The growth of online video this year has been staggering, but marketers are still struggling to find ways to effectively monetize the channel. Pre-rolls will not be the future of online video advertising. At least, that seems to be the prevailing sentiment among advertisers and publishers from last week's Ad:Tech conference in New York. Consumers, who most likely don't have any idea what a "pre-roll" is, should be celebrating. What is it? The dominant online video advertising platform; estimates are that pre-rolls account for more than 90% of inventory sold at any time. So, if not …

The Walt Disney company is opening a video game studio that will exclusively produce titles for Nintendo systems, including the portable GameBoy Color, DS and the next-generation Wii, which is slated for a release later this month. The studio, called Fall Line, will be based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and will be run by Scott Novis, leader of the team that created the game based on Pixar's hit film "Cars." Nintendo is a natural partner for the Burbank, Calif. company because Nintendo's game products cater to a younger audience than Sony's PlayStation or Microsoft's Xbox. …

The Internet may be effective at spreading dissent, but how effective are the world's biggest Web censors? The Paris-based advocacy group Reporters Without Borders monitors Web censorship of countries like China, and in its latest report, the group published a list of the world's worst perpetrators. Southeast Asian state Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, heads that list. Some 17,000 of the group's supporters believe this nation is most in need of Internet freedom. An oppressive military regime runs the country, and the people there have far fewer freedoms than the Chinese. China came in second, with 4,100 votes. The …

It looks like Barry Diller and IAC/InterActive Corp. got out at the right time: Expedia, Inc., a former IAC unit, reported a profit decline of 28% in the third quarter, citing slower growth in domestic booking and the elimination of interest income from IAC. The company reported net income of $59 million, down from $82 million last year. Domestic gross bookings actually increased slightly, but sales were offset by rising costs. It's still the leader in online travel, which as a sector is seeing its margins squeeze. Airlines are finding it easier to fill flights themselves, and have reduced …

Online video may be poised for big growth--from $775 million in 2007 to $3 billion by 2010, according to eMarketer. But that's not a lot, if you consider that online ad spending overall should approach $30 billion by then. That begs the question: What's with all these startups that assume they can become the next breakout online phenomenon? Yelp, which runs community restaurant reviews, and Dogster, which is social networking for people with dogs, come to mind. But how do they plan to make any money? Social networking and the like may be hot right now, but advertisers …

In 2004, Robert Gates, President Bush's choice to replace Donald Rumsfeld as the new defense secretary, said that cyberterrorism could be the most devastating weapon of mass destruction of all, potentially crippling the U.S. economy. Wired writers Ryan Singel and Kevin Poulsen dug up the Associated Press story where the former CIA director makes this assertion. "Please!" they said--"Let that be hyperbole by the AP, and not an accurate reflection of what's in our next defense secretary's head." They worry that Gates could easily go overboard in his attempts to "protect" American users from cyberterrorism, repeatedly subpoenaing information from …

After the Dems' midterm victory in both the House and Senate, the tech world's focus once again returns to the idea of Network Neutrality--that all Net traffic would be treated the same. The idea had been put on the back burner after a GOP-led Congress failed to push through several bills addressing the controversial subject. CNET expects the new Congress to address that and a number of important tech-related topics, including digital copyright, merger approval, data retention and Internet censorship. The new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which writes telecommunications laws, is set to be Rep. …

Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos yesterday laid out his ambitious new strategy for selling online storage and computing power at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. Bezos' big idea is to allow other companies to use Amazon's pre-built infrastructure without any of the headaches of maintaining and upgrading their business network. What does this have to do with its online retail store? Absolutely nothing. If you need a real-world equivalent, think of Wal-Mart opening its storage warehouses to retailing competitors across the country. As Bezos said: "We make muck so you don't have to." This means Amazon is moving …

Helio, the mobile virtual network operator jointly owned by Korean-based SK Telecom and EarthLink, is today announcing a new partnership with Google and Samsung Electronics Co. to deliver its new phones, with added features like a friend locator service and Google Maps. The partnership empowers Helio customers with a Global Positioning Service-like technology. The service is being offered on Samsung's new Drift phone, which sells for $255. This is the third model in Helio's 6-month-old phone service; it will be marketed to young, tech-savvy consumers. Helio Chief Executive Sky Dayton said the company was very pleased with sales of …

At Ad:Tech, it was the unofficial coming out of Suzie Reider, YouTube's CMO, to the media. Reider said that YouTube is all about the "digital distribution of entertainment content," adding that this is what makes Google the best possible parent for the online video site. The timing of the deal is also perfect, she said, because a few years ago, publishers didn't have the right platform to sell online video and interactive shops didn't have the "tools or management capabilities to buy." It's a global community-controlled environment, Reider added, which is what makes the site so appealing to its …