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Telcos must invest in web 2.0 firms, says KPN exec - Telcos must strike deals and partnerships with web 2.0 companies, and run them much in the same way as investment companies would, says Stan Miller, head of KPN International. “We must partner with web 2.0 companies because they have skills that we don’t have,” Miller told StrategyEye, at the Telecom Finance conference in London. “Typically we should take a small stake in the company” and “maybe one of these will become a Google.”

DirectoryM Relaunches Local Ad Platform After Company Buyback - Less than a year after an employee buyback, DirectoryM is relaunching its ad platform, bridging the gap between local businesses, news and radio outlets, and content publishers like the New York Times, and AutoByTel.

Yahoo! in talks with majors over music download store - Rumour - Yahoo! is holding early stage talks with major record labels about the creation of a DRM-free, MP3 download store, according to reports by the AP. The news service cites “two record company executives familiar with the talks,” who claim confidential, preliminary discussions were held last month. Details are reportedly not finalised, and is not clear whether downloads will be offered free on an ad-supported basis or as part of a regular paid-for model.

Record Audiences For Newspapers Online - While their print editions continued to slide, newspapers enjoyed an online audience boom in 2007, according to the Newspaper Association of America, which says the total unique audience for newspaper Web sites increased 9% in the fourth quarter to an average 62.8 million per month, compared to the same period in 2006, The figure from October, when 63.2 million people visited a newspaper Web site, is an all-time record.

Hulu Discusses Beta Progress, Sets March Launch Date - Despite being an invite-only phenomenon, the joint online video venture from News Corporation and NBC Universal has “several hundred thousand users,” according to CTO Eric Feng. These users have submitted “tens of thousands” of feedback messages, which helped developers tweak the user interface (Hendrickson says the search engine is much better, for example). Nearly 85 percent of the site’s content is viewed at least once per day.

Despite Ad Downturn, Web Will be Safe - Traditionally, a recession really hurts the advertising industry because marketers scale back spending when the economy slows. Advertising execs Maurice Levy, CEO of Publicis Groupe, and Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, two of the largest ad holding firms, agree that clients will eventually scale back their budgets, but not until 2009. This is partly due to three major global events in 2008: America’s presidential election, the Olympics in Beijing and soccer’s European Championships in Austria and Switzerland. Levy says the big-ticket events could add as much as 1 percent growth to global ad spending, off-setting any economic weakness this year.

Mainstream portal, IMDb, buys indie distributor, Withoutabox - The Amazon-owned online film site, the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com), is acquiring online independent film distributor, Withoutabox, for an undisclosed sum. The deal, which allows the independent to continue to operate as a standalone operation, is a good one for the non-mainstream, audio-visual, production industry, providing it with a combined online distribution and intelligence ‘hotspot’.

Yahoo! to buy music app maker, FoxyTunes - Rumour - Yahoo! is looking to buy FoxyTunes, the maker of a web browser music plug-in, according to rumours on technology blog, TechCrunch. The site claims that rumours of the deal are circulating in Silicon Valley, but cites no individual source. It is not yet known how much the deal would be worth, but the acquisition would fit with recent Yahoo! music developments.

WPP’s Sorrell Makes A New Run, Bids To Acquire Canada’s Nurun - Acquisitive WPP chief Martin Sorrell is on the prowl again, and this time he’s making a play for Nurun Inc., one of Canada’s leading online ad services companies. Sorrell has submitted a written offer to Quebecor Media, which controls Nurun, to acquire the interactive marketing services company in a cash deal valued at $5.25 a share, Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail reported this morning.

WPP Rumored to be acquiring Spot Runner and Video Egg - WPP may be about to buy small digital ad firms such as SpotRunner, VideoEgg, Visible or JumpTap, reports the New York Post, after the ad giant admitted it was about to boost its digital assets. “We’ll be making one or two announcements of further digital acquisitions,” Sir Martin Sorrell says, adding that the purchases won’t be “big ones.” Over the past year, WPP has made a series of digital acquisitions, buying 24/7 Real Media for USD649m, 75% of Indian online media agency Quasar Media, and taking over Vancouver-based Blast Radius and US-based Schematic.

