Social networking is definitely the next big thing, but it's not necessarily the next big moneymaker. Like Web-based email before it, social networking will evolve as a feature tied to the Web portal experience. However, like email, it's not (really) a business. Meanwhile, as media companies bid up the value of social networks like MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo, the industry is still searching for a suitable revenue model. Recently, Google co-founder Sergey Brin admitted that "social networking inventory as a whole"--which includes its own offering, Orkut, as well as a search advertising deal with News Corp.'s MySpace--was performing …

What does Google has in store for advertisers and publishers now that its DoubleClick acquisition has been approved? So far, all we've heard is that layoffs are expected, but industry watchers point out that before GoogleClick comes to market, the company faces some tough integration questions. Some critics are calling for Google to let go of Performics, DoubleClick's search marketing and optimization unit. There's a clear conflict of interest with the world's No. 1 search provider selling services that improve Web site and advertising performance on search engines. Another problem Google faces is with publishers. Google may …

Rock Band creators MTV and Harmonix are showing big music one way to save its tanking business model: sell songs to gamers. Indeed, you might not be able to get Gen Y to pay a buck for songs download on the Internet, but you could easily get Rock Band and Guitar Hero fans to pay twice the price for the privilege of adding new songs to their virtual set list. A recent update to Rock Band has effectively turned the game into an online music store, as gamers can now buy and instantly play new songs, released …

AOL's purchase of Bebo for $850 million last week was a defensive move, and a rather unfortunate one. The Time Warner unit is still trying to shift its business model to being more of an advertising network, but AOL still makes much higher margins on the ads it sells on its own pages. Because of this, AOL needs to maintain (enhance?) its portal business, which made owning a social network a priority. But was Bebo the right choice? The Silicon Alley Insider reports (http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/3/aol_many_senior_managers_were_against_bebo_buy) that several top AOL execs were not consulted on the acquisition, and are now …

Microsoft apparently wasn't too impressed with Yahoo's latest pronouncement that its rosy future warrants a bid of at least $40 per share, or $9 per share more than Microsoft's original offer. However, Microsoft might ultimately have to raise its offer, especially if Yahoo hits the targets set out in a press release. Paying $40 per share would add $12 billion to the $41 billion Microsoft originally offered. At that price, the software giant would be better off buying AOL parent Time Warner. Time Warner would probably end up selling for upwards of $85 billion, but Steve Ballmer …

According to a new survey, 95 percent of adults who download video content from the Web hardly ever play that content on a TV or DVD player. The Macrovision survey of 2,254 American adults found that 43 percent download digital media content from the Web. More than 25 percent said they download TV shows regularly, while 15 percent said they download full-length movies. However, more than half of those surveyed said they only watch digital media content on their computers. The results illustrate the restrictive limitations of digital rights management, which doesn't easily allow for downloaded content to …