The interactive virtual world Second Life recently hosted a competition to see which of its citizens could come up with the best business plan. The winner was Minnesota-based Market Truths, which devised a market research and analysis system to help real-world companies figure out how best to engage with users of the vast virtual world. The contest's judges said they rewarded the company because of the team's experience conducting similar research in the real world, and also because it's business plan had the best prospects for making money. Finalists' ideas included a full suite of in-world communication and …

Google may be miles ahead in Web search, but the business of finding material on the Mobile Web remains an open question. It's turning into an out-and-out horse race, with Google taking a slender lead with 4.75 million monthly subscribers, followed by Yahoo with 3.65 million, and MSN with slightly less than 1 million subscribers, according to mobile researcher M:Metrics. The mobile game is different because it down to each search company's relationship with the carriers. For this reason, companies like Medio Systems can slide in, secure a few deals and shore up some market share. Four-year …

When Viacom ordered its content off YouTube, you knew it had to be planning something else. That is, something other than placing Comedy Central content on its new Comedy Central site. Viacom is set to strike a deal with the Internet video service Joost. Joost is the brainchild of Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. Their idea is to create a video-sharing service where all television, DVD and Web content are exchanged between users. It will also add real-time social networking and chat features to make video a more interactive experience. It will be free program that …

Google move to New York City is a good thing, both for Google and New York City. Whye? Proximity to Madison Avenue, the four major TV networks, Time Warner, Viacom, News Corp, Hearst, The New York Times CO. Bloomberg, etc. In its big push to shore up more and better deals with traditional media companies, it will do Google good to be just a little bit closer. This is also a good thing for New York's technology industry, which employs some 813,000 people, according to U.S. government labor statistics. Compare that to just 283,000 in San Francisco and …

Forget Silicon Valley, San Francisco is once again the place to be for technology companies, as proximity to top workers and competitive lease prices have brought tech companies back to the big city. For startups and big companies alike, San Francisco is proving to be a sensible alternative to Silicon Valley. With lease values equal to Silicon Valley and the East Bay, access to a world-class city, proximity to a major international airport, it's a no brainer. So who's moving in? Microsoft and Yahoo have already bought office space in the past year, and Google looks to be …

Media companies have a new friend in arms in their fight against user-generated content sites like Google's YouTube. Audible Magic, a maker of content-recognition software that could identify even the blurriest piece of copyrighted material, is now open for business. Last week, it signed an agreement with News Corporation's MySpace to identify copyrighted material on its pages. YouTube publicly and repeatedly claimed it would adopt such a technology by the end of last year. Six weeks after the passing of that deadline, YouTube doesn't appear any closer to fulfilling its promise, angering Viacom, which recently ordered all of its …

YouTube secured a potentially smart deal last week when it agreed to become the official highlights destination for the English soccer giant Chelsea FC. The West London club is one of the biggest soccer teams in the biggest league in the world, which recently signed away its international and domestic TV rights for nearly $6 billion. As part of the deal, Chelsea will receive its own channel on the popular file-sharing service, showing news updates and archive content. The team can't yet show live footage, though may change. Which would be a big score for YouTube parent,Google. As …

News Corp. has become the latest big media company to take action against widespread copyright infringement on Google's YouTube. However, instead of telling YouTube to remove its content altogether News Corp, in what may be a RIAA-like legal strategy, is going after individual perpetrators of copyright infringement. In a lawsuit against both YouTube and the online video site LiveDigital, News Corp. Wednesday subpoenaed the information of users from both sites that posted content illegally. Google was forced to comply, as per the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Google is keeping mum of course, but these days, everyone in …

Despite the company's claims that no executive knowingly benefited from the backdating of stock options, federal prosecutors are mulling whether to bring criminal charges against former Apple executives. Apple, Internet security company McAfee, Broadcom Corp., KLA-Tencor Corp., defense contractor Engineered Support Systems Inc, have all been told of a likely charge by U.S. authorities. In all, more than 170 companies have been investigated by U.S. authorities or have conducted internal inquiries into the manipulation of option grant dates, a practice that often artificially inflates company stock prices. When an executive exercises an options grant, but backdates it to a …

Steve Jobs' music essay has broader implications for Hollywood than just the music biz. Movie makers are worried that it's only a matter of time before the bubbling debate over copyright protections for film comes to a boil. After all, digital rights management software is something TV and movie studios also use to protect their work from piracy. But it's also one of the biggest internal issues the studios face these days, as many technology execs and engineers believe that DRM should be abandoned. As one Hollywood technology exec says: "Consumers can find ways to get our content anytime …