HouseValues.com buys into ActiveRain for USD2.75mm - ActiveRain, a social networking and blogging platform for real estate professionals, says it has received USD2.75mm in funding from HouseValues.com. HouseValues.com’s website allows US users to find their home’s current market value and a suggested selling price. With its funding move, the company is taking a minority stake in ActiveRain. Last Nov, HouseValues.com acquired Realty Generator, a provider of marketing and technology solutions to US real estate brokerage companies.

Questex Media Group Inc. acquires FierceMarkets - Questex Media Group Inc., a Newton, Mass.-based B2B media company owned by Audax Group, has acquired FierceMarkets, an online B2B media company. No financial terms were disclosed. Jordan, Edmiston Group advised FierceMarkets on the deal.

GSI Commerce Aims To Expand Internet Marketing Via Acquisition - Aiming to boost sales, e-commerce service provider GSI Commerce Inc. has acquired e-mail marketer e-Dialog for $157 million in cash and stock. The deal broadens GSI’s interactive marketing services and gives the company a larger presence in Europe. It also positions the company to expand beyond retail into other online markets.

USA Today Acquires Action Sports Destination BNQT.com - USA Today on Thursday announced the acquisition of Banquet, the operator of action sports destination BNQT.com along with the Cold War Collective action sports ad network of over 20 affiliated Web sites and blogs.

BBC Worldwide and MySpace in global content deal - MySpace has signed a deal with BBC Worldwide to show programming from the broadcaster through MySpaceTV. The deal is described as the first global deal MySpace has signed with a major broadcaster, and also illustrates the BBC’s broader strategy of moving into the online space. BBC content will be shown in short-form clips, organised under a number of categories. The deal, signed for an undisclosed sum, will operate on an ad-revenue sharing basis.

Future Of TV Ad Market: A Lot Like Online’s — Ad Networks, Behavioral Targeting, Etc. - The future of TV advertising will probably be a lot like current state of the online advertising: aggregated advertising networks, behavioral targeting, and automated buying systems enabling small, “long-tail” advertisers to compete alongside the TV industry’s biggest marketers and agencies. At least that’s what a panel of TV industry executives blazing that path said Thursday during one of the final sessions of the Future TV conference in New York.

Media Buyers Bristle At Networks’ Premium Rates For Online Video Advertising - Broadcast networks will have a hard time maintaining the premium rates being charged for advertising on TV programs distributed online, according to a group of digital media buyers and researchers. Speaking Wednesday on a panel on streaming media at the Digital Media Measurement and Pricing Summit, agency executives questioned how long networks can continue to charge CPM rates for online video three to four times higher than those for TV.

Using Search and Display To Build Branding - The percentage of time Americans spend with print media fell to 11.9% of total media usage in 2006, according to Veronis Suhler Stevenson’s Communications Industry Forecast (VSS) released August 2007. By 2011, VSS predicts print media will fall to 10.6% of all media usage. However, for many brands, advertising spend continues to be primarily dedicated to traditional media, print and television.

Marketers Happier With Email Than Search, Display - A Datran Media survey of 2,000 online marketing professionals finds that email, not search, is the best performing online marketing tactic. Eight out of 10 marketers said as much, while 82 percent said they plan to increase email spending in the coming year. Fifty-five percent expect email ROI to be higher than any other online medium.

Google Continues Fight For White Spaces - Google and Microsoft Corp. have long been after the so-called “white spaces” that exist between the spectrum channels mobile wireless carriers license from the Federal Communications Commission. The Web giants believe that broader Internet access can be obtained from the unlicensed spectrum, but wireless operators like Sprint and T-Mobile have vehemently opposed the idea, worrying that the use of white spaces could compromise the quality of voice and data communication over their licensed networks.

