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ForeSee: Amazon, Netflix Tops In Consumer Satisfaction – Online movie rental company Netflix and retailer Amazon had the highest levels of online consumer satisfaction this holiday season, according to a report slated for release today by research firm ForeSee Results. For the report, ForeSee measured consumer satisfaction indexes for the 40 highest-selling U.S. retailers on a 100-point scale. 

How Starwood is building the hotel of the future in Second Life – Starwood, creators of the upscale W Hotels brand, is using the virtual community Second Life to introduce its new brand, Aloft. The new hotel brand targets a hip thirtysomething crowd, offering wireless Internet service, chic areas for lounging and socializing, cool terminology (the pool is named “Splash” and the snack bar “Re:Fuel”), and loft-like architecture throughout. The chain wanted to get feedback and create buzz among its target audience before constructing a brick-and-mortar building. So Starwood began construction this fall on an “island” it purchased in Second Life, foreshadowing what it plans to do in 2008 in five North American locations.  

Yahoo 2007: Is Panama Enough? – Panama may not be enough to clean up Yahoo’s mess. In the face of a slumping year on the stock market, deserting executives and a trouncing by Google in Web search and mergers and acquisitions, Yahoo needs a good 2007. The company has placed high hopes on Panama, its new ad monetization technology aimed at delivering better-targeted ads to its users in the hope that it will make Yahoo’s search and display ads more lucrative. 

Possibility Of A Yahoo-AOL Merger in 2007; Google-AOL Change of Control Clause – So bets Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen, in a note titled “Is 2007 the year AOL and Yahoo are in play?” last week. She said that AOL and Yahoo could be open to a tie-up in 2007, spurred by AOL’s falling market share in Internet search and Yahoo’s lag behind Google. “We believe there are several trends that could push either AOL or Yahoo towards a major transaction, with each other or with another competitor…Although not without its problems, we believe that an AOL-Yahoo combination is one of the more logical combinations in this arena.”

WSJ looks at Microsoft’s ‘behavior targeting’ advertising efforts – The company is making a global push to sell ads geared towards the interests and demographics of individual users of its Hotmail service, msn.com site and other sites. The push is based around the information provided when a user signs up for Hotmail and then the searches they perform, and the results they click on, when using MSFT’s Live Search. The company hopes to grab a bigger piece of the online advertising market by using the information from the 263M worldwide users of Hotmail. The system was launched in the U.S. in September and MSFT plans to roll it out worldwide. The company says it has about 100 advertisers signed up so far.

Monster.com Replaces CareerBuilder At St. Pete Times – Continuing its drive to align with traditional newspapers, career site Monster will replace CareerBuilder as the online recruitment service for the St. Petersburg Times next month. Monster and the 300,000 daily-circulation Times will launch a co-branded job site that will include career-related advice, a resume builder and salary information in addition to national and local job listings. 

Jewelry, Video Games Propel Online Retail Past $21B – E-commerce spending surged in the week before Christmas, according to comScore Networks. For the three days from Dec. 18 through Dec. 20, non-travel retail spending online climbed to $1.55 billion, marking a 35% increase from last year. Story: http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=53003&Nid=26095&p=387769 Report: Wikipedia Founder Readies New Search Engine – Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales plans to launch a new search engine, according to a recent report in the Times of London. The newspaper reported that the project, dubbed Wikiasari, could launch as early as the first quarter of 2007. 

YouTube Adds Features – Video-sharing site YouTube is now offering users the ability to instantly record videos by using Flash software and Web cams, as part of a site upgrade. The site also is offering a new user interface that cuts the number of tabs at the top of the screen down to four–videos, categories, channels and community. 

comScore: Google Passes Yahoo in Global Traffic – Google has displaced Yahoo as the world’s second most-visited Web site–although not by much–according to November figures comScore Networks. Google’s sites brought in 475.7 million visitors, compared to Yahoo’s 475.3 million. Both trail global leader Microsoft, which attracted a whopping 501.7 million visitors.

Web Ad Prices Keep Rising – The cost of buying ads on the Internet is going up, and it’s going to continue. The Web has proven to be the cheapest, most effective means of reaching a targeted audience. As such, more advertisers are shifting dollars to the Web, which places the supply of quality Web sites and ad networks at more of a premium.

