In This Update:
• Ask.com Unveils Search Privacy Tool: Users Control Their Search Data
• Bankrate Acquires Savingforcollege.com, Nationwide Card Services For $29 MM
• Microsoft to Provide Advertising for CNBC Web Site
• IBM and Partners Move Closer to 32-Nanometer Chips
• RealNetworks Lays Off 100
• REVShare Raises $20 Million from Carlyle and H.I.G. for TV CPA Ad Network
• Widget Syndicator Clearspring Launches Ad Network
• Vudu to Offer Release-Day HD Film Downloads, Adds TV Shows
• Kosmix Raises $10 Million for Health and Auto Sites
• NBC to Provide TV Shows for SanDisk Download Service
• Swarmcast Launches ‘Autobahn’ HD Player for Flash
• iMedix Gets $2 Million For Medical Social Search
• Disaboom, Social Network for the Disabled, Raises $5 Million
• Canadian ISP Tests Injecting Content into Web Pages

Ask.com Unveils Search Privacy Tool: Users Control Their Search Data
READ/WRITE WEB
Fourth-ranked US search engine Ask.com isreleasing a new feature, AskEraser, that will let users control the destiny of their search data. When enabled, AskEraser will automatically delete any user data created during future searches from Ask’s servers. That includes IP address, user and session IDs, and the text of the specific search queries. Once on, AskEraser works across any of Ask.com’s vertical search engines, as well as consumer applications such as Maps & Directions.
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Bankrate Acquires Savingforcollege.com, Nationwide Card Services For $29 MM
PAIDCONTENT
Consumer financial info site Bankrate.com (NSDQ: RATE) announced two acquisitions today totaling nearly $38 million with potential earnouts: Nationwide Card Services for $26.4 million and $7 million in earnouts, and Savingforcollege.com for $2.25 million plus $2 million in possible earnouts. NCS is an online marketer of business and consumer credit cards. Bankrate has identified credit cards as a key growth area, and it believes it will benefit by combining its traffic with NCS’ platform and affiliate network. Savingforcollege.com offers various tools, such as online calculators and professional directories, to help families save money for college. The move is intended to bulk up Bankrate’s college finance section and help it appeal to a new pool of advertisers.
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Microsoft to Provide Advertising for CNBC Web Site
REUTERS
Microsoft Corp. said on Monday that it would be the exclusive provider of display and contextual advertising for the Web site of business television news channel CNBC. The agreement takes effect immediately, with Microsoft delivering contextual ads, which are based on what the user is viewing, for CNBC.com later this month. Display ads will start in March.
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IBM and Partners Move Closer to 32-Nanometer Chips
EWEEK
IBM is moving a step closer delivering the first of its first 32-nanometer microprocessors with an announcement that it has developed a high-k metal gate manufacturing technology, which promises to reduce the power that leaks from a chip’s transistors while reducing the overall size of its chips. The first of the 32-nanometer chips-a nanometer is one billionth of a meter-should be available in the second half of 2009, according to IBM. The company, along with its five partners-Advanced Micro Devices, Chartered Semiconductor, Freescale, Infineon and Samsung-made the announcement Dec. 10.
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RealNetworks Lays Off 100
SEATTLE P-I
Seattle’s RealNetworks Inc. last week laid off roughly 100 employees, about 35 of them in Seattle and the rest in Asia and Europe, spokesman Bill Hankes said. The cuts were made across the board to reduce “redundancies” built up as a result of six acquisitions made by RealNetworks over the past two years, Hankes said. They are the first layoffs the company has made since those purchases, he said.
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REVShare Raises $20 Million from Carlyle and H.I.G. for TV CPA Ad Network
PE HUB
Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group and H.I.G. Ventures today announced they co-led a $20 million investment in REVShare, an exchange that allows advertisers to bid for television time on a Cost-per-Action (CPA) basis (akin to the Cost-per-Click method of web advertisers), versus the traditional method of charging based on projected audience size. Founded in 1989, REVShare utilizes a proprietary bidding system whereby advertisers specify a price they are willing to pay per response (i.e. when someone is prompted to call a toll-free number or visit a website) and the air time is allocated according to media return on investment (ROI). Under this system, stations are able to sell their inventory without revealing the effective rate of their ads, and advertisers are able to pay rates that are determined by a combination of market forces and response to their ads.
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Widget Syndicator Clearspring Launches Ad Network
REUTERS via YAHOO
Clearspring Technologies Inc, the leading independent provider of “widget” software for syndicating Web site features or content, said on Monday that it was introducing a network for distributing advertising. The Widget Ad Network allows Web publishers to run ads on affiliated sites inside widgets, which are Web tools or games that a user can embed on their social network profiles, home pages or blogs and share with friends. Unlike conventional online advertising that is served up to users by Web sites, widget ads are distributed by the users themselves, potentially offering a much faster way to expand the audience for an ad.
