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OMMA Video Attendees: Time to ‘Let Go’ - A concrete Web TV strategy today ensures failure tomorrow. Instead, advertisers and publishers should be pliable and drunk on experimentation, according to attendees of OMMA Video.              

EyeWonder, NBCU, OMD Team For ‘In-Stream 2.0′ Research - EyeWonder has joined with NBC Universal, OMD Digital, Akamai Technologies, InsightExpress and some 30 other industry partners for a major study of digital advertising effectiveness–the latest in a spate of cross-industry collaborative research efforts.       

Roo, Tribal Fusion Partner For Contextual Video Ads - Roo has partnered with Exponential’s Tribal Fusion network to develop a contextual application that will serve video and ads through interactive Web page text.

MySpace Becomes Cherry Coke’s Space in JUXT Campaign - On behalf of Cherry Coke, JUXT Interactive, the creative boutique based in Newport Beach, CA, has launched what it terms the biggest-ever brand integration in social media.

Content Providers, Web Portals Battle For End-User Control - At an OMMA Video panel, reps from major media companies and Web giants knocked heads over who should control the end-user experience for Web videos.

Parks: Game Ads To Top $2 Billion in 2012 - Ad spending on digital games in the U.S. will grow from $370 million in 2006 to more than $2 billion in 2012, according to market research firm Parks Associates, one of four research concerns to release studies Thursday on various aspects of the video game industry.

Google Losing Talent, Too - A lot has been said about the employee exodus at Yahoo, but fellow Web giant Google is also losing employees, particularly to Internet startups. Whereas Yahoo’s staff defection has more to do with the company’s recent failures, Google’s has more to do with the kind of employee it seeks: entrepreneurs.

Contextual Ad Firm Quigo Preparing For IPO? - So says a report in Globes Online, the Israeli newspaper website: Quigo, the NYC and Israel based online contextual ad technology provider, is readying for a Nasdaq IPO for early 2008, the story says. The company has raised $30 million from Institutional Venture Partners, at a company value of $250 million, as part of the preparations for the offering, it says. It closed a $5 million first round in 2004.

MySpace Likely To Open Platform To 3rd Party Developers - MySpace founder Chris DeWolfe has indicated that MySpace will likely open its platform to 3rd party developers, according to a report at FT.com The move will see MySpace following in the footsteps of Facebook; Facebook’s wildly popular F8 release has seen in excess of 1000 additional applications made available to Facebook users and has driven enormous growth.

comScore (Nasdaq: SCOR) Completes $87.5 Million IPO - comScore completed an $87.45 million IPO, offering 5.3 million shares at $16.50 per share. Of the shares offered, 5 million were offered by the company and 0.3 million were offered by existing shareholders. The company provides marketing information services and its prior investors include Accel Partners, Lehman Brothers Venture Partners, and Panorama Capital.

TravelClick Acquires Blue Square Studios - TravelCLICK Inc., the leader in hotel emarketing solutions, today announced the acquisition of Blue Square Studios, an award-winning provider of Internet business solutions — including web design, production and search engine optimization (SEO) — for the hospitality industry. . No financial terms were disclosed. TravelClick has raised over $25 million from firms like Bain Capital Ventures.

Aegis Buys Online Ad Firm Bluestreak for $12.5 Million - Aegis Group, the UK-based media and marketing services group, has bought the ad-serving business of Bluestreak, a Providence, RI-based online and e-mail marketing firm. The price: $12.5 million. The acquired company will become part of its digital-marketing unit Isobar. Bluestreak specializes in delivery of rich media across online and e-mail….Established in 1999, Bluestreak has offices in US, UK, France and Germany.

Google To Acquire GrandCentral - Google is in acquisition discussions with telephone management startup GrandCentral, we’ve learned, and we have a high degree of confidence that the deal has actually been closed. We are trying to nail down the acquisition price. The basic idea around GrandCentral is “one phone number for all your phones, for life.” The basic idea around GrandCentral is “one phone number for all your phones, for life.” As we change jobs, homes and cell phones, there are a lot of phone numbers to keep track of, and keeping everyone up to date with your most recent phone numbers is a real cost. If you use GrandCentral you can give out a single phone number.

Games Media Buys Media Firm WiredLabs - Games Media Properties, the organizer of video game competitions including the World Series of Video Games, has bought out game online media firm WiredLabs, for an undisclosed amount. Wired’s current properties include the Amped News Network and GameFlex…it was founded in 2003.

Fox International Buys Hispanic Online Ad Network - Fox International Channels, the international arm of Fox’s TV network, has acquired ClickDiario, one of the largest Hispanic online ad networks, from Japan’s Livedoor. Price was not disclosed. Livedoor bought ClickDiario in 2005. With offices in Mexico and Guatemala, ClickDiario will take advantage of Fox channels’ network of ad sales offices in Miami, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Bogota, Caracas and Sao Paulo, the companies said.

