It was inevitable: Bloggers who previously wrote endlessly about everything from politics to tech tips to how to fry an egg on a hot sidewalk can now take their commentary, advice and random experiments to the next level by filming and broadcasting their work, thanks to the latest web trend -- video blogging. Video blogs -- also known by their shorter, clunkier name, vlogs -- are blogs that primarily feature video shorts instead of text.

CBS News sat on the sidelines during the cable TV revolution, allowing rivals led by CNN, Fox and NBC to dominate the world of 24-hour news. But determined not to make that mistake twice, CBS plans to launch a 24-hour, Internet-based video news service that will let visitors pick reports they want to watch.

Mainstream media companies are starting to dominate podcasts ? topping in popularity the quirky independents that created the trendy online radio genre. Podcasts from ESPN, CNN, ABC News and the TV show Queer Eye are among the most popular this week on iTunes, Apple's download site.

While U.S. album sales are off 7 percent year-to-date, songs sold over the Web through paid downloads have tripled in the first half of the year, music tracker Nielsen SoundScan said on Tuesday. Internet users in the U.S. downloaded 158 million individual songs from services like Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes during the first half of the year, compared with 55 million in the year-ago period, SoundScan said.

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said that he couldn't define obscenity, but that he knew it when he saw it. The same has long been the case with spyware. It's not easy to define, but most people know it when parasitic programs suck up resources on their computer and clog their browsers with pop-up ads.

About nine months ago, newly hired WhenU CEO Bill Day decided he was going to clean up his company's reputation. WhenU, a 5-year-old, so-called adware company that makes its money by selling targeted advertising delivered to PCs via software that's sometimes unknowingly downloaded by Web surfers, was becoming persona non grata with Web surfers tired of unsolicited pop-up ads. So Day changed his company's policy for installing software and started notifying Web surfers of downloads, weeded out some ad distributors with questionable track records, and even posted a toll-free number on every pop-up ad for customer complaints.

When Food Network began planning a promotional campaign for the second season of Iron Chef America, it decided to focus the bulk of its spending online. The spend was made on high-impact takeovers of top portals' entertainment sections; Yahoo! Television and TV Guide this past weekend, and AOL Television next weekend. It will complement those buys with placements on smaller sites, as well as limited TV and outdoor ads. The campaign goal is not so much to attract new viewers but to connect with the substantial audience the show built in its first season and to alert them to the …

One large pepperoni pie, please, with a Blackberry on the side. Research in Motion, marketer of the popular wireless e-mail device, is linking with Papa John's in an offbeat promotion to offer "free" Blackberry devices to the pizza maker's customers. Each partner has its own agenda. RIM's goal is to expand its devices beyond the business world to everyday uses. Papa John's wants more customers to order pizzas online instead of over the phone.

Ford Motor is taking a leaner and greener approach to the launch of its newest hybrid vehicle. The more fuel-efficient version of its Mercury Mariner sport utility vehicle will be sold exclusively online, meaning that consumers will not be able to see it on the lot. Mercury also plans to advertise the Mariner hybrid only over the Internet, eschewing the traditional TV and print blitz. The ads will heavily target the Web sites of environmental groups, as well as regular car sites.

Leveraging the momentum from its record-setting online streaming of the Live 8 concerts this month, AOL today is expected to announce the creation of a partnered multimedia production company that will accelerate its live entertainment events online, as well as for TV, cell phones and other media platforms.