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US Newspaper Publishers Launch Joint Online Ad Firm - Four top US newspaper publishers - Tribune, Gannett, Hearst and the New York Times Company - are launching a joint online ad sales firm. quadrantONE will serve ads on the online versions of all four publishers’ local newspaper titles, allowing advertisers to place ads across a large, nationwide network of websites.

Kijiji: Better Than Google, MSN And Yahoo’s Classifieds - EBay owns a 25% stake in local classifieds leader Craigslist, but still decided to launch competitor Kijiji to capitalize on the huge hyper-local search market. Kijiji went live overseas first and then came to the U.S. last summer. Since then, traffic to the U.S. version of the site has grown dramatically, from 362,000 visitors in July 2007 to 1.8 million in January 2008, according to comScore.

Baidu Q4 Revs More Than Double; Net Income up 79 Percent - Chinese search engine Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU) reported Q4 revenues of $78.3 million, up over 100 percent from last year’s $37.7 million. Net income also soared, increasing 79 percent to $30.1 million ($.87 per share).

Google Tests Video Ads for Search - Lookout, here come Google video ads–and on Google search, no less, a development that few thought would ever happen. Google on Thursday began testing not just videos ads, but also ads with images, maps and other interactive features.

Google Receives 50 Times More Searches on iPhone - One look at Google usage on Apple’s iPhone, and you understand why the search giant is moving into the mobile market. On Wednesday, the company revealed that it’s seen 50 times more searches on Apple’s smartphone than any other mobile handset.

Women Stream TV, Men Prefer YouTube - A new online video study from Nielson Online shows that men tend to be more interested in user-generated video sites like YouTube, while women prefer streams of network TV shows.

In Silicon Valley, Start-Ups Begin Hitting The Breaks - Silicon Valley was flush with cash and optimism just six months ago. Now as the region stares down the barrel of a possible recession, start-up companies and their investors are beginning to hunker down and tighten their belts.

GroupM Search Emerges As Industry’s Biggest Player - WPP GROUP, already Madison Avenue’s largest buyer of search advertising with disparate operations housed within its Mindshare, Mediaedge:cia, MediaCom media networks, and its Outrider search specialty unit, is reorganizing its search operations to create centers of excellence to service clients across all four of those units. The move follows the acquisition of 24/7 Real Media, which itself had a considerable search practice.

Up The Data Stream With A Paddle, Comcast To Invest $70 Million In ‘Canoe’ - COMCAST WILL INVEST UP TO $70 million this year as part of cable operators’ joint effort to develop a national interactive advertising platform, a top company executive said Thursday. Cable executives have indicated that leading operators had banded together to fund the development of a system, code-named “Project Canoe,” (by industry research arm CableLabs), which would allow an advertiser to easily buy national spots. The added benefit–targeted click-through options depending on locale.

Yahoo Relaunches Yahoo Video - Amid the turmoil of staff layoffs, takeover offers and merger discussions, Yahoo has relaunched Yahoo Video. The biggest change to the service is the addition of a 16:9 viewer, along with support for files up to 150mb, embedable playlists and improved user profiles.

Comcast Buys Rest Of Car Site Vehix - Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) is buying out multiplatform and online car site Vehix, for an undisclosed amount. Comcast’s ad sales unit Comcast Spotlight already had a minority stake in the service, and will now fully own it.

Yahoo Acquires Maven Networks - Yahoo is acquiring Maven Networks for $160 million in a merger that makes Yahoo “the leading premium video publisher on the Internet.” The Sunnyvale, Calif. Web giant already claims to have the Web’s biggest library of professionally produced, licensed video.

HotOrNot Sold To Canadian Investors; Price Tag: $20 Million — A bit of mystery surrounding tonight’s reports that HotOrNot has been sold to investors associated with Canadian company Avid Life Media. TechCrunch, which broke the news and confirmed it with co-founder James Hong, puts the price at around $20 million.

WPP Takes Stake In Engagement Metrics Firm NuConomy - WPP Group’s digital investment arm has bought an unspecified stake in web-analytics company NuConomy, according to Thomson Financial.