Online Ad Heavies Debate Auditing At ARF Confab - Equating the ever-moving online landscape to “quicksand,” an ARF panel of online industry leaders warned that too rigid an auditing process could actually stifle the intention to develop meaningful audience metrics.                  

TV Guide To Hand Out Online Video Awards - The first TV Guide Online Video Awards, announced on Wednesday and planned as an annual event, will not only honor the best Web videos, but also harness online and mobile media for promotion, fan voting, and coverage of the awards process.

comScore, SEMDirector Partner For Full-Scale Search Analytics - SEMDirector and comScore have partnered to launch a search marketing analytics suite that combines in one central dashboard comScore’s qSearch data with client-supplied metrics, competitor activity and search engine info.

iVillage Numbers Sweeter With Sugar - In a move that could put iVillage back ahead of Glam Media in the bragging rights to top U.S. women’s Web property, NBC Universal Digital Media has taken on ad sales responsibilities for the year-old Sugar Network, publisher of PopSugar and nine other young women’s-oriented sites.

Online Video Ad Sales Soar, Compared To Themselves - Online video ad sales will grow 55.5% to $365.5 million during 2007, and another 53.2% to reach $560 million in 2008, according to a forecast this week from Magna Global’s Brian Wieser, senior vice president-director of industry analysis.

Study: Streaming Ad Sales to Hit $1.37 Billion - Streaming media advertising, both video and audio, will reach $1.37 billion in sales this year–a 38% increase over 2006, according to AccuStream iMedia Research. Not counting user-generated video, AccuStream estimates an inventory of 1.4 billion to 1.6 billion pre-roll avails being sold monthly, with pre-rolls forecast to account for 26.7% of video ad spending in 2007 and 28.5% in 2008.

FTC Recommends Congress Ignore Net Neutrality - The Federal Trade Commission dealt an unexpected blow to net neutrality Wednesday by issuing a report recommending that Congress leave the issue alone. Proponents of government intervention want Congress to ensure network operators like Comcast distribute bandwidth to Web publishers on an as-needed basis. So if ISPs like AT&T, which recently took steps to curtail illegal downloading on its network, want to place tighter controls on their networks, they can.

YouTube Traffic Surges Since January - YouTube may have been getting negative press for copyright suits and pulling videos, but new data from Hitwise shows that the online video giant is kicking butt. Since Google purchased it in November, YouTube has seen its U.S. traffic rise 70% between January and May, a Hitwise survey revealed Wednesday.

PointRoll Introduces One-Stop Ad Serving Shop - PointRoll’s new AdPortal platform combines previously separate design, publishing and tracking capabilities and serves all online ads–rich media or not. So it’s an option for clients who want to migrate all their ad serving to PointRoll.                

Marchex Aims To Lead Local Search, Launches 100,000 Sites - Search and media company Marchex adds more than a billion Web pages to its content network today as it officially launches more than 100,000 vertical and local Web sites–taking aim at the top spot of the lucrative, but highly fragmented local search market.

AOL News Relaunches In Web 2.0 - AOL News has relaunched as an ultra-clean blog that’s big on interactive features like polls and user-submitted and shared material.

Media Buyers Say Yahoo’s New Sales Chief No Stranger - David Karnstedt, Yahoo’s new head of sales, drew a vote of confidence from one of the company’s leading media buying partners as a leader who can direct Yahoo’s mission to integrate search and display.

U.S. Ad Spending Loses Steam, Shifts Into Emerging, Unclassified Media - U.S. AD SPENDING NOW IS projected to grow only 3.1% in 2007, according to revised estimates released Tuesday by industry forecaster Bob Coen. That’s a significant downward revision from the 4.8% the Universal McCann director of forecasting originally projected in December, and means the ad industry will once again fail to keep pace with overall U.S. economic growth.

Study: Internet 2nd Most Essential Medium, But #1 in Coolness - The Internet has passed radio to become Americans’ second “most essential” medium and swapped places with TV as the “most cool and exciting medium” since the subjects were last studied five years ago, reported Edison Media Research.

Dot-Com Bubble Begins To Deflate - Again - For the first time since the bubble burst, ad spending by so-called dot-com brands is expected to decline this year. The decline–a drop of about 4% to $4 billion–isn’t nearly as severe as the 52% drop that occurred in 2001 when the dot-com market crashed, or even the 19% reduction that happened the following year in 2002, but it reverses a four-year upswing that has made dot-com advertisers’ brands, products and services that are marketed primarily via an online destination one of the fastest-growing and most significant advertising categories for the overall media marketplace in recent years.

