Call the Web the great equalizer--it doesn't matter anymore if you're ABC, The New York Times, or Google--anyone can produce content, anyone can advertise, and everyone on the Web is competing for traffic. No matter what, the quality and relevance of content is what reels in users--not a brand name, says David Kirkpatrick of Fortune. So what's a content provider to do? Is Rolling Stone still just a magazine publisher if a growing portion of its readership is consuming content via its Web site? Should it limit itself to editorial content, or move into video and user-generated content? All content …

Thanks to Yahoo, the 2006 FIFA World Cup has been outfitted with more interactive bells and whistles than any previous tournament: blogs, chats, contests, photos, interactive city guides, and news and commentary, as well as live animated MatchCasts and three- to five-minute video highlights of each game as they conclude. Fans who attend the games in Germany will also be able to post their personal photos and video, YouTube-style, in an attempt to make the international soccer federation's site the de facto Web portal for all things World Cup. User-generated content seems to have become a standard requirement for many …

Microsoft Corp.'s Robert Scoble, a man who you'd be forgiven for thinking the company paid to heap criticism on it, is leaving the software giant to join a video blogging start-up called PodTech.net. Scoble was a "technical evangelist" and strategist for Channel 9, a Web site created two years ago to strengthen ties between Microsoft and software developers. Channel 9 is one of the de facto sources of Microsoft gossip for programmers and tech geeks seeking information about perennially delayed projects like Windows Vista. When asked why he thought Microsoft didn't mind his public criticism, Scoble said Bill Gates "loves …

Slowly--ever so slowly--game makers have been coming up with ways to make advertising an effective way to reach their devoted audiences. Hard-coded ad and product placements have been around for years, but they haven't generated substantial revenue, as most advertisers still haven't been sold on the idea that video games are a viable place to buy ads. Technological problems have also hampered the growth of what many game developers believe could one day become a substantial revenue source for them. Revenue from in-game advertising was just $56 million in 2005, according to the Yankee Group--but that should rise to $732 …

Yesterday we talked about how ESPN would be streaming 52 of the 64 World Cup soccer games live on ESPN360, the Disney unit's broadband video channel. That report neglected to mention that ESPN360 is only available to small handful of broadband providers--the majority of which could be classified as "local." Verizon is the largest national provider that makes the list, but no Cox, no Comcast, and--sorry, New York area folks--no Time Warner cable. Luckily, Wired is telling die-hard fans how to see the games on the Web. Ironically, the world has Chinese hackers to thank for "almost exclusively" pirating WC …

In response to Sergey Brin's comments earlier this week that Google had compromised its values by censoring its search results in China, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that foreign companies must abide by the country's laws. Google recently unveiled google.cn--a censored, Chinese-language version of its search engine that is hosted in the country--after the Chinese government had restricted access to the search giant's uncensored U.S.-based Web site. In its statement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it takes a positive attitude toward working with foreign companies like Google, but cooperation must exist "within the framework of the law." …

Google researchers believe they've found a better way to deliver relevant content to your PC. Two of the company's top scientists have devised a way for your computer to watch television with you so it can identify the program you're viewing and then shoot back relevant, personalized content. Google researchers Michele Covell and Shumeet Baluja presented the idea at an interactive television conference last week in Athens; they proposed using ambient audio-identification technology to capture the TV sound on a laptop and use that to return relevant info to the PC. According to a posting from the pair on the …

And so it is that by a resounding 269-152 vote, the Republican-led House of Representatives defeated a Democrat-backed amendment that would have mandated a stiffly regulated federal Net Neutrality law. The law would have prevented broadband providers like Cox Communications from treating some Internet sites (like Craigslist) differently from others. Yesterday we mentioned that Cox--perhaps inadvertently--is using security software that blocks its users from accessing the online classifieds site Craigslist. As it turns out, House members voted largely along party lines, with the vast majority of Democrats supporting Net Neutrality, while Republicans were generally opposed to it. As Massachusetts Democrat …

Yahoo Answers is set to become a big asset for the Internet's largest Web portal, according to a report from Search Engine Watch Editor Danny Sullivan. He suggests that rapid adoption of the answer-search engine could lead Answers to becoming a social phenomenon along the lines of YouTube or MySpace. Since its launch in December, Answers has steadily attracted more and more visitors; according to Web research firm comScore, the number of visitors to the site jumped from 4 to 7.2 million between March and April. That figure represents 4.2 percent of all Web visits--which is massive for a new …

If you ask me, net neutrality advocates need to bring a shining example of abuse to lawmakers if they're going to get legislation passed guaranteeing equal access to bandwidth. It seems like the Silicon Valley Watcher may have found just such an example: Cox Communications, a division of telecom giant Cox Enterprises, has been disrupting access to Craigslist over its broadband Internet network. Why would they do such a thing? Precisely because printed classifieds are a major revenue source for the media giant's newspaper division, Cox Media; Craigslist, of course, is attracting classified dollars away from print. A SVW …