It's hard to know exactly what to expect from mobile TV. It's exciting, cool, and extremely handy in transit to be able to watch TV on your mobile device, but is anyone really going to watch a full-length movie on his cell phone or BlackBerry? A new study from two British firms--Red Bee Media, a research company, and iBurbia, a media agency--says probably not, but that doesn't mean there isn't a place for short-length mobile TV content. In fact, the study suggests that consumers would be better off providing shorter content exclusives on cell phones, like trailers and three- to …

Discovery Communications is teaming up with Google to deliver video clips of historic sites and other points of interest around the world through Google's Google Earth software, underscoring the cable programmer's stated initiative to expand beyond television. Discovery, operator of 100 plus networks in 170 countries, will implement streaming video of sites like Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, the Great Wall of China and London's Trafalgar Square into Google's satellite mapping software, the companies announced yesterday. As users scan the digital earth, Google will place a globe icon next to certain sites that link to two-to-four minute clips from Discovery's …

Everyone wants to be the Google of something these days, writes Marketwatch's Bambi Francisco. Truveo, AOL's video search unit, says "we want to be the Google of video." Krugle, a search engine for programmers with a Google-ish name, boldly proclaims, "We are the Google for programming code." Francisco notes that while big engines like Google and Yahoo have established themselves as default general search engines, she is increasingly drawn to such vertical players when searching for specific things. All this suggests that Google's dominance is not as impenetrable as it seems. In fact, ask any big media company what Internet …

Sometimes news is like the weather in that it's not always good. When the weather is bad, contextual advertising can be a problem for vertical category marketers. Take the U.S. automotive industry, which if you've been reading any news, you know has been going through a slump. While the news media blasts carmakers for the woeful state of their industry, citing factors like high oil prices and sinking demand, auto makers have increasingly turned their marketing focus to the Web for more accountable advertising. Say you're an automaker and you buy into a contextual network and your ads show up …

Viacom's MTV Networks unit is zeroing in on the wireless content market in a big way, according to Van Toffler, the company's president, who said its customers "love, praise and worship at the altar of their wireless device at the expense of all others, frankly." This, of course, includes mobile phones, Blackberrys, iPods, and portable gaming devices. As a result, MTV continues its march into mobile content, recently unveiling a video content deal with mobile virtual network operator Amp'd Mobile for its gay and lesbian channel, Logo. VH-1, Viacom's older-skewing music brand, is now producing a mobile reality series called …

Yahoo looks set to upgrade its search engine advertising system, using a new model that ranks text ads by relevance as well as the amount advertisers pay for keywords. The Web giant is implementing the new Google-like ranking system in the hope that it results in higher click-through rates than the older model, which only ranked ads by bid price. Yahoo has alerted several of its high-volume advertisers about the upcoming changes, and a widespread announcement is expected to be made in the next few weeks, according to Forbes.com. A full rollout of the new ranking system will likely happen …

Lawmakers will vote on the Net Neutrality bill today, and their decision could change the Internet as we know it by creating a separate "lane" for Web publishers willing to pay for faster delivery of their content. The San Francisco Chronicle says the issue of net neutrality, or network neutrality, "represents the most sweeping overhaul of telecom law since the Telecommunications Act of 1996." Why? Well, if AT&T, Verizon and other telcos have their way, ISPs will have the ability to create a "class" system out of the most democratic medium the world has ever known. As Massachusetts Democrat …

Google and partner EarthLink, Inc. have been acknowledged as the front runners in the bid to build a Wi-Fi network in San Francisco, a city panel said. At the panel's recommendation, the city can now begin negotiations with the companies, which decided to team together earlier this year after initially bidding against each other. The companies will share the cost of building the network, which is expected to cost $15 million. EarthLink says it will charge about $20 per month for access at speeds the company says will be four to five times faster than Google's free service, which you …

The digital revolution has ushered in an unprecedented era of measurability, letting firms test and track consumers' reactions and engagement with new media devices. This has lead to audience measurement becoming a very competitive sector these days, as many companies seek to measure the connection between media exposure and consumer behavior. One new company called Integrated Media Measurement Inc. has started measuring what consumers listen to and see via cell phone. The start-up implements software that helps phones take samples of nearby sounds that are identified by comparing them against a database. Using this technology, IMMI tracks consumers' exposure to …

It's like the advertising equivalent to the Berlin Wall coming down: major marketers like American Express are dismantling their TV silos, replacing them with the more flexible notion of "video." The shift is forcing them to rethink and reshuffle the way they organize their various TV and Internet buying, planning and selling units. Agencies like Publicis Groupe's MediaVest are right in-step with AmEx, announcing that they've renamed their TV-buying teams as "video investment and activation units." The reorganization is not just in name: MediaVest is also placing digital experts alongside broadcast buyers. AmEx calls its new video marketing department "rolling …