YouTube is working on some clandestine journalism project in San Francisco, according SFWeekly, citing a report by SFAppeal blogger Eve Batey. Batey herself is apparently part of a select group of "San Francisco bloggers, writers, and digital journalists," that YouTube is asking to participate in the project. YouTube reportedly told Batey that it's already "mobilizing 150 citizen journalists throughout the city with smartphones." Rather than simply outlining the project for Batey, however, a YouTube rep sent her a link to an Atlantic magazine article entitled "How to Save the News," with the note, "Perhaps this article …

Google, which had hinted for nearly a year now that it was working on building some sort of paid content system for publishers. Google is planning to launch a paid content system for publishers before the end of the year, reports, um, paidContent, citing a report in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. According to paidContent, the search giant has been hinting at plans to build "some sort of paid content system" for nearly a year. Now, La Repubblica reports that Google is reaching out to publishers to get them to sign up …

Apple, while still the leader in all mobile ad categories, was consistently the biggest loser in month-to-month ad impression decreases, according to May analysis from mobile advertising firm Millennial Media. By contrast, Google's Android operating system, along with some of its partners and devices, saw the biggest gains, notes VentureBeat. "Apple remained the top device manufacturer for Millennial in May with 25 percent of impressions -- but that was a 10 percent drop from its April share of 35 percent," VentureBeat notes. Mobile device manufacturer HTC saw the biggest gain of 2.4% since April, which brought it …

Describing Facebook's financial performance as "stronger than previously believed," Reuters is reporting that the social net's '09 revenue neared $800 million. That's according to unnamed sources, one of whom also tells Reuters that Facebook earned a solid net profit, "in the tens of millions of dollars last year." The news service suggests that the impressive numbers are "likely to whet the appetites of investors keen for a public share float, despite the company's insistence that an IPO is not a near-term priority." To date, privately held Facebook has released very limited financial information. Last July, Facebook board …

Blogger Robert Scoble proclaims two un-hyped location-based services to be "more important" than either Foursquare or Gowalla: Goby and TheDeapMap. First, Goby lets you find things around you, like hiking trails. "Try to do THAT with any other service!," challenges Scoble. Meanwhile, "TheDealMap lets you find deals around you, with easily 50x more deals and offers than any other service I've found." That's all well and good, but what makes either service necessarily "more important" than Foursquare or Gowalla? "Well, normal people are still resisting using these location services," writes Scoble. "But these offer REAL utility and …

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse at MySpace, the struggling social network late Thursday confirmed the abrupt departure of Co-President Jason Hirschhorn. "We fully respect Jason's decision to leave and his personal desire to return to New York," Jon Miller, Chief Digital Officer for News Corporation, said in a statement. "He's done everything we asked of him and more." Co-president Mike Jones will now step into the role of sole president of MySpace. Jones "has done an outstanding job leading MySpace into its next evolution and is the right person to take the reins," Miller said on …

With the launch of YouTube's web-based video editor, are we about to witness a hyper acceleration in consumer generated media? Perhaps, but we're not making any promises. "The editor is actually the second of its kind for YouTube," notes VentureBeat. "In 2007 it launched the Adobe Premiere Express-powered YouTube Remixer, which offered the same basic features." The result? "The Remixer died a quiet death less than a year after it was put online," Venture Beat writes. That said, "YouTube's new editor is entirely JavaScript-based, which should make it less of a resource …

A Verizon Wireless-compatible iPhone will start shipping in the fourth quarter, according to DigiTimes. The trade publication reports that contract equipment manufacturer Pegatron Technology is using its plants in Shanghai to manufacture CDMA iPhones. Verizon Wireless' network is CDMA based. Previously in March, The Wall Street Journal reported that a CDMA iPhone was in the works and headed to Verizon. Still, as ZDNet's Between the Lines blog notes, "Verizon-iPhone stories are a dime a dozen. Reports about Apple and Verizon teaming up have been around for years, but so far haven't panned out." Yet, this latest …

How does the recently relaunched Hotmail measure up to Gmail? Lifehacker subjects the rival services to a comprehensive review. "Hotmail's Office integration is very well thought out and offers some noted advantages over Gmail and Google Docs, though it is worth noting that some features (such as collaboration) are available in Google Docs as well," it writes. "Although Gmail is fast, it's the speed in which it lets you work through your inbox that gives it a leg up over Hotmail." Furthermore, "Gmail excels in getting out of your way. Hotmail, on the other hand, likes to …

Google has upgraded its Commerce Search product with several new features that let users refine their search results on retail sites. First debuted last November, Google Commerce Search is the company's enterprise search offering to let online retailers power their online stores with Google's search technology, according to eWeek. Google hosts all of the data on its own servers in the cloud to alleviate customers' concerns about handling holiday traffic spikes. As eWeek explains, "This is a departure from traditional enterprise search providers such as Endeca, Vivisimo, and Microsoft's Fast unit, which offer search software retailers install …