23 Musings

Good article here from Business Week discussing the growth and pervasiveness of Google and how they could become even more dominating over the coming years. In my opinion it only get's scary when they start backing a Presidential candidate ;) Influence and power will make Google many friends!

New figures from eMarketer suggest that the huge growth experienced by the online travel market in the last few years may be slowing. Between 2002 and 2006 the U.S. online travel market experienced annual growth rates of 28%, the forecast for the next year is a much lower 17%. PhoCusWright, Forrester Research and comScore all agree with this projection of slower growth ahead.

Now, 17% may seem like huge growth anyway, but in the heady world of online travel this may signal a turning or saturation point for the online players. It's not just a factor of the big online agents having reached a limit in market penetration though. The ease of entry to the market nowadays has made it much simpler for new entrants to get into the market and gain market share quickly. New Web 2.0 features are also giving consumers a better experience on some of these new market entrants. Also, consumers are turning to more complex trips which is pushing some back to the traditional purchase routes of travel agents and phone calls.

Online travel agencies market share is slipping as consumers move to book components for the trip direct from suppliers websites. More and more suppliers are taking control of their inventory and selling it themselves as well. All of this adds up to tougher times for the established online players, and much tougher times for the traditional tour operators who are still trying to gain ground on their more agile competitors.

Google have replied to Viacoms lawsuit and their lawyers letter to the press with their own letter to the editor in the Washington Post. Glad to see they don't labour the point and make valid comments regarding DMCA safe harbour.

Still doesn't see them out of the woods I reckon, there will be many more lawsuits in the lifetime of YouTube and these things can have a habit of dragging on and dirtying reputations.

After the intial rush to dive into Second Life and try to establish brand presence in the virtual world, marketers are now reigning in their ambitions as they find it a tough task understanding the world and leveraging it's potential. Even worse, the locals (regular users of Second Life) are taking a dislike to many marketers as they are adding no value to the community and purely using it as an advertising platform to further their brand.

Disregarding the community is a fatal error. Marketers risk total failure of a venture in Second Life if they ignore the locals and fail to give something back. The same happens at MySpace as brands which launch profiles that are purely adverts find they get very little value from the venture.

The community is key. Engage them, entertain them, add value, give them a reason to interact with your brand and you'll win. Establish a need amongst the community and give them something they will want to take part in. Fail to do any of this and you have definitely wasted your money (except perhaps a bit of launch PR).

In Second Life some shops set up by brands are all but abandoned as the marketers involved fail to work out how to make it work to their advantage. 70 percent of the locals say they are disappointed with the presence that marketers have established.

It's a risky venture (unless you have big pockets) and one to research properly and plan a strategy for before you begin. Get it right and you could be laughing, get it wrong and you can generate a lot of the wrong type of PR.

In these days of social networks and community based web sites it's no surprise to learn that employers are wising up to the wealth of information that prospective employees are posting about themselves online. Most web users have signed up to at least one social network or community, many using their own names or posting identifying details. Some of these sites are good self PR (Linkedin, Xing, Soflow etc), while others can be sources of rather less positive PR (MySpace, Bebo, Faceparty etc). With the pervasiveness of these websites and the growing profile, is it now time people got a bit more cautious about what they post?

According to a report from business social network, Viadeo these social networks can have a significant effect when applying for a job. According to the research, one in five employers finds information about candidates on the internet and 59 per cent of those said it influences recruitment decisions. A quarter of HR decision-makers said they had rejected candidates based on personal information found online. Examples of information that has proved to create a negative impression of candidates include MySpace or Faceparty sites which expose excessive drinking or a general disrespect for work. Ethical issues which prospects post about on blogs and social sites can also put a stop to a job application before it gets off the ground.

The moral? Careful what you post, you never know who's reading your blog/profile... Self PR is something you can control through sensible use of blogs and social networks, you can even improve your employability through strategic use of the positive networks or blogging about issues relating to your chosen field. This could become a really good way to increase your profile with employers and to impress before you even get to interview.

Courtesy of the BBC News website here's some really good interviews with some of the rising stars of the Web 2.0 world. There will be more to add to this post as the week progresses:

1. Meebo
2. Zoomr
3. Stumble Upon
4. Yelp
   

Also, here's a great article giving the lowdown on the Silicon Valley tech bubble.