WPP Acquires Web Design Shop - WPP acquired a 75% stake in Web design and development agency, HeathWallace Ltd. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Dell has agreed to acquire MessageOne Inc - an Austin, Texas–based provider of SaaS-enabled email services. The deal is valued at approximately $155 million in cash.

SiteScape Acquired by Novell - SiteScape, a provider of secure Web-based workflow and collaboration solutions, was acquired by Novell (Nasdaq:NOVL).

Quebecor Media Announces Take-Up and Acquisition of 9,244,329 Nurun Common Shares - Quebecor Media Inc. announced today that it has taken up and acquired 9,244,329 Nurun common shares representing approximately 59.11% of the Nurun common shares issued and outstanding at the close of business on February 15, 2008 and not already held by Quebecor Media and its affiliates, for a price of Cdn$4.75 per share. The take-up and acquisition of 9,244,329 Nurun common shares by Quebecor Media will allow it to proceed with the privatization of Nurun through a compulsory acquisition (”squeeze-out”) transaction in the event, as at the expiration of the offer, not less than 90% of the shares subject to the offer are tendered, or, alternatively, through a subsequent acquisition transaction.

LiveUniverse has bought Revver Inc. - The news was first reported by NewTeeVee, which puts the sale price at just under $5 million. That’s far less than the $15 million Revver raised in VC funding.

Macrovision Sells Software Business Unit To Thoma Cressey Bravo For $200 Million In Cash - Digital rights manager Macrovision is selling its Software Business Unit to PE firm Thoma Cressey Bravo for $200 million in cash.

RegionalHelpWanted Sold To Warburg Pincus-Backed Firm For $100 Million - RegionalHelpWanted.com, a network of about 350 geographically focused online job boards, has been bought out by OnTargetJobs.com, a Texas-based recruitment-site aggregator. RHW, launched in 1999 and based in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., operates its sites under the “…HelpWanted.com” brand in U.S. and the “…JobShop.com” brand in Canada, and also owns dating site Cupid.com. Its revenue was estimated at $35 million annually, according to a Classified Intelligence e-mail alerts (not available online), who also reported the $100 million figure (not disclosed by the companies themselves).

NYT-Gannett-Trib-Hearst Combine To Form Local Online Ad Sales Company quadrantONE - This has been in works for a while as an alternative to the Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) newspaper consortium, as well as the Google-newspapers ad effort, and now it is finally launching: Tribune, Gannett (NYSE: GCI), Hearst and the New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) are forming a joint new company called quadrantONE, and transferring some of their open online inventory to the firm to sell.

Plaxo’s Buyer Is Likely Comcast - Plaxo finally got bought, say valley whispers, and blog after blog have speculated incorrectly about who the buyer might be (first Facebook, then Google). Finally, someone may have gotten it right - Valleywag is saying that Comcast is the buyer, for $175m.

BT, Virgin and Carphone sign up for targeted ad platform - Three major UK ISPs - BT, Virgin and Carphone Warehouse’s Talk Talk - have signed deals with ad tech firm, Phorm, to use its targeted ad platform.

Rumor: Netflix to develop Xbox and PS3 live film streaming service - Questionnaires posted online by Netflix are fuelling rumours that the US video rental firm is set to develop a live film streaming service through the Xbox 360 and PS3 games consoles.

Clear Channel’s USD19bn takeover receives go ahead - The planned USD19bn takeover of Clear Channel by private equity firms is now set to go ahead, following the approval of the US Justice Department.

AOL, Citysearch Strike Content, Ad Alliance - Time Warner’s AOL and IAC’s and Citysearch units this morning announced an agreement to distribute their content and advertising across each other’s networks.

In Spectrum Battle, Google Earns a Draw - Google it seems has lost the battle for the coveted C block of wireless spectrum currently being auctioned out by the Federal Communications Commission. Either Verizon or AT&T will win the spectrum.

News Corp. Working On Music ‘Hulu’ For MySpace - PaidContent has learned that News Corp (NYSE: NWS). is pursuing a music joint venture for MySpace—similar to Hulu, its video joint venture with NBC Universal (NYSE: GE), but with variations on the theme.

