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Phuket is the biggest island in Thailand, located in the Andaman Sea off southern Thailand. The island is mostly mountainous with a mountain range in the west and the rest of the island covered by forest. The western coast has several sandy beaches, while on the east coast beaches are more often muddy. One of the most popular tourist areas on Phuket is Patong Beach on the central western coast, perhaps owing to the easy access to its wide and long beach. Most of Phuket’s nightlife and its cheap shopping is located in Patong, and the area has become increasingly developed. Patong means “the forest filled with banana leaves” in Thai. Other popular beaches are located south of Patong. In a counterclockwise direction these include Karon Beach, Kata Beach, Kata Noi Beach, and around the southern tip of the island, Nai Harn Beach and Bang Tao Beach. These areas are generally much less developed than Patong, and sought out by individuals, families and other groups with a preference for more relaxed and less crowded environs than Patong.

Growing up, I remember Phuket as one of those places that expatriates from Hong Kong would visit during the December months to get away from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong. This year, I had the pleasure of spending a few days on the island as part of my in-law’s family reunion. It was everything I expected with its sandy beaches and laid back environment. As expected the weather was quite tropical and the heat and humidity were quite intense on certain days.

During our time there, we stayed at a ClubMed which was stocked with friendly tourists from around the world. The facility is located right on Kata Beach and, aside from general hotel and restaurant accommodations, supplies nightly entertainment and activities including trapeze, acrobats, and cobra shows. We also had the opportunity to try Thai Massages. These entail a masseuse using his/her elbows and feet to dig into your body. They don’t use any oils and its definitely worth trying at least once. Massage parlors are extremely common in Phuket – I think I saw almost one every block.

The region is just starting to recover from the after affects of the tsunami that devastated the region, and most of the coastal cities of Southeast Asia. As we walked through the city, we saw signs that indicated the path to “Tsunami Hazard Zones”. We were told that in the event of another tsunami, these would be areas where one would be in danger and there would be areas where one would be safe. I never bothered to ask but isn’t that a bit like predicting the location of where it will rain next? Well, I’m at least glad they are making precautions.

If you have some time, don’t forget to try the transvestite shows. We went to the Sphinx Restaurant where we had a good European style dinner and then were treated to a lip synching extravaganza performed by men and she-men! These are very common throughout Thailand!

Wat Chalong

If you’ve been to the grand temples of Bangkok and Ayutthaya, then you really don’t need to visit. However, if you love temples then this is the place for you! We took the opportunity to try our hand at a little of the local customs and Lauren pressed some of the customary gold leaf into the statues. This is meant to answer your prayers!

Phang Nga (James Bond) and Koh Pannyi (Sea Gypsy) Islands

Phang Nga or James Bond Island was aptly named due to its starring role in the James Bond movie, “Man With the Golden Gun”. To get to the island you have to take a Thai long boat through several dense rivers, through a cavern and into the ocean. The scenery is great and there are lots of pictures to be taken but no much else aside from the throngs of tourist stalls conveniently located on the limited beach front.  On the return to the mainland, we had lunch at a local seafood restaurant built on the island of Koh Pannyi, also known as the Sea Gypsy Island. The island has a whole host of these buildings essentially builts over the water and the biggest building on the island is a mosque.

Siam Safari

Of all the tourist activities in Phuket, this was the one we most enjoyed and would highly recommend. You definitely get a good overview of the various aspects of jungle life in Thailand in a safe, family friendly environment. We were treated to a curry cooking demonstrations, coconut de-husking, and interactions with numerous animals. Below I’ve added some video showing monkeys removing coconuts from the tops of trees and elephants dancing for fruit!

Below are some pictures showing us interacting with water buffalo and riding elephants!

One In Five Teen Boys Uploads Web Video - From car races to comedy skits, Web videos are now twice as likely to be uploaded by boys than girls, according to the latest findings from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That finding surprised researchers because teen girls are more active than boys when it comes to most other social media.                              