Easyjet the UK based budget airline do:

In case you can't see it try this link. I'm sure that categorising the elderly as livestock would not go down too well with some of their customers!

ZenZui is a new mobile phone interface being developed by a company which came out of Microsoft Research and now runs independently although funded by Microsoft's IP Ventures.

They've created a zoomable interface for mbile phones which is looking pretty good from the demo video they've created.

Designed by experts in human computer interaction it really does look like a step forwards in how we can access information on the small screen. Just looking at the demo video shows me that the interface has the potential to remove a lot of the frustrations that I come across while browsing the web on my N73.

Check out the demo below:

I'm in shock! I've just become aware of the debacle surrounding the Italian governments new tourism website which promotes their country to potential visitors.

This is the story of the Italian National Tourism Portal which has recently appeared online after three years (the project began 16th March 2004). Created by IBM the site launched to derision worldwide from the blogosphere and from Italians themselves. It's amazing that such a huge sum of money can be spent on a website which doesn't appear particularly complex. Far more sophisticated websites are created all the time with budgets a fraction of this spend. Rumour has it that the logo alone cost €100,000!

Design wise it looks pretty good, but it doesn't work on all browsers, has a lot of copy errors and very poor translation, accessibility is shocking and it's incredibly slow to browse around.


Apparently it's not the worst offending government sponsored money-pit website, rumour has it that the German employment office site cost an astounding €160 million! Both of these sites are scandalous wastes of public money, something far better could have been produced for far less money!

The online travel customer is a fickle beast. We've known this for a long time and many trends have emerged which have helped us to predict our customers behaviour and purchasing habits. This behaviour however seems to be changing quite dramatically at the moment.

We've seen customers persevere with poor booking experiences purely because they want to book their holiday with certain tour operators, customers who compare prices across 10's of websites before deciding on who to book with (not always the cheapest) and customers who only ever book with the same brand due to a good previous experience. Loyalty has been evident in the past (seen by visit rates, repeat visits and time to book metrics) as a key attraction in choosing who to book with, often superceding the online experience they get with that provider. The offline experience with a travel company is often enough to make users struggle through the online.

The growth of online agents such as Expedia and Opodo has seen market share online swiped away from traditional tour operators although in recent months this trend seems to be reversing (albeit slowly) as these sites begin to face the same issues now (lack of loyalty, competition). Price comparison sites are also taking market share away from both the traditional and online players as they find better ways to make wide choices of products available to consumers.

However, one factor seems to be becoming the deciding factor for customers. Price! No longer is the experience you have online enough to sway you to one provider, neither is the brand name or how established they are (in the customers eyes). Web 2.0 trickery isn't enough to draw them in and social media (while almost essential in travel) is not enough alone. Price is king!

This may seem like a given to anyone involved in e-commerce, and it is true in almost every online retail market, but travel has long shown evidence of unusual customer behaviour online. Travel companies have had it easy for a long time. The online travel arena has been developing for years and now it's hit maturity (and the customers are getting more savvy) factors such as brand name aren't drawing in the sales anymore. It's true that in travel brand search terms drive the largest volume of traffic that converts well, but this isn't growing that much anymore and the other traffic sources don't convert as well unless the price at the end of the customer journey is right.

The way you message offers and deals on your websites is key. Merchandising in travel often relies on messages such as 'Up to £... off' or 'Prices from £...', these just aren't strong enough anymore to guarantee conversion unless the price at the end of the booking process ties up with the initial headline (and is a real deal worth hunting for). With so much competition out there it could be a tough year for traditional players (and I include the Expedias in this group) as budget players and price comparison sites take sales and drive traffic away from the traditional sites.

If the price isn't right then your offering has to be so strong that the customer feels compelled to buy with you over one of your competitors. Brand alone isn't enough to do this. Making your website sticky by adding all the latest Web 2.0 fads and reams of content also isn't enough. A combination of content, offers, user experience and really great prices is the only way to ensure longevity in the online market (especially at the cheaper end of the market) unless you happen to have a unique offering of some sort.

