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Netflix to Be Carried on Xbox
REUTERS
A long-rumored tie-up Netflix and Microsoft to let Netflix subscribers watch streamed movies and TV shows on Xbox 360 game consoles will become a reality this fall, the companies said on Monday. The service, expected to launch as a software upgrade for the Xbox 360, will be offered at no additional cost to Netflix subscribers who also hold Xbox 360 Live Gold memberships, the companies said at the E3 Media and Business Summit in Los Angeles. XBox users will be able to access more than 10,000 Netflix titles now available as part of a feature called “Watch Instantly” that Netflix launched in 2007.
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Expedia Buying European Hotels Site Venere
PAIDCONTENT
Expedia is following its acquisition of a majority of India’s TravelGuru site by buying Venere.com, an Italy-based travel site listing about 29,000 hotels in Europe and the US, for an undisclosed amount. All told, it means an extra 10,000 Europe, Middle East and Africa hotels for Expedia. Venere, which has offices in Rome, London and Paris, has been majority-owned by buyout house Advent since 2006.
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Google/Viacom Agree to Preserve User Anonymity in Data Shakedown
TECHCRUNCH
The Google-Viacom showdown over the handover of YouTube user data appears to be over. The two sides agreed to changes in a previous ruling that would have required Google to hand over user id’s, IP addresses and a list of all viewed YouTube videos to Viacom in connection with their ongoing copyright infringement litigation. The new order, filed yesterday evening, states that Google will substitute user id’s and IP addresses for anonymous but unique identifiers.
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BBDO Acquires Creative Agency Barefoot
CLICKZ NEWS
BBDO added an ad agency to its roster: Cincinnati-based Barefoot. The 70-person creative shop will become part of BBDO’s Proximity Worldwide Network, a subsidiary that includes direct, digital, sales promotion, and event marketing. BBDO claims to have been interested in Barefoot for several years, while Barefoot sees the new parent as providing the agency with a strategic advantage. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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EU Preparing to Cap Text Message Prices
PHYSORG
The European Union’s executive arm said Tuesday it aimed to bring forward a proposal in October to regulate prices of text message roaming, frustrated that consumers are paying too much. At an average 29 euro cents (46 US cents) per cross-border text message, the price has barely budged since EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding threatened to impose a price cap at the beginning of the year if operators did not cut rates.
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Google Launches Speech-to-Text Political Video Search Tool
GOOGLE OPERATING SYSTEM
Google today released a demo for a speech-to-text technology that allows you to search inside a video’s content. Users can add an iGoogle gadget that is restricted to a small number of political videos from YouTube. Since the gadget is actually an iframe, you can also go to the original page. The “only searches videos uploaded to YouTube’s Politicians channels.” Those include speeches by Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama, along with speeches made by other politicos that have been added to the relevant channel.
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Mobispine Mobile News Aggregator Buying RSS Reader NewsAlloy
PAIDCONTENT
Mobile newsreader service Mobispine is acquiring NewsAlloy, an Ajax, web-based RSS reader, intending to merge the two in to a “seamless” product offering personalized newsfeeds across desktop and mobile. The acquisition price is not disclosed. The NewsAlloy website claims 11,331 registered users, and Stockholm-based Mobispine says it has over 300,000 active mobile users per month.
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Pheedo Launches Analytics for Distributed Feed Advertising
CENTERNETWORKS
Pheedo provides advertising for RSS feeds and today is announcing the launch of the FeedPowered Analytics Dashboard. The dashboard will provide advertisers on the Pheedo ad network the ability to track details on where their ads were served and to whom. The concept is to help advertisers increase the ROI on their feed ad campaigns.
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WSJ: Limits on Web Tracking Sought
WALL STREET JOURNAL
A new online tactic in which advertising companies team up with Internet service providers to track consumers’ activities is under fire from lawmakers who say people should be asked for their consent first. A senior Democrat and a top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Internet regulation, agree that the new tracking strategy should be governed by the same sort of “opt in” rules that govern telephone and cable hookups.
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BT to Pump £1.5bn into Broadband
BBC
BT is to invest £1.5bn in fibre optic cables, giving up to 10 million UK households access to faster broadband. The plans would bring 40% of homes in reach of an ultra-fast service by 2012. BT is also planning to put fibre-optic cable into about 1 million homes, making the service even faster for those customers.
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Study: Rapid Growth for Digital Media Home Servers
DIGITAL LIFESCAPES
According to the latest market study from TDG Research, global adoption of Home Servers will grow from 1.2 million in 2008 to more than 90 million by 2015. TDG’s latest assessment identifies several factors which will spur widespread market availability of, and consumer demand for, easy-to-use inexpensive Home Server platforms in the next few years, including the proliferation of in-home, mobile, and portable digital media devices which require synchronization, backup, and interoperability with other devices.
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Planned Guns N’ Roses Deal Underscores Power of Video Games to Sell Songs
NEW YORK TIMES
A decade and a half after releasing its previous album, Guns N’ Roses plans to put out a new song in September – on the video game Rock Band 2. Guns N’ Roses’ plan to reintroduce its music to the public in a video game underscores how important to the music business games have become – especially Rock Band and Activision’s Guitar Hero series.
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IBM Offers Slimmed-Down Websites for Mobiles
TECHWORLD
IBM researchers have developed software that allows mobile users to create slimmed-down web pages for viewing on a small device. Called Highlight, the software is an extension to the Firefox browser and was built by researchers at IBM’s Almaden Research Center. Highlight lets users record the steps required to perform a simple task on the web, say looking up flight arrival information on a website. Users can “clip” sections from a website and then save them on another server, which then serves the slimmed-down pages to the mobile device.
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Study: Older E-Mail Users Favor Fast Replies
NEW YORK TIMES
E-mail users over 70 believe more firmly in prompt replies than people in any other age group, according to the results of an annual study released recently by the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California. When asked how quickly one should reply to a personal e-mail message, members of that age group were the most likely to answer “as soon as possible” or “in one day.” Internet users over 70 also check e-mail as often or more frequently than people in any other age group.
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YouSendIt Closes Its $14 Million Series C Round for File Delivery
TECHCRUNCH
YouSendIt has raised an additional $14 million in a Series C round led by Emergence Capital and all existing investors, including Alloy Ventures, Sevin Rosen Funds, Cambrian Ventures and Sigma Partners. The round brings YouSendIt’s total to $34 million. YouSendIt is a file delivery service with over 7 million registered users. The funding will be used to grow subscriptions, and to develop content delivery and management services.
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ON24 Raises $8 Million Round for Virtual Events
CENTERNETWORKS
Virtual events provider ON24 announced this morning that they have raised over $8 million in equity and expansion capital financing, bringing their total to $46 million venture capital raised to-date. U.S. Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, and Rho Ventures led the equity round; while Gold Hill Capital led the expansion capital financing.
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Game Developer Monte Cristo Games Raises $7 Million
DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE
Monte Cristo Games, a Paris-based independent game developer, announced that it has raised about $7 million in new funding from Arts Alliance, 360 Capital Partners and Innoven Partenaires. Founded in 1995, Monte Cristo has so far published 30 titles worldwide.
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Cognition Technologies Gets $2.7 Million to Improve Semantic Search
VENTUREBEAT
Semantic search company Cognition Technologies has raised an additional $2.7 million in funding. Cognition is developing a new semantic parser, which should beef up its ability to understand the structure of different queries. Cognition Technologies has been around for more than 20 years, but only took its current form about five years ago. Since then it has raised a total of around $6 million. The current round includes Draper Associates, Fingerhut Ventures and a personal investment from Jarus himself.
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