You wouldn't know it, but the world wide Web is bursting at the seams. Thanks to the proliferation of user-uploaded and professionally produced video, large chunks of bandwidth are being eaten up by a Web infrastructure that may be inadequate as rich content usage ramps up. Like clogging arteries, the Web's pipes are headed for some serious blockage. Indeed, savvy Internet back-bone providers are starting to worry. "We don't see anything catastrophic near term, but over the next few years, there's this fundamental wall we're heading toward," said Pieter Poll, chief technology officer at Qwest Communications International. …

The Writer's Guild of America West won a case late last week against NBC Universal over the use of its members' work on the Internet. The National Labor Relations Board agreed with the association in its dispute against NBCU over worker compensation. WGAW took issue with NBC's decision last year to create Webisodes, short video clips, for most of its prime-ime shows. It told its writers not to agree to do the work until they'd agreed upon an acceptable fee. In the highly standardized, unionized offline world of entertainment, industry workers have fought hard to instill mandatory, complex compensation …

Media giant CBS Corp. has put $7 million behind Electric Sheep Co., the digital content developer best known for its work in the virtual world Second Life. Electric Sheep creates 3D model properties in the popular online role-playing game, in which users create avatars, or alternate personalities. CBS has commissioned Electric Sheep for a series of projects, including virtual sectors devoted to Star Trek, and Showtime's popular show "The L-World." "We believe that all these virtual worlds represent next-generation communications platforms," said CBS Interactive President Quincy Smith. "We see virtual worlds at a very early stage right now," Verbeck …

The Web video advertising conundrum: marketers want to get in front of consumers watching video, but no one wants to be forced to watch ads. Consumers simply don't have the patience to sit through a 15-second pre-roll -- not when they can open a new browser or find something else to keep them occupied. Google, the Web advertising behemoth, hasn't even tried running video ads yet. A new approach is to combine ads and video clips. Addicting Clips, part of Viacom's Atom Entertainment, placed a simple sponsor button for T-Mobile on clips for a contest Atom held with …

"Rocketboom" was just the start. Shows like "Diggnation," a "Wayne's World"-esque daily video roundup of the top stories from Digg.com, are proving that Web TV has wings. Diggnation, which is hosted by Digg co-founder Kevin Rose and friend Alex Albrecht, is niche programming aimed squarely at the 18-34 year old tech geek set. Topics covered in the 45-minute show, which is taped before 700 fans, include gaming, new software releases and "stupid hardware tricks." Each episode is also sprinkled with several clever if somewhat obvious product plugs. In addition, the series has attracted a total of 15 sponsors; …

With a bevy of business news sites out there, the competition for eyeballs is tight. New data from Nielsen/NetRatings reveals that CNNMoney.com was the most visited business destination of 2006, according to data from the Web research firm's Financial News and Information category. Time Warner's CNNMoney.com, which publishes its own stories as well as those from TW pubs like Business 2.0 Magazine and Fortune as well as other news outlets, beat out stiff competition from Forbes.com, Marketwatch.com, BusinessWeek.com and WSJ.com in terms of total uniques, page views and gross-usage. The company plans to expand its lead …

As we heard yesterday from CEO Eric Schmidt, Google will begin filtering out copyrighted video and other content on YouTube. The online giant has been widely criticized for failing to release an online filtering service sooner; many believe Google was stalling for lack of a better plan. However, there is no YouTube filtering technology. Rather, the paper claims that like News Corp.'s MySpace, the online video giant has agreed to license content-recognition software from Audible Magic. That would be interesting, considering that Schmidt yesterday described the task of building and managing copyright protection as being both complex and …

Social-networking startup Stickam seeks to benefit from going where MySpace and other social networks fear to tread: the Webcam. Its strategy is not just about enabling users to send video clips to each other; we're potentially talking about voyeurism in the extreme, 24/7 real-time video. Already fearful of being sued for connecting unsuspected child abusers with underage users, MySpace doesn't allow video chat. Stickam, on the other hand, encourages it. Ignoring the specter of exhibitionism, Stickam hopes to grow its user base by providing live feeds of celebrities, celebrity events, musicians, comedians and other entertainers. For example, the …

Inevitably, AOL's move to tack on ads to emails has drawn the ire of AOL Webmail users, according to an AOL spokesperson, who dismissed it as a "smattering" of complaints, saying the Web company plans to continue the practice. AOL began embedding email ads about eight months ago. A user backlash was to be expected as the company shifted from a pay-for Web content and dial-up service to a free, ad-supported Web portal. AOL still has some 13 million paying subscribers, although the company has been all but insisting that its customers abandon its slower Internet service and upgrade …

The Internet marketing services sector is headed for more consolidation in 2007, according to a new industry survey. Spurred by rising demand for Web marketing services and expanding digital budgets, companies will expand their client lists and consolidate various departments by merging. The survey, conducted by AdMedia Partners in New York, polled 3,200 advertising, marketing and private-equity professionals, 70% of whom felt strongly that the fragmented industry was ripe for consolidation. Among those most in demand are search, mobile, database, guerilla, buzz marketing and lead generation firms. While the leading ad holding companies have paved the way …