Of course, none of this means anyone is going to go bust or move back to more traditional routes of selling. It simply means we all have to adapt and 'get real'. Marketing directors in their ivory towers who are adamant that the brand will do it for them need to 'get real'. Product directors need to 'get real' and focus on delivering prices that compete with the opposition. E-commerce directors need to ensure that their websites are delivering the user experience that customers expect nowadays and 'get real' if they think that adding the latest Web 2.0 goodies is going to dramatically increase their conversion rate on their own.

A telling bit of research from those guys at Webcredible (the usability and design consultancy) has shown that your average web shopper takes factors such as design and brand more seriously than security when choosing sites to purchase from.

Not really a huge surprise at all! What was surprising to me was that 40% of respondents said that they looked for it to say 'https' in the address bar. This shows that web users are getting more savvy and I'm certain that even a year ago that number would have been much lower. I'd expect a repeat of this study in a years time will show that security is the deciding factor and brand/design will matter less to users looking to buy.

Webcredible advise online retailers to:

1. Provide written assurance about security policies
2. Include user reviews and have other site visitors rate the reviewers
3. Provide links to references of the company on other websites
4. Ensure content is up-to-date across the website
5. Include details of any affiliations or awards

All really good advise and great ways to build up trust with your customers in the online environment. One basic point they have missed is applying a seal (eg. Verisign) to your website on the checkout page, research I conducted last year with our customers showed that a lot of users will buy purely if they see the seal without regard for https or not.

Rather than taking it like a behemoth, Microsoft has run away from the issue of video copyright and shut it's Soapbox site for a couple of months. Soapbox is the Microsoft competitor to YouTube etc and is a fairly nice app although not getting the visits required to be any sort of threat. They've seen Soapbox fill up with copyrighted clips since it launched and with no protection and (so I've heard) a long winded method of taking down clips they're seeking to improve.

Microsoft have signed up to the NBC/News Corp. deal and as such need to be seen to be making efforts to prevent piracy. There was a real risk that they could have been dumped from the deal if (like YouTube) they were found to be carrying large amounts of the media companies content.

So in reality it's a sensible move which will prepare them for the coming distribution deal, however I can't help feeling that they have wimped out by taking it offline rather than just releasing updates and keeping it accessible!

Here's the official press release on the coming YouTube competitor from NBC and News Corp.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--News Corporation and NBC Universal will launch the largest Internet video distribution network ever assembled with the most sought-after content from television and film, it was announced today by Jeff Zucker, President and Chief Executive Officer, NBC Universal and Peter Chernin, President and Chief Operating Officer, News Corporation. The video-rich site will debut this summer with thousands of hours of full-length programming, movies and clips, representing premium content from at least a dozen networks and two major film studios.

AOL, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo! will be the new site’s initial distribution partners. Their users, who represent 96 percent of the monthly U.S. unique users on the Internet, will have unlimited access to the site’s vast library of content. This media alliance will offer consumers free long- and short-form video and create a compelling platform for advertisers, targeting the rapidly growing audience of online video consumers. Charter advertisers include Cadbury Schweppes, Cisco, Esurance, Intel and General Motors.

“This is a game changer for Internet video,” said Peter Chernin, President and Chief Operating Officer of News Corporation. “We’ll have access to just about the entire U.S. Internet audience at launch. And for the first time, consumers will get what they want -- professionally produced video delivered on the sites where they live. We’re excited about the potential for this alliance and we’re looking forward to working with any content provider or distributor who wants to take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity.”

“Anyone who believes in the value of ubiquitous distribution will find this announcement incredibly exciting,” said Jeff Zucker, President and CEO of NBC Universal. “This venture supercharges our distribution of protected, quality content to fans everywhere. Consumers get a hugely attractive aggregation of a wide range of content, and marketers get a novel way to connect with a large and highly engaged audience.”

At launch, full episodes and clips from current hit shows, including Heroes, 24, House, My Name Is Earl, Saturday Night Live, Friday Night Lights, The Riches, 30 Rock, The Simpsons, The Tonight Show, Prison Break, Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader and Top Chef, plus hits from the studios’ vast television libraries, will be available free, on an ad-supported basis, within a rich consumer experience featuring personalized video playlists, mashups, online communities and video search. Plus, the extensive programming lineup will include fan favorite films like Borat, Little Miss Sunshine, Devil Wears Prada, The Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy with bonus materials and movie trailers. Post-launch, plans will be considered for acquiring additional content as well as producing and licensing original programming for the new site’s audience.

