News Corp. claims that MySpace users are more likely to engage with presidential candidates on the Web than the average online adult, according to an internal study. MySpace users are 139 percent more likely to visit an online chat room with public officials and political candidates than the general online adult population. They are also 50 percent more likely to watch political or public affairs-related video online and 29 percent more likely to look up political or campaign related info on the Web. Moreover, a whopping 86 percent said they were "likely" or "extremely likely" to vote in the …

The Hollywood union strike between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is turning into an all-out war. Last week, the WGA made more threatening demands, but the Alliance refused to budge, choosing instead to reply with rhetoric aimed at turning rank-and-file writers against the union's "power-hungry" leaders. With the strike now in its second month, the talks--which involve writer compensation for new media revenues, among other things--don't look any closer to a resolution. Which is fine, says Patric Verrone, president of the WGA West, because the stalemate is only creating "entrepreneurial possibilities …

In late October, Google announced OpenSocial to a great deal of fanfare. Media critics responded by touting the developer consortium, which uses open source code to allow developers to create and run universal applications across a network of social sites, as the future of the social Web. But that was six weeks ago. Yesterday, Facebook announced that its own developer network, whose platform has been around since May, would go live with Bebo, the Web's No. 3 social network, as its first partner. Meanwhile, OpenSocial isn't finished, and according to Bebo CEO Michael Birch--whose company is also …

IAC chief Barry Diller discusses the decision to split the company into five entities, one of the Web industry's major stories of the year. Some felt the move was an admission that the media conglomerate model is destined to fail on the Web. Others felt it was smart to break up the disparate assets so they could focus more on their own businesses. It's not that IAC's business model, which is to buy promising Web companies on the cheap and then turn them into profitable businesses using minimal staff, isn't working. It's that combined, many of its …

The Web 2.0 movement is in its third season, and while business models are still "fuzzy," tech startups and software developers continue to receive the backing of VC and private-equity firms. Online video might have been the story of 2006, but social networking recaptured center stage in 2007, thanks mostly to Facebook's landmark innovation to open its software development kit to outside developers. Since then, just about every one of its competitors has followed-suit. Yahoo's acquisition of "Ajax-heavy" Zimbra, an email provider, and Adobe's announcement of Photoshop Express were clear signs that 2007 would be the year …

The Writers Guild of America is losing ground in its bid to extract a better compensation arrangement from the big media companies. After seven weeks, the studios look content to wait out the Hollywood union strike, leaving consumers stranded, forced to watch reruns and reality shows that no self-respecting cable channel would dare offer under normal circumstances. A new demand over those very reality shows might have turned the tide in the studios' favor: WGA wants to extend its membership to include those who "write" for reality TV. That might be one demand too far; reality shows, while …

Facebook is opening up the Facebook Platform to other social networks, which means that software apps developed for Facebook can run on other social sites with no added work required by the developer. The company will also license Facebook Platform methods and tags to other platforms. Facebook's platform extension succeeds a similar announcement by popular UK rival Bebo, which unveiled its Open Application Platform today, but the Guardian points out that Facebook's move is really aimed more at Google's cross-platform consortium, OpenSocial. Facebook's platform is more established than its competitors, with thousands of developers. It will be …

Bebo on Wednesday opened its doors to software developers, in a move that was closely modeled on Facebook. The Web's No. 3 social network with 40 million uses, Bebo intends to work closely with Facebook to ensure that developers don't have to put too much effort into transferring those programs built for Facebook to its Open Application Platform. It looks like the UK-based social site's strategy is to be accessible to software developers everywhere. Aside from having its own platform, Bebo is also part of Google's OpenSocial, an initiative to make inter-operable software applications across multiple social networks. …

Yahoo's push to bolster its B2B offerings continues: It's got a new content deal with CNBC.com. The business news channel will supply Yahoo Finance with video from CNBC.com, which publishes between 100 and 150 clips per day, as well as news articles. The partnership brings together television's top financial news broadcaster with the Web's No. 1 destination for financial information. Yahoo is also working on a related initiative: a financial news destination for technology vendors. Yahoo is aggressively going after some big names for the initiative's editorial staff, including well-known bloggers and magazine columnists. The deal …

Facebook's Beacon advertising program has drawn the ire of analysts, columnists, bloggers, advertisers and its own users. Despite such widespread criticism, Beacon's ad partners have remained surprisingly mum on the issue. Which probably means they're betting the controversy will simply go away. Or maybe they feel the onus is on Facebook for giving them access to so much user data. After all, advertisers always take what they can get, right? They may not be able to dodge the issue so easily. Their lack of comment is in striking contrast to Beacon's media news blast one month ago, …