Google Earth and Beyond - The popular 3D satellite mapping program Google Earth continues to improve, as new features and locations are uploaded. Much of this is thanks to a volunteer army of amateur cartographers. Indeed, Google Earth just might be the ultimate wiki: a virtual Earth containing information about every business in every city, posting real-time links to stories in cities worldwide as they happen. Maybe even allowing buyers and sellers to conduct business. Advertisers’ heads must be spinning.

MySpace Founders Eye $12 Million Salaries - MySpace founders Chris De Wolfe and Tom Anderson plan to hold Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation hostage once their current contracts expire in October. According to the blog, the pair seeks $25 million over two years each, plus a development fund of $15 million to invest in Internet companies.

MySpace Revamps Video Offering - About two years ago now, millions of MySpace users began uploading YouTube clips to their profile pages, which helped drive the YouTube movement to its eventual $1.65 billion conclusion. YouTube videos drove both companies, but since Google scooped up the online video giant last fall, MySpace hasn’t known what to do with its partner/competitor. MySpace has now decided to challenge YouTube on its own turf by setting up an independent Web site for its video service.

Just An Online Minute… Study: Increased Internet Usage Raises Teen Risks - Teens who participate in Web 2.0 activities like social networking, authoring blogs or helping others build Web sites face a higher likelihood of online harassment than their less Internet-involved peers. That’s according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Why Google Bought DoubleClick - Google, which is in the process of buying online ad giant DoubleClick, has explained in detail the rationale behind the deal, from both the publisher and agency perspective. A post on the official Google blog by Alex Kinnier, Group Product Manager, lays out the details, and three points stand out.

AOL Relaunches News Site In Blog Format - Over the past 18 months, AOL has proven willing to break a few molds. This time, it’s rebuilding its news site—until now part of the portal cookie-cutter set—into a bloggy/Web 2.0ish version. The main news column literally is in blog format with links to full coverage, comments, polls, etc. The actual launch is scheduled for Tuesday; the beta is here. Lewis D’Vorkin, SVP-AOL News and Sports, is following on the blog-style format used with raging success TMZ.com, an AOL JV with sibling Warner Bros.              

EBay Ends Google AdWords Blackout - Two weeks after pulling out of Google’s AdWords system, eBay will begin using the search ad network again, although at a smaller scale. As we reported previously, the split occurred when Google invited eBay power sellers to a special event (which was hastily canceled) during the annual eBay Live convention earlier this month in Boston.

NBC, Universal And Scripps Increase Online Ad Spending - NBC has ramped up interactive ad spending for its TV shows 15 percent from last year. Online ad spend now comprises 25-35 percent of the network’s overall budget. For Scripps Networks’ home and gardening channel, HGTV, digital spending on average is 16 percent, up from 11 percent last year. And while Universal Studios has upped digital spending to 12 percent from 7 percent last year, the film company still views broadcast and in-theater ads as more crucial than interactive efforts.

Blinxx Unveils New Business Lines - Video search engine Blinkx is preparing two new ad-supported business lines. The first is a video ad targeting platform called AdHoc, which will debut this summer. AdHoc analyzes and indexes a variety of information within and around a video’s content, including words spoken in the clip, visual analysis of the video’s content and in-page text and metadata appearing on the same page as the movie. The second is a Joost-like peer-to-peer video platform dubbed Broadband TV (BBTV) and is scheduled for a fall launch. It is currently working on setting up distribution deals for the channel.

Liquor Marketers Look To The Web - For its ad campaign introducing Icelandic vodka Reyka, William Grant & Sons, the company’s agency, decided to go online only. It helped create a dedicated site, and will advertise on sites like nerve.com, theonion.com and thrillist.com. While digital moves like Anheuser-Busch’s Bud.tv continue to struggle on, alcoholic beverages and spirits marketers are undaunted about relegating more of their ad budgets to online ads.

Aegis + Bluestreak = ‘Watch Out, DoubleClick’ - DoubleClick shouldn’t be threatened by Aegis Group’s purchase of the Bluestreak ad network–or at least not yet, according to Sarah Fay, U.S. president of Isobar, Aegis’ digital network. “I’d like them to know we have alternatives now.”

Wizzard Conjures New Keyword App: Podcasts - Keyword search advertising has transformed much of the online business. Now it’s about to impact a growing, but still largely underexploited, area of online content: podcasts. Wizzard Media, the fledgling advertising sales unit of technology firm and podcast aggregator Wizzard Software, is poised to introduce a keyword advertising feature to thousands of podcasts it offers for sponsorship to national advertisers and agencies.

Time To Go Quigo For Contextual - Marking its biggest one-time deal to date, contextual ad service Quigo Technologies has secured an exclusive, multi-year partnership with Time Inc. The companies estimate that ad revenues will top $100 million over the first three years.