Yahoo, Microsoft, Google Settle With Feds For Gambling Ads - Google, Yahoo and Microsoft agreed to pay a total of $31.5 million to settle claims they promoted illegal gambling. None of the companies admitted they broke any laws.           

McAfee: Gaming, Airlines Sites Most Likely Typo-Squatter Targets - Web users who misspell the URL of sites they’re trying to navigate to have a one in 14 chance of landing on a site operated by typo-squatters, according to a recent McAfee study. Such sites are often packed with text and display ads–and are typically a source of bad clicks and rising costs for advertisers.

FTC Clears GoogleClick - By a 4-1 vote, the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday finally approved Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of ad-serving giant DoubleClick, nearly eight months after the companies initially agreed to the deal. The commission decided that Google and DoubleClick “are not direct competitors in any relevant antitrust market.”

NetSuite Goes Public - NetSuite, a software venture from Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, goes public today in a Dutch-style initial public offering that could raise nearly $161 million, which would give NetSuite a market value of more than $1.5 billion. The software maker will sell 6.2 million shares, approximately 10 percent of the company. Its target price is $26 per share, which had been raised twice in the lead-up to today’s IPO.

FCC Reveals Auction Bidders - The FCC on Tuesday unveiled the names of those who plan to bid on the 700 MHz spectrum that goes up for auction on January 24. Google was among the 266 companies named, along with big phone companies like AT&Y and Verizon Wireless. Other interesting bidders are Vulcan Spectrum, a company started by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Cablevision, EchoStar and Qualcomm.

Trojan Hijacks Google, Redirects Browsers To Different Ads - In a development that could potentially destabilize Google’s AdSense system, antivirus experts have detected a new Trojan that hijacks Google text ads and replaces them with ads from a different provider. The threat, which was discovered by security software developer BitDefender, was identified as Trojan.Qhost.WU, causes an infected computer’s browser to read ads from a server at a “replacement address” instead of from Google.

GoogleClick Concerns Muted, Industry Execs See It As A Positive - In the aftermath of the Thursday’s Federal Trade Commission approval, online industry insiders all but pooh-poohed lingering monopoly concerns about Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick. Instead, several industry executives said the deal would actually drive innovation and increase the opportunities for all companies involved.

FTC Proposes Online Privacy Principles - The Federal Trade Commission Thursday issued proposed new privacy principles that could lead to significant changes in how Web companies notify consumers about online ad techniques.

IAB Issues Final Guidelines For Rich Media Ad Measurement - The Interactive Advertising Bureau on Thursday issued final guidelines for the measurement of rich media advertising, following a 30-day public comment period.

Top Online Activity Among Kids: Hint, It’s Not Homework - Social networks and online communities may be all the rage with the older set, but when it comes to kids, their No. 1 activity is - surprise - games. Asked by media researcher Mediamark Research & intelligence what activities they did online in the last 30 days, 78.1% of kids ages 6-11 said they played online games, which was more than double the percentage citing the next most common online activity: school/homework.

Apple Closes Rumor Site - Apple, Inc. has forced the close of tech rumor site Think Secret, after the parties agreed to settle out of court. Blog publisher Nick Ciarelli said he was “very satisfied” with the settlement, although he wouldn’t elaborate as to whether the agreement would keep him from reporting on Apple again.

Among Teens, a Content Creation Revolution - Social networking sites are inciting more teens to create content online. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, nearly two-thirds of online teens have created something, from personal Web pages to online videos. The study credits social networks like MySpace and Facebook with furthering the trend. More than half of the survey’s respondents said they have a social networking profile. Other results: 39 percent of online teens said they’ve shared content, up from 33 in 2004. Almost 30 percent have their own online journal or blog, up from 19 percent in 2004, and a whopping 26 percent have remixed content through mashups, up from 19 percent.

