been a customer of ROO’s for over a year.  

Looksmart Sells Off Net Nanny To ContentWatch - Looksmart, the search advertising and content applications player, has sold off its internet filtering technology company NetNanny to content filer ting company ContentWatch. Through this acquisition, ContentWatch will “increase Net Nanny’s functionality and market presence for consumers,” it said in a release.

Local.com Offers To Buy Online Yellow Pages Provider - Local.com, an Irvine, CA-based business directory site, issued is in the process of acquiring soUno Directional Media Solutions, a Tulsa, OK-based provider of online yellow pages advertising to small businesses. Local.com would purchase soUno for $2.25 million in cash plus $6.75 million in Local.com common stock. In addition, certain soUno employees are eligible to earn up to $4.5 million in cash and common stock over the two-year period following the closing as long as the deal yields specific financial objectives.  

MumboJumbo Acquires Casual Gaming Studio Ritual; Games Attracting Advertisers - Casual game developer MumboJumbo has acquired games developer Ritual Entertainment, which has now migrated to the casual games market. This acquisition will help make it one of the bigger casual gaming studios in the country. The company sells its games through RealNetworks, Microsoft, Yahoo and Big Fish, online, or offline at retailers. Some more details in the release. 

Homassist Changes Its Name, Buys Photo-Sharing Site - Homassist, an Irvine, CA.-based firm specializing in user-generated content, acquired The Family Post, a company that runs a photo sharing website for families. The amount and terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Although it was the one doing the buying, Homassist will be the one to undergo a name change: the company is now known as DigitalPost Interactive. DigitalPost also owns a site called Website for Heroes, which creates websites and interactive applications for military families. 

CNET China To Acquire Appliance Review Site - Beijing based IT portal Zol.com.cn (owned by CNET) plans to acquire appliance review website Ea3w.com. The acquisition is expected to be completed this quarter, Pacific Epoch reports. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. In October 2004, CNET Networks acquired ZOL for $15 million and photography website Fengniao for $1 million. 

Hitwise: MySpace Overtakes eBay As Most Searched Term - Social networking market share was not the only thing MySpace ruled last year. News Corp.’s Web darling also dominated all search-engine queries, according to new research released Wednesday by Hitwise. Other 2006 search query leaders included “eBay,” which came in third, “Yahoo” in fourth, “MapQuest” following in fifth, and the only general term, “lyrics,” in 10th place. 

Study: One In Five Web Users Download Movies - Nearly half of all U.S. Web users age 12 and older have downloaded music online, while almost one in five, or 18%, have downloaded movies. 

Shutterfly Loses Two Senior Execs - Two senior Shutterfly executives are leaving the Internet photo-sharing and services company, according to a securities filing Wednesday. News of the departures comes just two weeks after Netscape co-founder Jim Clark quit Shutterfly’s board, complaining of overly restrictive securities regulations. 

WaPo Beefs Up Online Political Section With New Blogs - As the 2008 presidential election cycle kicks off, WashingtonPost.com has partnered with politics blog RealClearPolitics.com for a daily feed of opinion, commentary, polls and analysis from around the Web. The Post also will incorporate blogging into its election coverage, both for breaking news and color about about candidates’ travels. 

Online Game Marketers Hope For Micropayments Growth - The market for virtual add-ons to online video games is slated for substantial growth, according to a study of console and handheld online gaming by ABI Research. The study predicts that a growing percentage of gamers’ budgets will go towards the purchase of in-game virtual assets such as “maps, game related add-ons, casual game titles, and, eventually, full core console titles.” Micropayments for consoles alone will account for over $833 million by 2011, as console vendors and their publisher partners look to monetize both in-game and game-related assets beyond initial game purchases. 

Earnings: DJ Continues Move Away From Print Reliance - Last year, Dow Jones reorganized to match its goal to move from am unhealthy reliance on print to what CEO Rich Zannino described again during Thursday’s earnings call as “a more diversified content-driven company.” (I didn’t get to listen to the call live but have been able to catch up thanks to the SeekingAlpha transcript.). DJ discusses DJ Online, consumer publishing, Journal 3.0, online advertising and Marketwatch.com. 

