As the economic chill creeps into the digital media and marketing world, companies such as AdBrite, Zillow, eBay and Heavy.com have already begun laying off workers. And the trend is almost guaranteed to speed up before it slows down. So today ClickZ is unveiling a layoff tracker for the digital market. The simple chart tracks layoffs by company, showing what percentage of the staff was cut, the total number and the date it happened. At the bottom it shows the tally of total industry layoffs to date. ClickZ promises not to litter the chart with layoffs from generic tech companies …

Not many start-ups get a second chance. And Joost may be no exception. But the video-sharing site once falsely hyped as a "YouTube killer" is trying, taking its pitch to Madison Avenue once again as it attempts to crawl back from irrelevance with a new operating model -- and a lot of money in the bank. To refresh your memory, Joost was the site launched about two years ago by the founders of Skype and Kazaa that offered free downloads of TV shows, as long as consumer were willing to first download some bulky software. It quickly fell into …

You may think cell phones and iPods are pulling your family apart -- not a hard conclusion to reach when your children refuse to put down either long enough to hold a conversation with you -- but a new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project suggests that such devices may actually help bring the American nuclear family closer together. Pew, which surveyed 2,252 adults in the U.S. between December and January of this year, found that "couples use their phones to connect and coordinate their lives, especially if they have children at home." Spouses, parents, and …

Ever want to see yourself rise and fall from fame a la some "True Hollywood Story" or "Behind the Music" subject? Well now's your chance, thanks to Time Warner's first bid for viral buzz, MyFameStar.com. The site allows users to upload photos of themselves or friends into a prefabricated story about their rise to fame and subsequent crash to earth. The site encourages viral distribution with such standard ploys as customizable videos, "trash-talk" themes and a quirky, offbeat montage. The application puts the Time Warner brand front and center, flashing product messages while the page is loading. The …

For years now, Web 2.0 companies--social networks, video sharing sites, whatever Twitter is--have been launching and expanding at incredible rates, all on the assumption that if they got big enough and reached enough people, the advertising would be there. But what if they're just plain wrong? This could become painfully obvious in the next few years thanks to the economic downturn, say industry observers. In tough times, advertisers not only pull back, they run for the safe haven of familiar and reliable media outlets. "When you have a contraction like this, people stay with the best brands," said Andy Chapman, …

Anyone who's played enough video games against anonymous users online knows that decorum--particularly when it comes to language--tends to suffer. Beat someone badly enough in Halo 3, or suffer a serious enough butt-whooping, and you are likely to have a few F-bombs dropped into your headset. So in 2004, Microsoft applied for a patent for real-time censoring of audio streams. The patent has finally been granted, giving Microsoft the go-ahead to use its technology that can digitally recognize profane words and delete them from the conversation. But could the technology be applied elsewhere? TV networks have gotten in big …

CEOs of digital agencies are all sounding a similar theme right now to the press: Traditional advertising could be hit hard thanks to the economic morass, but digital advertising will be spared because of its lower cost and measurability. But behind closed doors, those same CEOs are building contingency plans in case they're predictions don't quite hold up. For example, iCrossing CEO Don Scales presented three separate outlooks to his board of directors last week, and he included ways the company should cut back, such as slashing its trade-show marketing budgets, or toning down the holiday party. That …

Google CEO Eric Schmidt this week will join Democratic nominee Barack Obama on the presidential campaign trail, a job he calls a "natural evolution" from his role as an advisor to the campaign. But Schmidt is stressing that Google itself is neutral in the campaign. Either way, it's hard to deny that Google could use a friend in the White House right now. Congress is considering measures that could have an adverse impact on Google's business, including laws that could limit the companies' ability to deliver personally targeted online advertisements and rules that would allow telecommunications companies to charge …