Ingenio: Search Could Gain Lion’s Share of Mobile Ad Revenue - A recent Ingenio survey found that 22% of consumers anticipate using a search engine like Yahoo or Google on their mobile phones by 2010 - more than three times the current 7% use of search by mobile users.

Demands Of The Digital Generation - Social networking and other Web 2.0 services have created a globalized youth culture. A funny YouTube video could easily make its way from San Francisco to Dubai. These people may one day all become friends when translation services make social networking becomes truly global, too. Marketers need to understand this demo are used to being marketed to, but they want something in return: entertainment, contests, widgets on social networks, etc. There are pitfalls here though: While young consumers are more connected than ever before, not everything that works for one country will work for another.

Social Networks Near 100% Penetration Among Kids - Social networking penetration is at a whopping 96% among those 9-17, according to Alloy Media & Marketing. That figure refers to teens who connect to a social network at least once a week–they even use them to connect with their parents in many cases.

Friendster Up 40%: More Web 2.0 Cake For Everyone - Friendster experienced a 40% page view growth rate in May, according to the latest comScore traffic figures published at Venturebeat. Friendster currently sits in 4th place on the list of popular social networking sites, behind MySpace, Facebook and Hi5, but ahead of Tagged.com, Bebo and Piczo.

Domain Sellers Party Like Its 1999 - The domain after-market is nearly as old as the internet itself. From domain and typo squatting through to legitimate ownership, the market for domain names has risen and fallen in line with the overall market. 1999 was regarded by many to be the peak of Web 1.0 and likewise 1999-2000 was the previous peak of domain sales. News June 21 that Business.com is on the market for $400million shone the spotlight on the domain sales marketplace again. For domain sellers it’s a party again like 1999.            

Readers Are Key Ingredient as Virtual Kitchen Heats Up - Food and recipe sites have ratcheted up their competition in recent months, with publishers like Epicurious, Martha Stewart, Time Warner and others introducing new features and redoubling offline promotional efforts to attract visitors. The reason, executives said, is simple: recipe searches are among the most popular online endeavors for women, and major advertisers want to be there to greet them.

LinkedIn To Open Platform In Response To Facebook - LinkedIn is moving to provide API’s that will open its platform to developers in response to Facebook’s rapid growth. Dan Farber reports LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman saying that the move will occur in the next 9 months. LinkedIn helped define the professional networking space, and yet today it faces the real risk of long term irrelevance as Facebook becomes the social networking platform of choice for professional networkers.

AOL, Yahoo Ad Efforts Fail to Dent TV Upfront - Despite caveats from Yahoo and AOL that they weren’t directly challenging the dominance of the broadcast and cable upfront market with their respective ad industry presentations over the past few months, it was clear the intent was to siphon off at least some of the $9 billion going towards the fall TV season.

Yahoo Ad Sales Reorg Signals Platform-Agnosticism - By combining its search and display ad sales teams under one executive leader–search side’s David Karnstedt–Yahoo is catering to what its customers want, but in a platform-agnostic fashion. It also lays the groundwork to become a leader in auction-based media, says one observer.

Wright Unveils Olympic Plans, Calls for Telco Cooperation on New Ad Models - Bob Wright, in a keynote role as vice chairman and executive officer of General Electric, last week chose a new Chicago conference organized by the telecom industry as the forum to show off NBC Universal’s plans for the “first-ever broadband coverage” of the Olympics.

Millard Off, Running To New Challenge: Martha Stewart - Wenda Harris Millard’s first priority when she gets to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia will be to look at ways to expand the digital opportunity. As for Yahoo: “I love what we built. We had been left for dead.”

Microsoft Taps Interpublic’s Reprise As Search Agency - Microsoft has tapped Reprise Media to manage search marketing across its product and brand portfolio, just two months after Reprise was acquired by the Interpublic Group.

Online Banking, E-Commerce Use Linked - People who bank online are far more likely to engage in e-commerce activity, according to a study from Moda Solutions, a company which links the two by bringing online banking to the virtual checkout.

Ziff Davis Sheds Enterprise Group, Revamps as Web-Focused Publisher - Ziff Davis divested both print and online titles, as well as selling a valuable database of biz technology users. Over the last five years, the company reformulated itself as a Web-focused publisher–and finally returned to profitability. But the takeaway may be that magazine companies that move to online-centered models will be smaller, and more profitable, after the transition.

Plaxo Creates Private Social Networks - The rise of social networks has pushed providers of organizing software to the margins somewhat. These sites also provide tools like calendars and bulletin boards, so friends can keep themselves up-do-date. In light of this consumer shift, Plaxo, one of these address book organizers, is fighting back. On Monday, the 6-year-old company created a new Web-based program which lets users open up their online datebooks to build their own social networks.