Publicis Buys Digitas, Moves To Become Dominant Digital Player – In a bold move that reconfigures the digital hierarchy of Madison Avenue, Paris-based agency holding company Publicis Wednesday announced a deal to acquire online and direct marketing powerhouse Digitas for $1.3 billion in cash. Publicis, which already had a highly regarded and strategically oriented digital team, now gains the kind of clout and talent that will force other big agencies to play catch-up–potentially triggering a rush to gobble up the few remaining independent digital agencies.

comScore: Online Retail Climbs To $20.65B – Online retail spending from Nov. 1 through Dec. 18 reached $20.65 billion–up 25% from last year, according to new data by comScore Networks. The biggest day so far was Wednesday, Dec. 13, when consumers spent $667 million on e-commerce, followed by Monday, Dec. 11 ($661 million) and Monday, Dec. 4 ($647.5 million). Last year, the biggest day was Monday, Dec. 12 ($556 million).

Yahoo Scores Most Page Views Of Year – With approximately 354.5 billion page views through Nov. 30, Yahoo was the most trafficked Web property of the year, according to new data released Wednesday by Nielsen//NetRatings. MySpace garnered the second highest number of page views (250.7 billion), while Google placed third (147.7 billion)

Web 2007 Spending Should Surpass Conservative Forecasts – Advertising forecasts for 2007 are mixed, but just about the only constant is that Internet advertising will continue to grow apace, outperforming other media and likely, surpassing expectations. In 2006, Web spending was forecast at 20%; with three quarters now behind us, that number is closer to 50%, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Even so, most research firms think Web advertising will grow somewhere between 15% and 20% next year. However, history tells us that number is most likely conservative.

Google Checkout Is No PayPal Killer – The bloggers from Business 2.0 slam yesterday’s New York Times report touting Google Checkout as a PayPal killer. “How unsurprising: Bribe people heavily, and they’ll use your service,” the post says. That piece of logic hardly guarantees that Checkout, which is not used nearly as widely as eBay’s PayPal, will be a runaway success. In fact, Google may not pose any threat at all to PayPal.

Hitwise: Google Captures 63% Of Searches – Google has increased its commanding share of the online search market–garnering 62.79% of searches for the four-week period ending Dec. 16, according to online ratings firm Hitwise. That reflects a one-percentage-point gain from the four-week period ending Nov. 25. Yahoo’s search engine share, meanwhile, dipped slightly to 21.9% in December from 22.43% the prior month. Rounding out the top search engines were MSN (9.28%), Ask.com (4.07%), and AOL (0.59%). All other search properties had a combined share of 1.19%, according to Hitwise. The figures are based on the executed searches of 10 million Internet users across the top 55 search engines.

Loads Of Ways To Improve Google – Google gets lavish praise in the press. But guess what? Google Image Search sucks. It doesn’t have a comprehensive video search, and its Web search engine still delivers too many false pages that are (conveniently) filled with nothing but Google AdSense links. Some pundits believe the search movement is going vertical. Specialized search is an area that needs improvement, namely, better local, health, gaming, video, audio and music search. And Google isn’t there yet. The lure in creating search technology is advertising. Google has proven the model, but there are still many new areas to mine.

comScore: College Crowd Propels MySpace Past Yahoo – College students held the key to MySpace’s Internet ratings triumph over Yahoo for the first time last month, according to comScore Media Metrix. That prized demographic accounted for 12% of the page views on Fox Interactive Media sites (including MySpace), while only 6% of Yahoo’s page views come from the college crowd, according to new research released Monday by comScore.  

Polar Rose Aims To Improve Image Search – Startup Polar Rose hopes to become to image search what Google and Yahoo are to text search. Polar Rose, a tech firm based in Sweden, Tuesday unveiled a new image search tool that it plans officially to launch early next year. The company said that its image search technology is different from others since it relies on 3D mapping techniques to recognize facial patterns.  

Online Job Ad Revenues Surpass Print – Employers spent more on online recruitment advertising than newspaper job ads–$5.9 billion to $5.4 billion–for the first time in 2006, according to a new study released Tuesday. The online shift will continue over the next five years as Internet job listings hit $10 billion in 2011–or 13.7% of overall recruitment dollars compared to 6.5% for newspaper ads, according to market research firm Borrell Associates Inc. 

