What's with all the new media experimentation by old media companies these days, asks Kevin Maney of USA Today? Actually, he asks Dallas Mavericks owner and self-made dot-com-era billionaire Mark Cuban, who answers--strangely--that media firms feel there's room to experiment after "having reached the safety zone." Safety zone? Who in the entire media universe feels safe and certain about experimentation these days, I wonder. Cuban might want to rephrase that, but what I think he means is that media firms, both traditional and online, do feel some ground beneath their feet in the form of Internet advertising. The Web's emergence …

The news media is obsessed with MySpace, Facebook and any other would-be newcomers that can keep large numbers of young people tied to their network for long periods of time. News Corp.'s MySpace is new media's new Google, minus the solid advertising system. In fact, all the chatter is now turning to revenue and whether the likes of MySpace and Facebook can move beyond media darling novelty and into mainstream advertising. Jupiter Research analyst Nate Elliott recently called MySpace a "bubble." In response to the site's sale to News Corp. last summer, he wrote: "It's become clear the 'real' money …

In an attempt to placate its affiliates, who are growing particularly restless in the midst of a digital revolution that looks certain to leave them behind, Business Week reports that Fox Television has signed a deal that will give its nearly 150 affiliates a piece of the new media pie. The terms were undisclosed, but such a deal could quickly translate to other TV networks, like Disney's ABC, which released a digital strategy shift just this week. That move has sparked an outcry among Disney's many left-behind affiliates, who argue that they should have a slice of all revenues since …

A pension fund that owns 4,735 of Google's 297 million shares yesterday filed a proposal urging the Mountain View, Ca. search giant to take apart its two-class stock structure; the fund claims the structure gives second-class shareholders little say in company voting. Under its two-class stock structure, Google's class B shares, held by founders Sergey Brin, Larry Page and company CEO Eric Schmidt, count for 10 votes each compared with one vote for every share of class A stock. The "revolt," as it can barely be called, is certainly not going to lead to any kind of change, because the …

The number of people using public Wi-Fi is growing steadily, up from 14 to 20 percent at the end of last year, but according to a Jupiter Research report, a 58 percent majority of those who access the Internet over wireless hotspots say they only use the service when it's free. Intuitively, the results show the adoption of public hotspots is faster than consumers' willingness to pay for access. Jupiter said business users are more likely to pay for use and that public use isn't frequent enough to drive a subscription model. I'm not sure, based on the article, whether …

Despite rapid broadband growth, the U.S. continues to lag behind Europe and Asia in adopting broadband connections, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The most recent figures from December 2005 put the U.S. 12th among industrialized nations, with just 16.8 broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants. Iceland is the category's new leader, overtaking the top spot from tech-happy South Korea. In fact, Northern Europe filled seven of the top ten results. OECD collects its information from the countries' governments as well as public financial reports from telecommunications companies. Above and beyond the fact that we never …

How would you like to download the Web on your laptop before that long flight overseas? Bellevue, Wash. start-up Webaroo aims to make that a possibility. The new service, which launched on Monday, offers a searchable snapshot of the Web users can download to their laptop or other mobile device, storing it so users can access and search it offline. But the entire Web, you might ask? According to Ad Age, it would take 1 million gigabytes to put the entire Web on a storage device (I know, I thought it might be more). Webaroo uses an algorithm to store …

Google has acquired a new technology it says will offer users instant answers to certain queries without the need to go to another Web site. The world's leading search engine reportedly beat out bids from rivals Microsoft and Yahoo for the technology, which was developed at the University of New South Wales in Australia. The algorithm reportedly gives the user relevant information without having to go to a Web site by displaying queries in the form of expandable text extracts. It was developed by 26-year-old Ph.D. student Ori Allon, who is now said to have moved to Google's headquarters in …

MSN is backing away from the idea of branded entertainment, which was once core to the Microsoft portal's advertising and content strategy, according to Rob Bennett, MSN's new general manager of entertainment and video. Bennett said the company will instead work to better integrate advertising with the portal's more heavily trafficked sections. Rather than forging new territory, the company is placing a heavier focus on building up those areas where they know people are already coming, Bennett said. Branded sections like "The Scenario," a Sprite-sponsored music destination for teens that launched about a year ago, will be discontinued, as they …

On Sunday, just prior to The Walt Disney Company's announcement that it would make several of its hit ABC shows available on the Web for free, Anne Sweeney, the president of Disney Television Group, told a room full of cable and telecom industry executives that the habits of young people would dictate Disney's content distribution efforts going forward. The next day came the shot heard round the world that would signal the beginning of the end for broadcast and cable TV: Disney would host free, streaming, ad-supported video, on demand, anytime, anywhere with a broadband connection. Of course, speaking at …