Its launch distribution partners will provide the biggest potential reach of any player on the Internet. Moreover, the new site will actively seek agreements with a variety of additional distribution partners.

“This new venture is further proof that the Internet is now a full-fledged entertainment medium, and we are delighted to serve as a major online distribution partner for the quality content produced by these media powerhouses, as well as a provider of strategic services to the new venture,” said Randy Falco, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AOL.

“This partnership is completely aligned with our continued investment in video on MSN and will allow hundreds of millions of our consumers to tune into a vast library of high-quality, safe and legal online video,” said Kevin Johnson, President, Platform and Services Division, Microsoft. “Our alliance proves that you can deliver quality online video entertainment and protect intellectual property and copyright at the same time. We look forward to working together to explore additional opportunities to distribute this content across other Microsoft services and devices.”

“By delivering the new site’s content to our more than 65 million users, we can build on MySpace’s position as a leading destination for online video, and enable content creators to tap into the power of social networking,” said Peter Levinsohn, President of Fox Interactive Media. “The ability to embed video clips within over 160 million profile pages will empower members of the MySpace community to view, share and truly interact with some of the entertainment world’s most popular content.”

“We are excited to be a part of this landmark partnership that connects people to the content they care about. As the most visited site in the U.S., this deal gives Yahoo!’s users unprecedented access to their favorite shows and offers them engaging content in a premium video format,” said Terry Semel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Yahoo! Inc. "We believe that this relationship underscores Yahoo!'s respect for content owners and copyrights and positions us as one of the premier distribution sites on the Web for entertainment programming."

Each distribution partner will feature the site’s content in an embedded player customized with a look and feel consistent with each site, making the offering organic to each destination. The new company will offer innovative advertising sales propositions by being able to sell cross-platform -- on-air and on-line. Post-launch, sites affiliated with founding companies, including iVillage and IGN, will also have the opportunity to become distribution partners.

The new company will be located in New York and Los Angeles. A transitional management team led by NBC Universal’s Chief Digital Officer George Kliavkoff, along with an experienced group of executives from NBC Universal and News Corporation, will work together to launch the site. The company’s permanent management will be announced shortly, along with branding details and additional advertising partners. Each company will devote a significant marketing and promotional budget to the new site’s launch.

News Corporation and NBC Universal are creating this strategic alliance at a time when Internet users and advertisers are embracing online video as never before. In January, there were 123 million unique video streamers and downloaders (comScore Video Metrix). In 2005, video streams totaled nearly 18 billion, and that amount is expected to triple by 2010 (AccuStream iMedia Research, 2006). And research firm eMarketer estimates $410 million was spent on online video advertising in 2006, an amount that is expected to almost double this year.

Now that sounds pretty good to be honest! This surely will impact YouTube in market share, although I still don't believe it will take over in the user generated content arena as YouTube has the head start there.

In reality, competition is a good thing and hopefully this will force YouTube and Google to be even more innovative in the future and think up new ways to utilise their huge audience.

NBC and News Corp are expected to announce the impending arrival of a competitor to YouTube today. This has been in the offing for some time and is expected to be widely used across MySpace as a way to gain penetration fast. Shows such as Family Guy, 24 and The Office will be featured, these being some of the shows regularly taken down from YouTube that gain many viewers.

Will it be the killer? Personally I doubt it, YouTube has far broader appeal that just as a platform to watch TV on. It will however hurt YouTube in the market share department and could be the first and only real competition to emerge.

However, this strikes me as more of a competitor to Joost and the like than to YouTube!

*I don't really think it's a killer at all...

Unsurprising news that investment by VC's in Web 2.0 start-ups has soared in 2006. We're looking at a figure of double the investment received by start-ups in 2005. That's a huge increase, but then there were some rather large deals last year...

Facebook ($25 million), Zillow ($25 million), PodShow ($15 million), Zimbra $14.5 million), Veoh Networks ($12.5 million), Six Apart ($12 million), Kayak.com ($11.5 million), Revver ($10 million), NetVibes ($14.4 million), Where Are You Now? ($9 million) , and Toodou ($8.5 million). That's just a selection as well...

