dave liu dot com

Arbitron Finds Online Listening Up 14% - The weekly audience for online radio rose from 29 million in January 2007 to 33 million in January 2008, according to the most recent Infinite Dial report from Arbitron and Edison Media Research, which will release the survey in April).The 2008 figure represents 13% of the American population over the age of 12, and 17.5% of the total online population (188 million in 2007, according to separate figures from eMarketer. In addition to metrics documenting growth in the overall audience, the latest round of research from Arbitron and Edison focused on the substantial overlap between online radio listeners and social network users.

Mobile Search Service Revenues To Hit $4.8B By 2013: Juniper — Annual revenues from mobile search services are expected to hit $4.8 billion by 2013, according to a new report from Juniper Research. Among the factors driving growth are the decline of carriers’ “walled garden” approach, falling data costs and the entrance of search heavyweights such as Google and Yahoo. Local search will be the most popular service among advertisers, attracting 40% of mobile search ad spending over the next five years. Globally, China and the Far East are expected to generate most revenues from mobile search in the coming years, followed by Western Europe and North America.

EyeWonder Launches Live Streaming Video Feature — Rich media and digital video provider EyeWonder has launched a new LiveWonder feature, designed to deliver live streaming video via any of its online ad formats. Stinson Partners is the first agency to user LiveWonder to promote and deliver General Electric’s retail investor presentation last week. LiveWonder is designed to help advertisers and agencies increase brand awareness and communicate with their audiences through online video campaigns.

Relevantis Rolls Out Ad Platform for Android — Relevantis has launched its universal Ad Platform, a monetization platform for Web sites and developers of widgets, applications and games for Android, Google’s mobile phone platform. The platform allows Android developers to include personalized and location-aware ads within their apps–and the API gives developers more control over the kinds of ads that can be displayed, as well as enabling the ads to be cached. This way, if a user with an Android-enabled mobile phone is underground in the subway or otherwise offline, the ads can still be displayed. Kirkland, Wash.-based Relevantis takes a portion of any ad revenues earned as its fee.

Apple, Music Co’s Mull Unlimited Music Model - Apple is in discussions with the big music companies about a new “all you can eat” subscription model for its iTunes music service that would give its users free access to the entire iTunes library in exchange for paying a premium for its music enabled devices like the iPod and iPhone. This is the same model as the “comes with music” deal Nokia struck with Universal Music a few months ago, although this would include each of the four biggest recording studios. The plan now hinges on the price the iPod maker is willing to pay for access to the labels’ music catalog. Nokia, for example, is reportedly offering music industry partners almost $80 per handset, which would be divided according to their share of the market. Apple so far has offered $20 per device.

Microsoft Wants Wireless Consumers, Too — Under pressure from Apple’s iPhone, the software behemoth is reinvigorating efforts to make Windows Mobile more appealing to the mass market Spurred on by Apple’s pursuit of the wireless mass market, Microsoft is redoubling efforts to court mobile-phone consumers. Despite long-standing attempts to widen the appeal of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, the operating system for cell phones is popular mainly with business users looking for a way to view documents, spreadsheets, and corporate e-mail on a handheld device. Luring the less-business-minded has taken on added urgency in light of Apple’s success with the iPhone, introduced in June, 2007. “We’ve always been going in this direction, but we feel it’s time to move in more aggressively now,” says Scott Horn, general manager of Microsoft’s mobile communications business, though he denies the push has to do with Apple (AAPL). In 2007, the Windows Mobile share of the U.S. smartphone market slipped to 28%, from 30%, reflecting inroads by the iPhone, which uses Apple’s OS X operating system, according to researchers at IDC.

Yellowpages.com signs ad deal with Microsoft - Yellowpages.com has reached a deal with Microsoft to place advertising listings on Microsoft’s local search sites. Under the agreement, advert listings will appear on local sites such as MSN Live Search and Live Search Maps. The pact aims to give Yellowpages.com advertisers access to Microsoft’s search pages. The deal also will increase the total number of estimated monthly searchers and bring the total number of projected monthly searches on Yellowpages.com to over 160mi, says AT&T. Yellowpages.com will begin supplying ads to Microsoft in early April. No financial terms were released.

Microsoft Licenses Adobe’s Flash Lite and PDF For Mobiles; Despite Own Plans - Microsoft has licensed Adobe’s Flash Lite that allows users to view online video on their mobile devices, as well as its Reader software for viewing PDF documents on their handsets. The software will be distributed to handset makers who use the Windows Mobile platform. AP reports that analysts believe the move is good news for advertisers and carriers, as consumers with more capable phones are more likely to surf the mobile web. Microsoft has its own software that allows online video viewing called Silverlight, often seen as a competitor to Adobe’s Flash. Two weeks ago, Nokia said it would license Silverlight for several of its smart phones and internet tablet. Microsoft, however, decided to license Flash lite because “customers are asking for,” noting that “Flash is something that is very prevalent on the web.”

comScore Finds Online Generates 50% More GRPs Than Television - The Internet has already surpassed television based on one significant statistic–the number of gross advertising impressions served. And if online publishers can figure out how to properly measure the worth of those impressions, they ultimately will overtake television in an even more important statistic: share of marketers’ advertising budgets. That was the conclusion of Gian Fulgoni, executive chairman and co-founder of comScore, during a keynote here at the opening of the OMMA
conference Monday.