The Year in Digital Music - Reuters looks back at the year in digital music. The most visible failure of 2007 was MTV’s Urge, which was replaced with a new entity called Rhapsody America, a partnership with RealNetworks’ popular online music service. Sony Corp. was the other big name to throw in the towel, announcing in August that it would gradually shut down its Connect music service, after laying off 20 employees and moving the rest to a new division.           

WGA Lawyer Sees Way Out of Strike - Talks are off until January, but Writers Guild of America attorney Jonathan Handel on Thursday revealed an interesting (albeit complicated) scenario that he believes could put an end to the union’s six-week deadlock with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Meanwhile, L.A.’s economy is losing $220 million a month to the strike.

Ascentium Acquires miller.whiterunkle - Interactive marketing and technology consultancy Ascentium Corp. yesterday announced that it has acquired advertising agency miller.whiterunkle, for an undisclosed amount. The deal deepens Ascentium’s creative, interactive marketing and advertising services and further expands its national presence, said the firm’s president.

SheKnows.com Expands Content Base With LovingYou.com Acquisition - The SheKnows network, focusing on topics such as parenting, health, beauty and celebrities, currently attracts some 5.5 million unique visitors. LovingYou adds marriage and relationships advice, plus a half-million unique visitors.

Kayak Acquires SideStep - Thanks to a massive round of funding from a variety of investors, online travel site Kayak acquired rival SideStep for $200 million. The two-part deal sees Kayak raising an additional $196 million from existing investors Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst Partners and Accel Partners, new investors Oak Investments and Lehman Brothers Venture Partners, and debt lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Gold Hill Capital. Kayak will then use the money to purchase SideStep.

MPAA Wins Copyright Case Against TorrentSpy; Judge Cites Deliberate Evidence Destruction By Site - A federal district court judge in California has found that peer-to-peer company TorrentSpy deliberately destroyed evidence in a copyright infringement case brought by the Motion Picture Association of America and, as a sanction, has ended the case in the MPAA’s favor.                                       

Digitas Shoots For Photo Enthusiasts With Samsung Camera Phone Campaign - The effort courts photography enthusiasts and ‘trendsetters’ with rich media, video and social networking elements from JPG Magazine.                 

IAC To Employ Brightcove Platform For Web Video - Web video company Brightcove has reached a deal with media company IAC to provide IAC’s properties with a platform to create, manage, publish, distribute and monetize video on the Web. Ticketmaster, Citysearch and 23/6 are among the first IAC brands to use Brightcove’s service. IAC has been a minority stakeholder in Brightcove since December 2006.                

Social Media Future Bright, Challenging - Social media applications will attract over one billion broadband users within five years, according to Strategy Analytics’ “The People’s Revolution: Implications of Web 2.0 and Social Media Applications” report. “The long term financial viability of even the largest social media sites depends heavily on the ability to develop targeted advertising techniques that are as yet largely unproven, or may ultimately be thwarted by privacy regulations,” said David Mercer, principal analyst at Strategy Analytics.

Widgets Catch Fire With Advertisers - The proliferation of widgets, or embeddable software applications, was arguably the story of 2007. CNET reviews how widgets are changing the way people interact with the Web and what the innovation means for advertisers. Facebook really opened a can of worms in May when the company said it would let third parties develop programs specifically for its Web site. The innovation greatly enhanced the social networking giant’s popularity, leading to similar vein announcements from rivals like MySpace, LinkedIn, Bebo, Google and even mobile carriers like Verizon Wireless.                      

Facebook Building Online Payment System - Facebook is enlisting platform developers once again, this time to create a payment system. There are still few details, but the new system will most likely be built using Facebook’s micropayments software that was developed for sending virtual gifts (you know, send a friend a virtual teddy bear for $1, etc.). Yet Facebook’s app-vertising economy is scarcely developed. “Most of the apps making money are … advertising other apps.” There is no established standard for effectively advertising using widgets. Nevertheless, third-party app-making agencies are popping up all over the place, ahead of what’s expected to be an advertising gold rush.