Google Video Search Needs To Improve - Google announced today that they are adding YouTube videos to searches on Google Video. They also said “Over time, Google Video will become even more comprehensive as it evolves into a service where you can search for the world’s online video content, irrespective of where it may be hosted.” Eventually, I imagine we will see an end to new uploads on Google video, as they turn it into a pure search engine. “Google’s strength — and its history — is grounded in search” they say in the post.

Earnings: eBay 4Q Income Comes In At $1.7 Billion, A 24 Percent Increase - EBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) reported a 24 percent increase in 4Q net income, pointing to a positive outlook across all its businesses. Revenue for the quarter rose 29 percent to $1.72 billion. The San Jose, CA-based company said net income was $346.5 million, or 25 cents a share, up from $279.2 million, or 20 cents a share, in the year-ago period. 

SimplyHired Syndicates Job Listings - Job search site SimplyHired.com today will launch a service that allows Web publishers, including bloggers, to include links to job listings that are contextually relevant to the subject matter of their sites. Several major tech and business bloggers have already signed up for the service, including John Battelle, Guy Kawasaki and Jeff Jarvis. 

Broadband Enterprises Joins Video Ad-Serving Fray - Broadband Enterprises is preparing to officially launch its own ad serving client, which will directly compete with services offered by DoubleClick and aQuantive’s ad technology unit Atlas.

Nielsen Says Digital Extends TV Viewing - Nielsen Analytics says new digital video platforms are extending the reach of traditional television–especially with younger viewers. That’s good news for advertisers eager to reach the elusive 18-34 male demo. Why should advertisers be excited? Digital video businesses can easily disable fast-forward options that allow viewers to skip commericals. 

Customer Product Reviews Drive Online Satisfaction and Conversion - According to the results of the Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index from ForSee Results, and the University of Michigan American Customer Satisfaction Index, customer product reviews online drive satisfaction and loyalty and provide a competitive advantage for sites that offer them. 

Earnings: Netflix 4Q Revenue Rises 44 Percent; Hopes 5K Online Movies By Year-End - Reporting mostly positive results, Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), said its 4Q revenue was $277.2 million, up 44 percent, while GAAP net income was down 61 percent to $14.9 million. Consumers were still flocking to the movie rental company, which ended the quarter with 6.3 million subscribers, an increase of 51 percent year-over-year. And income before taxes was $23.8 million, up 493 percent compared to the same period last year.

Trying to Kickstart Web Revenues At News Corp - Forbes has a special story package on News Corp, and its attempts to reinvent itself as major digital player. The main story is a good examination of New Corp’s efforts to monetize the two main properties it bought in 2005: MySpace and IGN. 

It’s Official: Google Decides To String Google Video Along, Separate From YouTube - This has been debated internally for a while, and Google still couldn’t bring itself to kill Google Video: it announced today that the video service will remain separate from Youtube, which it bought last year. Though the two services will have some integration now: YouTube video results will appear in the Google Video search index, and the search results/thumbnails will take users back to YouTube.  

Meet Generation We: Young And Tech Savvy - Young consumers are more comfortable with digital media, they’d rather watch YouTube than television, they’d rather talk to friends on IM and social networks than on the phone, they carry their iPods and phones with them everywhere. They can’t sit still for long. The interesting difference between the youngest digital generation–those born after 1981–and, well, the rest of us, is they’re more “Generation We” than “Generation Me.” How so? This is a generation that’s grown up being instantly in touch with one another and at earlier ages.

Us Weekly Launches Celebrity Channel On Veoh - Tapping into the seemingly bottomless appetite for celebrity gossip and images online, Us Weekly magazine and video-sharing site Veoh Networks are teaming up to start a celebrity entertainment channel on Veoh. Launching formally next month, the channel will let users watch videos from celebrity parties and Us Weekly events and news stories on both Veoh and Usmagazine.com. 

Digital Music Sales Are Jumping - New reports from two major research sources indicate that worldwide digital music sales are continuing to climb. Nielsen SoundScan captured more than 675 million digital track sales worldwide in 2006, with nearly 600 million digital track sales in North America alone, up from 359 million in 2005. The IFPI “Digital Music Report 2007″ estimates that worldwide digital music sales revenues doubled in 2006 to around $2 billion.