Making Legitimate, Significant Use of P2P - Peer to peer file-sharing networks, over which music and movie files are illegally traded, have long been the scourge of media companies, but the technology has many legitimate uses. P2P was originally developed to help the research community share huge files over the Internet, but purveyors of video and other sites that require high-bandwidth applications are now turning to the technology. Two good examples are the BBC’s iPlayer and the Web video startup Joost, which both deploy P2P technology to deliver higher-quality streaming video.

Politicos Spend Big On Traditional Media; Crumbs For Web - When it comes to garnering political ad dollars, the Internet is the Dennis Kucinich of media outlets. With political advertising expected to hit nearly $5 billion this election year, online spending will collect just $20 million, with half that amount funneled into paid search, according to a new study.

Publicis Keeps Friends Close, Frenemies Even Closer, Unveils Google ‘Collaboration’ - Google is becoming more friend than enemy at least at one of Madison Avenue’s biggest players. During an informal press briefing on Tuesday, Publics chief Maurice Levy and Google chief Eric Schmidt unveiled an “ongoing collaboration” between the two companies. Details were sketchy, but the executives said the collaboration, underway for more than a year, is “based on a shared vision of how new technologies can be used to improve advertising.”

Survey: In-Stream Ads Are Intrusive - Pre-roll and other in-stream video ads have always gotten a bad rap. And new research from Burst Media proves that the ad model deserves it. About 78% of respondents surveyed say in-stream ads in online video are intrusive. According to the online survey conducted in December of some 2,600 adult Web users, half say ads in video content disrupt their Web surfing experience.

Top 10 Social Networks - Although Facebook has come on strong in recent months, MySpace averaged more than three-quarters of all US visits in 2007 among the top social networking Web sites, according to Hitwise. The site received 72% of US visits to social networks in December 2007 alone. Overall visits to a group of 53 leading social network sites were up 4% year over year, and the top sites are becoming a mainstay of many Internet users’ routines.

Google Slides Nearly 200 Points Since November - Google’s stock has dropped more than 160 points since peaking at $750 per share in early November. “Right now, Wall Street isn’t in love with Google, or any other stock, for that matter,” says Battelle. Indeed, “that’s not something we’re used to hearing.” Google in early morning trading was hovering even lower, at around $560. Why the slide? Perhaps it’s the latest search numbers from Nielsen Online, which said that Microsoft gained nearly 2 percent on Google Search last month. But more than likely it has to do with the economy at large. The [Google] culture is taking its first deep breath.

What’s CBS Doing With Last.fm? - One of the questions that comes up repeatedly in chats about CBS: what is the company doing to move last year’s $280 million Last.fm acquisition beyond buzz into value? Looks like answers may be on the way. CBS (NYSE: CBS) has called a press conference tomorrow with CEO Leslie Moonves and Last.fm co-founders Felix Miller and Martin Stiksel; no details but to announce “a new unprecedented service”—a video service, we’re hearing, likely mixed with social networking given Last.fm’s bent.

Last.Com To Offer Music-On-Demand - CBS today unveiled its free music-on-demand plan for Last.fm, the music site it purchased last year for $280 million. Through deals with the four major labels and 150,000 independent labels, Last.fm will make around 3.5 million tracks available for free streaming. The site will allow users to listen to each song three times for free. After users have reached the limit, the site will direct them to online music stores like iTunes and Amazon.

LinkedIn admits to buyout talks - LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman admits that the company has been in talks with the “usual suspects” about a possible buyout, but has decided not to sell, according to an AP report. “I know we are going to be much more valuable in a year or two… I think an IPO is by far and away the most likely outcome,” the chairman told the news agency, which reports that a listing would likely take place in a year or two.