Facebook Is Network For Overachievers - New research from the University of California-Berkeley shows there’s a pronounced class divide between those who frequent the popular social networks Facebook and MySpace. According to the report, Facebook users are more likely to be white, come from wealthier homes and attend college, while MySpace users tend to get jobs after finishing high school instead of continuing their education.

News Corp. Looks Online, Could Offload MySpace - As Rupert Murdoch patiently awaits Dow Jones’ decision about News Corp.’s takeover offer, analysts — expecting that deal to happen — estimate that the media giant would allocate the expected $5 billion to further Internet acquisitions. “Rupert has a shopping list. Dow Jones is at the top of it, but it’s not the end of the list,” a source told the Financial Times. Near the top of that list, perhaps, is a deal that would involve the sale or a possible merger of its massive social network MySpace. At an estimated value of $10 billion, some feel News Corp. has gotten all the mileage it can out of MySpace, which skeptics say is fading in light of the resurgence of rival Facebook.

Aegis, WPP Dominate Digital Agency Ranks, Account For Half The Industry - With a team of 1,400 people worldwide, London-based Aegis Group–and its Isobar network–is the ad industry’s biggest interactive media services organization, according to estimates released Thursday by Paris-based agency billings researcher RECMA. Based on data published in RECMA’s first-ever digital agency report, Aegis accounts for 28% of all the digital media personnel across the six holding companies surveyed.          

CEA: Computers Becoming Main Audio Devices - With Internet-sourced music on the rise, the Consumer Electronics Association, which has traditionally served the manufacturers and retailers of such products as TV sets, CD players and DVD players, released a study showing that early three quarters of U.S. online adults now listen to audio on home computers.

NBC, Scripps & Universal Studios Discuss Online Spending - Representatives from The NBC Agency, Scripps and Universal Studios opened up about their digital advertising investments at 360i’s “Search in the Media Ecosystem” Summit.

Nintendo Moves Look Suspiciously Like A Media Company - Nintendo is adding a social networking avatar-driven Mii channel to its existing Wii channels that offer news, weather reports and photo sharing. But analysts say it’s all about enhancing the company’s games business, not any indicator of ambitions to become a media company.

Blinkx’s Project Trilby: AdSense For Video - Video search engine Blinkx is putting the final touches on a new advertising platform for Web video code-named Project Trilby. When it launches next Monday it will be called blinkx AdHoc. It will offer media companies and video sites a way to place targeted ads alongside (or even in) Web videos based on the specific words spoken in the videos, as well as their overall context.

Revenues to Grow at YouAd - An explosion of user-generated content has reshaped the media landscape, shattering the status quo of content ownership and distribution and creating new opportunities for marketers. Led by the companies that started this revolution — YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Photobucket and others — eMarketer estimates that US user-generated content sites will earn $1 billion in 2007 and reach $4.3 billion in ad revenues in 2011.   

Social Networks Highlight Fickleness of Social Media - Are social networks running out of steam? Judging by the rapid resurgence of Facebook, not yet. But the manner in which users are change allegiances is worrying for advertisers and media partners. The movement of Silicon Valley contacts from one social network to another highlights the fickle nature of social media. First, it was Friendster, then it was Orkut, MySpace, LinkedIn and now, Facebook.

Social Media Users Learn To Manage Celebrity - Anyone can syndicate their own celebrity on the Web through social networking profiles, blogs, photo-sharing sites and confessional online videos. And millions do. As Dave Wienberger, author of “Everything Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder,” notes, this is the danger for future generations. As they grow up seeking jobs, especially public office, they may regret having left their digital footprint all over the Web.

Meredith Acquires Health Search Engine Healia - Meredith Corp. has acquired Healia, a consumer health search engine, as part of its strategy to expand reach in the women’s health market and to increase its online content. Healia’s patent-pending content-filtering technology will be integrated into Meredith’s various consumer sites over the next few months; the media company also plans to enhance Healia.com and to offer its technology through licensing and syndication.        

Sony’s Talks To Buy ClubPenguin Off - Not sure who’s the other one in the fray, but someone is, and Sony is out. We reported last month that Sony was in advanced talks to acquire the two-year-old kids focused social gaming site ClubPenguin for about $450 million. The talks broke down some days ago, and price was one of the factors…our sources tell us the asking price went up beyond $500 million, and Sony balked at the price.

Google Acquires Zenter; Y Combinator Gets Another Payday - Google made another acquisition announcement today - they’ve bought a company called Zenter (”a company that provides software for creating online slide presentations”) to help complete their upcoming Powerpoint/presentation application. The price wasn’t disclosed.