Presidential Hopefuls Waste No Time With Web Strategy - Next year’s presidential race is already being called the first “YouTube election.” The proliferation of online video clips–particularly as email forwards–proved the downfall of several candidates for congressional positions during the 2006 elections. For the 2008 presidential race, candidates have learned that viral technology is both a threat and an opportunity if leveraged properly. It’s also an inexpensive medium for addressing the public.

Small Biz Plays Catch-Up With Yahoo’s Panama - Project Panama is out now, and while many advertisers are excited by a more efficient way to buy search advertising with Web giant Yahoo, smaller advertisers are already reporting trouble making the leap from the old to the new system. 

Report: Online Video Pie Falls Short Of Critical Mass - In yet more groundbreaking research, JupiterResearch finds, unsurprisingly, that consumers prefer video content that’s both free and without ads to services supported by ad or a la carte models. More significantly, the Jupiter report paints a limited picture of the growing-and slowly settling-online video market. Jupiter’s results say 37 percent of consumers with high-speed Web access watch online video, while roughly half look for full-length programs, live broadcasts and additional media footage rather than short clips. Just 21 percent of respondents said they prefer ads to paid content; the article doesn’t say how many prefer paid content to ads. 

Earnings: Yahoo 4Q06 Revenues Up 13 Percent; Profits Hit Hard By Option Expenses, Down 61 Percent - Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) boosted revenue by 13 percent in 4Q06 to $1.7 billion from $1.5 billion in the same period last year but it doesn’t show in the bottom line. Yahoo’s profit was less than half that in the same quarter in 2005—$269 million, or $0.19 per share compared to $683 million, or $0.46 per share, down 61 percent due to a sharp hike in options expenses combined with slower sales growth. 

More Marketers Are Grabbing the Attention of Players During Online Games - Last year, advertisers spent about $150 million buying space on casual game sites or in the games themselves, up from $74 million in 2002, according to DFC Intelligence, a game industry research firm in San Diego. In December, about 65.9 million people played online games, which include puzzle games and action video games. That was up 13 percent from December 2005, when 58.4 million clicked online for a quick round, according to comScore Networks, an Internet research firm.  

MySpace Adds More Safety Features; Will Distribute ‘Amber Alerts’ To Members - As it continues to fend off lawsuits saying it hasn’t done enough to combat sexual predators targeting minors, MySpace has agreed to send out “Amber Alerts” about abducted children to its membership. In addition, MySpace today announced a new set of safety features to increase online safety and privacy for its community, including email verification and an “over/ under” privacy tool for all users. 

NBC Takes ‘Heroes’ To Web - NBC today is extending “Heroes” online, with new original content, including commentary by cast members. The initiative is sponsored in part by Nissan, which has already received significant product placement in the show. The new digital content, part of what NBC has termed “TV 360,” will offer fans new levels of detail about the imaginary world of the show.    

MySpace Launches Celebrity Interview Site - MySpace has launched a community page featuring videos of actors, athletes, artists and other celebrities interviewing one another. New Line Cinema is sponsoring the section.  

Report: Google In Talks To Buy In-Game Ad Company - Google is in discussions to purchase in-game advertising company Adscape Media, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Adscape Chairman Bernard Stolar reportedly said he has held talks with several companies, but hasn’t yet signed any deals.

Yahoo Adds Advice Columns, Calculators To Finance Section - In the pursuit of more page views, Yahoo on Friday debuted a new personal finances section with added original content and money management tools. Among other new features, Yahoo is offering advice columns from 13 financial writers and a personal finance glossary. 

Snocap Forges Deal With Agency For Indies - Digital music company Snocap reached a deal with Merlin–a newly formed agency that represents independent music acts–to sell tracks online. Snocap, started by Napster founder Shawn Fanning, already has a deal to power music sales on social networking site MySpace.  

Marketers To Increase Online Direct Marketing, But Overlooking Analytics - According to Alterian’s transatlantic annual survey of more than 500 direct marketers, marketing services providers and agencies. eighty-five percent of respondents expect their online direct marketing expenditures to increase in 2007. The spending projection is the largest expected increase since the Alterian Annual Survey began in 2003.  

eBay Protects PayPal From Google - Google, the Web industry’s much-maligned “frienemy,” is now pursuant to online payments, the domain of eBay’s PayPal. Google Checkout, the new online payment system for merchants has got eBay spooked. In July, the online shopping giant banned eBay merchants from using Checkout. Last week, eBay reiterated that new sellers must offer PayPal or credit cards as payment for their products. It’s reasoning: PayPal is the safest way to pay.

