Here's a tough sell: Agency folks should be telling their clients to invest more in online video because it's audiences are more valuable than TV audiences. Is that true? Pound for pound, yes, given that video audiences are more contained and engaged in what they're doing, but this comes at the expense of TV's massive reach. If your client is a national brand advertiser, don't be surprised if they reject shifting a significant portion of TV spending to online video. If you work for a business-to-business, automotive or financial services company, they're more likely to listen. In an …

The press loves to document the downfall of the mighty. Google's problems securing big media deals and effective monetization of YouTube's massive user base and extensive video catalog have become a regular pastime for some reporters at big publications. Over the weekend, here's what YouTube made in 2006: $15 million. That's according to a Bear Sterns analyst note. However, despite operating YouTube "from deep in the hole," analysts refuse to pronounce the $1.65 billion Google acquisition a failure -- yet. UBS analyst Ben Schachter points out that YouTube is one of several Google investments "for the long term," as …

Microsoft Corp. Tuesday launched a major offensive against Google, its closest rival in the Internet business, according to Reuters, saying the search giant takes an arrogant and possibly illegal approach to copyright protection. In a series of remarks, Thomas Rubin, Microsoft's associate general counsel, told the Association of American Publishers that Google's move into new media had essentially come at the expense of book, video and software publishers. "Google takes the position that everything may be freely copied unless the copyright owner notifies Google and tells it to stop," Rubin said, adding that his client Microsoft asks copyright …

USAToday.com has given itself a Web 2.0 makeover, focusing more on connecting readers to each other, as well as its reporters and columnists. Among the changes are links and blurbs to other news sources, the ability for users to comment directly on stories, contribute to others' comments, the ability to recommend stories to peers, the addition of new discussion forums, user-submitted reviews of music, movies and TV shows and new tools for communicating with the company's staff. Additionally, USAToday.com received a makeover, including a new layout, and simpler navigation. TechCrunch applauds the effort, saying The New York Times and …

Google consultant Shuman Ghosemajumder published data back in December stating that the rate of click fraud on Google was just 2 percent. This purred the Web giant to internally investigate the matter. The result is some new figures and new tools the Web giant rolled out last week to fight click fraud. For those who missed it, advertisers can now block ads from being shown to certain IP addresses. Additionally, Ghosemajumder found that the average rate of invalid clicks already filtered by Google is less than 10 percent, while the rate of those that slip through the system's cracks a …

Last week, Google and YouTube capped a successful media fishing expedition with 200 small catches and one biggie: the British Broadcasting Corporation. However, the BBC deal isn't all it was cracked up to be; it falls short of similar deals the video provider arranged with other media giants. Short clips are the strategy, beginning with excerpts from shows like "Spooks," "Top Gear" and "The Catherine Tate Show" (they're British -- it's OK if you've never heard of them) as well as plans to post 30 new new clips daily on YouTube in a few months. Advertising, something the …

After cooling somewhat, a new move from tech giant Cisco Systems shows that the social networking M&A market is still hot. This week, the Silicon Valley firm is set to announce the acquisition of Tribe.net, a smallish social network (eight employees) that's been looking for buyer for what seems like ages (Facebook anyone?). It's a curious move considering that Cisco never had anything to do with the media business before. They're the pipes and back-end guys, the hardware creators and enablers of many of our wireless routers and modems. So why buy Tribe -- especially since the company …

In the real world tax season totally sucks, and now, sadly, it's the same for participants in massively multiplayer online games. That's right, on April 15 you now owe the man a portion of your earnings from that fine little real estate business you've set up for yourself in Second Life. The virtual world, where real users turn real money into virtual money for the spending pleasure of their virtual selves, has become a little economy unto itself, where the earnings of entrepreneurs are significant enough for the IRS to come calling if you don't perform your citizenly duty. …

For contemporaneous coverage, comments and observations of the American Association of Advertising Agencies' Media Conference & Trade Show in Las Vegas this week, periodically click on this special edition of MediaPost Raw.

The Drudge Report. Many read the international Web news portal, and thousands set it as their homepage. As you know, global stock markets tanked this week. With up to 20 million hits per day, the question begs asking: to what extent did Drudge play a part? Of course, several factors contributed to nosedive, Drudge, with its blunt, tabloid-style headlines and wide-ranging pool of American leaders, journalists etc., played its part. Drudge headlines may contain up to 40 words or 40 sentences; the most important ones are distinguished in red, bold type. The really important ones come in extra-big, flashing …