In This Update:
• WSJ: Google Push to Sell Ads on YouTube Hits Snags
• Activision Shareholders Approve Vivendi Deal
• Getty Images and Flickr Announce Partnership
• Google Launches Lively to Create a Virtual World Across Social Networks
• The Active Network Acquires Hy-Tek Sports Software
• NebuAd Aims to Mollify Privacy Critics with Senate Testimony
• Spiraling Bandwidth Demands Spur Undersea Cable Deployment
• AI Beats Human Poker Champions
• JS-Kit Acquires Commenting System Provider HaloScan
• Vertical Search Engine IndustryNet Bought by Manufacturers’ News
• T-shirt Site CafePress Buys Art Marketplace Imagekind
• IBM and Second Life Announce Interoperability
• Nielsen: Consumers Using TV, Web More Than Ever
• Video Site Mevio Takes $15 Million Series C
• Elite Social Networker Spire Raises $9 Million First Round
• Alerts.com Raises $1.2 Million First Round
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WSJ: Google Push to Sell Ads on YouTube Hits Snags
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Wringing ad revenue from YouTube is proving to be a challenge for Google Inc. Although users of the popular video-sharing site view clips more than one billion times on most days, the site hasn’t been as popular with big corporate advertisers. World-wide revenue from YouTube ads has fallen short of Google’s expectations this year, and is likely to total about $200 million for the full year, according to two people familiar with the matter.
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Activision Shareholders Approve Vivendi Deal
REUTERS
Activision Inc shareholders approved a deal on Tuesday to merge with French telecommunications and media group Vivendi SA’s games unit, creating a public company called Activision Blizzard. The deal gives Vivendi, creator of “World of Warcraft,” a 52 percent ownership stake in the new company that would have annual revenue of $3.8 billion and more heft to take on Electronic Arts Inc the world’s biggest independent game publisher.
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Getty Images and Flickr Announce Partnership
NEW YORK TIMES
Yahoo and Getty Images said Tuesday that they have entered into a partnership under which Getty editors will comb Flickr in search of interesting images. They will then invite photographers to participate in the program and ensure that their images have the proper releases to be licensed legally. Those who are included in the program will get paid at the same rates that Getty pays photographers who are under contract with the company.
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Google Launches Lively to Create a Virtual World Across Social Networks
MASHABLE
Google has just launched Lively , a new social network built around the concept of each user creating an avatar and a personal virtual room that can be embedded anywhere on the Web. In essence, Google is looking to create a massive distributed virtual world, where every Google account can have its own avatar that can be used wherever a Lively virtual room is present – for example, on a blog, a social networking profile, or a Web page.
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The Active Network Acquires Hy-Tek Sports Software
PAIDCONTENT
The Active Network, the heavily capitalized sports technology and media company, has acquired HY-TEK Sports Software, a provider of services and tools for swimming and track & field clubs. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Hy-Tek claims to be used by 95 percent of the swimming and track & field clubs, schools and organizations in the United States
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NebuAd Aims to Mollify Privacy Critics with Senate Testimony
CLICKZ NEWS
After weeks of negative attention from privacy advocates and Congress and the subsequent retreat of several committed ISP partners, behavioral tracking firm NebuAd has made some changes to its system. The moves came the day before NebuAd CEO Bob Dykes is scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Dykes will appear as a witness during a hearing on the privacy implications of online advertising, alongside representatives from Microsoft, Google, Facebook and the Center for Democracy & Technology.
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Spiraling Bandwidth Demands Spur Undersea Cable Deployment
ARS TECHNICA
Earlier this year, a series of cuts across important undersea cables drastically reduced the amount of bandwidth available to multiple countries. The problem persisted for weeks-several nations were forced to rely on a single, overland cable for all Internet connectivity-and the situation demonstrated a need for additional undersea lines and a geographically diverse network.
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AI Beats Human Poker Champions
EETIMES
An artificial intelligence program called Polaris 2.0 defeated human champions in the second Man-Machine Poker Competition, in Las Vegas, July 3-6. Developed at the University of Alberta, Polaris 2 had learning built into its programming, thereby countering the learning ability of the humans by switching strategies whenever they did.
