Online video, once heralded as the future of video advertising, has turned out to be a confusing format. Amid that confusion, Hulu.com, the joint venture from NBC and News Corp., seems to have the firmest grip on what consumers and advertisers want, according to The Economist. When Google acquired YouTube in 2006, it seemed manifest that the online video sharing giant was the future. Two-and-a-half years later, advertisers still won't touch YouTube's user-generated content (still the vast majority of its content) "with a barge pole." In the meantime, traditional media companies started to pull their content from the Google …

On Thursday, Google and IBM announced a new partnership that would allow Google Health to connect to and stream data from medical devices. This is accomplished by fitting Wi-Fi radios to devices like heart rate monitors, scales and blood sugar measurement readers, which can then transmit medical information in real-time to Google Health. IBM is providing the software, called Websphere, for aggregating and translating the medical data to Google's health site. The new service would allow relatives, for example, to remotely track the glucose readings of a diabetic living alone, or a physical trainer to monitor the weight and …

By now, the Web's four biggest players--Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL--have all reported fourth quarter earnings, so TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld combined their numbers in order to give us a decent proxy for the health of the greater online advertising industry, as the big four account for the majority of online advertising revenues. Surprisingly, after a full year of declining growth, their combined ad revenues actually gained 3% in the fourth quarter as compared to the third. This is interesting, because sequential growth ground to a halt from the second to third quarters. Says Schonfeld: "What the slight rebound in …

Facebook has joined the OpenID Foundation, a significant move that many OpenID advocates have been pining for, for some time, according to Read Write Web's Marshall Kirkpatrick. Both systems allow users to log into distributed Web sites; as such, they have been called rivals--but not anymore. Instead, they're joining forces (kind of). Some cynics believe Facebook's secret plan is to destroy OpenID, but Kirkpatrick disagrees, saying that the move is very good news for both companies. Both systems offer a number of benefits, including making it easier to participate in Web sites without joining those Web sites; they also …

Netflix said today that over one million Xbox 360 owners have activated its movie streaming service on Xbox Live in the three months since the partnership was announced. The online DVD company said Xbox Live users have watched 1.5 billion minutes of movies and TV episodes through its Watch Instantly video service, but Netflix did not say how many new subscribers the company has gained from the partnership. The Netflix-Xbox 360 partnership is seen as an important gauge of demand for the market for movies delivered over the Internet. The news comes at a time when traditional media giants like …

New performance-driven ads, like customized ads that show different products to different users, online coupons, or Web ads hidden inside links in text, are helping marketers use their ad dollars more efficiently. For example, Web retailer Overstock.com plans to spend $15 million, or 20% of its marketing budget for the year, on personalized ads from Choicestream, a maker of product-recommendation software. To create the personalized ads, Choicestream relies on the data Overstock provides about what customers browse and purchase on its site. Choicestream uses the data to select personalized products and offers to insert into Overstock ads. According to …

Did Time Warner just write down AOL's acquisition of Bebo? AOL accounted for $2.2 billion of the $24 billion writedown of goodwill that the media giant announced during its fourth quarter earnings call. A reduction in the "carrying value of goodwill" means that an acquisition or investment is no longer worth what the company originally paid for it. Google, for instance, recently wrote down $1 billion of its investment in AOL, and is now subsequently calling for Time Warner to offload the beleaguered company altogether. In any event, the $2.2 billion charge is an acknowledgement that AOL overpaid for …

In a strange move, Microsoft today is unveiling a new celebrity site called "Wonderwall." The new content destination (wasn't Microsoft moving away from content?) was created, designed and produced by BermanBraun Interactive, the Hollywood production company run by ex-Yahoo media chief Lloyd Braun. Kara Swisher, for one, is impressed by Wonderwall's "slick" design and interface. The site uses an unusual horizontal design with a scrolling "wall," which Swisher says has an "iPhone feel." It will aggregate content from a variety of partners, while also employing a small staff to give the site its own unique voice. Microsoft and BermanBraun …

YouTube has quietly changed the default filter on its homepage from "Most Viewed" to something called "Popular." What, exactly, does the change mean, asks the Los Angeles Times' David Sarno? "Most viewed" is still around, but it's been moved to the margins, having lost its default status. "Popular," meanwhile, has rather mysteriously take its place, as nowhere does YouTube define "Popular" or explain the reason behind the change. One thing we do know: it doesn't mean the most viewed videos. In December, after YouTube introduced a "Most Popular" tab, a YouTube spokesperson vaguely explained that, "Most Popular incorporates more …