Yahoo/News Corp. Deal a Real Possibility - Two sources tell the blog that News Corp. and Yahoo are discussing some kind of transaction (”or at least the appearance of one”). It’s unclear how serious the negotiations are. News Corp. has repeatedly stated that it’s not interested in buying Yahoo, so a possible deal may include News Corp. giving Yahoo MySpace or all of Fox Interactive plus cash in exchange for a major stake in the company. His estimate: News Corp. sells FIM for $6 billion (a P/E of roughly 30 times operating profit) plus another $9 billion in cash from itself and a private equity firm in exchange for a one-third equity stake in Yahoo.

Mystery Buyer Buys Bebo for $1 Billion - Rumors circulated the blogosphere last week that Bebo, the Web’s No. 3 social network with a 1.18 percent market share according to Hitwise, was in talks to be acquired for around $1 billion by a mystery buyer. Google was said to be the most likely candidate, although the rumor was never confirmed. Now, Bebo has indeed been purchased for the rumored price of $1 billion–although the buyer remains a mystery.

Report: EU To Curb Search Engines - European authorities are reportedly poised to impose new limits on how long search engines can retain data tying users to search queries.

FTC: Data Security Is Top Concern - Security of consumer data is “of the greatest and highest concern in our enforcement work,” according to Eileen Harrington, the deputy director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, speaking at the Direct Marketing Association’s Email Evolution conference in San Diego on Tuesday.

Omnicom Buys Stake In New Zealand Digital Consultant Shift - Omnicom Group has taken a stake in New Zealand’s Shift, a digital marketing and web design company. Terms were not disclosed.

Answers.com Bid For Lexico Nixed; Stock Sale Is Pulled - As we had suspected all along, this one did not go through: Answers Corp.’s (NSDQ: ANSW) uphill battle to acquire Dictionary.com parent Lexico has failed, as the company’s last-ditch $100 million stock sale has been pulled.

Google Cools On Yahoo Ad Pact - WSJ is reporting that Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is losing interest in an ad-pact with Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO). The idea of outsourcing search ads to Google had been floated as a possible alternative for Yahoo to doing a deal with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), since it might give the company a quick revenue jolt. But Google, having more fully studied the regulatory implications, has pulled back.

US marketing on branded content grows 14.7% in 2007 - US spending on branded entertainment marketing, such as product placement in video content or videogames, grew by 14.7% in 2007, hitting a record-breaking USD22.3bn, according to media research firm, PQ Media.

Increased Competition With Paid Search Leads Marketers To SEO - Janet Meiners corrals data from MarketingSherpa’s 5th Annual ad:tech Year-End Survey into a few concise nuggets of insight–with one being the fact that 57% of marketers surveyed said that SEO delivered “great ROI” and “outperformed other tactics,” including paid search, e-mail and contextual ads.

Media Cos Shun Video Dominator YouTube - Fresh ComScore data indicates that Google’s YouTube is winning the online video wars, but media companies don’t care. Professional producers of content, like Viacom and NBC Universal, are also trying to attract large audiences on their video sites.

Battle for Address Book Ownership - There is a battle brewing for ownership of your address book. It all started when MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn started asking users if they wanted to port their contact lists, giving them instant friends on their social networking profiles. The network effect [created by syncing contacts] is a prime driver of the Internet and is critical to the success of burgeoning social networks.

Internet Ads Up, Google’s Share Slightly Down - Research house IDC offers up stats that support what just about everyone on Madison Avenue says is inevitable: the ads will follow the eyeballs online. IDC calculated U.S. Q4 Internet advertising at $7.3 billion, a 28% increase y/y, while full-year Internet advertising grew 27% to $25.5 billion.

AdWords Expands To Offer Age, Gender Targeting - Google has rolled out demographic targeting for AdWords, and search marketers that ask to be in the beta test will have the option to target their search campaigns by age and gender.

MySpace Quietly Launches Games Site - Still number one social networking destination MySpace has entered the casual flash games market with games.myspace.com. Casual flash gaming combined with a youngish user base in the millions makes this a no-brainer in terms of going to be a success for MySpace.