McClatchy Exec Takes Stake in Gather.com - Kevin McClatchy, a director at newspaper publisher the McClatchy Company, acquired a minority stake in Gather.com, a social network for adults focused on niche interests and activities. Although Tom Gerace, the founder and CEO of Gather.com, emphasized that McClatchy’s stake is a personal investment, it may herald strategic cooperation between the companies in the future.

Yahoo Acquires Rivals for $100 million - The Yahoo board saw fit to go through with the acquisition of sports publisher Rivals.com, which focuses mainly on college and high school sports. Yahoo is currently ranked second in sports, with 15 million unique users behind ESPN.com with 17.5 million monthly users, according to comScore Media Metrix. Other major competitors include MSN/Fox Sports and AOL Sports. Rivals.com is 19th, with 1.4 million uniques. The acquisition is believed to be in the $100 million range.

Google Expands Pay-Per-Action For AdWords - Google expanded the scope of its Pay-Per-Action pricing model for AdWords by launching a global beta in some 24 languages.                       

Yahoo Expands Mobile Footprint Into 13 Countries - Yahoo is launching a new version of its mobile service, with localized beta versions for some 13 countries, as well as a general rollout of Yahoo Go 2.0 in the U.S.

Gaia Partners With Scion and Millions of Us - Gaia Online, the virtual world for teens, has partnered with Toyota’s Scion and its virtual world agency Millions of Us. Scion will offer Gaia members cars that can be bought and customized using Gaia currency.

Eisner-Backed Veoh TV Debuts - Veoh Networks, the Web TV and video syndication startup backed by Michael Eisner, launched its Internet video browser/DVR. Elsewhere in the wide world of Web video, Neutrogena joined the cast of Lonelygirl115.

NetRatings Search Share: Google, Ask.com Up In May - Nielsen//NetRatings released its May U.S. Search Share Rankings, containing few, if any surprises, but some encouraging news for Ask.com.

Fast Times At Digital High - I’ve been saying that the lines between marketing and media are blurring for some time now. But we’re way beyond that–everything is blurring. It’s as if every time we stop to take the pulse of the landscape, it’s a new landscape, at least on a macro level. What does it all mean?

Generation Y Multitaskers Boost Media Time - Multitasking is driving up the total amount of time that US teens spend with media, according to a Bridge Ratings study conducted in March to May 2007. US consumers ages 13 to 17 spend more time with media overall than other age groups do, and their total media time has grown by more than two and a half hours per day since May 2004.

Global Spending To Hit $80 Billion By 2011 - A new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers claims that global Web spending will continue to grow by double digits through 2011, fueled by higher-speed Web connections and the increased adoption of the Web as an entertainment medium by consumers. The PwC Global Entertainment and Media Outlook report claims that spending across the globe will increase at an average clip of 10.7%, hitting $78.4 billion by 2011, a 60% rise from last year’s $47.2 billion.

User-Generated Content: Will Web 2.0 Pay Its Way? - The User-Generated Content report analyzes the fast-changing new world of content ownership and distribution, where for the first time everyday people determine exactly what is created and consumed—not marketers or publishers. Led by the companies that started the revolution—YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Photobucket and others—eMarketer estimates that US user-generated content sites will earn $4.3 billion in ad revenues in 2011, up from $1 billion in 2007.

Panama Gets High Marks - On his Searchblog, John Battelle publishes the findings of Interpublic SEM firm Reprise in its early interactions with Yahoo’s Panama search ad system. Overall, the search firm calls Panama “a significant upgrade over the previous Yahoo DTC (Direct Traffic Center) system, but it worries about the complex system’s ability “to access the long tail of the market.” The Reprise study evaluates Panama’s campaign management and performance, user interface and technology over a three-month period (January-March). In terms of SEM performance, the cost-per-click for keywords actually dropped 6.2% during a period where the average CPC for Google AdWords increased 2.8% and Microsoft’s adCenter a whopping 9.6% — a good thing for search marketers.

Apple iPhone Will Play YouTube Clips - Apple, Inc. is getting closer to Web industry leader Google. The companies on Thursday announced that videos from Google’s YouTube would be available for play on Apple’s iPhone, which goes on sale next Friday. YouTube clips were made available on the company’s Apple TV service a few weeks ago.

What Yahoo Needs To Do Now - A myriad of suggestions abound for Yahoo’s next steps after its CEO shuffle–but technology spending and mergers/acquisition activity are the areas for improvement that are center stage with financial analysts, marketing executives and search specialists.                

Agencies: Yahoo Consolidation Would Hurt Industry - Agency executives are hardly mourning the loss of Terry Semel. The heightened risk of a Yahoo merger, however, brings many of them to tears.

