Google on Thursday introduced a controversial new feature to its Google News service that allows experts and analysts quoted in news articles to publish their comments next to the Google News link and blurb to avoid being misquoted. In a blog post, Google News programmers Dan Meredith and Andy Golding said: "Comments will be published in full, without any edits, but marked as 'comments' so readers know it's the individual's perspective, rather than part of a journalist's report." Google's reasoning is "to make the full spectrum of views and information on a story available to everyone," the company stated, …

Five months after announcing a vague and still nameless joint venture, News Corp. and NBC Universal's video project is still short on details, but long on cash. Rhode Island investment firm Providence Equity Partners on Thursday secured a 10% stake in the joint venture, code-named "New Site", with a massive $100 million investment. What follows now is the creation and deployment of New Site's media player and the digital transfer of the companies' massive catalog of content. Providence's principals have an extensive traditional media past: leader Jonathan M. Nelson currently sits on the boards of MGM, Warner Music …

"Hasher"--a new breed of professionals (yes, legally) employed to scour online video sites for copyrighted content and report their findings back to big media firms. Agencies like 8-year-old startup BayTSP have more than 20 video analysts who do this all day, alerting YouTube to take down content belonging to clients like Viacom, per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Companies like BayTSP have become "key players" in the legal battle between Viacom and YouTube that may well determine the future of how copyrights are handled on the Internet. In one instance, it takes two hours for YouTube to process …

It's a long-held dream of the country's biggest Internet and technology firms to beam high-speed Web service to homes using unused television spectrum. Standing in the way, is the Federal Communications Commission, which still controls the spectrum, and the millions that big telecom puts behind its spectrum lobbying efforts. Indeed, the latest attempt by Google, Microsoft, Dell and others to provide cheaper high-speed Web access was shut down yesterday by the FCC. In no less than 85 pages, the federal organization said the prototype devices submitted by Google and friends couldn't reliably detect unused spectrum and would cause interference …

In the aftermath of a British advertiser exodus, Facebook has now updated its ad system to help advertisers avoid appearing next to listings on some of the site's estimated 6 million user groups, including the right-wing British National Party. Companies like Vodafone, Virgin Media, the BBC and First Direct pulled advertising from Facebook after such placement. The new blocking feature would simply allow advertisers to opt-out of appearing in certain groups. Owen Van Natta, Facebook's chief operating officer, says one of the "pillars" of the site is that users and advertisers can control where their information appears. As …

The British government has become the latest major UK advertiser to turn its back on Facebook. The Central Office of Information, which controls the government's $660 million annual budget, has told its buying agency to suspend buying ads on pages containing user-generated content. Jamie Galloway, COI's director of digital media, said these sites, which include Facebook, cannot provide "COI and i-level [its media buying agency] with the assurances our bookings require," which is code for staying away from unsuitable content. However, Galloway said COI would not be staying away from social media forever; the federal organization will …

ESPN360 is receiving a much-needed overhaul. The Web-based sports video platform has struggled with its identity and its business model in four years of existence, and will now focus on live events, including a greatly expanded offering of college basketball and football games, smaller market competitions and live news conferences. ESPN.com will focus more on shorter sports news, highlighting analysis and archived shows. Collectively, the new 360 will stream over 2,000 live events in its first 12 months compared to 200 in 2006. ESPN was part of the online video movement well-before the proliferation of broadband Web connections …

Google has begun incorporating street-level photos from Los Angeles, San Diego and some Orange County cities into its Google Maps program. The additions expanded an online service that thrilled some digital-map buffs and freaked out privacy advocates when it launched in May in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York and three other cities. The photos can help people scout out places they plan to visit. But when Google's camera shutters click, they capture more than buildings. Within hours of the first release, bloggers had found and posted photographs -- which are often sharp enough to identify the …

Immediately following his monumental takeover of Dow Jones, News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch suggested that one of the media conglomerates first moves would be to make The Wall Street Journal free online. Perhaps that's what moved New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. to ditch the TimesSelect, the paper's experimental for-pay service. For $7.95 per month or $49.95 per year, TimesSelect readers received access to the paper's well-known columnists Maureen Dowd, Thomas Friedman and Frank Rich, in addition to its extensive archives and other content at NYTimes.com. The program started in 2005, at a time when other papers …

Fox Interactive's Mike Barrett, the News Corp. company's chief revenue officer, reveals that FIM will report revenue "well in excess" of the $500 million goal it set for itself last year. The company's new targeting program is still in beta with 11 behavior segments, but will soon expand to more than user 100 segments. Barrett says the targeted ads, which attach behaviors like auto, lifestyle, beauty and health to user profiles, will command a 20% to 50% premium over its other ad offerings. MySpace attaches a behavior by directing say, someone believed to be a fashion aficionado to …