MySpace to found website development arm - MySpace is to found a business incubator venture that will set up and develop new consumer websites. According to a New York Times interview with MySpace founder and CEO, Chris DeWolfe, the new venture is provisionally named Slingshot Labs. The new company will be financed by News Corp, but will function like a startup, operating independently and working to build-up four or five consumer websites at a time.

Financial Firms Lead Web Ads, for Now - Some ad inventory could be up for grabs. The most recent available online ad spending data may not be recent enough. December 2007 data from Nielsen Online AdRelevance cited in a January 2008 MarketingCharts article show the financial services industry still leading online display advertising. Nielsen found that financial services companies spent over a quarter of a billion dollars on online ads in December 2007, accounting for 29% of all online ad spending.

Study: Social Networking Results Difficult To Track - Social networking may be among the hottest online categories, but it’s also the most difficult to track user behavior on, according to a survey of digital marketing managers by digital advertising and consulting firm Sapient.

Alacra Launches Finance-Focused Ad Network, PCAN - Alacra has jumped into the ad network game with the launch of the Premium Content Ad Network (PCAN), a new pay-per-action (PPA) network geared toward publishers of finance and business-focused content.

Venture Capitalists Increase Spending 12% On Internet Companies In ‘07 - Venture Capital investors poured $4.6 billion into Internet-specific companies in 748 deals in 2007–up from $4.1 billion in 691 deals in 2006, according to the MoneyTree report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on Thomson Financial data. That’s an increase of 12% and 8%, respectively. Internet-specific companies accounted for 84% of dollars and 81% of deals in the Media and Entertainment industry in 2007.

Five Trends To Watch In Online Video Advertising - It’s that magical time of year again. Of course I’m referring to the annual ritual of declaring that the coming year will be The Year of Online Video. In 2008, five key trends point to real breakthroughs in the emergence of online video as a major medium–for advertisers as well as consumers and media companies.

eBay’s Whitman Retires After 10 Years - The first major executive shake up of 2008 comes from eBay, not Yahoo: CEO Meg Whitman, in charge of the online auctioneer for 10 years, will announce her retirement in the coming weeks. John Donahue, whom Whitman recruited in 2005 to become president of the company’s auction business, is now the leading candidate to succeed her.

Google’s search share slackens, Nielsen says - Google garnered a 56.3% share of the U.S. search market in December, compared with a 57.7% share in the previous month, according to Nielsen. Yahoo Inc meanwhile, saw its share in December fall slightly to 17.7%, compared with 17.9% in November. A Nielsen spokeswoman said because Nielsen has used a new methodology for tracking search share since October, it’s difficult to provide a long-term comparison of Google’s month-to-month results.

Nokia to take stake in Facebook and build integrated handset app - Rumour - Nokia is rumoured to be poised to take a stake in Facebook as part of a partnership between it and the mobile phone maker where the social network will be integrated into Nokia’s handsets. A report on tech blog, PaidContent claims that the “the Facebook placement could be as prominent as the YouTube button on the main screen of iPhone.” The site also cites “sources” who say the “early stage talks” involve the possibility of Nokia purchasing a stake in the company. Spokespersons from either side failed to comment, although a Nokia exec reportedly admits: “There is talk of a partnership in the works.”

EU Continues To Scrutinize Google-DoubleClick Deal - The sole Federal Trade Commission member who voted against approving Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick and a leading privacy advocate are among the witnesses slated to testify today at a European Union hearing about the privacy implications of the pending merger.

Study: Internet Ads Will More Than Double By 2011 - Yankee Group forecasts that Internet advertising will more than double to $50.3 billion in 2011 from $21.7 billion last year, driven by technology investments that will boost online ad performance. While the size of the U.S. Internet audience will level off in the next few years, ad dollars have yet to catch up with the growth in online media consumption.

Social Network Marketing Affected By New Technologies - To stay ahead of the social networking curve in 2008, interactive marketers should put brand monitoring in place, focus on objectives over technologies, and go for speed over perfection in applications deployment. That’s the advice from Forrester Research analysts collected in a new report.