Should Striking Writers Get Involved in the Web? - According to a recent Los Angeles Times piece, writers in Hollywood are trying to sidestep the need for Big Media’s marketing and distribution power by creating Web media ventures with Silicon Valley venture capitalists. Bad move, at least right now, because precious few pieces of original content on the Web make any money.        

Yahoo’s Map Upgrade And The Fight For Local Search Supremacy - Yahoo Maps has added new “drag and drop” functionality for routes, giving users the option of customizing their driving directions for things like shortcuts and traffic avoidance. Yahoo has also upgraded the search interface, putting photos and reviews right inside the window that pops up for business listings.

Below-The-Radar Metrics To Track in 2008 - Rohit Bhargava lists the metrics that brands should focus on when it comes to Internet marketing next year — deeming his list “The Top 10 Most Underappreciated Metrics to Track in 2008.” For search, Bhargava says that marketers should focus on doing a qualitative assessment of the inbound links a site gets. Take the time to figure out how authoritative the sites that drive traffic to your site are. Go beyond PageRank and judge the quality of their content directly, as well as the quality of the audience they bring to you.         

Two Giants - And Google Foes - Do A Deal - Two Google enemies, Microsoft and Viacom, have banded together in a deal reportedly worth $500 million. The agreement calls for Microsoft’s recently acquired Atlas to serve ads on all Viacom Web sites. Currently, DoubleClick — which has agreed to be acquired by Google — serves ads for Viacom, according to the Associated Press.

New Yahoo Dashboard Handicaps Candidates for Political Junkies - The new feature pulls polling and funding data together in one handy Web guide, revealing some intriguing insights about the top candidates’ current odds of winning their party nomination, their buzz quotients and the depth of their pockets.                            

NBA Extends New-Media Strategy With Joost Partnership - The Joost NBA Channel will feature highlights and complete replays of classic games. “We want to go where the eyeballs are,” said Attila Gazdag, NBA’s senior vice president, global media distribution.                      

Marketers Missing Out on Word of Mouth? - Advice from friends, family and experts is consistently cited as an important factor in consumer-purchase decisions. And the Internet has made it easier to spread word of mouth quickly. Yet fewer than one-quarter of marketers surveyed in September and October 2007 by Ketchum and the USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center for their “Media, Myths & Realities” report said they had a word-of-mouth program in place.             

Facebook Beacon: What Should Have Been - An unnamed source discusses the shame that was (is?) Facebook’s Beacon and posits an interesting theory on the right way to roll out a peer-to-peer recommendation system. For starters, piling such a system on its users without first making an attempt to warm them up to the idea was foolish. If Facebook had offered a non-commercial version of the program, which tracks your purchases and then broadcasts that information to your friends via your profile news feed, focusing on what users published themselves–like video clips, for example–Beacon might not have been so bad.                    

U.S. Deal Shuts Out Online Gambling Cos - Online gambling companies in the European Union were dealt another harsh blow yesterday after regulators agreed to a compensation deal with the U.S. for shutting foreign companies out of the country’s gambling industry. Sadly for gaming companies, they benefited in no way from the trade. The U.S. extended opportunities for European businesses to compete in the following sectors: U.S. postal and courier, research and development, storage and warehouse. Members of the disappointed online gaming industry said the EU had now lost the chance to open up the $15 billion a year U.S. gambling market.

Confusion Over Web Measurement Curtails Ad Spending - The online advertising industry continues to grow apace, expected to hit $20 billion this year; yet Web executives say the Internet ad biz is under-performing, due to unreliable ratings. Web measurement is a complicated issue. Whereas TV and radio have one main source for ratings, there are several on the Web. And not only does their data conflict, there are disagreements over what measurement criteria to use-is it page views, monthly uniques, click streams, or average time spent per user?            