CBS Launches Local Ad Network - Feeding advertisers’ appetites for more locally targeted ads, CBS Television Stations has launched the CBS Local Ad Network across a swath of local blogging and social media sites.CBS-owned stations are now syndicating local news “widgets” to a network of blogs and local sites within the communities they serve. The widgets feature local headlines and images with links to video and text stories on CBS station sites. In turn, the stations are now selling marketers on the promise of more broadly and efficiently reaching local audiences, while maintaining the creditability and quality of the CBS brand and content.

“Yahoo! is positioned for accelerated financial growth — we have a powerful consumer brand, a huge global audience and a highly profitable operating model,” co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang said in a statement. Yahoo pins its bullish forecast on marketers’ demands for display inventory on its own pages. “With industry-leading tools, technology, people and platforms, Yahoo! is poised to capture growth in display advertising where we believe growth will be greatest,” Yang stated.

Surrge Offers Incentive - Based Social Distribution Network - Surrge.com, a new referral model and social distribution network, has the noble goal of reshaping the digital music scene. The network was launched Saturday at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. The site aims to foster a community that encourages fans to get involved in an artist’s success, and offers monetary rewards for doing so. By creating a fan-driven, word-of-mouth distribution channel, Surrge enables artists to recognize the fans who contribute to their success. Those fans are then compensated through Surrge for their promotional efforts. Through its repeatable distribution and referral models, Surrge helps artists build their distribution network and fan base by rewarding existing fans for spreading the music. Surrge’s online community fosters relationships between artists, fans and music labels.

Video Sites Challenge HDTV’s Quest To Keep Viewers - High-definition TV was expected, in part, to slow the exodus of viewers online. But, a growing number of digital content and ad providers are challenging TV’s hold on visual quality with better technology and services. Vimeo, a video-sharing site owned by Barry Diller’s IAC, began distributing user-generated videos in HD late last year. The peer-to-peer-powered Web TV startup Joost also offers high-resolution content. Now, video ad network BrightRoll today is launching a proprietary HD ad unit for branded advertisers to deliver campaigns in high-definition across its network of publishers, including CNN, MTV, and CBS News.

AOL’s Ad Network Moves: A Lesson In Being Ahead Of The Curve - While Time Warner may have put AOL on the buyer’s block, with its stable of ad networks–including ThirdScreenMedia for mobile, Lightningcast for video, and Tacoda for behavioral and the original Advertising.com–AOL seems well-equipped to battle giants like Microsoft, Google and Yahoo for a major share of the online advertising pie. AOL’s third-party ad networks brought in about $650 million in revenues in 2007, or about 27% of the Web giant’s advertising and content revenues, according to the new “Online Ad Networks: Monetizing the Long Tail” report from DeSilva + Phillips.

Analyst: Bebo Won’t Fix AOL - In a research note, UBS analyst Michael Morris warns that Time Warner’s acquisition of Bebo won’t necessarily fix AOL, which paid $850 million for the social network last Thursday. Morris pointed to the challenging climate for social networks, which face mounting competition, slowing growth, user defection, less time spent per user and an uncertain (and thus far, underwhelming) advertising strategy. He added that because of AOL’s corporate management structure, Bebo could find it hard to innovate and acquire new talent.

Facebook To Launch Instant Messaging Service - Facebook has been testing a new instant messaging service and will be launching it to the public soon, perhaps in the next week.Our understanding is that the service will be built into user’s Facebook pages and allow them to web chat with their Facebook friends. We’ve also heard that, like Gtalk, it will be built on the Jabber open source platform, allowing users to add the service to many popular Instant messaging clients like Trillian (Windows) and Adium (Mac). I’d also expect web chat services like Meebo and eBuddy to add support for the service.

Gates: TV Will Be Based on Internet - Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Thursday he expects the next decade to bring even greater technological leaps than the past 10 years. In a speech to the Northern Virginia Technology Council, Gates speculated that some of the most important advances will come in the ways people interact with computers: speech-recognition technology, tablets that will recognize handwriting and touch-screen surfaces that will integrate a wide variety of information. “I don’t see anything that will stop the rapid advance,” Gates said, noting that technological change driven by academia and corporate researchers continued even after the Internet stock bubble burst in 2000.

Jana Partners Wins CNet Case - Jana Partners yesterday won its case against CNet Networks in Delaware Chancery Court, which means that it can nominate a slate of seven directors at CNEt’s upcoming shareholder meeting. Jana unveiled a plan in January to seize control of the CNet board, in partnership with Spark Capital, Velocity Interactive Capital, Sandell Asset Management Corp and Paul Gardi of Alex Interactive Media.

Break Media Debuts High-Res Video Ad - Break Media unveils a new video ad unit today that expands across the screen and lets users view a high-resolution version of the clip. If that sounds like watching a movie trailer online, it comes as little surprise that the initial high-res ad on Break.com is a preview for the forthcoming Universal Studios sci-fi thriller “Doomsday.”Entertainment companies such as movie studios, TV networks and video-game makers seem the most likely takers, and are a natural fit with Break’s target audience of 18- to-34-year-old men. The video-sharing site recently rebranded as Break Media, comprised of Break.com and three new properties–Cage Potato, Chickipedia and Holy Taco. It also includes the Break Men’s Ad Network.

