Is this an about-face from GoogTube? Google is said to be teaming up with broadcasters and other content to create 30-second pre-roll video ads that would appear before video clips on YouTube. If memory serves, CEO Chad Hurley and once said, and Google execs have hinted in the past, that pre-rolls would not be the way forward for the online video-sharing site. Apparently, Patrick Walker, Europe's head of video partnerships at Google, told delegates at the MipTV conference in Cannes that broadcasters have been "enthusiastic" about the new ad plan, predicting that 2008 will see "real money coming …

Google is the world's most powerful brand, according to the Millward Brown Optimor/Financial Times annual Top 100 Most Powerful Brands report, taking top spot from rival Microsoft. Seventh-place last year, Google rose to the summit this year with a brand value worth $66.4 billion. The search king was followed by GE ($61.9 billion), Microsoft ($54.9 billion), Coca-Cola ($44.1 billion) and China Mobile ($41.2 billion). The MBO report assigns a financial value to a brand's "intangible earnings," attributable to their global awareness. That metric is derived using public data supplied by Bloomberg's Datamonitor. Google's rise to the top of …

From out of absolutely nowhere, Nintendo swooped in to take control of the video game market--at less than half the cost. Its Nintendo Wii, on the market for about six months now, is cheaper, more accessible, and more fun than the higher-powered offerings of Sony and Microsoft. Who needs more processing power and better graphics when you can have motion-control? Who needs the electricity-guzzling Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 when the pint-sized, low-powered Nintendo Wii can run for days without running up your electric bill? Who needs the complex controllers used by Sony and Microsoft when the layman can …

Here's a non-controversial statement: Google dominates the Internet. The quintessential business success story, a technology company built around a simple idea grew into a $150 billion juggernaut--and with unprecedented speed. In just eight years of existence, the search company is worth $150 billion. Success has made it eerily similar to a Web-based version of Microsoft. Which means that companies like Microsoft and AT&T, and consumer groups across the country have every right to question Google's acquisition of DoubleClick, he says. Microsoft was eventually barred from extending its influence over the software market, so why shouldn't Google, the undisputed …

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, one of the largest and most established ad agencies, has undergone a "wrenching shift" into new media. The agency, creator of the legendary "Got Milk" campaign, has managed what the newspaper calls a "stunning transformation," thanks to the forceful direction of its co-founder Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein. "I told them, 'If you want to work here, you have to be able to do all these things,'" Goodby said, referring to the wide variety of new media devices. "I told them, 'You have to be our eyes and ears into the new world." In addition …

When Google is about to announce something really big, the company now sends out a mass internal email informing its 12,230-plus employees that the in-house market for transferable stock options has been shut down. That's actually like a massive fire drill for the press to get ready for something momentous. For the SEC, the move keeps the stock price from being disrupted prior to a big deal. In the email, Google calls it the "supersecret Google is about to buy Yahoo" alert, citing examples of the company buying either of its two biggest Web rivals: Yahoo or Google. …

YouTube deleted and then restored a controversial video of 2008 Presidential hopeful John McCain's little improvisation about bombing Iran, to the tune of the Beach Boys song "Barbara Ann." McCain was actually speaking to a live audience at a campaign stop in South Carolina. His little song went: "That old, that old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran. Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, anyway." The audience laughed. McCain implied that bombing Iran, which is accused of aiding the Iraq insurgents, could be necessary to protect Israel. YouTube said it deleted the video after the site's users flagged it. "We reviewed …

What if Google delivered whopping earnings and nobody cared? Google's first-quarter earnings haven't been the media event of the past. Revenues jumped 65% to $2.53 billion, a $1 billion increase over last year, while its international business grew an astonishing 81%, raising its share of revenues to 47% from 42%. On a pro-forma basis, which excludes employee stock options, the company delivered $3.68 a share, easily beating analysts' expectations of $3.31. Attribute the lower-key press coverage to the fact that it's the same old story with Google: search. "The most important thing is that the core business is really …

Academia is a very different world today. College pofessors now have to compete with mobile phones, wireless Internet and colossal time wasters like MySpace and YouTube for attention in the classroom. In fact, Congress recently introduced a bill to stifle funds for schools that don't restrict access to certain Web sites on their networks. Naturally, there has to be an opportunity in there somewhere. To that end, British-based Elgg, an open-source social-networking software provider, designed a platform with academic use in mind, connecting students, teachers, researchers, advisers and tutors, while offering social-networking usuals, like a profile page, a …

What does "Web portal" mean to you? It certainly means different things to different Web giants. Yahoo markets itself as a destination for everyone else's content, while Google wants to direct people to everyone else's content. AOL believes it's a destination for original content and MSN (we think) falls somewhere in the middle. On Tuesday, AOL made a "glitzy pitch" to advertisers for more of their dollars (what does "upfront" meant to you?). The Time Warner company peddled what it calls "the expensive stuff." While the rest of the Web world focuses on user-generated content like video and social …