• The New York Times, Friday, November 17, 2006 9:45 AM

Yahoo today acquired Bix.com an interesting site that allows users and advertisers to create, enter in and judge online contests. The Sunnyvale, Calif. Web giant intends to integrate Bix.com more closely with its social-media offerings Yahoo Groups and Yahoo 360, which have struggled to compete with YouTube and MySpace. Bix has only been around since August, but it's already carved a niche for itself in the exploding sector of user-generated media.

Reality TV has shown that Americans love contests. Programs like "American Idol" and "Survivor" have been resounding successes. Bix merges that concept with the explosion of online media. Here's how it works: A user comes up with a contest idea, gets an advertiser to sponsor it, then slaps on a winning prize. It's equally easy for advertisers to come up with their own contests. Its presence on Yahoo will undoubtedly result in greater usage of Bix.com, which means more entries and most likely, higher sponsorship fees for creators.

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