Barry Diller and IAC/InterActive Corp. has purchased Manhattan-based CollegeHumor.com, originally a content creator/UGC destination for videos of frat parties and wet T-shirt contests. However, IAC plans to focus solely on the creation of original programming, uploading one or more comedy video shorts per week. The site will be edited by Daley Haggar, a comedian and writer who has worked on "South Park" and NBC's "The Apprentice." The UGC movement has captured most of the buzz around online video, but Diller believes professionally produced, high-quality ad-supported video can generate a bigger audience. The idea is to create an online …

With a great deal of fanfare, which was met positively by investors, Yahoo's new search system, Panama, has gone live. The overarching question: will it deliver for advertisers? Search blogger Amr Awadallah says yes, while providing insight as to how the new system will affect pricing and relevance. However, a big disclaimer is in order: He works for Yahoo, so his comments should be taken with a big grain of salt. The new advertiser user interface adds new things, like ad templates, creative testing, geo-targeting and immediate ad implementation. The big change is the Quality Ordering Marketplace, which takes …

E-commerce companies are hoping Web video can result in more product sales. Companies like 1-800-Flowers and Blendtec, which sells blenders, are experimenting with video, though they don't know what to expect. For Valentine's Day, 1-800-Flowers is trying to get its customers to create a "Video Valentine," which lets you upload photos, write messages and choose musical themes and graphics to send to loved ones. Videos can also be posted to several online video sites, which company CEO Jim McCann says he hopes will drive traffic back to 1-800-Flowers. Taking a tip from the Super Bowl, …

Information Super Traffic Jam? Perhaps. While we (as consumers and Internet media professionals) applaud the progress of network neutrality, it's not an inducement to telecom and cable companies to improve their networks. In fact, big telecom could counter the net neutrality movement by moving upgrades along at a snail's pace, or worse, abandoning them altogether, creating bottlenecks throughout the Web. As gaming and online video services become more mainstream, more bandwidth is being used, which means that Internet slowdowns, absent substantial new infrastructure investments and deployment, could become a reality this year, says financial services firm Deloitte & …

Proof that no one can predict the future: three years after a stuck-looking Comcast Corp. attempted the monumental task of taking over the languishing Walt Disney Company, both companies find themselves flourishing. Turns out a blockbuster AOL Time Warner-esque marriage wasn't the answer to Disney's woes. A little refocusing (into digital media in particular), a resurgent ABC, the re-addition of Pixar helped the House of Mouse get its groove back. In the end, it was better for each company to stick to what it does best: Comcast providing media services, and Disney creating content. Sounds like AOL-Time Warner, …

The Walt Disney Company has been selling movies through Apple's iTunes downloading service for just three months, but the company's film unit is reporting that 1.3 million movies have already been downloaded. Disney began selling its new movies on iTunes in October. But other studios have resisted its lead, partly because of fears they will upset retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Target, which are responsible for most DVD sales in the U.S. Disney chief Bob Iger dismissed fears that downloads detract from DVD sales, pointing to the recent success of Disney blockbusters "Cars" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: …

Yahoo's media group is struggling to justify itself. Lloyd Braun, the former ABC programming expert who was put in charge of the division, is now gone, as is his strategy to create compelling new content. The media group hopes Yahoo is back doing what it does best: licensing content. Going forward, Vince Broady, Yahoo Media's head of games and entertainment, says one of the Web giant's strategies is to show TV shows online. Telecom companies to makers of consumer electronics have the same idea. While Yahoo and others strenuously try to secure the support of the TV major …

It has to be more than a trend if The New York Times, that great bastion of traditional journalism, is jumping on the user-created content bandwagon. At the SIAA Information Industry Summit in New York on Wednesday, Nicholas Ascheim, the Times digital's director of video and audio, said video is key to the company's future. Because creating professional video content is "expensive," the Times, like other news broadcasters, is now encouraging its readers to become citizen journalists. Ascheim said the company is also seeking wider distribute of its content across the Web. A la Google, it will distribute its …

Video games have become an advertising medium. Casual games, in particular, have contributed greatly to the business's steady march into the mainstream. Panelists at a recent discussion on the booming game business agreed that the future of the casual genre belongs to shorter, easier to play games that appeal to a wider audience. "I think it's happening because of a change in demographics," said Wade Tinney of the International Game Developers Association. "There are still kids who can play for hours, but there are also older people, like himself, who grew up on games and don't have that …

Do consumer magazines online represent a real strategy or is it just a band-aid for the widening problem of subscriber defection? Laddie mag FHM is closing its print doors as its core demo spends more time in front of a computer and less with magazines and newspapers. FHM's Web site is sticking around, however. In fact, the site already has nearly double the audience of its print subscribers. Online migration is a trend that is set to continue. Teen category mags are seeing tremendous growth to their sites in the midst of declining print circulation, as are men's magazines …