Source: Digg hires bank, hoping to sell for $300 million or more - It’s been a little more than a month since the last rumors surfaced about social news site Digg trying to sell itself for at least $300 million.A reliable source just confirmed the company’s plans, noting the company has hired Allen & Company, a tiny but influential private investment firm, to help broker a deal. The asking price is still $300 million, the source said.

Google Wants To Index Your Videos - Google has launched Sitemaps for Video, an extension of their webmaster sitemaps program that will assist webmasters in having their videos indexed by Google. To be indexed, webmasters must create a sitemap page that provides a list of videos on each site that is compliant with Googles sitemaps protocol, which since November 2006 is standardized with Yahoo and Microsoft as well. Webmasters then simply submit the URL of their video sitemap to Google for indexing.

eBay’s Angry Sellers - Sellers no longer need eBay like they once did. They’re finding more success at their own sites and third-party retailers like Amazon.com. Meanwhile, eBay has raised its seller fees, angering sellers, who have increasingly become “disenchanted” with the online auctioneer. Last week, the NYT said Amazon should buy eBay. “EBay has gone from the channel of first resort to the channel of last resort” for merchants, says Scot Wingo, chief executive of Chanel Advisor, a company that helps large firms sell through eBay and other online retailers.

Automakers Will Steer More Spend From TV and Print Toward Digital - Next year could be a banner year for auto advertising — online. Beleaguered U.S. automakers are in for another rough road in 2008, with Detroit worst hit. Unit sales are expected to fall below 16 million, and researchers are predicting ad spending will be flat to down. To move that metal, experts believe the industry will continue to put a lot more emphasis on digital and out-of-home. Network TV dollars also are predicted to migrate to spot as regional dealer associations take a firmer grip on spending.

Web Research Could Gain Clout Via Virtual Currency - Online research — derided by some as a hotbed of professional respondents giving unreliable answers — could get a second life thanks to social media and virtual currency. Real money has proven a real problem for online research, helping breed professional respondents and incentives for people to cheat so they can qualify for cash payments — not to mention that it gets expensive to pay hundreds or thousands of people real money to take each survey.

Digital M&A Trends for 2008 - Article predicting M&A trends for the digital space in 2008.

Ad Spending On Social Networks Will Continue To Grow In ‘08 - Ad spending on online social networks worldwide will nearly double, to $2.2 billion in 2008 from $1.2 billion this year, according to an eMarketer study being released today. Most spending will come from the U.S., where social network advertising is projected to grow to $1.6 billion next year, from $920 million in 2007. MySpace and Facebook dominate U.S. social network advertising, claiming 70% of ad dollars.                     

Live from the Search Insider Summit: SEM Agencies Step Up Offerings - As search engines have increasingly begun to offer display, social media, RSS, widgets and other kinds of inventory, search agencies are stepping up to plan and execute these campaigns. Often, they’re leveraging search data and analytics to forecast performance, better target audiences and deliver results that are more brand than direct response-oriented.             

Survey: Email Marketers Fall Short On Best Unsubscribe Practices - While nearly all marketers include an unsubscribe option in promotional emails, fewer than half include one in other types of emails, according to a new Lyris EmailLabs survey. Even fewer use unsubscribes as relationship-enhancing or research opportunities–and way too many are still using “tricks” to discourage unsubscribing.                   

Price Trumps Everything For Online Shoppers - With uncertainties about the economy creeping into more and more holiday purchase decisions, about 43% of online shoppers say a product’s price is the most important factor in making a purchase, according to a new poll conducted by Synovate of Chicago.

Putting Your Best Face Forward - “Nothing influences a person more than a recommendation from a trusted friend.” Sound familiar? No, it’s not from 1999’s “Cluetrain Manifesto.” It’s one of many comments recently made by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg regarding the influential power of social connections online.