Google Tests Free Ad-Management Platform For Pubs - Fresh on the heels of the DoubleClick acquisition closing, Google announced the beta launch of Google Ad Manager, a free ad-serving and management platform for publishers. It’s geared toward small and mid-sized publishers that don’t need a complex solution like DoubleClick’s DART, but want more control over their inventory sales process. The hosted ad-management suite helps publishers to sell, deliver and track premium and network-based inventory, in addition to providing reports like inventory forecasts. The forecasts, which let sales teams know how many impressions are and will be available, will be effective only after a publisher has used the platform long enough for it to have collected data on average site traffic and impressions.

China Video Site Youku Ties Up With MySpace China - Video-sharing Web site Youku.com, which is trying to position itself as China’s next YouTube, has tied up with News Corp-invested social networking site MySpace China to target the local market. The partnership is aimed at driving Internet traffic to both Web sites and sharing online products, Youku Chief Executive Victor Koo said in a statement on Friday. Social networks such as MySpace and Facebook let users share images, music, videos and blogs. By November last year, Youku had completed three rounds of venture financing totaling $40 million, including from Brookside Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, Farallon Capital and Chengwei Ventures.

Revenues From Touch Screen Technology to Double - Global revenues from touch screen technologies will nearly double in the 2006-2012 interval, driven by the diffusion of the iPhone, says research firm iSuppli. Touch screen technology revenues are expected to surpass the USD3bn threshold this year - from 2.4bn in 2006 - and hit USD4.4bn by 2012. “Catalyzed by Apple’s iPhone, sales of touch screens using projected-capacitive technology are growing dramatically,” said iSuppli senior analyst, Jennifer Colegrove. “This technology is more durable and has better transmittance than the more commonly used resistive technology.”

Report: Facebook IM Service will Debut Soon - Facebook plans to launch an instant-messaging application for members to embed on their profiles as early as next week, TechCrunch reported Friday. Details are sketchy, but it appears that this will be a Web-based IM service that would allow Facebook users to chat with other people on their friends lists without needing to go through a third-party program. Additionally, TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington detailed, the service would likely be based on the Jabber open-source platform, which would mean that third-party “universal IM” clients like Pidgin, Trillian, and Adium would be able to implement it.

Google Unveiled Google Sky - Google unveiled a browser version of its Google Sky application on Thursday for people who don’t want to download the Google Earth software. The browser version allows you to zoom in and out and pan around the celestial bodies, search for planets and galaxies and view the sky through infrared, x-ray, ultraviolet, and microwave views.There are also galleries of some of the best shots from the Hubble telescope and others. You can also listen to podcasts and look at historical maps of the sky.The backstory on the app is that it was done by staff engineers and Diego Gavinowich, from Buenos Aires, who was a finalist in Google’s Latin America Code Jam and spent the past three months in an internship at the company, according to the official Google Blog.

AOL Acquired Bebo for $850 Million Cash - AOL announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Bebo (http://www.bebo.com), a leading global social media network. Together with its AIM and ICQ personal communications network, the acquisition will give AOL a premier position in the fast growing world of social media with a network of approximately 80 million unique users. The deal comes just one week after AOL’s launch of Open AIM 2.0, an initiative that allows the developer community greater freedom to access the AIM network and integrate AIM into its sites and applications, and the announcement by Apple of a downloadable AIM application for the iPhone. Under the terms of the agreement, AOL will acquire Bebo for $850 million in cash. “Bebo is the perfect complement to AOL’s personal communications network and puts us in a leading position in social media,” said Randy Falco, Chairman and CEO, AOL. “What drew us to Bebo was its substantial and fast-growing worldwide user-base, its vision of a truly social web, and the monetization opportunities that leverage Platform-A across our combined global audience. This positions us to offer advertisers even greater reach and marketers significant insights into the desires and needs of consumers.”

Qualcomm Acquired Xiam Technologies Ltd. - Xiam is an Ireland-based provider of wireless content targeting solutions. The deal is valued at $32 million. Xiam has raised over $9 million in VC funding since 1999, from firms like Delta Partners, Vertex Management, Add Partners and Enterprise Ireland. Xiam’s MPOS technology enables mobile operators and brands to make personalized recommendations to individual consumers that are tailored to their unique tastes and preferences using advanced profiling techniques. Consumers can receive personalized offers of new and relevant content over wireless and Web channels, both before and after purchase.

3BILL buys Australian social network Faces.com - 3BILL, a UK mobile billing company, is buying Australian social network Faces.com, as part of its rapid expansion into social networking. Only two weeks ago, 3BILL took over UK online community ProfileHeaven. The company plans to integrate the two social networks and re-launch this year, probably under the faces.com brand, says tech blog Mashable. News that Faces.com was shutting down appeared on the web in the last few weeks. A message on the site’s homepage now says that 3BILL is now working “to resume all previous services” and warns users about probable disruptions. This is not the first Faces.com re-launch. The social network initially revamped in 2006 to include multimedia-sharing and widgets.