Investors: Stay Out Of Media - No coincidence that print media has fallen on hard times, while Internet ad revenues continue to climb. Now the rest of the traditional media sector is seeing audience erosion and revenue declines. But new media isn’t a safer bet at the moment either. The only way to invest smartly in the media space is through Web access providers (cable and telecom companies). Investors should stay away from any company whose fate relies solely on advertising. 

Yahoo Has Much To Prove In 2007 - Wall Street will be paying close attention tomorrow when Yahoo presents its fourth-quarter earnings, especially after the management shakeup and refocusing that resulted from an internal memo leaked to the press last fall. Tomorrow, investors get their first taste of how the changes are affecting the Web giant. These include a narrower focus on Web search, advertising sales and content, some new blood in management, and the official unveiling of the long-delayed Project Panama, which is supposed to help monetize Yahoo’s search advertising revenue. 

Merrill Still Bullish On Yahoo - As industry watchers await Yahoo’s fourth quarter earnings report, due out tomorrow, brokerage house Merrill Lynch has issued another optimistic report on the company. “We continue to like the stock,” wrote research analyst Justin Post in an earnings preview. Specifically, Merrill Lynch believes that Yahoo’s new paid search platform, Panama, will yield an extra $100 million to $300 million revenue this year. In the next four years, search monetization should improve 70%, predicts Merrill Lynch. 

Labels Agree To Support Ad-Supported College Music Service - Ruckus Networks, the Herndon, VA-based college music and digital media service, has retooled its music service, and decided to go free and ad-supported. Anyone with an e-mail address that ends in “.edu” will now have free access to 2.1 million music tracks, and does not require universities to participate (unlike the past). For an extra $15 a semester, students can also access 4,000 movies and TV shows. 

Google Adds BMG, Warner To Video Ads Test, Following Viacom - Google, which rolled out its videos ads test with MTV/Viacom last year, would now distribute advertising alongside videos from Sony BMG and Warner Music Group over its AdSense system to online publishers in a four-week test now underway, reports Reuters. Ads will be billed on CPM basis, unlike its other CPC systems.  

MIVA Launches Publisher Network - Search engine and keyword ad seller MIVA today launched an ad network for publishers, MIVA Monetization Center, that will offer pay-per-click search keyword ads, content-targeted ads, or in-text hyperlink ads. 

Anderson: MySpace Has “Replaced MTV” - “We have replaced MTV,” MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson said flatly in a recent interview with the German paper Der Spiegel. That bold statement comes just a day after MTV announced its flagship program, “Total Request Live,” may be canceled due to the gradual decline of its ratings. Indeed, MTV, once the undisputed king of teen and 20something content, is finding it harder to reach its core audience as the Internet generation, which fundamentally communicates differently than previous generations, grows up.

The Future of Tech: Energy Conservation, Social Networking Fees and Video on Cell Phones - In its annual forecast report, Deloitte’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications arm made big predictions for 2007. To begin With advertisers frustrated by their unpredictable content, social networking sites will start charging their users for heightened privacy protection. This would help advertisers, businesses and older generations feel more comfortable. Subscriptions may also include premium services, like voice-messaging, online storage or Web page design. The report says video-on-demand will not permeate the market in 2007, due to the fact that it still takes too long to download video footage over a typical DSL network. Long-form video content will also fail to penetrate the cell-phone market, but short video clips, such as sports highlights, news briefs and snippets from popular shows will. 

YouTube (Quietly) Becomes More Corporate - Just three weeks before YouTube’s acquisition by Google last September, the company unveiled Suzie Reider as YouTube’s first chief marketing officer. The pending Google deal may have had something to do with that, as the online video site clearly needed to get serious about its business model. One of the changes she’s implemented is the prominent advertiser video on the YouTube home page, which users can rate, share and discuss as they would any video on the site. It’s a novel approach to advertising to include users in this manner, but it’s also an honest way of dealing with the reality. Offering users the option of engaging with the ads likely results in more views for the advertiser, too. 