Study: Most Watch Web Video, But Avoid The Ads – Most Web users, 56%, recall ads embedded in video content, according to a study released Tuesday by Burst Media. But that doesn’t mean users like the ads; more than three-quarters of those surveyed (78%) said such ads were intrusive.

Nielsen//NetRatings: Google Searches Up 31% – Web users conducted approximately 3.1 billion searches on Google last month–marking a 31% increase from last year, according to new data by Nielsen//NetRatings. Google’s total market share of searches now stands at 49.5%, according to the media measurement company.

Blinkx To Carry Dow Jones Video – Dow Jones is expected today to announce a partnership with video search engine blinkx to make all of its video content–business and financial news from The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch and Barron’s–available and fully searchable for free on www.blinkx.com. Blinkx is able to retrieve video and audio search results using voice and picture-recognition technology in addition to tags.

eBay Failing To Move Beyond Auctions – It’s the same ho-hum story for the folks at eBay. The online auctioneer is struggling to move beyond its core business. Its eBay Express Web site has been “a tough sell,” says newspaper. One eBay clothier reports being excited about the new site, which lists products for sale at fixed-prices, but last month, she didn’t sell a single item on eBay Express. It “doesn’t seem to be any help,” she said. She’s not alone, either.

EBay Rethinks China; Will Close Own Sites, Open New One In JV With Tom Online: Report – The WSJ is reporting that eBay is making a major change in its China strategy, planning to shut its own main site and instead teaming with Tom Online in a JV. The Chinese content company would own 51 percent to eBay’s 49 percent; by contrast, eBay is expected to put up $40 million to $20 million from Tom Online.

SI Continues Interest In Social Networks; $25 Million On 40 percent Of Start-up FanNation.com? – Last week SI launched its relationship with high school social net Takkle. Now comes word that the Time Inc. magazine may be negotiating for a piece of social net FanNation.com, a creation of start-up Sports Technologies. Sports Business Journal’s Terry Lefton reports (sub. req.) SI has a “deal in principle” to invest $25 million for 40 percent of FanNation.com.

NBBC Signs Up 150 Partners – NBC Universal’s Internet-video-syndication venture, the National Broadband Co. (NBBC), signed up “close to” 100 content licensors and 100 distributors, for a total of about 150 partners to date. NBBC expects to officially launch in the first half of 2007. 

10 Internet Acquisitions from 2006? – List of the top 10 internet acquisitions of 2006 led by YouTube / Google. 

Pandora Goes Social – Pandora, which plays streaming music for free via a flash player on its site, is one of the first companies we profiled on TechCrunch, back in August 2005 during the original Bar Camp meetup. I still listen to it most of the time I’m writing blog entries. Tonight Pandora is releasing a additional features aimed at increasing interaction among members. These social features include listener profiles with musical preferences, bio information, etc. (previously listeners had only a list of bookmarked songs), as well as listener search and lists of users who are fans of particular bands.

AOL Loses Three Top Execs – AOL executive Jim Bankoff, who spearheaded several recent high-profile initiatives including the launch of celebrity gossip site TMZ.com and the free broadcast of Live 8, has resigned from the Internet company. Two other high-level executives–Joe Redling, president of AOL mobile and chairman and chief executive of AOL International, and John Buckley, executive vice president for corporate communications–also will exit. 

DoubleClick: Search Costs Rise In Q3 – Search marketing costs rose during the third quarter, according to new data by DoubleClick’s Performics unit. The average cost-per-keyword, or average cost to a marketer of purchasing a keyword for the entire month, grew 20% from June to September. 

Visits To Shopping Sites Soar 20% – The ecommerce sites on Nielson/Netratings’ holiday index racked up 563 million visits the week ending Dec. 10, marking a 20% gain from last year, the company reported late last week. Toys/video games saw visits increase 48%, while books/music/videos soared 46%.

Report: MySpace Goes Mobile With Cingular – Cingular Wireless subscribers will be able to access their MySpace profiles via cell phone, under a new deal slated to be announced today, the Wall Street Journal reports. The new service, which will cost $2.99 a month, will allow Cingular subscribers to update their MySpace pages with blog entries and photos. 

Slowdown In Interest Income Could Affect Google Earnings – The Wall Street Journal predicts that Google’s unstoppable earnings engine may soon hit a stop. But not because of its advertising system–that’s still unstoppable; rather, the company’s interest income, which is the money Google makes from investing its nearly $10 billion in cash in government securities and other assets that bear interest, isn’t likely to grow as much as last year. 