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JS-Kit Acquires Commenting System Provider HaloScan
TECHCRUNCH
JS-Kit, a provider of Javascript comments, ratings, and poll widgets for blogs, has announced their acquisition of HaloScan , one of the largest hosted comments service providers. This announcement is also coordinated with the launch of several major features. Financial terms were not disclosed. HaloScan had previously partnered with JS-Kit in January to provide the users of their comment system with “one-click” deployment of JS-Kit’s ratings widget.
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Vertical Search Engine IndustryNet Bought by Manufacturers’ News
PAIDCONTENT
Manufacturers’ News (MNI), a publisher of manufacturers’ directories, has acquired vertical search engine IndustryNet.com and will be merging it with its existing industrial search engine, mniguide.com. MNI, established 1912, compiles information about U.S. manufacturing establishments and other industrial businesses, and its search engine includes nearly 600,000 companies.
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T-shirt Site CafePress Buys Art Marketplace Imagekind
VENTUREBEAT
Imagekind, an online marketplace for original and reprinted artwork, has been bought by online t-shirt and gift seller CafePress, with rival Zazzle losing out on the deal. The acquisition price is reported to have been between $15 million and $20 million.
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IBM and Second Life Announce Interoperability
TECHCRUNCH
Virtual worlds like Second Life have a silo issue-they are virtual worlds unto themselves. Today, Linden Lab (which operates Second Life) and IBM announced that they have successfully bridged two virtual worlds, with avatars from Second Life successfully “teleporting” to an entirely different metaverse based on an OpenSim server. The two companies have been working together on the Open Grid Protocol to allow for interoperability between virtual worlds.
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Nielsen: Consumers Using TV, Web More Than Ever
MEDIAWEEK
More media may be vying for the consumer’s attention, but contrary to conventional wisdom, they’re watching more TV than ever before, according to Nielsen data released Tuesday (July 8). Consumers are also watching more time-shifted TV and using the Internet more.
The data, released Tuesday (July for the month of May marks the first time Nielsen has released comparable estimates across all three screens: TV, the Internet and mobile.
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Video Site Mevio Takes $15 Million Series C
SILICON ALLEY INSIDER
Mevio, the online video network formerly known as PodShow, has raised another $15 million in funding, led by Crosslink Capital and joined by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital, Sherpalo Ventures and DAG Ventures. All are returning investors. This brings Mevio’s funding to a total of $38 million raised. Mevio’s model is buying cheap, original video, selling advertising and sponsorships, and syndicating across the Web.
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Elite Social Networker Spire Raises $9 Million First Round
PAIDCONTENT
Spire.com, a social networking site for folks whose net worth is $250k or more, has raised $9 million first round from Hearst, Trident Capital and TL Ventures. The site calls itself a “social resource”, as it’s designed to help users discover and share information with each other. With the funding, Spire has acquired London-based Suzanne’s Files a high-end content site, bringing in 55,000 readers. Terms of that deal were not disclosed.
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Alerts.com Raises $1.2 Million First Round
SEATTLE PI
Alerts.com, a Seattle-based info alerts service, has raised a $1.2 million first round led by Monster Venture Partners. The basic idea: a single site to consolidate all of the alerts someone needs. That includes news alerts, which many sites currently offer, as well as stuff like birthdays, traffic and weather.
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Tags: Activision, Alerts.com, Avatar, Boston, CafePress, DAG, Facebook, Flickr, Getty Images, Google, Halo, HaloScan, Hearst, IBM, IDG, Imagekind, Industry Net, Informa, Intel, ISP, JS-Kit, Lively, Mac, Mevio, Microsoft, NebuAd, Seattle, SEC, Second Life, Sequoia Capital, Sherpalo Ventures, Social Networking, Spire, The Active Network, Turn, U.S., Venture Capital, Video, Vivendi, widget, WSJ, Yahoo, YouTube