Yahoo Needs Shake Up - Floundering Internet giant Yahoo is ripe for a shakeup. “Yahoo is navigating the waters of Internet advertising like a goldfish evading a shark, in the form of Google,” the Journal says, adding that its strategy of trying to become a start page isn’t enough to challenge Google and the deep-pocketed Microsoft.

Yahoo Could Lay-off Thousands - There’s more bad news on the Yahoo front. An anonymous tip claims the company has created a list of between 1,500 and 2,500 jobs that could eliminated in the next few weeks. Apparently, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang will make a final decision about the move this week, with a public announcement coming either at or before earnings on Jan. 29. The floundering Web giant should cut at least 1,000 the tech blog believes, if not 2,000. The question is whether Yang, described as “a good guy unwilling to make hard-ass decisions,” has the nerve to do so.

Slide’s “Crazy” $550 Million Valuation - Widget maker Slide made waves last week after a new investment round inflated the company’s valuation to $550 million. The San Francisco-based startup, founded by PayPal alum Max Levchin, creates widgets, or Web-based software applications that can be embedded on user-controlled pages, like social networking profiles. Slide creates some of the most popular widgets on Facebook and MySpace. Fidelity and T. Rowe Price have purchased a 9% stake in the company worth $50 million. Allen & Co., a NY-based Slide investor, helped raise the funds, but did not, conspicuously, add to their investment due to the “crazy” valuation.

Joost Needs A Spark - Joost is in hot water. The company last week fired its Chief Technology Officer under mysterious circumstances. Usage of the P2P-powered TV service has underwhelmed, and the content deals have dried up. But all is not lost. A few savvy distribution agreements could save the online video provider. One of the biggest complaints about Joost is its lack of quality content. Hulu, the ad-supported content distribution effort from NBC Universal and News Corp., would make the perfect addition.

The Video Game May Be Free, but to Be a Winner Can Cost Money - In a major departure from its traditional business model, E.A. plans to announce Monday that it is developing a new installment in its hit Battlefield series that will be distributed on the Internet as a free download. Rather than being sold at retail, the game is meant to generate revenue through advertising and small in-game transactions that allow players to spend a few dollars on new outfits, weapons and other virtual gear.

HBO to let subscribers download TV shows, movies - Time Warner Inc pay TV channel HBO will launch a service on Tuesday to let subscribers download movies and television shows over the Web, joining a crowded market for video on the Internet. The service, HBO on Broadband, will make its debut with a much larger library than its cable-based on-demand service in a stab at satisfying increasingly mobile and choosy viewers.

Media M&A Outlook For ‘08: Prognostications From Berkery Noyes, Petsky Prunier & AdMediaPartners - Three media and marketing investment banks have come out with their 2007 review and 2008 prognostications on the M&A.

Located on 400 acres in the heart of California’s wine country, Safari West is home for over 400 exotic mammals and birds. Its not a zoo, not a drive-through park, it’s a wildlife preserve where you can see some of nature’s most beautiful animals in a natural habitat. Established by Peter Lang in 1989, Safari West gained membership in the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, one of only six private facilities in North America to belong to that prestigious organization. The ongoing mission of Safari West is wildlife preservation through breeding, education, research and public interaction.

We took a weekend trip up to the Safari and stayed overnight in tents. It was freezing but a great experience. Enjoy some of the video I took:

Google Still Has Uphill Climb In Growing Chinese Market - Google still struggles with lower user awareness in China, according to consulting firm Pearl Research. China is an important market for Google and other U.S. Internet companies with its steadily growing number of users. Chinese government Internet research agency CNNIC said Thursday that the country now has 163 million broadband users and 50.4 million mobile Internet users.                                      

YouTube Continues To Grow Video Share - For all the hype surrounding audience segmentation, YouTube and its parent Google continue to take an ever-larger share of U.S. Web video watchers, according to comScore’s latest Video Metrix report. In November, more than 75% of U.S. Web users watched a video online, comScore reports.