Specific Media Acquires Adviva - Specific Media, the largest independent online advertising network, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire all the assets of Adviva, a leading display advertising network in the United Kingdom. The combination of Specific Media and Adviva in the UK gives brand advertisers an opportunity to combine massive reach with every method of targeting to produce the results they are looking to achieve. The Adviva acquisition marks Specific Media’s entry into the European market, giving the company a strong start on global expansion. The deal closed this week for an undisclosed amount. With $5 billion in online advertising revenues in 2007 according to eMarketer, the UK is the largest European advertising market. Adviva’s broad network of brand-friendly content driven websites reaches more than 21.3 million unique UK internet users. Post-acquisition the combined companies will become the fourth largest ad network in the UK reaching 25.9 million unique UK users (Jefferies advised Adviva on the transaction).

Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. Acquires 2waytraffic - Thursday, March 13, uncovered an agreed £114.3 million ($232.7 million) offer for Dutch television and mobile content producer 2waytraffic NV, the owner of the rights to “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” Culver City, Calif.-based Sony Pictures said it would acquire a 54% stake in 2waytraffic from its founders and offer 108 pence per share for the outstanding stock. That’s level with the stock’s Wednesday close and a 47% bonus to its March 7 close, the day before the company admitted it was in talks about an offer (Jefferies advised on the deal).

Microsoft Buys Ad Inventory Management Firm Rapt - Microsoft has bought San Francisco-based ad a company Rapt. Terms were not disclosed. The company, which provides ad inventory management systems, will be integrated with the Atlas Publisher Suite, under Microsoft’s Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group. Atlas became part of Microsoft when it bought aQuantive for $6 billion last year. The acquisition represents the company’s latest attempt to counter Google (NSDQ: GOOG), which saw its long-awaited purchase of DoubleClick close this week. So today’s announcement is probably not very coincidental. Rapt currently employees about 85 staffers. It was founded in 1998 and has received funding in the past from Accel Partners and Levinsohn Venture Partners.

Jupitermedia Acquires eStockMusic; Second Royalty-Free Music Buy - Jupitermedia, which mainly focuses on stock photos, continues to expand in the music space… the company has acquired the assets of eStockMusic, a royalty-free music site, for an undisclosed sum. This follows the December purchase of Flying Hands Music, which also has its own library of royalty-free tracks. In addition to the retail side of eStockMusic—it sells individual tracks for $1.00—the site is also a a platform for composers to upload and sell their works. Jupiter’s main music properties are RoyaltyFreeMusic, StudioCutz.com and BlueFuse Music.

Digital Media Tech Firm Entriq Acquires DayPort; Reportedly Around $45 Million - Digital media services and DRM firm Entriq has bought online video services firm DayPort, the companies said. Carlsbad, CA.-based Entriq hopes that DayPort can bring in additional tools for managing digital video across mobile and online platforms. Nine-year-old DayPort, based in Mankota, MN, works with media companies such as Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, BskyB and CBS. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

China Surpasses US As Largest Internet Market - China is now the world’s largest internet market by users, surpassing the US, says Beijing-based research firm BDA quoted in Reuters. Based on data from China Internet Network Information Centre - which said there were 210m internet users in China at the end of 2007 - BDA calculated that, growing at last year’s rate, China has now surpassed the US by internet users. The US had 216m online users at the end of last year, according to Nielsen. “Based on these sources and the assumption that these markets have continued to grow in 2008 to date at the same rates that they grew in 2007, we can conclude that China has by now comfortably surpassed the United States as the world’s largest Internet population,” says BDA analyst Bin Liu.

TiVo Partners With YouTube To Bring Online Videos To TV - Tivo on wednesday announced an agreement with YouTube that enables subscribers to the DVR service to view YouTube videos from their TVs. The service will be available later this year to broadband-connected subscribers with TiVo Series3 DVRs, including the new TiVo HD. Upon launch of the TiVo-YouTube service, TiVo users will be able to search, browse and watch videos directly on their television sets through their broadband-connected TiVo DVRs. Subscribers will be able to log into their YouTube accounts directly from their TiVo boxes, and access YouTube channels and playlists.

Weather Channel Rolls Out Mobile Ads - The Weather Channel said wednesday it will begin offering video ads on its mobile platform and sell the inventory in the coming upfront. With the new video forecasts on its mobile Web presence, the company said it would begin rolling out novel advertising opportunities in the second quarter. There will be 15-second post-roll video ads, along with five-second billboards in the pre-roll spot and a banner ad. An advertiser can own a particular section, the network said.The channel said its mobile locale has some 6.3 million unique users a month.

YouTube: Pushing Google To Evolve Video Search - YouTube users aren’t just browsing randomly for videos anymore–they’re using the site to search for specific clips, according to Philip Inghelbrecht, the video platform’s head of strategic partner development. “This is a challenge for us because there is simply no good video search out there today,” Inghelbrecht said, speaking at McGraw-Hill’s Media Summit on Wednesday. “If we can’t solve the search question fast enough, knowing that user behavior is shifting, that’s scary.” Search on YouTube now is based largely on the tags users attach to the videos, but the massive shift in user behavior is spurring Google to develop more advanced search technology–and quickly.

Funambol Does Mobile Social Networking, Open Source Style - Funambol, the leading provider of Mobile 2.0 messaging software powered by open source, today announced new Code Sniper projects to encourage its global community of mobile open source developers to write apps that sync content between mobile phones and social networks. Code Sniper is Funambol’s community program that rewards developers with monetary bounties to work on open source projects that benefit mobile users around the globe. This new slate of Code Sniper projects ranges from syncing pictures of friends on social networks to the address book on a mobile phone, to making it easy to invite your mobile contacts to join your favorite social network. All of the apps developed as part of Code Sniper are made freely available under standard open source licensing.