Blog Readership Growing For Major Newspapers - Many of the largest online newspapers, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, have beefed up efforts to create blogs. Consider, the Times alone now boasts Screens, a blog devoted to online video; Carpetbagger, about the Oscar awards; and The Lede, dedicated to further exploring major news stories, among other relatively new blogs.Data released this morning by media measurement company Nielsen//NetRatings shows that blog pages within the top 10 online newspapers drew around 3.8 million unique visitors last month–more than triple December 2005’s 1.2 million. 

MySpace Risks Teen Support With Monitoring Software; Could Calm Advertisers And Parents - MySpace hopes to pull off a difficult balancing act with its new parental notification software: assuage demands from 33 state attorney generals to make the site safe for teens, while trying not to alienate the teen users who helped make it the most popular social networking site. The WSJ notes that parents who install the monitoring software, code-named “Zephyr,” on their home computers would be able to learn how their kids identify themselves on the site and would provide updates on changes. 

Digital Music Sales Almost Doubled To $2 Billion In ‘06: IFPI - Global digital music sales almost doubled in 2006 to around $2 billion, or 10 percent of all sales, the UK-based IFPI said Wednesday. The recording industry organization projected that online purchases will account for 25 percent of all worldwide music sales by 2010. Consumers downloaded 795 million “legal” tracks, up 89 percent on 2005, from almost 500 online music services available in 40 countries.

AOL Looks To Sell Advertising, Not Internet Access These Days - After being written off by industry observers for much of the past few years, AOL appears to have found its true calling: selling online advertising. As AOL continues to press its $900 million bid for TradeDoubler, the Swedish online marketing firm, the FT notes that the internet company has finally become a positive factor for Time Warner and its shareholders. The change in fortunes is due to AOL’s two-year-old stake in Advertising.com, which specializes buying space on web pages and then reselling it to marketers who want to reach a specific type of consumer. 

Talent Agency’s Talent Fishing Deal With Veoh; Eisner At Work - This is unusual for the talent agency land, which usually prefers to be in the background: Veoh, the online video sharing site backed by Michael Eisner’s new fund, has tied up with talent agency UTA, where UTA will launch a video channel on Veoh, to showcase video from its roster of stars, as well as use it to get new talent.

Major Dailies’ Blog Traffic Exploded In ‘06 - Web traffic to major newspapers’ blog sites grew 210 percent year-over-year in December, according to a report from Nielsen/NetRatings. The report’s specific findings: - Unique visitors to blog sites affiliated with the top 10 U.S. online newspapers rose to 3.8 million in December 2006 from 1.2 million viewers a year earlier. Blog pages accounted for 13 percent of overall visits to newspaper sites in December 2006, up from 4 percent a year earlier. 60 percent of online newspaper readers were men, with the percentage rising to 66 percent of blog readers. 

NAD: Ads On YouTube Bound By Usual Rules - Video ads on YouTube must meet the same standards for truth and accuracy as ads in other media, the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus ruled in a decision released Thursday. The ruling marked the first time the NAD–the investigative arm of the ad industry’s self-policing operation–considered claims of false advertising on video-sharing sites.

Analysts Not Sold On AOL, QVC Partnership - Testing a classic cable staple online, AOL will launch its first streaming video channels with clips from home shopping network QVC. Industry analysts were skeptical about the new offering. “AOL has this legacy of mainstream customers who might have time for this, but it’s not exactly riveting, original content,” said Inside Digital Media analyst Phil Leigh.

Pandora Tests In-Stream Audio Ads - Internet radio service Pandora.com this week concluded its first test of in-stream audio ads. The nine-day test, touting McDonald’s, was met with a mixed reaction by the site’s users.

YouTube Streams Sundance Festival Clips - YouTube, the popular online video file-sharing site, is partnering with the Sundance Film Festival to promote the event by reposting coverage from the Sundance Channel’s video coverage. The first content appeared Thursday, the first day of the festival. After the festival ends, YouTube will continue posting clips from Sundance series, films and documentaries. 

