• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, April 17, 2007

AOL today unveils five new Web programs at its so-called "First Look" -- a new event aimed at whetting the appetite of online media buyers. But some of the ventures detailed appear surprisingly unambitious.

Consider, there's "Ye Olde Shrek the Third Royal Tournament," a game show based on the Shrek movie; a tie-in with "The Ellen DeGeneres Show"; a game called "Million Dollar Bill" involving serial numbers of dollar bills; a sequel to Mark Burnett's trivia game "Gold Rush"; and "iLand," a contest created by Big Brother production company Endemol. Some of those efforts sound particularly unimpressive. "Gold Rush" didn't appear to gain much traction the first time around, while games of chance or talk-show tie-ins don't seem like they require much in the way of extra labor or production costs. At least if they do, those costs probably pale in comparison to the effort that goes into creating and producing scripted content.

It's slightly odd that AOL -- one of the original Web companies -- is announcing these new, somewhat modest-sounding programs at the same time that TV veterans are starting to devote real resources to creating original Web content. For instance, in the past several weeks Fox TV Studios has said it's working with Hearst to create original video for CosmoGIRL! and Popular Mechanics, while former Disney honcho Michael Eisner has unveiled the serialized Web drama "Prom Queen."

While no one knows yet what types of programs will eventually dominate the Internet, it's hard to believe that trivia quizzes or treasure hunts will be what really captures netizens' imagination.