Quixotic Craigslist (Still) Not Out to Make Money – In today’s new media world, Craigslist President and Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster sounds nuts, writes Louis Hau of Forbes.com. With a massive user base (47th on the Web) that brims with monetization opportunities (including advertising), he and other members of the Craigslist board have no intention of making any more money.

Google In Negotiations With CBS On Selling Radio/TV Inventory – It is rumored that Google is closing a deal with CBS that includes a purchase of CBS radio inventory and possibly some TV inventory for Google to resell. This is to be bundled with the CBS-YouTube deal. The idea is that once this deal gets sealed, Google/YouTube could work on a similar deal with Viacom/MTV. 

comScore: iTunes Sales Surge 84% - comScore Networks Thursday reported that sales at Apple’s digital music store year-over-year have grown 84% the first nine months of this year. The report comes the same week that Forrester Research ignited a controversy with a report stating that iTunes sales had fallen 65% the first six months of the year.

Online Display Ads Increase 2% In November - Online marketers ran 259.6 billion display ads last month–up from 254.2 billion in October, according to new data by Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance. Financial services advertisers accounted for more ads than marketers in any other category–25% last month, but that proportion was down from 30% in October and 28% in September.

Google, Baidu Explore Video Options in China - Baidu.com has agreed to provide search listings for Microsoft’s Chinese Web properties and is reportedly mulling several video deals with local online video providers in China. It’s strange to see Baidu partner with Microsoft after rival Google was one of the primary investors in the Chinese search giant. Google has since sold its stake in Baidu, citing its own Web search ambitions in China, but–as ever–a rivalry in one area doesn’t prevent Google from trying to forge a mutually beneficial partnership in another.

Venice Project Hailed As Next Viral Sensation - As the much anticipated “Venice Project” prepares to launch, at least one major research outfit predicts that the online venture will do nothing less than create a new model for online video. In a report released Wednesday listing predictions for 2007, market research firm In-Stat forecasts that “The Venice Project’s P2P video project will be the big viral media sensation of 2007.”

BSkyB To Buy Online Sports Group 365Media For $187 Million - So the long saga of UK’s 365 Media (and Rivals Digital Media which it acquired in 2004) is finally over…no, really, it is. BSkyB is in the process of buying the online sports and gambling firm for about $187 million, reports Guardian. The group runs popular sports sites such as Football365.com, Cricket365, Planet Rugby, Rivals.net, Sportinglife.com and Teamtalk.com, all of which have legs in the online gambling business too. Until October 2006, the company was known as Ukbetting plc.

Facebook To Remain Independent, Really - Facebook, having turned down a reportedly big offer from Yahoo (to the tune of $1 billion), is not for sale anymore, and will remain independent, according to a Bloomberg story. Board member Peter Thiel said, “It’s going to remain an independent company…The plan is to actually build it, maybe at some point take it public, but definitely not to sell it.” Thiel said the company is focused finding the best way to make money from its millions of members. He says the site’s college-aged users make it worth $8 billion or more, as much as MTV.

Google Starts Selling Domains For $10 Per Year - Google has entered the domain business with partners GoDaddy and eNom. An already crowded industry, Google has begun allowing people to register ‘.com’, ‘.net’, ‘.biz’, and ‘.info’ Web site addresses. Web sites that register their domains directly with Google for $10/year will automatically be setup to use Google Apps for Your Domain, which includes Google’s Page Creator (for easily making a Web site), Calendar, Email, and IM.

Skype’s Free Phone Call Plan Will Soon Have Annual Fee - Skype, the Internet calling service owned by eBay, said Tuesday that as of Jan. 1 it would begin charging $30 a year for unlimited calls to landline and mobile phones within the United States and Canada. Those calls had been free since last spring.

Google to Offer Variation on Stock Options - In a move that will enable its employees to earn more money from stock options ― and perhaps motivate them to settle for fewer of them in pay packages as a result ― Google said yesterday that it would create a system allowing options to be sold as well as exercised. Under the program, Google will grant employees a new type of option, called a transferable stock option. The company will work with Morgan Stanley to set up a market that will enable financial institutions and other investors to bid for those options.

