• Gallery: Wired.com's Fave Geek Costumes
  • Electronic Arts Preps Cutbacks, Layoffs
  • ComScore Offers Extended Web Measurement
    Measuring firm comScore wants to make it easier for publishers to track content across multiple third party sites -- videos, social media applications, widgets and photos -- with a new service called comScore Extended Web. The firm's Media Metrix service will also begin offering gross rating point data for online ads, an online counterpart to the standard GRP metric in the traditional ad world, which will also help advertisers better evaluate cross-media campaigns. Together, both efforts represent an ambitious step in solving one of the greatest challenges of the digital media era: measuring audiences for efforts that span the Web. …
  • The (Big) Business Of Avatars
    There was a time when all it required to play a video game was a television and at least one thumb. But now, before playing game one on a Microsoft Xbox or a Nintendo Wii, you are encouraged to create an avatar that will become your virtual representation in some online universe. And the companies behind these games have big plans for those virtual interlopers. Companies like Microsoft and Sony (maker of Nintendo) are banking that users will stay in their virtual worlds longer if they have some digital representation, particularly one that looks the way they would like …
  • Online Retail Traffic Down. Again.
    Just in case you needed more evidence that the economy is headed south: Hitwise is reporting that visits to online retail Web sites in the U.S. have declined for the eighth consecutive week. Visits to retail Web sites were down 3% for the week ending Oct. 25 compared to that same week a year ago. Retail sites had actually experienced a bump in traffic from June through August of this year, but then started sagging in September, when they dropped by 4%. We all know the story from there. "These declines have strong implications for the upcoming online …
  • Top 10 Gadgets You Won't Be Buying This Christmas
    Conditions are ripe for an abjectly terrible holiday shopping season, so forget your top 10 lists of big sellers. CNN.com is already touting the 10 tech gadgets most likely to register as huge flops this holiday season. At the top of the list is the TMobile G1, or the "Google Phone." Despite the hype, design flaws and clunky operation will keep this "iPhone killer" from living up to the name. Also making the list is Elmo Live, the latest attempt from Fisher-Price to cash in on the sensation that was Tickle Me Elmo. Unfortunately, for $65, this chatty, gesticulating …
  • Sony Prepared To Make Crackle 'Pop'
    Sony first bought online video hub Crackle back in 2006, when it was a repository for user-generated clips known as Grouper. But attempts to transform the site into a programmed channel have been slow to materialize, so now Sony is shaking things up. The site is getting a new management team, new headquarters and an infusion of full-length TV shows and movies from the Sony library to complement the increasing slate of short-form originals already rolling out. Previously based in San Francisco, Crackle will move to Culver City, Calif., and be formally folded into Sony's digital content operations, which include …
  • Yahoo, AOL Continue Courtship Rituals
    Yahoo and Time Warner's AOL unit continue to discuss a possible merger, a person familiar with the talks told Reuters on Wednesday. The two companies are looking at each other's books to figure out how much money they could make together and where costs can be saved. While noting a deal was not imminent, the source said the two companies have engaged in "meaningful" due diligence about a possible combination for the past couple of weeks. Talks began several months ago, when Yahoo was looking for an alternative growth strategy to fend off a $47.5 billion takeover bid from Microsoft. …
  • Netflix And TiVo To Partner On Movies
  • Obama Utilizes Social Networks To Get The Vote Out
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