In This Update:
• Google Slams News Report
• ESPN Web Overhaul About Done; ‘Less Is More’ Design Aimed At Advertisers
• Hasbro Drops Suit Against Scrabulous Creators
• Serious Flaw in Internet Explorer Not Fixed Yet
• Wikipedia Finally Releases Official Mobile Site
• CallFire Rolls Out Personal Call Broadcast Service for iPhone
• SlideShare Presents Your Newest Social App: PowerPoint
• BlueKai Raises $10.5 Million to Improve Ads
• Aravo Raises $7 Million Series D Following World’s Largest Single SAAS Deployment
• Image Metrics Scores $6.5 Million in Funding, Makes Digital Characters Look Really Real

• Video Ad Provider Overlay.TV Raises $4.6 Million Second Round

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Google Slams News Report
RED HERRING
Google has approached a number of large cable and phone companies with a proposal that could give the search king’s traffic preferential treatment on the Internet, according to a published report. But in a blog posted by Google’s telecom and media counsel, Richard Whitt, Google called the story published in Monday’s Wall Street Journal “confused” and based on “a misunderstanding of the way in which the open Internet works.” (Google’s Net Freedom Ride) Mr. Whitt said what Google is doing is fairly common practice among Internet service providers and application and content providers. It is called “edge caching” and it boosts Internet traffic performance by storing frequently used content closer to the user.
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ESPN Web Overhaul About Done; ‘Less Is More’ Design Aimed At Advertisers
PAIDCONTENT
ESPN.com’s year-long revamp is finally ready today and set for its formal debut on January 5. Aside from emphasizing video and smarter search, as the company have talked about over the past few months in previews, execs at the Walt Disney sports unit tell the NYT that the site’s overarching ethos is all about reducing ad clutter. As John Skipper, ESPN’s EVP for content, explains: “If we are frustrating people, they’re not going to spend as much time as we want on the site.” Some of the key changes include: The revamped home page has done away with the big block of 36 links at the top, and reduced it to 19 tabs for Fantasy (a rollover unveils about 16 sub-categories), NFL (which unfolds to offer eight links that take users to the “scoreboard” or “blog network”) and a “More” tab, which has 20 links to areas such as Olympics, poker and cricket news.
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Hasbro Drops Suit Against Scrabulous Creators
PAIDCONTENT
Board game marketer Hasbro has dropped its copyright infringement suit against Jayant and Rajant Agarwalla, the makers of the online version of Scrabble known as Scrabulous, AP reported. The Scrabulous app was taken down from Facebook this summer after Hasbro sued the brothers, who live in Calcutta. While Hasbro holds the domestic rights, Mattel, the holder of Scrabble’s international rights, filed suit against the brothers in India in last February. Neither Hasbro nor the Agarwallas offered any explanation for why the suit being rescinded. Also, there was no word on when or if Scrabulous will return to Facebook.
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Serious Flaw in Internet Explorer Not Fixed Yet
SF GATE
Users of all current versions of Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer browser might be vulnerable to having their computers hijacked because of a serious security hole in the software that had yet to be fixed Monday. The flaw lets criminals commandeer victims’ machines merely by tricking them into visiting Web sites tainted with malicious programming code. As many as 10,000 sites have been compromised since last week to exploit the browser flaw, according to antivirus software maker Trend Micro Inc.
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Wikipedia Finally Releases Official Mobile Site
DEALBOOK
While the Wikipedia is one of the most popular destinations on the Internet, it surprisingly lacked an official mobile version until today. Over the years, a number of companies released their own mobile versions of the service, but an official version the Wikipedia itself was never available through a dedicated mobile interface. Now, you can surf to mobile.wikipedia.com to see a stripped down but highly functional version of the Wikipedia on your favorite mobile device.