Yahoo Opens Panama To All Search Marketers - Yahoo Tuesday opened registration for its highly anticipated “Panama” search engine marketing platform to all advertisers. With the new platform, Yahoo’s paid search offerings are expected to become far more competitive with those of market leader Google. Among the main features are new geo-targeting capabilities and analytics, as well as instantaneous review of ad copy. In the past, it took Yahoo between 24 and 48 hours to approve ads.

eMarketer: Video Ads Trail Viewership - Web video watching might have broken out this year, but online video ads have yet to hatch, according to new research by eMarketer. Over one-third–or 37.6%–of the U.S. population viewed video online at least once a month, eMarketer reports, but online video advertising comprised just 2.6% of total Internet advertising. By 2010, the U.S. Internet video audience will have grown to 157 million–up from 107.7 million this year, according to eMarketer’s “Internet Video Audience” report. Within three years, more than half of all Americans will be part of the online video audience.

Seevast Rolls Out Sponsored Links For Video - Pulse 360, a unit of Internet marketing company Seevast Corp., has begun offering advertisers the ability to place sponsored links before or after online video clips. The static links can be targeted based on context, geography, behavior or demographic profile. Pay-per-click rates for the sponsored video links will be the same as existing rates through Pulse 360–ranging from five cents to more than $10, depending on the level of targeting and other factors.

Nielsen: Internet Fuels Ad Spending Growth - Internet ad spending jumped 49.2% in the first nine months of the year, helping fuel an overall increase of 5.1%, according to new data by Nielsen Monitor-Plus. The top 10 advertisers spent a collective $12.9 billion across all media, marking a 4.3% increase over the first nine months of 2005, according to Nielsen. Motorcycle.com Bought by VerticalScope – VerticalScope, a Toronto-based publisher of auto enthusiast magazines and sites, has bought out Motorcycle.com, the motorcycle enthusiast destination site. The financial terms were undisclosed.

NetMusicMakers.com Acquires MyVirtualBand.com; Will Merge, Relaunch As A Music Social Net - Collaborative music sites NetMusicMakers.com and MyVirtualBand.com (open source music and online collaboration) will be consolidated and relaunched as a social networking site for musicians and fans. Sacramento-based House of Hansen Productions, which owns NetMusicMakers.com, has acquired MyVirtualBand.com for an undisclosed sum.

Facebook Rejects $1.62 Billion Yahoo Offer - We know that Facebook has been pursued almost since the beginning of its existence. Leaked documents in our possession state that an early offer was $37.5 million for 5% of the company (a $750 million valuation) back in Q1 2006. This was rejected by Facebook. Things really heated up mid year. Yahoo proposed a $1 billion flat out acquisition price based on a model they created where they projected $608 million in Facebook revenue by 2009, growing to $969 million in 2010. Our sources say that Facebook flatly rejected the $1 billion offer, looking for far more. Yahoo was prepared to pay up to $1.62 billion, but negotiations broke off before the offer could be made.

It’s Official(ish): MySpace Is Biggest Site on Internet - The November Comscore numbers show the inevitable: Fox Interactive (mostly MySpace) now has more page views than the combined Yahoo sites, taking the no. 1 spot for the first time. This was less to do with MySpace growth than with a 9% dip in overall Yahoo traffic (total Internet traffic for all sites in November dipped just 3%; Google was up 5%). Story:

iCrossing Adds Execs, Branches Beyond Search - Seeking to further position itself as a full service digital agency, iCrossing has hired three industry veterans with close ties to Madison Avenue–TBWA Tequila vet Ian Baer, former Organic exec Christopher Marquardt, and ex-Agency.com exec Lance Williams. 

RSS Delivers Web’s Best Deals - Sites like Offertrax, StyleFeeder and Mpire don’t sell anything at all. Rather, they improve purchasing intelligence by keeping an eye out for bargains and sending electronic alerts when it’s time to swoop in for the kill. Instead of wasting time browsing the virtual aisles at dozens of sites, just tell Offertrax what you’re shopping for. The site aggregates price-change notifications and special offers from various online shops and delivers them through an RSS feed.

Venture Capital Rising, Sparked By Web - According to Ernst & Young, the volume of money being invested by venture-capital firms is expected to top $32 billion this year, the highest total since the dotcom bubble. VCs in the U.S., Europe, China and Israel have already pumped $24.5 billion into the first three quarters of the year, and another $7 billion is expected to come in the fourth quarter. But this time, we shouldn’t worry about a bubble bursting, says Gil Forer, a global director of E&Y’s venture capital unit. 

