In the wake of "Flux", MTV on Thursday announced another social networking initiative, Think.MTV, aimed at young people interested in social activism. Whereas Flux is more of a distributed set of social media tools, Think is a destination site that aims to connect Web users on sociopolitical issues, like discrimination, the environment and sexual health. Like other social networks, users will create pages and upload photos and videos; some may be aired on MTV's Web site or cable network. Think.MTV profiles can also be used on other sites that fall under the MTV Networks umbrella. The site is …

It seems the credit crunch affecting hedge funds and financial services companies has yet to put a damper on Silicon Valley optimism, as venture capitalists continue to pour money into promising tech companies. A few days after Facebook investors signed off on a $10 million giveaway fund for application developers, real estate site Zillow.com has raised three times as much from its investors. The investment round comes on top of the $57 million Zillow raised since its launch 18 months ago. As recently as last year, investors valued the company at $250 million, but the new round …

On the same day that NBC announced free ad-supported downloads of its TV shows, the L.A. Times had a story about the ambitious Web strategy of NBC rival CBS Corp. Reporter Dawn Chmielewski calls CBS' approach to Web distribution "promiscuous," in that the company seeks as many open, nonexclusive partnerships it can get. In many ways, CBS' strategy comes from the "Web know-how" its executives accrued from a meeting with 16 next-generation Internet companies in Silicon Valley last year. Among other things, they discussed social media and Web 2.0 distribution. "The key lesson from Silicon Valley is respect for …

AOL, like its Big Web competitors, has made a few significant moves into the advertising network business--moves that will likely increase the company's aggregated revenue and advertising effectiveness. But acquisitions like the behavioral targeting firm Tacoda are band-aids for a much bigger problem: AOL's core business, the Web portal business, ain't really growin'-- enough. Time Warner recently admitted that gains at its Web unit won't match that of the greater U.S. online advertising market--bad news for a company that just started getting serious about advertising two years ago. The greater problem is the portal business model. AOL's woes …

For all the talk about MySpace vs. Facebook, there are vast differences between social networking's top two; they might even be able to coexist peacefully. Content-wise, MySpace and Facebook couldn't be more different. There's a strong hint of old media to the former's model for expansion, while Facebook is about the development of new software to help its users interact with one another. For example, News Corp. content has become a big part of MySpace's stickiness strategy. Clips from Fox shows like "The Simpsons" and "24" have helped it become the second most-popular video site on the Web. …

Google and Apple must have stood up and taken notice of the European Union's decision to uphold an antitrust ruling against Microsoft that was made in 2004. The verdict, more than forcing Microsoft to let go of the monopolistic practice of bundling software with its operating system, shows that Europe's antitrust authorities have the power to crack down on U.S. companies they believe are illegally limiting competition. So other companies that dominate their respective markets better watch out. In particular, Intel, Apple and Google are also being investigated by the EU: Intel for its pricing of computer chips, …

Understandably, the 2008 presidential candidates' have their eyes trained on Iowa and New Hampshire now, but Silicon Valley figures prominently in their campaign plans. The cash-rich Valley is a tremendous source of fund-raising, having raised $1 million more in the first six months of '07 than it did in 2004 and 2000. More broadly, California, with its early primary date of Feb. 5, provides a chance for the candidates to tackle issues other than the war in Iraq and economic concerns, such as Net neutrality, job outsourcing, competition in the Internet service industry, open standards for wireless, and …

Direct marketers sometimes like to trick consumers with confusing sales pitches, but a new study says that ambiguous advertising adversely affects sales. However, instead of dropping the confusing message, the study urges marketers to boost sales by following up difficult-to-interpret pitches with the same offer, but using clearer language. The Journal of Consumer Research report coins the sales technique "disrupt then reframe" (DTR). For example, first calling five dollars "five hundred pennies" and then following that message up with another one reading, "That's $5--a bargain!" The report says that in some cases, DTR nearly doubled sales compared to …

Time Warner No. 2 Jeffrey L. Bewkes is set to succeed Dick Parsons as company CEO as soon as Jan. 1, five months shy of the latter's contract expiration. Many on Wall Street view Mr. Bewkes as something akin to a corporate action hero likely to break up Time Warner, jump-starting its long-stalled share price. A breakup would likely involve the long-overdue separation of Time Warner from its perennially beleaguered Web portal, AOL. Time Warner's stock is down 15% for the year; investors believe the company to be in a kind of purgatory, driven partly by a …

Why are social networks considered such a goldmine for advertisers? Because their users input nothing but personal data. However, finding the right tool to leverage social network data has proved to be difficult. MySpace, the world's largest social network with 110 million active users, aims to take full advantage of its rich user data bank by implementing a new set of targeting tools for advertisers. This week, MySpace execs are expected to shed light on the results of a program testing the new behavioral targeting system, which increases the likelihood that a user will click on an …