Ramp Up: Fuse, Online Gambling Site Stage Battle Of Bands - Rainbow Media’s Fuse network is close to a deal with the parent of online gambling site Bodog.com to air a band competition this April. Called “Bodog Battle of the Bands,” the “American Idol”-style series, produced in part by Bodog, will feature 17 bands vying for a recording contract. Targeting the 18-34 demo, the show allows the online company to expand into TV production.

Google Base Traffic Soars With $10 Promotion - Traffic to Google Checkout increased 38% in one day when Google added a $10 promotion on Monday, Jan. 15, according to Hitwise. To arrive at that percentage, the research firm tracked the market share of visits specifically to the payment page in Google Checkout–not the clicks on the home page link to Google Checkout. On Tuesday, Jan. 16, the biggest driver of traffic to Google Checkout–26.05%–was Google’s own home page, which recently added Google Checkout with a promotion for customers to receive $10 from Google.

AdSense Policies Revised - Google has revised its AdSense policies to prohibit publishers in its network from running ads that are “formatted to use the same layout as the Google ads or search boxes on that site.” The move primarily affects publishers who monetize their sites with ads from AdSense as well as other companies’ contextual ad products.

How Yahoo Blew It - A detailed story in the latest issue of Wired on how Yahoo messed it up on the contextual advertising side, with Overture and now Panama. Some gems in there…

Google Kiosk Could Lead To Mall 2.0 - Google is coming to a mall near you ? and UBS Internet Analyst Benjamin Schachter is intrigued by the concept as a logical addition to its existing advertising initiatives. Last month, the search marketing giant filed a patent for an outdoor-display ad concept involving kiosks or billboards displaying audio, video, or graphical ads. 

AOL Buys TradeDoubler - AOL yesterday agreed to buy Swedish ad broker TradeDoubler, marking the first acquisition by the Time Warner company since Randy Falco was named chief executive in November. The ad network, one of Europe’s biggest, will cost AOL $900 million.

Active Network Expands Again; Acquires Cool Running - Community sports tech company The Active Network has acquired Cool Running, which claims to be the longest-running commercial site devoted to the sport in all phases. (It was founded in 1995.) The purchase gives Active’s users an additional resource, such as various articles on marathons and training, while providing Cool Running members access to thousands of running events in additional regions. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but as we previously reported, Active obtained $35 million in sixth round funding in Q306 and has been rolling up smaller companies. 

MTVN Pumps UP MTVU With Acquisition Of RateMyProfessors.com - Viacom MTV Networks is buying RateMyProfessors.com for its 24-hour college net mtvU; no financial terms were disclosed for the deal expected to close this quarter. The full-time staff stays as does the site’s Baltimore office. The company claims adding this acquisition to mtvU and its recently acquired College Publisher network makes mtvU the second most visited set of general-interest college sites (based on comScore MediaMetrix numbers from October).

Avenue A/Razorfish Invests In Dentsu - Extending its reach to Japan, Avenue A/Razorfish, a unit of aQuantive, has secured a 19.4% stake in Dentsu’s digital agency Digital Palette. Industry observers cheered the move, saying agencies like Avenue A/Razorfish need a presence in key global markets.

MTVN Invests In TagWorld; Eager For Social Networking Tools - You’re reading this here first … According to multiple sources, Viacom has invested in social networking company TagWorld for MTV Networks―not for the site but for access to the company’s tools and technology. We’ve been hearing about this for months in various forms but couldn’t confirm until now. TagWorld was founded in 2005 by Fred Krueger and Evan Rifkin and is still listed as beta; it has more than 3 million registered users, according to a press release from late last year.

Zinio Sells Off Magazine E-Commerce Website BlueDolphin To M2M - Less than 16 months after buying it, Zinio, the electronic editions technology company, has sold off BlueDolphin, its magazine sales destination site and the technology backend to M2 Media Group, a magazine subscription agency. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Jupitermedia Buys More Music Licensing Sites - Jupitermedia is obsessed with royalty-free…images first and now music. It has bought the assets of StudioCutz.com and BlueFuseMusic.com from Mediatone Music, along with two other sites. These sites include a music library of over 2,600 tracks of royalty free music and 5,500 sound effects. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. This follows Jupitermedia’s prior music-related acquisitions of RoyaltyFreeMusic.com in August, 2006, the Steve Shapiro Music Library in April, 2006, Crank City Music in March 2006, and BBM.net in December 2005.