• Ross Fadner, Feb 20, 2007, 11:02 AM
  • Viacom Moving In Right Direction GigaOM Prior to the big news that Viacom had signed a new content distribution deal with Joost, tech site writer Robert Young sang the praises of Viacom for boldly stepping away from Google and YouTube a few weeks ago.

    The overwhelming response from most of the blogosphere is that "Viacom did a very dumb thing." Young, who professes to be mostly anti-old media for trying to extend their control over the Web as they did with traditional media, says "Viacom is doing absolutely the right thing and, in fact, they seem to be correcting themselves on many fronts."

    Viacom, in moving away from another control-freak situation (i.e. Google and YouTube) has moved forward in the content wars. Trying to be MySpace is a bad idea, he says, so is partnering with the world's biggest online media company. Moving the war to a new front is the smarter choice, that is, trying to become a niche competitor. If consumers know the only place they can consume, play with and share video clips of their favorite Comedy Central shows is on ComedyCentral.com, then users will go there. If they can go anywhere else and consume Viacom content for free, the company will fail to make money from the Web. Read the whole story...
  • Market Research Firm Wins Second Life Competition CNET News.com The interactive virtual world Second Life recently hosted a competition to see which of its citizens could come up with the best business plan. The winner was Minnesota-based Market Truths, which devised a market research and analysis system to help real-world companies figure out how best to engage with users of the vast virtual world. The contest's judges said they rewarded the company because of the team's experience conducting similar research in the real world, and also because it's business plan had the best prospects for making money.

    Finalists' ideas included a full suite of in-world communication and collaboration tools, an in-world music distribution system and a reputation-based search engine. The contest launched in November and sought business plans with real profit potential. This serves the interest of Linden Lab, the game's creator, residents, who often search for supplemental revenue through the game, and of course, marketers looking to reach consumers in the highly engaging virtual world. Read the whole story...
  • Mobile Search Race Wide Open Business Week Google may be miles ahead in Web search, but the business of finding material on the Mobile Web remains an open question. It's turning into an out-and-out horse race, with Google taking a slender lead with 4.75 million monthly subscribers, followed by Yahoo with 3.65 million, and MSN with slightly less than 1 million subscribers, according to mobile researcher M:Metrics.

    The mobile game is different because it down to each search company's relationship with the carriers. For this reason, companies like Medio Systems can slide in, secure a few deals and shore up some market share. Four-year old Medio has partnerships making it the default search engine on Verizon (VZ), T-Mobile (DT) and Amp'd Mobile services, among others. These are U.S.-based deals, which makes Media something of a leader in the U.S., though its service isn't tracked by M:Metrics and other research firms. Most of Google's share comes from big partnerships in China, Japan and Europe.

    Says Media Chief and co-founder Brian Lent: "What we see is that someone that goes to Google search will often switch and use our product." Read the whole story...
  • Viacom Signs With YouTube Rival Joost The Wall Street Journal When Viacom ordered its content off YouTube, you knew it had to be planning something else. That is, something other than placing Comedy Central content on its new Comedy Central site. Viacom is set to strike a deal with the Internet video service Joost.

    Joost is the brainchild of Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. Their idea is to create a video-sharing service where all television, DVD and Web content are exchanged between users. It will also add real-time social networking and chat features to make video a more interactive experience. It will be free program that sells ads to make money. Its expected release is June 30.

    Viacom would be the first major TV/movie producer to sign with Joost. The deal involves licensing hundreds of hours of programming from Viacom's properties, like MTV, Comedy Central, Spike TV and Paramount Studios. Financial terms weren't discussed, but in past deals Viacom has retained two-thirds of the ad revenue. Joost's other deals include Warner Music and Endemol, the Dutch production company behind such hits as "Big Brother." Read the whole story...
  • Google In New York: Everybody Wins! Information Week Google move to New York City is a good thing, both for Google and New York City. Whye? Proximity to Madison Avenue, the four major TV networks, Time Warner, Viacom, News Corp, Hearst, The New York Times CO. Bloomberg, etc. In its big push to shore up more and better deals with traditional media companies, it will do Google good to be just a little bit closer.

    This is also a good thing for New York's technology industry, which employs some 813,000 people, according to U.S. government labor statistics. Compare that to just 283,000 in San Francisco and San Jose combined. Indeed, the city is brimming with bright twenty and thirty-somethings that would love to work for Google. It's also the dwelling of tens of thousands of the world's top IT pros working for big banks like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, AIG and Citigroup. Not to mention the headquarters for many advertising agencies, technology providers and Web 2.0 startups.

    As Google engineering director Craig Neville-Manning says, "The New York thing is very simple: There are a large number of incredibly skilled computer scientists in the area. That's why we're here." Read the whole story...