Jon Fine of Business Week echoes The Economist's view that increasingly, it's Google's world. The company announced three big deals in the last few weeks "with a lovely sense of orchestration and crescendo." Those would be a content distribution partnership with the Associated Press, a video clip syndication partnership with Viacom, and the announcement that it would be the exclusive search provider for News Corp. and MySpace. The latter, of course, is the most impressive. It's also the most conventional, Fine says, because it's no different than any of its scores of newspaper partnerships. But MySpace could be the last …

Cell phone users have come to expect seeing ads pasted on their tiny screens--which is a good thing, because mobile phone advertising is only just getting started. Ad campaigns for the personal mobile phone have increased markedly this year, after several years of technology limitations. Mobile network operators have unveiled faster networks, and phone makers are putting bigger, more colorful screens on smaller, lighter phones. Driving the demand is an increase in text messaging--around 30 percent of the 217 million registered mobile phone users send SMS messages, says the Yankee Group--the wireless Web, and video. For advertisers, the younger audience …

Media giant Disney, which is having a stellar year so far, says it's unlikely to enter into any "broad-sweeping partnerships" with Internet portals like Google or Yahoo as it builds up its Web business. "Our opportunities are pretty significant without them," said Robert Iger, the company's chief executive. Iger's comments come less than a week after rivals News Corp. and Viacom announced major partnerships with Google, the Web's biggest search and contextual marketing network provider. Viacom's deal will see Google distribute video clips from its properties like MTV and Comedy Central across Google's publisher network. The ground-breaking deal is believed …

Google CEO Eric Schmidt says the rise of social networking marks the development of the online lifestyle, calling it "a phenomenon on scale with the rapid-fire adoption of instant messaging," which makes it a really "big deal." These words, of course, are backed by his company's recent announcement that it would pay $900 million to be the exclusive search provider of News Corp.'s online properties, which include MySpace, IGN, Rottentomatoes, Askmen, and Scout. The deal presents an opportunity for News Corp. to marry two of the most important indicators of user behavior: search history and personal data. "Sure, there may …

Web 2.0, the new Internet gold rush, is all about social networking, user-generated content, and online video. It's also the next great opportunity for newspapers, writes Editor & Publisher. That's right--newspapers. How is that? Because local opportunities abound with video and user-generated content. For one thing, E&P says YouTube and MySpace often lack context; 80 percent of the information on these sites is aimed at an inside group of people. Clips from a random wedding mean nothing to most, but on a newspaper site, where people presumably still go to find local news, video from a local wedding or a …

Today, the Federal Communications Commission is auctioning off 1,122 licenses for advanced wireless services, like high-speed Internet. Analysts say the move could raise as much as $15 billion for the feds. There is strong interest among the 168 bidders in securing the radio spectrum, which could open the way for new advanced technologies, such as WiMax. The bidders consist of top cable and satellite providers, as well as private-equity wireless startups. Some 90 megahertz of spectrum is to be auctioned off beginning today, but the auction is expected to take weeks to complete. Cable operators Comcast Corp. and Time Warner …

AOL can't seem to catch a break. Just as it finally begins to make positive steps in the right direction, embarking on a monumental shift of its business model, the Time Warner unit shoots itself in the foot. The gaffe: showing the world the search behavior of some 650,000 of its subscribers--exacerbated by the fact that almost as soon as the data was taken down, it reappeared on several blogs and file-sharing sites. About 10 days ago, AOL posted the 440-meg downloadable file called "500Kusers.tgz" on a research Web site, research.aol.com. After several blogs started linking to it, the company …

It's easy to peg Yahoo as the big loser after Google secures a massive deal--the $900 million search distribution agreement between the search giant and News Corp.'s MySpace. After the news broke, analysts were singing Google's praises, pronouncing a major win against competitors Yahoo and MSN. Clearly, Google is the winner of that deal. But, lest we forget, Yahoo is only part-search engine, whereas Google is 90 percent search engine (certainly revenue-wise). Which reminds us that in many ways, Yahoo competes with MySpace for eyeballs and content; it's also moving into areas like social networking and online video. Google offers …

Web 2.0 companies are lining up at industry conferences like orphans looking for a new home. During this second round of massive Web industry growth, getting acquired is the new IPO. M&A activity in general continues to be hot, while the stock market remains tied to volatile energy prices. Sooner or later, a Web 2.0 shakeout is expected. So is further consolidation in the broadcast business, as companies continue to settle into their digital futures. The Hollywood Reporter warns media companies not to forget the lessons of the AOL-Time Warner merger. Since there isn't enough room for everyone at the …

AOL, the company that made public the private search information of 650,000 customers, is giving out free domain names, according to CNET. The catch, of course, is you don't own it; AOL does. And the company can keep whatever information is on it--and sell it to advertisers. You can use the domain as your email address, your home page--whatever. So can friends, families and members of the same club or organization. This might have been a cool idea before the company's massive PR gaffe, but in light of recent developments, let's just say AOL isn't exactly top-of-mind when it comes …