AdBrite Snags Spot As Fourth-Largest Ad Network - ADBRITE IS THE FOURTH-LARGEST AD network in terms of page views, according to new comScore MediaMetrix stats. Only Yahoo, Google and AOL’s Advertising.com scored more page views. The company reports that it reached some 79 million unique users in the month.

Video Games Sales Surged 43% in ‘07 - Video games had a monster year in 2007, according to annual sales figures from NPD Group, with retail sales $17.94 billion thanks to high-demand for games like “Halo 3″ and next generation consoles like the Nintendo Wii. Video game sales grew 43 percent, up from 12.53 billion in 2006. In December alone, Americans spent $4.82 billion on games, up 28 percent from a year earlier and 83 percent from November.

Sundance Behind the Online Times - “Webolution” will no doubt be one of the most closely watched panels at this year’s Sundance Film Festival as the independent film industry struggles to tackles the prospect of reinventing itself through the Web. That struggle is best exemplified by the festival’s own online offerings, which have been slashed this year, even as video takes off on popular sites like YouTube and MySpace.

Google Eyes Yell - Rumour - Rumours of a possible takeover of Yell by Google are resurfacing after Yell shares soared by 4.4%, to USD6.48, in their biggest increase since Dec. “Yell has lost almost half its value in the last 11 months and certainly looks more attractive now as a takeover candidate,” Jimmy Yates, a London-based trader at CMC Markets, tells Bloomberg. Speculation about a possible buyout by Google previously surfaced last May, seeing Yell’s stock soar from USD0.3 to USD9.8 a share.

Microsoft looks to buy Limelight Networks - Rumour - Microsoft is interested in acquiring content delivery network, Limelight Networks, according to rumours on tech blog, Silicon Alley Insider. The site claims a CDN industry insider, unconnected with Limelight, as its source. However, other online sources claim the software giant is using Limelight, which it signed a partnership with in Aug 2007 to develop its own CDN system. No official statement has been made from either firm.

Facebook may acquire Plaxo - Rumour - Facebook may be looking to acquire Plaxo, a social community and online address book, according to VentureBeat, which cites an unnamed source who says the social network is “100 per cent” buying Plaxo. Tech Crunch shot down the rumour immediately, saying its sources consider such a move “very unlikely”. At the beginning of Jan, the online address book said it was looking to sell up and shortly afterwards claimed it had already received an offer of more than USD200m.

IAC’s Ticketmaster (IACI) Buys TicketsNow For $265 Million - Interactive Corp’s (NYSE: IACI) Ticketmaster bought TicketsNow, the country’s second-largest site for reselling sports and concert tickets, for $265 million. This means Ticketmaster will now compete head on with eBay-owned StubHub.

AOL in Talks to Buy Social Travel Site WAYN - Rumour - Social travel site Where Are You Know (WAYN) is rumoured to be in negotiations with AOL over a USD200m buy-out deal, according to TechCrunch UK. The tech blog cites three “well placed sources” who claim an official announcement has been delayed because talks have stalled over a proposed WAYN pay-out clause. However, WAYN’s marketing manager, Anika Erskine explicitly denied the rumour, saying the company is “absolutely not for sale.”

Amazon’s IMDb Buys Online Film Distributor, Withoutabox - The Amazon-owned online film site, The Internet Movie Database (imdb.com), is acquiring online independent film distributor Withoutabox. The deal, agreed for an undisclosed sum, allows LA-based Withoutabox to continue to operate as a standalone operation. The agreement promises to extend IMDb’s online reach and adds to its related film ventures. These include IMDbPro, a site aimed at entertainment industry professionals, and IMDb Resume, a service that lets actors and film crew workers promote themselves to film professionals.

