Just as Google delves deeper and deeper into online video, the latest craze in Internet media, the company's PR hawks are out in full force to declare it is not a media company. It aims to be friends with media companies rather than compete with them. "Google is a technology company, not a media company," Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, told Reuters. "If we were creating content ourselves, that would create a bias and could affect how we would position other content. That's why we've been careful not to create a lot of content." …

As Internet advertising and e-commerce continue to overlap, it's becoming increasingly difficult to understand how eBay and Google can consider themselves partners. Even as Google creates an online payments and products-listing service, the two companies have found themselves becoming firmer partners in other areas. So what's with this latest partnership? BusinessWeek speculates that what drives this unlikely alliance is the apparent recognition that joining forces to complement their shortcomings beats expensive market-share wars. eBay needs ad revenue to complement its settling international e-commerce business. The company has millions of merchants who would be willing to pay for qualified phone calls; …

Here's a good question: Why doesn't anybody use mobile search? While 80 percent of marketers say they use or are going to use search-engine marketing, less than one-third of retail marketers and one-half of CPG marketers expect to use mobile search, according to Forrester Research. Why so few? Of the 190 million cell phone subscribers in the U.S., only about 5 percent have ever used their phones for search--which is less than half of those who buy at least one ringtone each month, according to mobile research firm M:Metrics. Poor user experience is to blame, says Greg Sterling, a search …

CNET has its own mobile story, focusing on the future of its Internet technology. It almost seems like our birthright in an age of instantly available technology services to have a simple, robust means of information gathering at our fingertips. It is coming, but as with all things mobile in the U.S., it's coming slowly. While some will argue that the mobile Internet is already here, others will note how poor the user experience is and how minimal the offerings of wireless application protocol (WAP) Web sites are. In fact, some say WAP needs to be replaced altogether, suggesting that …

The world's largest music company, Universal Music, is doing an about-face on Apple and iTunes. It's backing a startup that allows consumers to download songs for free. The service, called SpiralFrog, will rely on advertising for its revenue and starts in December. Kudos to Universal for its willingness to try something radically new. For years, the music industry has been at odds with illegal file-sharing services that let consumers swap songs for free. Even as iTunes, Real's Rhapsody and other pay-for music services have become profitable companies, the vast majority of Internet users continue to illegally download music. It's something …

Google's competitors can't stop partnering with it. eBay, which recently saw its PayPal unit receive a direct challenge from Google's new online payment service, Google Checkout, has now partnered with the search giant once again. The newest arrangement promises to introduce "click to call" Web site technology across eBay's sites. Potential buyers will be able to phone merchants by clicking on text ads that appear on eBay's pages. Says Meg Whitman, eBay's chief executive: "We have a chance to create a whole new way for buyers and sellers to connect online and to create what we hope will be a …

It's a surprising piece to see in The New York Times, but Peter Edmonston seems to have written an article whose sole purpose is to smear the reputation of Forbes.com, the self-described top business site on the Web. Forbes.com touts 15 million uniques per month, with an average income of $150K. But comScore, the research firm that provided those numbers, has revised its February data downward to less than 13.2 million, after it revamped its worldwide data for many sites. Also, about 45 percent of Forbes traffic goes to ForbesAutos.com, which is included in the figure. So what? Isn't eBay …

In the race to land as many of the 1,122 radio spectrum licenses as the FCC is selling, it looks like big telecom companies Cingular, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile will grab the majority of the available inventory. While many analysts thought Big Cable--Time Warner, Comcast, and Cox--would take advantage of the opportunity to ramp up their limited presence in the wireless business, their bids have thus far amounted to just $2.2 billion of $13.3 billion registered bids. Instead, more than 60 percent of the total has come from leading wireless providers; T-Mobile alone has bid nearly $4 billion. The biggest …

The five-second ad is coming--into its own. On the Web, today's multitasked consumer has no time to sit through a 30-second ad before a five-minute video clip. Similarly, on TV, consumers with DVRs are used to zipping by a series of commercials in way less than 30 seconds. Thus, the five-second ad. In a broadcast TV study, research shows that DVR users usually fast-forward too far into the show they're watching. Then they have to rewind again, and usually scale it back just enough to see--you guessed it--the last five seconds of the last ad. So what are marketers doing? …

The rise of YouTube, online video and sponsorship deals like the one involving Paris Hilton mark a generational shift in the consumption of media. Among younger generations, all those hours spent watching TV and reading newspapers are in decline--and will probably never be the same. Young people are finding the same news, see the same images, and listen to the same music on their computers. In fact, because many can do all three at work, media consumption has probably increased all around. The rise of online advertising shows us that there is money to be made from the media consumption …