Google Takes Microsoft Challenge to the Next Level - Web critics used to complain that Google was spreading itself thin by launching too many unfinished products and services that didn’t add up to a discernible whole. Google reveals that its expanding package of Web-based software and services are part of a greater movement than many would have imagined. As Google CEO Eric Schmidt says, Google Apps, the company’s suite of free online computing services, represents no less than Google’s march to put your entire desktop on the Web.            

Opera Complains About Bundled Internet Explorer - The European Commission has been prompted to look further into the bundling practices of tech giant Microsoft Corp. following a formal complaint accusing the company of thwarting competition by tying the two services together. Opera, maker of the fourth-most-popular Web browser, said that Microsoft made it hard for rivals to offer a serious choice when Internet Explorer comes bundled with its operating system. The company wants the Commission to make Microsoft separate IE from Windows and pre-install other browsers on new personal computers.                      

The Year in Tech CEO Apologies - Forbes.com looks back at the year in CEO apologies, starting with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who recently had to apologize for touting his company’s privacy-violating peer-to-peer recommendation system, Beacon, as the greatest media invention of the last hundred years. The report claims that such apologies are becoming so commonplace that the executive apology has become a sector of study for public relations groups.         

Google Unveils User Profiles - Last week, Google unveiled yet another key component of its “master plan” for Web domination: Google Profiles. The new program links your Google related activities under one profile. At the moment it’s most easily accessible through Google Maps and Google Reader. Profiles can contain as much or as little information as the user decides; there are entry fields for name, nickname, occupation, location, “about me” and a photo. Users will also be allowed to create multiple links for their site. For example, if you add or edit content on Google Maps, someone else can click through to your profile.                

Is Google Knol a Conflict of Interest? - For years, Google has frustratingly watched Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, become one of the top destinations of its search traffic. Google would kill to supply ads to Wikipedia, but the stubborn non-profit has resisted any temptation to sell ads on its pages. The possibility of a partnership shot down, it makes for Google to launch a direct competitor, which is exactly Knol is.          

On Facebook, Scholars Link Up With Data - Each day about 1,700 juniors at an East Coast college log on to Facebook.com to accumulate “friends,” compare movie preferences, share videos and exchange cybercocktails and kisses. Unwittingly, these students have become the subjects of academic research. To study how personal tastes, habits and values affect the formation of social relationships (and how social relationships affect tastes, habits and values), a team of researchers from Harvard and the University of California, Los Angeles, are monitoring the Facebook profiles of an entire class of students at one college, which they declined to name because it could compromise the integrity of their research.

Why You’ll Finally Use LinkedIn - For years, I’ve been befuddled by LinkedIn. I knew it was supposed to be the social network for work, but to me it was like war. “What is it good for?” I asked myself repeatedly, even as I occasionally poked around and accepted requests to link with people. I belonged to it, but I really didn’t know why. The other day I had a chance to sit down with LinkedIn CEO Dan Nye, who’s been on the job since February. He told me about a few changes that Linkedin subsequently announced (VentureBeat has a good description of them.). And his PR person upgraded me to what would otherwise be a paid account. (It can be $20 to $200 per month.)

Rebuttal: There is No Imminent PPC Recession - Jeff Hudson waited almost two months to respond to a post on Steve Rubel’s Micro Persuasion blog about an imminent PPC recession — but his rebuttal is thoughtful and provides a point-by-point critique of all of Rubel’s main points. Referring to clutter, Hudson said that the engines are actively working to make sure only the best ads get served with each search. After all, Google’s continued focus on the “user experience” and the constant tweaking of Quality Score metrics have to be impacting the number of ads that show up.

Live From the Search Insider Summit: Search Changed Drastically In 2007 - This year was big for search–especially when it came to improvements to the user interface. All four of the major engines introduced a form of blended multimedia search, more features for personalization and more tools to refine queries on-the-fly. While the industry will continue to evolve, the shifts in 2008 will be much less noticeable.                                                   

Webkinz Takes Heat For Taking Advertising - Can The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood pressure Ganz into not taking ads on phenomenally successful Webkins.com? Branding expert Laura Ries is betting Ganz will prevail, as long as it doesn’t “go really overboard.”