BBC and eBay Partner For ‘Green’ Platform - BBC Worldwide is partnering with eBay to promote the sale of ‘used goods’ across its new environment-related site, bbcgreen.com, NetMediaWeek reports. Under the deal, eBay will run ads encouraging surfers to buy used goods as a way of recycling. BBC Wordwide is reportedly about to announce a series of other partnerships for bbcgreen.com in the next few weeks. The UK broadcaster launched bbcgreen.com earlier this week to promote more eco-sustainable lifestyles. The platform, which is completely ad-supported, includes an ‘action plan’ section, where users can pick from a series of ideas to organise their lives in a more eco-friendly way.Every ‘action’ is labelled with a difficulty level (easy, moderate or hard) and an estimated quantity of CO2 that it could help spare, letting users automatically calculate by how much they could reduce their carbon fingerprint.

Europe Approves USD152m French Funding for Google Rival - Twenty-three European private firms led by Thomson will receive EUR99m (USD152m) from the French government to develop the next European rival to Google. The European Commission approved the funding after finding that the research and cultural benefits of the project - called Quaero - will offset any market dominance gained by Thomson. The investment, however, only covers half of the estimated costs of Quaero - the project is estimated to cost EUR199m (USD306m) over the five first years.

Global IPTV subscribers grow 117% in 2007 - Global IPTV subscriptions grew 117% last year, reaching 12.34m viewers, says research firm Informa Telecoms and Media. Western Europe accounted for the highest number of subscriptions, with 6.9m or 57% of the overall total, but registered the slowest annual growth rate at 96%. Subscriptions in the US and Canada increased by a combined 306% to more than 1.3m from 326,093 in 2006. In a comparison, Asia Pacific subscribers grew by 121% to 3.3m, from 1.5m the year before.

EU Clears Google/DoubleClick Deal - Google completed its $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick Tuesday, just hours after the European authorities gave the company the final clearance it needed for the deal. With the merger, first announced almost one year ago, Google appears poised to claim a much bigger stake of the growing online display ad market.

Google: Travel Advertisers Experiment With TV, Radio, YouTube -Travel advertisers, including major brands like Hyatt, Avis and Priceline, are increasingly turning to Google for more than just search ads. They’re leveraging the giant’s online video, social media and offline products–including Google Audio and TV Ads–not only for branding, but also message testing.

Ubiquitous YouTube - YouTube on Wednesday announced that it will offer Web developers tools that will help them create their own YouTubes on other sites. The Google video unit is now providing access to its content library, its audience and its video hosting and streaming network. The move significantly expands upon the current means of distribution that involves copying and then embedding selected videos onto another Web page. Allowing users to create their own YouTube means they can upload videos straight to YouTube from their site, as well as fetch video feeds, comments, responses or playlists from the company. The move parallels Yahoo’s decision to open up Flickr to outside developers so that they could embed Flickr features in other sites.

Google Seeks “Significant” Display Position - Hours before Google’s DoubleClick acquisition passed the European Union’s antitrust sniff test, Tim Armstrong, the search giant’s North American president for advertising and commerce, said the company would be “disappointed” if it didn’t have “a very significant position” in display advertising by 2008-2009. Speaking at the Bear Sterns Media Conference, Armstrong described online video sharing site YouTube as “the brightest light” for Google’s display advertising potential, adding that the company’s ad platform would evolve over time to the point where it wouldn’t distinguish between search and display ads. The acquisition of DoubleClick gives Google the ability to make a significant push beyond search into the market for graphical ads, an area where Google has yet to compete effectively with Yahoo and Microsoft.

Time Warner Exploring AOL Options - AOL is now officially on the table for a deal, after Time Warner CEO Jeffrey L. Bewkes revealed that he was open to combining the beleaguered Web giant with another company in “whatever configuration makes it the strongest and the most valuable.” Meanwhile, sources tell The Silicon Alley Insider’s Henry Blodget that Bewkes isn’t merely “open” to a deal, but is actively talking to Yahoo and possibly others about making one. We may be nearing the end of Time Warner’s AOL hell. It’s an unhappy situation, especially after the abrupt sacking of Curtis G. Viebranz, head of AOL’s Platform A advertising division. Platform A is about expanding AOL’s ad network business first by integrating its various advertising and technology properties (seven separate entities in all, including Advertising.com, Tacoda and Quigo), but the company claims that Viebranz failed to accomplish this fast enough.

Iger: Disney to Reap $1 Billion Online — The Walt Disney Co. expects to collect $1 billion in revenue from online content this fiscal year, a significant rise from estimates for fiscal 2007, CEO Robert Iger said Monday. Iger told analysts the company has been “fairly aggressive” in expanding onto the Internet to extend consumer contact with its most popular franchises and create new revenue streams.Online sources account for less than 3 percent of company revenue. Disney posted total net income of $4.7 billion on $35.5 billion in revenue last year.The last time the company estimated digital revenue was in June 2007, when chief financial officer Tom Staggs said he expected the company to post more than $700 million for fiscal 2007, which ended in September.

Pubs Using Digital Mags To Engage Readers With Ads - Repurposing print magazines for the Web increases user engagement with and affinity toward ads, according to stats from a new survey by The Harrison Group and Zinio. Some 37% of people who have purchased at least one digital magazine said that they were more likely to read an ad in digital format than in print. And almost half said that they found ads on screen more appealing than their analog counterparts.

