Online video ads increase engagement

Online video ads perform better in content sites such as news, finance, sports, and music than in social networks or gaming sites, according to a new study by ad firm Eyeblaster.

The study found that video advertising increases engagement, doubling Dwell Time (the amount of time users engage with an ad) and increases Dwell Rate (the number of ad impressions leading to users engaging with an ad), by 20 percent.

Big Xing Stake Snapped Up By Burda Media

A major change has taken place behind the scenes at Xing, the business networking company based in Hamburg, Germany.  Burda Media is now the primary shareholder due to a transaction that saw it purchase a lot of stock from Cinco Capital GmbH.

Burda bought a whopping 1,323,041 shares for €36.50 each (which works out to about $72.3 million).  It controls a 25.1 percent stake in Xing as a result.  This wasn’t any sort of hostile takeover, though.

Smartphones Driving Non-Voice Communications

The increase in mobile device usage for non-voice communications, such as text messages, email and Internet access is being driven primarily by the popularity of smartphones, according to a new study by BIA/Kelsey.

BIA/Kelsey’s Mobile Market View study, found 18.5 percent of consumers searched the Internet for products or services in their local areas, up from 15.6 percent in 2008, and 16.7 percent visited a social network such as MySpace or Facebook, up from 9.6 percent in 2008.

Yahoo Messenger Goes Video with New Version

Update: Yahoo Messenger 10 is now out of beta. Features include: high quality video calling, Yahoo Updates view of your contacts list, and availability in 16 languages.

Original Article: Yahoo Messenger Version 10 is now available in beta. New features include enhanced video calling, courtesy of GIPS, friend updates from Yahoo, Flickr, Twitter, and others through the new updates view, and improved language support.

Hulu Gets Feet Wet in the Music Video Pool

Hulu and record label EMI have struck a deal, which will give the video content site some music videos, one area in which the site has lacked. Hulu fans shouldn’t get too excited about the site becoming a big music video destination just yet though.

The deal, according to the New York Times, is to give artists Norah Jones her own channel (which is already live), and over time, add more EMI artists. The Norah Jones channel has all of her music videos, concert footage, and interviews.

MySpace’s “New Moon” Webcast Brings In 3m Viewers

Leading up to MySpace’s live stream of red carpet arrivals at the world premiere of The Twilight Saga: New Moon, we indicated that onlookers should expect a big traffic spike.  Now, the statistics are in, and "ginormous traffic mountain" is more like it.

In an email to Murdok, a MySpace representative stated that the webcast attracted over 2 million uniques and a total of almost 3 million viewers.  Those large numbers are about equal to the populations of Houston and Chicago, respectively.

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