Yahoo Answers White Label - Yahoo is seeking to license/white-label its successful Yahoo Answers service to other brands. The white-label strategy is still in its early stages, but Yahoo! is considering licensing its social- search offering to internet service providers and mobile network operators that run call centres. Partnerships could see firms pay to feature Yahoo! Answers on their website or use the service as an alternative means of providing customer support.

ABC News Extends Deal With Yahoo - ABC News has extended its deal with Yahoo News in some significant ways. Under the new agreement, ABC News will double the amount of content it contributes to Yahoo News. Also, Yahoo News head Neil Budde described the new agreement as a deeper partnership in which Yahoo! will be in greater communication with ABC’s newsroom.

Local Insight Media Mergers With CBD Media - Local Insight Media LLC, a provider of print directories and Internet-based local search services in Alaska and the Caribbean, has agreed to merge with CBD Media LLC, a publisher of the Cincinnati Bell-branded yellow pages. The deal will result in Local Insight owner Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe owning a majority of the combined company, with CBD backer Spectrum Equity Investors retaining a “substantial minority stake.” No financial terms were disclosed, except that the combined company will have consolidated annual revenues of approximately $200 million.

Apple Denies Forrester iTunes Claim - Apple Computer yesterday denied claims by Forrester Research that revenue from its iTunes Music Store is slowing. The research firm did an analysis of more 2,700 U.S. iTunes debit and credit-card transactions between April 2004 and June 2006, saying U.S. revenue fell 65% during the first six months of 2006. “The conclusion that iTunes sales are slowing is simply incorrect,” an Apple representative said, adding that 1.5 billion songs have been purchased from iTunes, making it the fourth-largest music retailer in the U.S., with 6% of the country’s total music sales.

Gates: DRM Should Be Better - Ahead of the Mix Conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft, a new player in the market currently dominated by Apple, convened a group of bloggers. Gates was asked about the long-term viability of DRM. He said the rise of illegal or quasi-legal options like AllofMP3 and BitTorrent ensure that users have options when it comes to DRM. Gates didn’t say what he thinks could replace it, but he did seem to agree that closed music isn’t an attractive options for consumers who could just as easily steal music.

Monster Worldwide Restates 9 Years of Earnings - Monster Worldwide, owner of the most used online job-listing service, reduced past earnings by $271.9 million yesterday to correct stock-based compensation costs, and it disclosed more than $500,000 in improper payments to its founder, Andrew J. McKelvey. The restatements cut net income for 2005 by $9.24 million, for 2004 by $14.4 million, for 2003 by $27 million, for 2002 by $44.9 million, for 2001 by $65.6 million, and for the cumulative period of 1997 through 2000 by $110.8 million, the company said in a statement.

$40 Million Not Enough For Netflix’s Digital Download Spend: Analyst - Netflix’s shares went south today after Bank of America analysts Brian Pitz and Brian Fitzgerald came out with a research report with concerns over operating expenses in 2007 and 2008. “While we do not question the company’s progress at driving subscriber growth nor their long-term decision to be a player in digital downloads, we think that the $40 million earmarked for 2007 could prove insufficient.”

StumbleUpon Launches Video Referral Site, StumbleVideo - StumbleUpon’s social browsing application has been such a big hit that the company is launching a separate site for video referral called StumbleVideo. StumbleUpon is a browser toolbar that recommends Web sites based on viewing patterns of other people with similar user profiles. StumbleVideo will do the same type of recommending for video, only it is not a browser extension. It is a Web site that works within the browser.

Jaxtr Finally Launches, An Easy Way To Phone - he Palo Alto start-up is another one of those free phone services, which along with Skype, Jajah and Grand Central is enough to send you into brain overload. Which one to use? Each one has its own tweak on the free Internet call, contact list and central control dashboard. Jaxtr’s promise was enough to lure away Konstantin Guericke from LinkedIn, where he was co-founder. It begins in a closed testing phase, letting in people users on a case-by-case basis. 

CBS To Launch Own Digital Music Label; Reviving CBS Records After 20 Years - From Variety, word that CBS is adding a digital music label called CBS Records. (Technically, no records appear to be involved.) The idea: use CBS shows, iTunes and broadband to pitch the up-and-coming artists―and use the artists for network music, thus keeping down licensing costs.