VoodooVox Adds Ad Revenue Generating Voice Capability - In-call ad company VoodooVox has launched a new service that lets developers add voice capability to applications and Web widgets. Through the new MyVox service, end users will be able to do things like add voiceovers to online slide shows. When users record voice content via phone, they’ll hear a 10-second ad served by VoodooVox’s audio ad network. The company will split the ad revenue with developers.

Adobe Partners With Digital Agencies To Form Industry Group - Adobe, in partnership with 18 digital agencies, on Monday introduced the Society of Digital Agencies, a group established by CEOs of digital marketing and design agencies around the world. SoDA will bring these CEOs together to address the unique issues faced by the industry to develop standards and best practices. Richard Lent, CEO of AgencyNet, has been appointed chairman of SoDA. Charter members of SoDA include AgencyNet, Big Spaceship, Blitz Agency, Domani Studios, Exopolis, First Born Multimedia, Grupo W, iChameleon Group, IQ Interactive, Juxt Interactive, Lightmaker, Mind Comet, Odopod, Schematic, Struck Design, WDDG, WhittmanHart and 360i.

News Corp. Backs Out Of Yahoo Race - News Corp. on Monday officially bowed out of the race to buy Yahoo, severely narrowing the options for the Web giant as it attempts to stave off a hostile buyout from Microsoft Corp. Yahoo and News Corp. explored the possibility of the media giant owning 20 percent of Yahoo in exchange for cash and assuming the whole of its Fox Interactive Media division, which houses the massive social network MySpace. Yahoo was exploring this and other options, including a merger with AOL, in order to block Microsoft’s $40 billion-plus bid for the company, which Yahoo rejected a month ago.

Facebook CEO On Future Of Social Ads - Zuckerberg has said that social advertising will evolve significantly over the next 10-20 years. Beacon “was our first cut at a protocol to [evolve social advertising].” People communicate and stay connected over a social network by sharing information, he says, which means, “the business model should be around people sharing information and staying connected.”

Web 3: UGC Out, Experts In - The Cult of the Amatuer is losing steam, as the same entrepreneurs that once funded Web 2.0 startups are now shifting their focus back to the expert. Why? The revival comes amid mounting demand for a more reliable, bankable Web. Sites like Wikipedia and Craigsist are still brought to task for the stuff they get wrong: the inaccuracies, the scams and fraud. For example, ever wonder who edits Wikipedia pages? Last summer, researchers in Palo Alto found that more than 50 percent of the sites edits came from 1 percent of its users. Since then, Google has launched a Wikipedia competitor called Knol, which calls on experts to create, edit and maintain entries. As Mahalo founder Jason Calacanis says, “Web 3.0 is taking what we’ve built in Web 2.0-the wisdom of the crowds–and putting an editorial layer on it of truly talented, compensated people to make the product more trusted and refined.”

Facebook app lets users send movie clips - Paramount Pictures will become the first major studio to make clips from thousands of its movies available for use on the Internet.The unit of Viacom Inc. is teaming with Los Angeles-based developer FanRocket to launch the VooZoo application Monday on Facebook. The service gives Facebook users access to footage from thousands of movies, ranging from “The Ten Commandments” to “Forrest Gump,” to send to others on the popular social networking site.

Jivox Launches Video Platform For The Masses - Are smallish local advertisers ready to branch out beyond text ads and search marketing? Betting they are, Web video startup Jivox is launching a do-it-yourself platform for businesses of lesser means to create, target and deliver video ads online. The Jivox platform providers advertisers with video ad creation tools, targeting technology, reporting capabilities, and a network of publishers.

CBS To Power AOL Radio - CBS Radio and AOL are set to expand their partnership with a new deal that will make a broad array of content available to AOL users, including over 150 music, news, talk and sports stations. In addition to providing content, CBS is assuming responsibility for ad sales for all of AOL’s online stations, which number over 200, as well as the 150 stations it brings to the table.

Sports Site MaxxAthlete Gets $3 Million Funding; Buys Three Small Sites - MaxxAthlete, a sports social network and online video network based in Manhattan Beach, CA, has raised about $3 million in first round of its funding…it didn’t disclose the investors but said they were “four former technology entrepreneurs that have successfully monetized their businesses by selling their companies to Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO), IBM, Veritas and McAfee.” The newly formed company has also bought three small sports sites: VisionSports, HoopTV.net and MaxAthlete, three providers of online and event-based youth sports services. The company’s brands now include online video site for youth sports (GrassrootsTV.com); a social network for athletes (JoxxStop.com); a recruiting network for college coaches (MaxxInsight.com); and an online sports media site (MaxxScoreCard.com), among others.

Hulu.com Launches Wednesday; New Deals With WB, Lionsgate, NBA, NHL, NCAA; Network Needs - I started to write a post about hulu.com‘s upcoming launch over the weekend, then a visit turned into two episodes of House. It’s that easy. Even when it crashed while I tried to create a very brief clip for embedding, the site remembered where I was when I reloaded. So far, so good. But this is the week where life gets tougher for News Corp-NBCU JV Hulu, which plans to officially launch hulu.com Wednesday (never mind the premature publicity) after 18 weeks in beta. For one, hulu.com still has to work as new users come in. CEO Jason Kilar and team have been careful about scaling, working up from a relatively small number of initial invites to extending access to employees of News Corp (NYSE: NWS) and NBCU to seeding invitations through blogs to offering each registered user 10 invites. There probably have been blips but not as noticeable as those at equally hyped start-up Joost. That has to remain true as more people pile on.

