MySpace's popularity comes at the expense of traffic to Web portals like Yahoo and AOL, but will its popularity last forever? A CNET report illustrates how teens are a fickle bunch, as the list of top teen sites changes as fast as the Billboard music charts. This year, there are a fresh crop of newcomer sites, while only a handful of last year's favorites still host as many teens as they did in '05. Ever hear of Memegen.net, Tagged.com, Bebo.com or MyYearbook.com? Me neither, but these new sites are growing like weeds, each of them attracting between 500,000 and 1 …

Two young men were arrested in Los Angeles last week for allegedly trying to extort $150,000 from MySpace. The pair of teenagers, 18 and 19, are said to have hacked the News Corp. social network, exploiting a vulnerability that enabled them to steal users' personal information. The hackers threatened to release new exploit code unless MySpace came up with $150,000. MySpace invited them out to Los Angeles, telling them they would meet with company employees to discuss how to proceed--but they were instead met by undercover agents from the U.S. Secret Service and the L.A. district attorney's office. A preliminary …

It was a tough first week of trading for Vonage; the voice over IP provider filed for an initial public offering at $17 per share but quickly saw its valuation slide 13 percent in its first two days of trading. Vonage raised $531 million during its IPO; the market's response will tell you the price was set to high. In the build-up to the offering, many analysts were bearish about the stock's potential, saying its bankers likely rushed the deal because waiting would adversely affect valuation. The company is bleeding money; in 2005 it lost $210 million, quadrupling losses from …

It's a move that marks an aggressive advance on Microsoft territory: Google, the world's biggest search engine, and Dell, the No. 1 maker of PCs, have reached a series of deals to bundle Google software with Dell's computers. Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced the big news at a Goldman Sachs conference in Las Vegas yesterday. The deal says that Dell PCs will now come pre-loaded with Google's toolbar for Web and PC search, along with a co-branded home page. For the time being, the default Web browser will remain Microsoft's Internet Explorer, but this would have been even bigger news …

MarketWatch columnist Bambi Francisco is optimistic about the prospects for video advertising on Google's publisher network, in stark contrast to Tech Crunch's Michael Arrington (see Section 2 Wednesday) and other pundits, who don't see a sizable market for pay-per-click video ads. Today, Google will start letting anyone from large national advertisers to providers of local products and services to upload video advertisements lasting up to two minutes in length. Google director Gokul Rajaram said anyone can upload nearly any kind of video content in the form of an advertisement; Francisco uses the example of a homeowner wishing to rent their …

Viacom CEO Tom Freston took center stage this week at the company's first shareholder meeting since its split from broadcasting unit CBS Corp. Freston said the company's main properties are well-positioned for the media fragmentation occurring in the world today as young people spend more time on social networks and playing video games than they do with print, radio or TV. "We've long been the king of the short attention span," he said, noting that MTV, Comedy Central and others sport "robust Web sites offering video." Hmm. I've been to both the MTV and Comedy Central Web sites and found …

Speaking of News Corp., Murdoch and co. are on the lookout for new recruits in the United Kingdom to build on the company's considerable strength in Internet communities. Advertisements have gone out for a number of positions, Journalism.Co.UK reports, as part of "a new online community" and "an exciting project." Specifically, the company is looking for an online community editor, to create new forums and new topics and to prompt users to create content. It's also hiring other staff at a variety of levels. Once upon a time, News Corp. was skeptical of Web publishing, but now it thinks it's …

Time Warner and AOL agreed to pay $23 million to settle a lawsuit claiming the companies misled investors and caused four public investment funds in the state of Pennsylvania to lose $100 million. The suit focused on statements made by the two companies following their $106 billion merger in January 2001, at that time making the combined company the largest media company in the world. It was filed in a Pennsylvania state court in Philadelphia in 2004 on behalf of the Public School Employees Retirement System, the State Employees Retirement System, the Tobacco Settlement Investment Board and the State Workers …

Following a speculative report yesterday from JPMorgan, Yahoo and eBay this morning announced a multi-year advertising and commercial partnership aimed at boosting their languishing positions against search juggernaut Google. According to the deal, Yahoo will be the exclusive third-party provider of all graphic ads appearing on eBay's auction site. In turn, Yahoo will implement PayPal, eBay's payment system, as a way for its customers to pay for Web services. The companies will also release a co-branded toolbar that is expected to drive traffic to both sites and combine to create a click-to-call advertising technology they will both use. No mention …

MSN is looking to buy Third Screen Media, a provider of ads to Web sites appearing on wireless devices. The acquisition would give MSN the ability to serve ads to mobile phones, and give it access to Third Screen's publisher network, which includes the likes of USA Today and The Weather Channel. For once, this would position MSN ahead of Google and others in a promising new advertising channel. Wireless mobile devices represent a new and largely untapped area for advertising; text ads are common while newer formats like banners and video commercials are still being developed. The total audience …