AOL is going after MySpace territory. The Time Warner company is said to be readying an instant messenger-inspired social network it says will "kick ass." For the last month, there have been murmurings in chat rooms and around the blogosphere about the project, codenamed (unoriginally) "AIMSpace." Back in March, the new AOL Instant Messenger social network was expected to be ready by mid-April, but as we approach the end of the April we're still waiting for an official announcement from the company. While the rumors are decidedly short on details, AOL executives have been piping about the new social network. …

Critical Mention, a small firm whose past is rooted in Web-based television news search and broadcast monitoring, has launched a beta service that gives businesses, including advertisers, a way to tap into syndicated video content. The firm allows companies to syndicate clips through its ClipSyndicate.com platform, a service that provides search options for published media video reports. Subscribers that wish to group video clips get a thumbnail, a headline and a summary directly through the platform; they can also search for and publish relevant content to their own site. About 200 content providers have started testing the service, including SmartBrief, …

Online video has been billed as the next big thing, and consumers are excited that the next big TV stars of this most democratic of new mediums could be themselves. Sites like YouTube give the anybodies of the world the opportunity to become the next pop culture phenomenon. Right now, user-generated content on social networking and broadband video sites are all the rage, but CNNMoney asks, is this trend really going to last--especially as companies like CBS and Disney put mainstream programming on the Web for free? Probably, according to a study from the Online Publisher's Association study. Twelve hundred …

For the third time documents reveal that Yahoo aided China in the capture of another so-called dissident, by turning over a draft e-mail to Chinese authorities in 2003. That's right, folks, the man didn't even send the e-mail, but apparently, thinking about it was enough to jail the man on charges of subversion, according to the verdict from his trial in 2003. Hong Kong-based Yahoo Holdings handed over the draft document, entitled "Declaration," which had been saved on the man's account, the group Reporters Without Borders said. A Yahoo spokesperson said the company was not familiar with the case. I …

In other China censorship news, Skype, eBay's Web-based telephony company, tells the Financial Times that Tom Online, its partner in China, has filtered its text messages to be in compliance with government censorship policies.   The company admitted that compliance with the laws is the only way to do business in the country. Tom Online uses a text filter, which Skype says is what everyone doing business in China uses to comply with local law. In an interview with FT, Skype CEO Niklas Zennström said complying with Chinese law is no different than obeying rules governing business in western countries. …

Mashups combine information from different Web sites into an integrated experience, often layering information over maps to create a visual navigable picture of a particular event or phenomenon. They're fun and fairly easy to create and duplicate, but is there any way to make any money here? Map technology providers like Google and Microsoft are widely expected to begin selling geographically relevant ads on their maps, but what about the companies that enable consumer-generated mashups? Platial, for one, lets people create personalized maps where they can tell stories and show where and how events transpired. The company, which bills itself …

Internet giant Yahoo is going after Microsoft territory, having recently acquired Meedio, a small software company that specializes in turning the PC into a digital hub for the living room. Microsoft chair Bill Gates has long dreamed of turning the PC into the digital media hub of the modern home, syncing the PC, television, stereo, phone, and anything else to an Internet-enabled hub. It would appear that Yahoo is not going to let Microsoft go down that route alone. According to CNET, Yahoo purchased the rights to most of Meedio's technology and all of its intellectual property, but not its …

Social networks just a fad, eh? Well, not if you ask the venture capital firms that just pumped $25 million more into college-level social networking phenomenon Facebook.com. While critics still wonder when young consumers will get bored with the likes of MySpace and Facebook, moving on to the next coolest thing, investors, media companies and advertisers are left to mull over the opportunities--and the potential pitfalls--of this red-hot sector of the Internet. Can they have a viable long-term business model? Maybe so, maybe not, but the fact is, these sites are getting tremendous usage that should be taken advantage of …

A surprising new study from the Consumer Electronics Association says there are many more women 25-34 who play game than men of the same demographic. Chock this one up to the enormously popular casual games market, which includes "light" puzzle and card games like solitaire and Tetris. The CEA study says 65 percent of women 25-34 play video games compared with just 35 percent of men. This is an astonishing statistic considering that games industry coverage and focus skews heavily towards men around the age of 30, which we are repeatedly told is the average age of gamers these days. …

AT&T yesterday announced that it will team with Akimbo to offer TV and movie downloads on its upcoming Web-based television service, set to be released this summer. Called HomeZone, the new AT&T service will launch in California and 12 other states by late summer. The telecom giant believes a Web-linked set top box is the media hub of the future, able to serve all of a customer's entertainment needs. This trend also underlines the massive shift the telecom industry is undergoing, as phone companies branch out into expanded Web services and, now, television. AT&T's ambitions don't end there: according to …