Playboy Drops DVDs for Online Video
If this isn’t a shining example that online video is taking over, I don’t know what is. Playboy is going so far as to completely shut down their DVD business to move all of their video content to the Internet. "Unlike other companies that began in print, we have profitable television, online and mobile businesses, which have domestic and international growth potential," said CEO Christine Hefner.
Yahoo Cutting 3,500 Jobs?
If a recent leak of information is true, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and board chairman Roy Bostock are looking worse and worse. Remember all that grandstanding last spring about employee severances and retention packages when Microsoft’s offer to buy was still on the table?Remember the nasty letters between Carl Icahn and Bostock about that and how Bostock seemed to be looking out for employees and Icahn said it was just a poison pill to add a couple of billion to the price tag and dissuade Microsoft? ‘Member?
Live: Google Realistic, But Optimistic
Let out that held breath, everybody – Google had a good third quarter. While the company didn’t destroy estimates as it’s done in the past, such behavior could hardly be expected at this point, and Google at least managed to improve its performance in most respects.All of this led to some rather happy and enthusiastic behavior on the part of investors. Google’s stock has gone up 7.86 percent so far in after hours trading. Here are notes from the live conference call:
YouTube Rejects McCain Campaign Request
Earlier this week, general counsel for the McCain campaign petitioned YouTube to give special treatment to political ads scrubbed from the site because of DMCA take down notices. General counsel for YouTube roundly rejected that request.
Google Announces Third Quarter Results
Google has released its third quarter results, and things are looking all right so far. The company managed to bring in $5.54 billion in revenue, and this was up from both last quarter and the third quarter of last year. Net income increased in a similar manner, reaching $1.35 billion.Eric Schmidt wasn’t as positive as he’s been at other times, giving Google some wiggle room in terms of short-term performance, but seems to feel that things are solid and the company is heading in the right direction.
Ballmer Talks About Yahoo!
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been talking about Yahoo again. According to MarketWatch, Ballmer said the deal would still "make sense economically."
SpinSpotter Lets Community Fight Spin
Here’s a site destined for greatness and future abuse: SpinSpotter, now in “very” beta, and their Spinoculars toolbar. Tired of the liberal media being in the tank for Obama? Maybe you’re sick of the corporate media suppressing important news about their in-the-pocket Republicans. Or maybe you see how the 24/7 news cycle has turned once diligent and tenacious journalists into copy-and-paste-and-post PR hacks.
Internet Use Improves Brainpower
Searching online is better than reading books for increasing the brainpower of middle-aged and older adults, new research indicates.A University of California Los Angles team of scientists found searching on the Internet stimulates parts of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning.The findings come from a study of 24 volunteers aged 55 to 76 who were asked to either search online or read while their brains were scanned using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Google Explains Quality Scores
It’s kind of nifty how forthcoming Google has been with the transparency lately. For the longest time, trying to get anything out of them was like trying to squeeze a nickel out of Ed McMahon. The latest explanations of how things work is a blog post describing how quality scores work and why the highest bidder doesn’t always get highest placement in the sponsored results.
Google Strikes Two New Deals For TV Ads
Google is making a bigger push with its Google TV Ads and announced on Thursday that it has struck partnership deals with the Harris Corporation, makers of communications equipment and CoreMedia Systems, a direct response advertising company.The Harris Corporation will integrate Google TV Ads into the products it sells to media and communications companies. Harris says the partnership with Google will create a new sales channel for broadcasters, cable networks and cable system operators.