Apple in Talks with Sony about Blu-ray Drives - Financial Times reported that in the wake of Sony’s Blu-ray win over HD-DVD, that Sony is in talks with both Microsoft and Apple about inclusion of Blu-ray with future machines. Microsoft had previously been shipping an HD-DVD accessory for their Xbox 360, so their adoption of Blu-ray would represent a significant turnaround. Apple, however, has not yet shipped any high definition drives with any of their computers. They’ve instead focused on distributing digital content through their iTunes Store. With the demise of the HD-DVD format, it seems only a matter of time before Apple adopts Blu-ray drives in their machines.

More Behavioral Targeting Than Even Savvy Users Might Expect: Study - when it comes to behavioral targeting, the prevailing ethos among marketers and ad agencies is “what consumers don’t know, won’t bother them.” As a long NYT piece on the subject shows, there is a lot more targeting going on than consumers might suspect. The paper commissioned a study from audience measurement firm comScore, with the intent of providing a snapshot of just how much data on consumers’ online activity is collected in an average month. From an ad agency standpoint, the gargantuan amount of data collected will mean that media companies will be increasingly dependent on Microsoft, Yahoo and Google, which have the systems in place to best analyze and organize the user information they collect. Here’s a rundown of some of the findings from the commissioned report: Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, AOL and MySpace recorded at least 336 billion “data transmission events” - namely, instances of any user activity on their sites - in a single month. That number doesn’t include what their related ad networks recorded. The information being compiled might include a person’s ZIP code, what they searched for, or what they bought. Advertisers will pay more for certain types of data - for example, search tend to command higher prices than other bits of user data.

Digg Bids Expected From Google, Microsoft -There are more rumors about a Digg sale, and this time, they involve Google and Microsoft. According to the report, the investment bank Allen & Co has been floating the idea to several media companies. “We hear from a source very close to the deal that four companies are in heavy due diligence with Digg - two media/news companies, and two big Internet companies - Google and Microsoft,” blogger Michael Arrington says. “And Google and Microsoft are on the verge of making their bids.” Apparently, the social news aggregator is prepared to accept less than the $300 million Allen & Co had been asking for it. The bid would more likely be in $200-$225 million range, which Digg would likely accept.

Disney’s Iger Sketches Web Plans For TV Classics; No Decision On Ad-Support Vs. Subscription - With DVD shelf space at retailers becoming increasingly crowded, Disney CEO Bob Iger hopes to move some of its TV shows from the past 50 years to its website, Bloomberg reported. Iger’s remarks were made during the Q&A portion of Disney’s annual shareholder meeting Thursday in Albuquerque. His thoughts were conceptual in nature and didn’t appear to reflect a clear plan for how Disney would distribute its TV programs. So while Iger presented no time-frame on when a vintage TV web initiative would be launched, or what shows would be selected, the choice of revenue model is fairly clear-cut: “In the near future, you’ll see more of that product available on Disney.com, either for free or through some sort of subscription.”

Google’s Armstrong Unveils ‘Top Secret Strategy’ To Agencies: Dashboards, Tools To Scale Media Buying - Google is not out to disintermediate advertising agencies, but it looks as if it has it’s heart set on disintermediating some other organizations that help agencies manage how they buy media. That was one of the takeaways from Google President-Advertising and Commerce, North America, Tim Armstrong during a keynote address Thursday at the American Association of Advertising Agencies Media Conference here.

SxSW: Keynote: Mark Zuckerberg: More To Facebook Than Valuation, Microsoft - Apparently there are three or four packed auditoriums packed with the spillover. Frankly, anyone hoping to hear some news was probably left wanting, although Facebook is about to launch in French. A fair point that he made early on was that the Facebook-related stuff the media focuses on is not what they’re so concerned about internally. Eventually, the interview by BW’s Sarah Lacy did cover items like the Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) investment and the Beacon error, but much of the conversation was about Zuckerberg’s big vision for how Facebook could be used to change the world.

Jangl Targets Social Networks For Ads - Jangl, which lets people connect via phone and text-messaging without exchanging actual numbers, has begun selling advertising on its service targeted to social networks. The startup’s VoIP-based calling service is already distributed across 80 million profiles on social sites including Facebook, Bebo and Plentyoffish, with about 1 million users.

Reports Conflict Over Federated Media’s Future - Federated Media was in the news again this week amid continued rumors that the ad network is looking for additional financing, and even a potential suitor. CNET reported Wednesday that FM is looking for between $20 million and $30 million. But a key source close to the situation tells OnlineMediaDaily that no decision has been made by FM to raise more funds.

Deloitte, BrandGames Create Virtual World To Teach Teens About Business - Deloitte & Touche USA has partnered with BrandGames to bring business education up to speed, with The Virtual Team Challenge for High Schools (VTCHS) Event–an online simulator that lets teens create avatars, learn business best practices and deal with real-world ethical and financial situations. Deloitte tapped New York-based BrandGames after doing extensive research on ways to make their business prep programs more effective and relevant to the “video game generation.” p The VTCHS platform took almost a year to develop, according to Jim Wexler, executive vice president of marketing at BrandGames, including the integration of the lesson plans, compliance with Deloitte branding, as well as the functionality and actual programming.