Delver: Better Than A Social Search Engine - Delver delves into the social graph to deliver a personalized search experience that takes a user’s social networking connections and interests into account when coming up with results. Instead of just looking at a Web site’s popularity, Delver looks at information like whether your friends have tagged the site or if it’s found on their social network profiles, bookmarking sites, photos and video sharing sites, or on their blogs.

IAB Board Formally Adopts Behavioral Targeting Guidelines - The board of the Interactive Advertising Bureau has adopted new guidelines for behavioral targeting, or serving ads based on users’ Web-surfing history, that have more flexible privacy safeguards than those proposed by the Federal Trade Commission, Mike Zaneis, vice-president for public policy, said Monday.

Calling All Application Developers: AOL Debuts Open Mobile Platform - Joining recent efforts to remove barriers from the mobile landscape, AOL has unveiled its AOL Open Mobile Platform to let third-party developers create applications that can run on all major devices and wireless networks.

Clickability Launches On-Demand Platform - Web content management company Clickability has launched an on demand platform and three new product packages for media and publishing customers, Fortune 500 enterprises, and SMB clients. The platform is an end-to-end Web content solution for non-technical users to create, manage, publish, deliver, measure, and adapt Web sites easily.

Heavy Clickers Account For Half Of Display Click-Throughs - Heavy online ad clickers aren’t representative of the general public, but account for half of all display click-throughs, according to a new study released today. Research by Starcom USA, behavioral targeting firm Tacoda, and comScore found that the 6% of the online population accounting for most of the click-throughs skews toward male Internet users ages 25 to 44 with household income under $40,000.

U.S. Internet Advertising Grew By 27% To $25.5 Billion In 2007 - TOTAL U.S. INTERNET AD SPENDING in the fourth quarter of 2007 grew nearly 28% over the same quarter in 2006 to $7.3 billion. For the full year 2007, online ad revenue grew 27% year-over-year to $25.5 billion, according to Framingham, Mass.-based IDC.

Yahoo Considering Combo With AOL? - As Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) ponders various strategies for rejecting Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Times Online reports that one possible option is a merger with AOL (NYSE: TWX). It’s not clear though if the company is serious about pursuing this, or if it’s just one of many ideas jotted down on the white board in the Yahoo boardroom. Note that Time Warner has officially stated its intention to jettison the remaining AOL access business, so any deal would only involve the online assets.

Writers’ Strike Drives Online Video Traffic, YouTube Trounces Video Competition In December - As the writers’ strike continued to keep good television off the air, U.S. Web users ramped up their online video viewing in December to more than 10 billion videos, according to a survey from comScore. Google’s YouTube absolutely trounced the competition for video views, as more than half (79 million) of the 141 million viewers visited the Google video site, which accounted for more than 97 percent of videos viewed across the search engine’s properties.

Microsoft, Yahoo And The Cloud Wars - The Economist claims that the proposed marriage of Microsoft and Yahoo is more about helping Microsoft expand its “cloud” computing capabilities than it is about combining content and powerful search and display advertising services.

Google May Get EU Approval on DoubleClick - Google Inc. hasn’t received formal objections from European Union regulators about its proposed $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick Inc., three people familiar with the case said, indicating the EU is close to approving the deal.

Tech Network NetShelter Rebrands With Expanded Offerings - Quietly cultivating its niche in the ad network arena for the last several years has been technology content network NetShelter Inc., which has grown from a dozen to 150 tech sites in the last two years.

TheStreet.com Goes After Younger, Broader Audience With MainStreet.com - TheStreet.com today unveils MainStreet.com, a Web site that connects celebrity news and current events to a range of personal finance and money-oriented topics.

Fast Company Mixes User, Mag Content At Site - FastCompany.com is unveiling a new publishing site that will make extensive use of user-generated content, blending reader contributions with its own journalism, via its site. The new online feature will bring together its professional content with thoughts, observations, and reporting by about 95,000 business professionals, members of a social network hosted on the site.

Nokia Unveils Global Mobile Ad Network - Nokia announced the launch of a global Nokia Media Network, a premium advertising network affiliated with more than 70 leading publisher and operators including AccuWeather, Discovery, Hearst, Reuters, and Sprint.