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Vudu to Offer Release-Day HD Film Downloads, Adds TV Shows
YAHOO
In a major shift in movie distribution, a high-definition version of the hit “The Bourne Ultimatum” will be released through Vudu Inc.’s online service Tuesday – the same day the DVD comes out. It is the first of many HD movies Vudu plans to deliver online at the same time DVDs become available. Owners of Vudu’s set-top box, which costs $399, use a high-speed Internet connection to watch the movies they rent and to download the ones they buy. ovies usually are released in staggered windows in different formats – DVD, online through Xbox Live and other companies, or on demand on cable. The company also announced it plans make TV shows available to subscribers, adding 12 TV shows to its content roster. Episodes are available for $1.99 each.
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Kosmix Raises $10 Million for Health and Auto Sites
CENTERNETWORKS
Today Kosmix is announcing a $10 million investment led by new investor DAG Ventures with additional participation from current investors, Accel and Lightspeed. They note that the funding will be used to accelerate growth in the marketplace. Kosmix has two main sites, RightHealth and RightAutos. Hitwise notes 3.9 million monthly visitors to RightHealth and just under 2 million to RightAutos per month. Kosmix claims that RightAutos is one of the most popular auto sites online.
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NBC to Provide TV Shows for SanDisk Download Service
REUTERS
Media conglomerate NBC Universal will offer television programming for a Web-based service from SanDisk Corp that lets viewers download shows from the Internet and play them on a TV set-top, the companies said on Tuesday. New shows from NBC’s broadcast network as well as its cable channels like USA and Bravo will be available on SanDisk’s Fanfare service in January. They include hit comedy “The Office,” supernatural thriller “Heroes” and sitcom “30 Rock.”
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Swarmcast Launches ‘Autobahn’ HD Player for Flash
MASHABLE
Swarmcast, the company behind the Autobahn application for faster video load times on your favorite media-sharing sites, now has an Autobahn player, in HD. The Autobahn HD for Flash has full-screen video options that plays content just as fast. With some video-sharing and other media sites looking to provide HD content on their sites, the pressure is on for nearly every other aspect of the industry to deliver high quality video content. This is evident in several IPTV companies, like Imagine and Grid Networks, that have received funding and plan on spending the coming months developing better ways to deliver quality content in a fast and easy manner, that doesn’t burden the system or skimp on content either. Swarmcast isn’t exempt from this pressure, as is evident by its new Flash player, combining Adobe’s Flash platform with its own video delivery technology.
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iMedix Gets $2 Million For Medical Social Search
PAIDCONTENT
New York-based iMedix, a search engine for health information, has raised $2 million from unidentified angel investors. The site, which is launching today after a year in development, offers a basic vertical search engine on health, along with social tools to reach others with similar medical issues. The company claims it can then constantly refine its search results based on user interactions and response. It plans to position its service as a utility that can be added to third-party health sites. Founders Amir Leitersdorf and Iri Amirav were previously at Movota (sold to Bertelsmann) and MetaCafe respectively.
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Disaboom, Social Network for the Disabled, Raises $5 Million
MARKETWIRE
Disaboom, Inc. (OTCBB: DSBO), the first online community for people living with or directly affected by disabilities or functional limitations, today announced that it has closed a private placement with certain accredited investors with respect to 6,666,660 shares of common stock at a purchase price of $0.75 per share, and 5,000,000 warrants to purchase the same number of shares exercisable at $1.00 per share for a term of three years, for gross proceeds of $5,000,000. Disaboom, Inc. was founded to develop the first interactive online community dedicated to constantly improving the way people with disabilities or functional limitations live their lives. It will also serve as a comprehensive online resource not only for people living with such conditions, but also their immediate families and friends, caregivers, recreation and rehabilitation providers, and employers.
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Canadian ISP Tests Injecting Content into Web Pages
ARS TECHNICA
Network neutrality proponents claim that the ability to modify Internet content at the network level could potentially be abused by ISPs to insert additional advertising into web pages or perform selective, automated censorship. Although no mainstream ISP in North America engages in such practices, proponents of network neutrality have discovered that Rogers-a Canadian cable Internet provider-is trialing similar technology to inject notices to subscribers in regular web content, leading some to fear that more abusive content manipulation may occur in the future. Rogers confirmed that the notices are being added to pages, but denies plans to engage in more extensive content manipulation.
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Tags: Adobe, ask.com, Bankrate, Carlyle, College, Disaboom, EMI, H.I.G., IBM, iMedix, IPTV, ISP, Kosmix, Microsoft, NBC, RealNetworks, RevShare, Samsung, SanDisk, Seattle, Swarmcast, Turn, Video, Vudu, widget, Yahoo