Ad Auto Dollars Driving To Net - Worldwide automotive advertising revenues will stay at the $40 billion level for the next three years, according to a recent survey by a Princeton research group. However, there will be a shift in media for those dollars –the Net being a major growth area.

The Promise of Social Network Advertising - Social networking is an Internet success story. This year, 37% of the US adult Internet population used online social networking at least once a month. That figure will rise to 49% in 2011. ”The continued growth of social networking seems assured,” says Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the new report, Social Network Marketing: Ad Spending and Usage, “unless teens stop social networking as they become adults.” Don’t bet on that. Currently, 70% of all US teens visit social network sites on a monthly basis.

Google May Exercise AOL IPO Right - More proof that Time Warner may be preparing to unload AOL: Google has the right to force Time Warner to take AOL public, or the media conglomerate runs the risk of search giant buying back its 5 percent stake in AOL. Back in December 2005, Google agreed to invest $1 billion in the beleaguered Web portal, a deal that strengthened the companies’ ties (Google also powers AOL’s search engine). As part of the deal, Google has the right to force Time Warner to conduct an AOL IPO or buyback its stake “at fair market value” on July 1, 2008.

Why MySpace Matters For ‘08 Election - News Corp. claims that MySpace users are more likely to engage with presidential candidates on the Web than the average online adult, according to an internal study. MySpace users are 139 percent more likely to visit an online chat room with public officials and political candidates than the general online adult population. They are also 50 percent more likely to watch political or public affairs-related video online and 29 percent more likely to look up political or campaign related info on the Web. Moreover, a whopping 86 percent said they were “likely” or “extremely likely” to vote in the 2008 election.               

Writers: We Will Move Online - The Hollywood union strike between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is turning into an all-out war. With the strike now in its second month, the talks–which involve writer compensation for new media revenues, among other things–don’t look any closer to a resolution. Which is fine, says Patric Verrone, president of the WGA West, because the stalemate is only creating “entrepreneurial possibilities for the talent community to go directly into production and distribution.” Who needs big media nowadays? Production costs are low, and the Internet provides ready access to a massive audience, right? “With every day that goes by, our members are exploring Internet TV,” Verrone warned the Alliance. “The ability to explore this business without media conglomerates is becoming a real possibility.”

Is OpenSocial to its Own Party? - In late October, Google announced OpenSocial to a great deal of fanfare. Media critics responded by touting the developer consortium, which uses open source code to allow developers to create and run universal applications across a network of social sites, as the future of the social Web. But that was six weeks ago. Yesterday, Facebook announced that its own developer network, whose platform has been around since May, would go live with Bebo, the Web’s No. 3 social network, as its first partner. Meanwhile, OpenSocial isn’t finished, and according to Bebo CEO Michael Birch–whose company is also part of Google’s group–Google’s initiative won’t be ready until “early 2008.”

Adknowledge Buys Facebook Ad Network Cubics - You don’t have to work out of an online advertising hotbed to be a player. Adknowledge has just bought Facebook ad network Cubics, which makes its home in Edmonton, Canada. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cubics says it represents over 500 application developers. Less than a year old, Cubics claims to be serving over 1B impressions a month. It currently runs ads on Facebook and Friendster and plans to support Bebo and other OpenSocial networks.                         

Penthouse Buys Adult-themed Social Net Various Inc. For $500 Million - Penthouse Media Group has acquired adult-oriented social network operator Various Inc. for $500 million, NYT (FRB: 066570) reports. Various runs more than 25 social net sites under its flagship site,FriendFinder.com. While porn remains one of the most lucrative areas of online media, more traditional companies like Penthouse and Playboy (NYSE: PLA) have been struggling to catch up on the digital side. Playboy CEO Christie Hefner boasted of 50 percent gains in digital revenue earlier this month at the UBS Global Media & Communications Conference, thanks in part to the launch of its social net PlayboyU.com this past year. She cited the investment in a community site as a way to extend Playboy’s brand.          