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CallFire Rolls Out Personal Call Broadcast Service for iPhone
SOCAL TECH
Los Angeles-based CallFire, a provider of call broadcasting services, launched a new iPhone application Tuesday, saying that it has launched a new service it is calling FriendCast. The new application allows users to use their iPhone to broadcast their personal voice messages to many contacts simultaneously. According to the firm, the new, free service allows users to send a single voice-recorded message to a list of contacts–for example, for informing members of a club or reaching a group. The firm said the new application is ad-supported. The service is similar to the mass call notification systems being used by schools, governments, and others to update constituents via phone, except on a personal scale. CallFire operates an online service for helping companies, non-profits, and others broadcast voice campaigns and manage virtual call centers.
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SlideShare Presents Your Newest Social App: PowerPoint
READ WRITE WEB
SlideShare is the most popular social site for presentations on the Web. Microsoft PowerPoint – despite its detractors – remains the most popular presentation software around. What if those two had the power to work together? What if sharing new PowerPoint presentations was as easy as clicking a button? Now, it can be. Today, SlideShare is introducing the “SlideShare Ribbon” an add-in that makes the sharing and social features of SlideShare accessible without even leaving PowerPoint.
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BlueKai Raises $10.5 Million to Improve Ads
GIGAOM
BlueKai, an advertising startup that hopes to convince users to actively manage their online privacy settings and sell better intent-based advertising information based on such actively managed accounts, has raised $10.5 million in second-round funding from Battery Ventures and return investor Redpoint Ventures. The Bellevue, Wash.-based startup had previously raised $3.2 million. Currently, consumers don’t care about their online privacy and behavioral advertising isn’t really working. Rather than measuring only where a consumer has been on the web, BlueKai limits its data to sites that clearly indicate intent to buy something, typically retail goods, cars and travel.
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Aravo Raises $7 Million Series D Following World’s Largest Single SAAS Deployment
TECH CRUNCH
Aravo, a SAAS supplier information management tool, announced today that they closed $7 million in Series D funding. Currently, Aravo claims their GE installation is the largest single SAAS deployment. “We are now managing over 500,000 suppliers and their data in Aravo, and have just gone live in six languages,” said Gary Reiner, CIO of GE. Aravo’s software hooks directly into SAP & Oracle, and includes options to track ISO certifications, sustainability initiatives, and risk analysis. Given the cost-cutting emphasis in supply chain, it’s no wonder Aravo continues to grow during a downturn. Surprisingly they do not expect to be profitable until 2010.
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Image Metrics Scores $6.5 Million in Funding, Makes Digital Characters Look Really Real
TECH CRUNCH
Image Metrics has raised a Series B round of funding to the tune of $6.5 million, led by Saffron Hill Ventures . The extra capital will be used to advance R&D on the company’s impressive facial animation solutions, which are primarily of interest for the film and gaming industry. You might remember Image Metrics from ‘The Emily Project ‘, which went viral over the Summer and made quite a few jaws drop (video below). The company provides its technology for known players like Digital Domain, Sony Computer Entertainment and Rockstar Games, which it partnered with for making Grand Theft Auto IV look more realistic than previous versions of the best-selling game.
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Video Ad Provider Overlay.TV Raises $4.6 Million Second Round
PAIDCONTENT
Video ad provider Overlay.TV has raised another C$4.6 million (US$3.7 million) in a second round funding. The backing comes from returning investors Celtic House Venture Partners, Tech Capital Partners and EdgeStone Capital Partners, who provided the Ottawa, Canada with its C$4.6 million first round back in January. Overlay.TV exited beta in September after six months. While the company has generally targeted blogs and other user-gen sites for its ad integration, the funding will be used to produce more professional content. Since leaving beta, it has signed deals with Nettwerk Music Group, a Canadian music label and Hollywood Records. But as a WSJ piece shows, the surging growth in online video ad revenues are starting to ebb.
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Tags: API, Battery Ventures, Boston, Disney, eBook, EMI, ESPN, Facebook, GigaOM, Google, Hasbro, IGA, Ike, Image Metrics, India, Informa, iPhone, ISP, LTE, Mac, Microsoft, Mobile, Music, New York, NFL, NYT, Olympics, OMMA, Opera, Oracle, Overlay.TV, Ovi, PRI, Redpoint Ventures, RIM, Scrabulous, SEC, SlideShare, Sony, Turn, TV, Venture, Venture Capital, Video, Wikipedia, WSJ