Adware Firm Strikes ISP Partnerships -There’s a new type of adware invading British shores. Phorm, a self-described behavioral targeting/adware company, has passed a privacy sniff test issued by Privacy International and will go live next week. Phorm provides software-based marketing for Internet service providers like British Telecom, Virgin and Talk Talk. It places a cookie on a user’s machine that tracks all the sites visited and actions taken as a user surfs the Web. It then interprets the users’ behavior in order to target relevant advertising. ISPs and other companies then receive a cut of the revenue.

Social Network Creator Mzinga Acquires Rival Prospero - Attracted by an envious roster of media and agency clients, Mzinga, which builds social networks for businesses, has acquired rival software provider Prospero. Mzinga, which only launched last November, just closed a round of financing worth nearly $30 million–more than half of which is being used to buy Prospero, a source close to the deal said.

TNS acquires web analytics firm Compete for USD75m - UK market research firm, Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS), has acquired web analytics company, Compete, for an initial cash payout of USD75m. A second performance-related sum may be paid based on Compete’s performance over the next two years. TNS wants to enhance its current offering by integrating Compete’s digital intelligence services.

Spot Runner Runs Online: Acquires Weblistic To Offer Search, Display, Video Ads - Spot Runner, the online advertising and media buying agency that has unleashed the power of Madison Avenue TV advertising for the “long tail” of the marketing world, now plans to do the same thing for online advertising. Spot Runner this morning announced the acquisition of Weblistic, an online media company specializing in search, and some display advertising. The deal is part of a push by Spot Runner to offer a fully automated online advertising and media buying system that anyone can use to create, buy, schedule and evaluate advertising on any medium.

NetCentrum, operator of Czech web portal Centrum.cz - NetCentrum has acquired Slokak web portal Atlas.sk from EPIC Holding. The deal is valued at more than €20 million, and will result in 4.9 million combined monthly users. NetCentrum is controlled by Warburg Pincus.

Adconion Acquires Frontline Direct For $20M - Adconion Media Group, online ad network that just raised $80 million in financing, is today set to announce the acquisition of Frontline Direct, a data management and direct marketing tools provider for $20 million in cash and equity. Frontline has existing relationships with ConsumerInfo.com, an Experian company, and Reunion.com, along with several interactive ad agencies.

Advertising.com Brings In-Video, Pre-Roll To The Masses - To meet the demands of an increasingly video-centric Web, Advertising.com is now offering advertisers in-video ad formats and pre-roll inventory placement on a cost-per-click basis, while also maintaining a CPM payment structure for publishers. Through the integration of Ad.com’s proprietary AdLearn technology, the new Performance Video Product is seeking to bridge the “value proposition” to a broader set of advertisers and publishers.

Eyespot Launches Video Monetization Tools - Web-based application provider Eyespot today is launching a suite of video hosting and monetization tools for mid-market and long-tail publishers with a self-serve offering for integrating video into any Web site. Until now, Eyespot has focused on creating video personalization tools for customers like Lucasfilm, SonyBMG Entertainment and, Fox Interactive Media. Eyespot’s new personalization suite includes hosted applications for consumers to view, upload and share videos online and via mobile, all from a publisher’s own Web site, along with personalization features to mix user-generated content and a library of more than 1,000,000 rights-cleared videos, music and photos.

Ziff Davis Media Inc. Files for Chapter 11 - The publisher of technology and video game magazines and websites, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying that it could no longer service its debt. Private equity firm Willis Stein & Partners in early 2000 for $780 million, but has seen its revenue drop from around $300 million in 2001 to just $76 million last year.

Implications Of Apple’s iPhone SDK - The iPhone already acts as a cell phone, Web browser, email client and portable address book, but it’s about to become a remote control, a game platform, a photo-editing platform, a device for remotely accessing desktop files, and more, what Apple calls “a full-fledged platform.” To date, the iPhone’s platform has been open to developers for creating programs through the iPhone’s Web browser. The Web-only approach has limited access to the phones more unique features, like its accelerometer, voice capabilities and its touchscreen. In theory, those programs will be made available now that Apple is releasing the iPhone’s software development kit. We should now expect anything from photo-editing apps to touchscreen-enabled games to motion-sensing programs that take advantage of the iPhone’s orientation sensor.

Web 2.0 Firms Steer Clear Of IPOs - During the Web’s heyday, a profitable Internet company nearing $100 million in annual sales while luring a million new customers a month would have found itself on the IPO fast track. But, with a recession looming and tech bubble talk permeating Silicon Valley, Web 2.0 firms are in no hurry to go public these days. Even the more established players like Facebook, LinkedIn and Slide say they aren’t thinking about an IPO until 2009, at the earliest. As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says, “We’ll do it when it makes sense for us.”Why the hesitation? First, the weak economic climate. Second, advertising on social networks has largely failed to live up to the hype. For all its 66 million users, Facebook still only made $150 million last year and lost money overall. Finally, add in the costs of the 2002 Sarbannes-Oxley Act and an IPO becomes an expensive, risky proposition. It’s far better to wait for venture capital firms to swoop in with another round of financing.