Exponential Launches Free Ad Server - Exponential Interactive, parent company of the Tribal Fusion ad network announced the launch of Expo9, a free ad server for publishers currently serving a reported 20 billion ads for more than 100 clients.

Real Girls Media Adds Independent Film Channel - Real Girls Media, the brainchild of digital agency vet Kate Thorp, has launched an independent film channel on its female-focused Web portal DivineCaroline.com. The portal has also begun running its first video ads, though they will not accompany the film footage for now.

Podcast Listeners Still Like Radio - Nearly 20 million US consumers will download and listen to podcasts at least once a week by 2010, according to interviews with Bridge Ratings’ “Podcast Panel.” Based on extrapolations from the interviews, a projected seven million Americans download and listen to podcasts every week, with an additional 21.4 million listening to a minimum of four podcasts every month.

Yahoo Looks Into Strategic Alternatives - Yahoo CEO Terry Semel is already out, Jerry Yang in in, but neither Wall Street nor the news media is convinced the move will spark a positive turnaround. The stock has suffered badly because it’s constantly being compared to high-flying Google. Yahoo may soon face an activist group that attempts to force the company into exploring strategic alternatives–a possible sale, merger or partnership. Should that occur, Yahoo might find itself in bed with News Corp., AT&T, AOL, Microsoft or Comcast.

MySpace Eyes eBay Partnership - News Corp. has enjoyed a good deal of publicity for its 2005 acquisition of the social network MySpace, and while it will no doubt pay for itself one day, it hasn’t enjoyed the kind of wildfire revenue growth befitting a site that attracts 70 million users per month. Management is constantly looking for new ways to monetize, and the company’s latest move could bring eBay into the fold.

Blinkx Beats Google With Speech-Based Video Ad Net - Google has been working on AdSense for video, but little is reported about its progress. That may be because it’s original partner, Viacom, is now suing the company for $1 billion. Big G’s legal problems have opened the door for smaller guys to create the much-needed networking products that could make online video advertising a force.

Easy Syndication Of Online Video - Joost, the online TV service that utilizes peer-to-peer technology, is outmoded, says Dmitry Shapiro, CEO of rival video upstart Veoh. Joost is a closed system that only shows video from the producers it has deals with. Shapiro thinks Internet TV should be something more open–like the Web itself–that draws content from both professional producers and the greater online community.

Google Wins Antitrust Battle Vs. Microsoft - Google has prevailed in its antitrust complaint against rival Microsoft Corp. The latter agreed to change a feature in its Windows Vista operating system that Google said was anticompetitive. The out-of-court settlement means there will be no trial.

With Yahoo’s Semel Out, Yang Makes People Priority - With a steady stream of departures at all levels turning into a flood, Yahoo’s co-founder and newest CEO Jerry Yang said “motivating, developing and attracting talent” will be one of his top priorities. In a Silicon Valley awash in venture-funded startups, that may be the toughest challenge.        

JupiterResearch: Online Ad Spending To Reach $35.4 Billion in 2012 - Led by search and display spending, U.S. ad dollars flowing online will nearly double by 2012, a JupiterResearch report predicts. Social networks will also prove especially valuable.

Nielsen, IGA, Omnicom Agencies Study In-Game Ads - Nielsen Entertainment and IGA Worldwide have aligned with a team of industry partners to conduct a major study on the effectiveness of in-game advertising.

Glam Media vs. iVillage: Who’s #1? - It’s like comparing “apples to cauliflower,” said iVillage President Deborah Fine, as Glam Media launched a media campaign telling advertisers that it “has just overtaken iVillage to become #1 for women in the U.S.”

MTV Taps Visible World For TV, Online Targeted Ads - MTV Networks has enlisted Visible World to help its advertisers customize and target both television and online video ads in real time, the companies said Monday. Visible World’s technology is designed to help advertisers target, tailor, monitor, and adjust video ads in seconds.

YouTube Goes Local With 9 International Sites - YouTube, like parent Google before it, has made the bold move of unveiling local-language sites in nine different countries withlocally popular content. Up until now, user-generated videos and comments could be posted in any language, although the YouTube interface was only in English. According to co-founder Steve Chen, more than half of YouTube’s audience comes from outside the United States. YouTube will retain its brand name in each of the following new country sites: Brazil, Britain, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain.

Billionaire To Enlist Yahoo in Dow Jones Bid - In the battle for Dow Jones & Company and editorial control of The Wall Street Journal, supermarket mogul Ron Burkle is preparing a surprise bid involving the Web giant Yahoo that would rival News Corp., General Electric, IAC/InterActive Corp. and others reported to be interested in the publishing giant.  