Reuters To Sell Guardian’s Online Inventory In U.S. - Guardian, which has a big chunk of its website traffic coming from U.S. but has always had a hard time building out a sales infrastructure here and monitizing it, has done the inevitable: outsourced it. Reuters (NSDQ: RTRSY), its UK brethren, will now sell all online advertising that targets the UK newspaper’s US audience.

Why Google Wants Microhoo To Happen - Tech blogger Robert Scoble says that everyone has missed the key points about how a Microsoft-Yahoo merger would affect Google. Far from being afraid of a Microhoo, Google would welcome this merger with open arms. Indeed, Google’s recent claim that the merger is “troubling” is just delaying tactics, as “every month longer that this deal takes is tens of millions in Google’s pockets.”

Yahoo To Float Asian Assets? - Yahoo, in the wake of Microsoft’s unsolicited takeover bid, is considering ways to better monetize its investment in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan–the idea being to appease shareholders inclined to accept Microsoft’s offer.

Microsoft To Issue Debt For Yahoo Acquisition - Microsoft revealed it would finance a portion of its $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo. This would mark the first time in history that Microsoft would borrow money to fund an acquisition — if the deal goes through.

Integrating Ad Systems Key To Merger Success - The key to making a Microsoft-Yahoo deal work is to combine all or at least parts of the companies’ ad delivery systems as soon as possible. Otherwise, Google will be able to take advantage of the halt in progress.

Industry Moves: CNET’s M&A Head Lurie Appointed As New CFO - CNET (NSDQ: CNET) Networks, in the middle of a proxy fight for control of its board, has just announced Q407 earnings (which we’re covering separately), has appointed a new CFO: its lead M&A head Zander Lurie will be the new CFO, starting March 7. Current CFO George Mazzotta is resigning.

Chinese Authority Provides Leeway for Online Video Sharing Sites - At the end of 2007, China’s Ministry of Information Industry (MII) issued a law requiring online video sharing sites to have controlling interests owned by state enterprises.

Self-Promotion Site CornerWorld Offers $30 Million To Acquire Sway - CornerWorld, an online video site that caters to musicians, filmmakers, political candidates and other self-promoters, has said it intends to acquire social marketing company Sway Inc. for $30 million in cash and stock.

Burst To Launch CDKitchen Ad Network - Burst annouced the launch of a new ad network today, Online Media Daily has learned. The network will focus on all things food-related, and was built in partnership with Burlington, Mass.-based Burst Network’s food site, CDKitchen.com. The CDKitchen Cooking Network is made up of 30 food-focused Web sites drawing more than 4.3 million visitors and delivering more than 23.5 million page impressions monthly.

Newspapers Turn to Online Networks for Display Ads - Local newspaper websites are seeking safety in numbers and convenience, joining large networks for online display ads. These networks are proving to be a key part of online strategy for newspapers, which must build their display ad revenues to offset slowing growth in online classifieds.

Google-AOL: Bewkes: “Fine If They Were To Act’ On Selling Stake” -The future of Google’s (NSDQ: GOOG) five percent stake in the Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) unit, acquired for $1 billion as part of the search renewal, is one of the footnotes to any AOL discussion.

Analysts: Google Happily Out of Spectrum Race - Google has been dominating U.S. spectrum related headlines for months, the Web giant is bowing out of the auction. Analysts speculate that Google put up the required $4.6 billion for the “C” portion of spectrum that ensures the creation of an “open” broadband network for handset makers and software developers. Some industry watchers claim that that’s all Google really wanted–to see those auction rules put into place. After making the initial bid, it looks like Google’s off the hook; the company won’t be stuck shelling out billions to create a nationwide wireless network.

A YouTube For “How To” - Howcast, a New York City startup founded by former Googlers, wants to be the YouTube of “how to” videos. The Web site launches today with JetBlue as its first sponsor; it’s also announcing a fresh round of $8 million in series A financing, led by Tudor Investment Corp. Howcast isn’t just a Web site, it’s also a syndicated content provider. The company has its own YouTube channel and has other distribution deals in place with MySpace, Joost, ROO and on Verizon’s VCast phones, as well as FiOS TV. However, Howcast isn’t the only player in the “how to” space. The company faces competition from Expert Village, 5min, and Instructables, which uses step-by-step images more than video.