Ads On Social Networking Sites Could Present New Opportunities And Challenges For Brands - New research based on Dynamic Logic’s AdReaction 2007 study, which measures consumer perceptions of various forms of advertising, suggests that social networking websites present a unique platform where brands can connect with consumers.                                     

MySpace Ruled U.S. Social Nets In 2007 - Although Facebook garnered the lion’s share of media attention, News Corp.’s MySpace ruled the U.S. social networking space in terms of sheer volume in 2007, according to new stats from Hitwise.            

Time Warner Cable Mulls “Metered” Web Access - According to leaked documents, Time Warner’s cable distributor, Time Warner Cable, is considering changing its ISP service to so-called “metered” access. Metered access, in which consumers pay for the bandwidth they consume, is a fact of life for many Web users across the globe. A memo leaked to the Broadband Reports forum shows that Time Warner will roll out what it calls “Consumption Based Billing” on a trial basis in the Beaumont, Texas, region.             

For Social Nets, Future Is Search - Google and other search engines may cede ad revenue to Facebook and Bebo as marketers devote more of their budgets to social networking, says a new study from the UK. The “Impact of Social Networking in the UK” report from Web measurement firm Hitwise claims that 2008 will see social networks improve their monetization, particularly with regard to search.                           

In Global Game, Facebook Gains On MySpace - Facebook is “supposed to be on a rocket ride”, right? Well, according to Hitwise data, the social networking darling has a 16 percent market share in the U.S., compared to a whopping 72 percent for MySpace. But the Hitwise data “confusing” because the firm fails to qualify “market share.” Do they mean total page views or unique visitors? Worldwide, Facebook has nearly caught up with MySpace, according to comScore, with 93 million unique visitors versus 105 million for MySpace. It’s the same story with page views: 42 billion for Facebook versus 48 billion for MySpace. However, in total time spent on the site, Facebook is the new king, with 21 billion minutes versus 17.

Study: User Faith In Web Sites (But Not Engines) Up - Are Web users losing faith in search engines? A study released today by the University of Southern California’s Center for the Digital Future suggests the answer may be yes. A slim majority of all Web users, 51%, surveyed by the center, said that most or all of the information they find on search engines like Google is reliable — down from 61% in 2006. But other information on the Internet appears to be gaining in credibility and importance with the public.

European Founder’s Fund invests in Facebook - Rumour - Facebook is rumoured to be receiving an undisclosed amount of investment from the European Founder’s Fund, which was set up by three German entrepreneurs and brothers, Alexander, Marc and Oliver Samwer. It does not appear to be linked with the Founder’s Fund, which was sat up by various PayPal founders, including Peter Thiel, who previously invested USD500,000 in Facebook in 2004. This is just the latest rumour linking Facebook to a new round of funding since Microsoft invested USD240m in the social network in Oct last year in return for a 1.6% stake. Two undisclosed New York hedge funds were rumoured to have invested in Facebook, as was Hong Kong billionaire, Li Ka-Shing, who was ranked as the ninth richest person in the world by Forbes last year.                                               

Google signs exclusive deal with Weather Channel - The Weather Channel has struck a deal with Google to be the exclusive provider of weather info on Google Earth. Under the deal, Google Maps will also make weather updates more easily available on its service. The partnership is the latest effort by The Weather Channel to expand its online presence. Most recently it acquired three online vacation rental sites, and agreed to provide forecasts to News Corp’s MySpace.                                 

Online Values Seen As Bubblish, Social Nets Most ‘Overhyped’ - Nearly two-thirds (62%) of senior executives at major U.S. media companies believe a “bubble” is looming for online media properties, but the vast majority don’t expect it to pop until 2009 or beyond. The findings, which come from a survey of 1,600 senior executives at leading media companies released Tuesday by investment banker AdMedia Partners, also indicate that online media properties will continue to command the highest multiples in the media industry’s mergers and acquisitions market during 2008.                     