EBay Could Inspire Other Google Advertisers - It’s high time Google got itself a new slogan. For a company of its size and ambition, the whole “don’t be evil” thing sounds like a self-righteous claim to world domination. And as just about everyone in the Web business knows by now, Google’s partners are starting to get angry. EBay, the search giant’s largest buyer of search ads, last week became the first major advertiser to pull ads from Google. How deeply that decision affects both their businesses remains to be seen, but more importantly, says Jupiter Research analyst Kevin Heisler, eBay stood up to Google, and Google backed down.

Why Semel Got The Boot - Web pundits today are left wondering what if any affect the reinstatement of Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang will have on the beleaguered Web giant. Just about everyone agrees that Terry Semel had to go-”The short answer is he screwed up,” Wired said of the company’s former chief. “During his six years as CEO, he let his principal competitor, Google, grow from a pipsqueak into a giant.”

NYTCO And Monster Unveil NYTimes.com Co-Branded Jobs Site - As expected, NYTCO and Monster are launching their new co-branded NYC-area career site. (They call it the culmination of the strategic alliance the two companies struck back in February.) Aside from combining their respective help-wanted listings, the site features job-related articles and career guides, as well as a variety of ad products related to recruiting. The companies prmoise employers access to one out of every two job seekers in the New York market looking for jobs in print and online.

Scarborough: Big Overlap In Newspaper/Web Use - A new study commissioned by the Newspaper National Network found a high degree of overlap in the use of online and print versions of newspapers, with 81% of respondents saying they regularly consume both kinds of media.      

Centro Enters comScore’s Ad Top 50 At #20 - CENTRO, which places national display ads onto local newspaper Web sites, stormed into comScore Media Metrix’s top 50 ad rankings for May–entering at number 20, and reaching 42% of the U.S. online population. Another big mover in May was Undertone Networks, which more than doubled its reach to 30%, and moved up nine positions to number 29.     

Brightcove Scores Fox Distribution Deal - Along with helping Fox’s network and studio programmers host targeted video, Brightcove will now let each unit expand its reach through syndication to select Web site affiliates and through viral promotion’s social media features.

MySpace…The Biggest Threat to Newspapers? - In addition to news aggregators like Google and Yahoo, newspapers need to watch out for online competition from a less obvious source–social networks–according to a global study of youth media behavior from the World Association of Newspapers.

Men Online More, But Still Influenced By Traditional Media - Some 71% of men ages 18-34 spend more time online now than a year ago, according to Maxim’s latest annual Man Study–but a resounding 74% still felt that putting an ad on TV would be the “most effective” way to get it seen by guys.

Agency.com: Content ‘Uploaders’ Are Key Influencers of Brand Growth - Marketers seeking to leverage the power of social media may want to focus on a group of Internet users called “Uploaders,” according to new research conducted in the U.K. by Omnicom Group’s interactive agency, Agency.com.

The Behaviorally Targeted Ad Audience - Consumers like the idea of getting relevant ads tailored to their interests — at least online. In a study published in January 2007 by ChoiceStream, 70% of respondents said they were interested in receiving personalized advertising via the Internet. That was more than those who wanted such ads delivered to their TVs, and far more than those who were interested in personalized mobile phone ads.

When Will the Web Come To A Halt? - More frequently, we’re seeing apocalyptic stories about cybercrime, net neutrality/censorship, and today, the looming Internet capacity threat. YouTube and other bandwidth-sucking streaming video and music providers might soon bring the Web to a standing halt, as the flood of data exchanged across the Internet increases and the capacity of “the pipes” do not.

Google Legal Out To Change Web Law - Google is pushing the boundaries of established privacy law. It contends there is nothing evil about its patent disregard of copyright law or its growing data bank of information about its millions of users. Indeed, its hulking legal team says Google is prepared for the Big Fight against Big, Bad Old Law.

Social Network Aggregators On Rise - Social networks are now being affected by competition from aggregators. Sound familiar? The aggregation threat always seems to loom over Web content providers, and now, niche social networks are already being linked together through a series of startup aggregators. MyLifeBrand, ProfileLinker, Open ID, OtherEgo and Profilatic are all out to simplify the social-networking experience–both for consumers and marketers, which would rather make one big-buy at the same place to reach specified consumers.

EBay Shifts Focus From Google Threat - eBay’s defensive tactics against Google probably have something to do with its flagging U.S. auctions business. In the latest quarter, eBay’s net U.S. revenue from auctions was up just 1%, while listings volume was down 3.8% from last year. Analysts put this down to eBay.com’s longstanding clutter/interface problem, while stiffer e-commerce competition has made it difficult for the maturing Web giant to grow. However, at the “eBay Live” conference there were some significant changes, including a new interface, a more predictive/personalized way to deliver search results and a decrease in fees for certain services and shipping charges using UPS.