Google Apps Team Edition Emulates Social Networking Model - Google on Thursday plans to offer a new social version of its online Google Apps application suite. Google Apps Team Edition is more or less identical to the standard version of Google Apps in function; it differs in that it’s designed to spread virally and to encourage collaboration. Upon logging in to Google Apps Team Edition, a user can identify other Google Apps users in his or her organization and can easily invite colleagues to share documents and calendars. Google Apps, in other words, has gained the makings of a rudimentary social graph, as social network friend lists are called.

Time Warner To Divide AOL - AOL’s U.S. dial-up access and advertising businesses will finally be divided, according to Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner’s recently appointed CEO. During Time Warner’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Bewkes laid out his vision for the future of the company, including the possibility of spinning off its cable division.

Online Social Media Cheap Alternative In Face Of Recession - Faced with a looming recession, marketers should spend more on online social media as a cheap, efficient way to advertise during tougher economic times. So advises Forrester Research in a research note issued to clients Tuesday outlining strategies for interactive marketing in a recession.

IAB Best Practices Guidelines for Lead Gen Spark Criticism - The Interactive Advertising Bureau Thursday issued best practices guidelines for online lead generation, saying its recommendations will help the industry grow while building trust with consumers.

Earnings: Idearc Revs Slide 1.7 Percent On Print Weakness; Internet Up 19 Percent - Directory publisher Idearc announced Q4 revenues of $787 million, down 1.7 percent from $801 million in the prior year’s quarter. Net income fell 6.5 percent to $100 million ($.68 per share) from $107 million ($.73 per share).

AOL: Q4 Advertising By The Numbers; Growth Not Expected Until Q2 - AOL (NYSE: TWX) expects flat advertising revenue this quarter and Time Warner had to explain that during its earnings call, along with a lot of disquieting advertising numbers from 4Q07. Advertising revenues were up 10 percent year over year, to $620 million. Display advertising on AOL’s owned-and-operated network was up a mere 3 percent to $252 million. Third-party network revenue rose nearly 30 percent, to nearly $200 million. TWX invested $900 million in assembling Platform A last year; nearly half the growth in third-party advertising in Q4 came from acquisitions but but organic growth is strong.

AOL Acquires Affiliate Network to Boost ad Platform - AOL has acquired buy.at, a leading affiliate marketing network backed by VC house DFJ Esprit, reports TechCrunch UK. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but well-placed sources say the deal is worth in the region of $150 million (£75 million). Although launched in the UK in 2002, buy.at now has a much bigger US operation, which is what attracted AOL’s interest. buy.at will now operate as a wholly-owned business unit of Advertising.com, part of AOL’s Platform-A organization, to which it added four other companies in the last year including Tacoda, AdTech, Third Screen Media and Quigo.

LoveFilm Buying Amazon Biz - Amazon.com has agreed to sell its European DVD rental business in the UK and Germany to LoveFilm International, a London-based online DVD rental services. LoveFilm has raised VC funding from Arts Alliance Media, Balderton Capital, Esprit Capital Partners and Index Ventures.

Earnings: Bankrate Q4 Revs Up 22 Percent; Buys InsureMe.com And Fee Disclosure For $87.85 Million - Financial info site Bankrate (NSDQ: RATE), considered to be something of a key bellwether given its reliance on the mortgage market, reported Q4 revenues of $25.2 million, a 22 percent year-over-year increase from $20.7 million. In addition to reporting earnings, the company announced two acquisitions after the bell: Insurance site InsureMe.com for up to $85 million including $20 million in potential earn-outs & Fee Disclosure, a site all about mortgage fees, for $2.85 million.

Microsoft Buys 3D Software Firm For Mapping - Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) buys Caligari, a developer of 3D modeling software, with an eye to use its technology for its Virtual Earth mapping.

Moms’ Social Networking Site MothersClick Acquires MothersGroups.com - San Francisco, CA-based MothersClick has acquired MothersGroups.com in the wake of launching its new portal of mom-centric and parenting websites.