Bankrate Acquires Savingforcollege.com, Nationwide Card Services For Nearly $29MM—Before Earnouts - 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.

Searcharazzi: Fathom SEO Acquisition Details - The industry has been buzzing for awhile about private equity buyers that just might be interested in picking up some search firms. Here are the details on the acquisition of Fathom SEO by PromiseONE, a private equity buyer.

Congress Member Turns Up Heat On Google - Turning up the heat on Google, a Republican member of Congress Wednesday sent Google CEO Eric Schmidt a letter demanding answers to a host of detailed questions about the company’s privacy policy. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), senior Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in the letter that he sought the information to “better understand the privacy and consumer protection implications” of the pending Google-DoubleClick merger.                             

Classmates.com Proposed IPO Stalls - United Online is pulling its proposed initial public offering of Classmates.com, citing unfavorable market conditions. The company initially filed to spin off the social networking property through an IPO in August, and last month said it planned to sell up to 12 million shares at $10 to $12 each. Rather than feeding off the social marketing craze, Classmates’ IPO aspirations may have been dimmed by it.                                        

MTV Networks Strikes Deal To Distribute Programming on AOL Video - MTV Networks has reached a deal to distribute its full slate of programming–including music, comedy and other pop-culture brands for all demographics–on AOL Video. By the end of the week, visitors to AOL Video will have access to short-form video from Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1 and Spike TV, as well as other sources.                                 

Consumer-Generated Audience: The Surprising Metrics For Family Decision Makers - Occasionally I have to remind people that social media is not comprised solely of social networks. There’s that “media” part in there too–the content that people create in order to give communities something to view, read, watch, ruminate over, connect to, comment on, dig into, dig at, or just plain Digg. Social media is largely equated with younger demos. So much so, in fact, that we often overlook how other demographics are using it.                             

Diller Reflects On IAC Breakup - IAC chief Barry Diller discusses the decision to split the company into five entities, one of the Web industry’s major stories of the year. Some felt the move was an admission that the media conglomerate model is destined to fail on the Web. Others felt it was smart to break up the disparate assets so they could focus more on their own businesses.

Web 2.0’s Year in Review - The Web 2.0 movement is in its third season, and while business models are still “fuzzy,” tech startups and software developers continue to receive the backing of VC and private-equity firms. Online video might have been the story of 2006, but social networking recaptured center stage in 2007, thanks mostly to Facebook’s landmark innovation to open its software development kit to outside developers. Since then, just about every one of its competitors has followed-suit.

Facebook Platform Takes on OpenSocial - Facebook is opening up the Facebook Platform to other social networks, which means that software apps developed for Facebook can run on other social sites with no added work required by the developer. The company will also license Facebook Platform methods and tags to other platforms.

Bebo Platform Tied To Facebook - Bebo on Wednesday opened its doors to software developers, in a move that was closely modeled on Facebook. The Web’s No. 3 social network with 40 million uses, Bebo intends to work closely with Facebook to ensure that developers don’t have to put too much effort into transferring those programs built for Facebook to its Open Application Platform.

Why 2008 Will Be The Year Of Landing Page Optimization - Jonathan Mendez offers five reasons why landing page optimization (LPO) will take center stage next year. Competitive pressures will force both SEM firms and digital agencies to work LPO into their suite of standard offerings, as the number of advertisers searching for those services will increase — and LPO will become a critical part of overall marketing spend. LPO technology will continue to improve, with dollars flowing from VC investors as well as new M&A activity in the space. Mendez also says that landing pages have become the “30 second spot” for the digital age, and as such, LPO helps further bridge the gap between using the Web search for direct and brand marketing (a shift that has already begun taking place).