CNET’s “Wimpy” Fight Back - CNET Networks adopted a poison pill on Monday in a clear attempt to block a potentially hostile takeover of the company by JANA Partners, a hedge fund. Last week, the technology publisher’s announced that its board of directors had adopted a stockholder rights plan to “deter coercive takeover tactics and to prevent an acquirer from gaining control of the company without offering a fair price.” In addition, the company adopted substantial severance payments for its board members, should a takeover come to pass.

Facebook asked to remove Scrabble application - Claiming copyright infringement, the makers of Scrabble are asking Facebook to remove the Scrabulous word game from the social networking site. Scrabulous, which has more than 500,000 daily users, is one of Facebook’s 10 most popular applications. Scrabble copyright owners Hasbro and Mattel assert that Scrabulous is essentially an online version of Scrabble with a slightly different name. Hasbro, which controls Scrabble rights in the US and Canada, is the world’s second largest toy maker.

Yahoo! launches new travel search engine - Yahoo! is launching FareChase as the default search engine on Yahoo! Travel, as it attempts to address increasing competition and consolidation in the travel search market. Yahoo! acquired travel search engine, FareChase, in 2004, but had not previously integrated its functionalities into Yahoo! Travel. FareChase substitutes Travelocity as the default search option, with Travelocity now available under the ‘classic search’ option.                        

Watermarks Could Replace DRM for Big Music - The demise of Digital Rights Management is nigh, but the music industry is already experimenting with a new DRM substitute. So-called “watermarking” could offer Big Music the copy protection it craves by letting companies track where digital music files end up–particularly, file-sharing networks. The technology would impart a unique serial number that lets music companies match digital files to the original purchaser.                 

Netflix Offers Unlimited Streaming - Netflix on Monday lifted restrictions on how long subscribers can watch movies and TV shows streamed over broadband connections. The announcement comes on the same day that Apple’s Macworld conference goes live in San Francisco. On Tuesday, the consumer electronics giant is expected to announce a new online rental service through its iTunes store, which would make Apple a direct competitor to Netflix.                    

Reach Still Drives Ad Spending - For all the talk of “engagement,” advertisers still covet “eyeballs” as the No. 1 criteria for buying media, according to a recent survey. Throughout media history, advertisers have gone where the eyeballs are, but new media promised new ways to measure how long and how well people interact with ads-also known as “engagement.” Even so, less than half of 2,047 marketers surveyed by Advertiser Perceptions ranked the promising marketing tactic among their top five criteria. Marketers said the most important statistic on the Web is return on investment.                           

Facebook Tries to Sell Out on “60 Minutes” - On Sunday night, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will appear on “60 Minutes” to tell the world that Facebook is in trouble. He doesn’t say that in so many words, of course, but his participation on the weekly news show, given the unlikelihood that many in Facebook’s existing demographic of 12-to-24-year-olds watch “60 Minutes” on a regular basis, signals that the social networking site is trying to connect with a larger audience.

Countrywide Buyout May Drag Down Online Ad Rev - Bank of America’s announcement that it has agreed to acquire Countrywide for $4 billion in an all-stock deal could be potentially damaging to future ad revenues for Google, Yahoo and MSN. Industry analysts are forecasting the so-called Countrywide “ad gravy train” to derail once the Bank of America buyout is settled.

Gannett Taps PointRoll’s Saridakis As Chief Digital Officer - Gannett Co., the nation’s largest publisher of newspapers, including USA Today, as well as leading operator of broadcast stations and related Web sites, today announced a restructuring of its digital media operations, naming Chris Saridakis senior vice president-chief digital officer.

News Corp-backed Roo in major overhaul - Roo Group, the News Corp-backed video aggregator and ITV provider, plans to lay off staff and close its business solutions unit as part of a wider restructuring plan. The moves are the first by Kaleil Tuzman, the JumpTV executive who took over as CEO of the company after Roo’s four independent board members resigned last month. Tuzman says the company, will now focus on international IPTV and hire new management staff, including three former JumpTV executives.