It's a sign of the times: agents, managers, talent scouts, and assorted charlatans are trolling YouTube in search of fresh talent. Former MTV VJ Carson Daly recently signed filmmaker Brooke Brodack to explore Web options for his production company. Daly said sites like YouTube serve as a "new pipeline" for talent. Fame on YouTube is about "recognition from peers, having a top video, maybe being noticed walking down the street," says USA Today--which means that teens and 20somethings are becoming adept at conceiving, directing, and promoting their own mini-movies. For some, like the group Smosh, lip-syncing is enough to catapult …

Satellite provider DirecTV is looking for partners and funding to create a national WiMax network that would catapult News. Corp., which owns the majority stake in DirectTV, into the next generation of Internet service. WiMax, short for World Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a wireless broadband technology that offers a range of 30 miles versus the current 20 feet offered by most Wi-Fi hotspots. According to The Hollywood Reporter, News Corp. and DirecTV are poised to pump $2 billion into a two-year project, pending approval. Through the proposed network, News Corp. would be able to directly sell content, advertising, and …

Wall Street isn't expecting much from most tech stocks as second-quarter earnings continue to roll in, with the exception of Google and Yahoo. Analysts are betting both companies beat the Street's expectations--while Dell, Apple, and IBM are expected to disappoint in the wake of high oil prices, product delays, and an overall economic slowdown. Marquee Web companies can still expect 25 to 30 percent annual growth in online advertising. "It's pretty difficult to see this kind of growth in another industry," a UBS Securities analyst told Business Week. Today, Yahoo is expected to report that sales jumped 30 percent year …

Yet another sign that U.S. prosecutors are cracking down on illegal Internet gambling: David Carruthers, the chief executive of BetOnSports, a big offshore Internet gambling company, was arrested Sunday in Dallas. A New York Times report says Carruthers was charged with racketeering conspiracy for participating in an illegal gambling enterprise in a hearing at a Federal District Court in Fort Worth. The court granted the government's request for a temporary restraining order that prevents BetOnSports from accepting bets from Americans, and requiring it to return any money held in accounts in their name. The government also filed charges against 10 …

MySpace aims to do for comedy what it has done for music and film. Today, the News Corp. site is set to launch MySpace Comedy, which will post video clips of comedy-club performances by comedians performing at the Improv comedy-club chain, reports The Hollywood Reporter. The social network will also sponsor industry events, like this week's Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal, which gives it exclusive rights to content. MySpace has been a major launch pad for music groups like The Ruse and aspiring filmmakers such as Matthew Nourse. With its 100 million users, MySpace is unrivalled as a …

The marketing folks at Wal-Mart have given the green light to a new quasi-social online network for teens designed to let them "express themselves." It's called "School My Way," but it's nothing like MySpace, which is clearly hopes to imitate. Ad Age reports that all content is screened, parents are alerted once their kids join, and users, called "hubsters," are forbidden from e-mailing each another. Wal-Mart wants teens to create MySpace-like profiles that let them post pages about themselves and their favorite Wal-Mart clothes, as well as personal videos. Wal-Mart's agency is GSD&M, Austin, Texas. Pages are limited to a …

YouTube has surpassed 100 million videos served per day, says Hitwise, the traffic-measurement firm that last week announced MySpace had the greatest share of Internet visits. The viral video site is the runaway leader in online video, which refers to "snack-sized video fare" lasting two to five minutes. YouTube commands 29 percent of that market, says Hitwise--and its videos account for 60 percent of all video watched online. Like MySpace, YouTube is the latest social sensation to grow, with little to no money to show for its efforts. Compared to the News Corp. site, the Web's other disproportionate underachiever, YouTube …

MySpace is proof that traffic just isn't enough anymore. Rupert Murdoch is apparently beside himself because MySpace has hundreds of millions of users, and ridiculously high monthly traffic--yet News Corp. has only been able to sell a few lousy banner ads. "That is the least profitable way to advertise as a Web site. You're not able to charge a whole lot of money," Steve Mansfield, CEO of startup PreFound.com, tells InternetNews.com. Mansfield, a social search marketing executive, thinks MySpace could start offering "social search," which means more than selling sponsored links on a social network's search engine. Social search refers …

MySpace wants a search engine--which means that Google, Yahoo, and MSN are now battling to land the massive job. Last year, Google and Microsoft had to duke it out for AOL's search services. This could be twice as huge: Just last week, Hitwise announced that MySpace became the most popular site on the Web, commanding nearly 5 percent of all visits. While News Corp. doesn't disclose how much of Fox Interactive Media's revenues come from the social-networking site, Business Week says banner revenues are in the neighborhood of $100 million. One former Yahoo executive estimates that given its power as …

A new Click Forensics report says the click fraud has increased slightly at the search engines of Google and Yahoo in the last three months. The Web giants are charging advertisers for fraudulent clicks 14.1 percent of the time--up from 13.7 three months ago, according to the San Antonio-based consulting firm, which gleaned its information from 1,300 online marketers. According to the Associated Press, that figure jibes with data recently released by market-research firm Outsell, which said click fraud cost advertisers $800 million last year. Many advertisers feel that Google and Yahoo have been non-responsive about their concerns. Google offered …