Actual numbers of deals were was 167 last year. It would be really interesting to know how many of those have joined the deadpool since...

More details from Prime NewsWire:

• The U.S. dominated the Web 2.0 market, with 126 deals and US$682.7 million invested, an 83% increase in deals from 2005 and a 136% increase in capital.
  -- On a sub-regional basis, the San Francisco Bay Area was the busiest region in the U.S. for Web 2.0 deals and was home to more than half of all financings last year. The New York metropolitan area, Southern California and New England also saw tremendous growth in deal flow and investment over 2006.
  
  
• Europe has also shown significant interest with 20 deals in 2006, up from four deals in 2005. The amount invested in Europe, US$100.5 million, is more than a 200% increase from 2005.
  -- Within Europe, France posted the most activity with seven deals and US$39.3 million invested in 2006.
  -- Five Web 2.0 deals were completed in the United Kingdom last year, raising US$23.4 million in investment capital.
  
  
• China posted 21 Web 2.0 deals. This was the same number that occurred in China in 2005 -- indicating a flattening of that market. Investment declined by 26% to US$61.3 million.
  
  
• Israel had two venture-financed Web 2.0 deals in 2006 and US$22 million invested, a jump from one deal and only US$1 million invested the year before.
  
  
• The most active investors in Web 2.0 on a worldwide basis are Benchmark Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Sequoia Capital, and Omidyar Network.

Google is trialing cost-per-action adverts on publishers sites in the U.S. I've been expecting this for some time as a natural progression for Adwords/Adsense to move to a similar model to affiliates. This will help advertisers avoid click fraud and see more of a return on investment.

More details on the trial are on the Googleblog.

Great new addition to Google's search results! The Plus Box adds additional rich data and information to search results based on the query submitted. To begin their displaying two types of Plus Box; stock information and maps. Here's a couple of examples:

A search for Apple reveals an expandable box to display their stock info:


And a search for Babbo reveals the location map in an expandable box:
This really adds a lot of value to the Google results list, it makes the search results much more sticky and negates the need for other yellow page type websites. It's a very smart move and I'd expect to see Google linking more of their services into search very soon.

It's not yet available for all business name searches, only the ones that Google have data for, but they are promising to expand the reach as quickly as they can. Full details on the Googleblog.

In a fairly major departure from Google's usual habits of plain, clean, white web pages they are now offering users of their personalised (read Web 2.0/Ajax) homepage an option to have a nice colourful background in the header area. The internet search box at the top of the homepage is placed in panoramic settings that change with the time of day and the weather. A nice touch, and with Google homepage gaining penetration it's sure to attract some usage.

The 'skins' will be unveiled today and are sure to go down well with all but the die hard Google users. And the fact that these decorations change with the time and weather is also a new draw to get people to try their homepage for themselves.

Apparently the designs will also contain surprises, such as easter eggs that will pop out at (wait for it) Easter, and one would expect a jolly red man perhaps at Xmas...

Here's an example:

More from the Sydney Morning Herald here.

Great article in Computer Weekly that describes the benefits of semantic web and why companies need to start preparing. Tim Berners-Lee mentions the Resource Description Framework and Web Ontology Language that's coming from the working group. This is something I'm looking forwards to (as an information junkie), it's similar although much more complex to Microformats which is pleasing (as an avid fan of Microformats) and will really help make the information available through the web more useful and accessible (Google really should have thought of this...)!

The more we get overloaded with information and the more disjointed the web becomes it's imperative that we (as designers/developers/experts) all embrace semantic web and ensure it becomes the defacto standard for tagging up content as soon as it's released (of course your Microformats will work alongside). Content that can be understood (to some extent) by software opens up a myriad of possibilities for us all, especially with the growing trend for data mashups...

Great read in the Times regarding Robert Scobles M$ bashing.

I really like Scobles thinking so it's interesting to read this commentary on the episode. I agree with almost everything he's said to be honest, M$'s execution online does leave a lot to be desired and they've missed a lot of tricks over the last few years. Live is a prime example of a piece of real estate they haven't made the most of. With Live tied to mail, search, homepages and more it could have been a real cohesive web offering. Perhaps not enough to rival Google but at least enough to command more % market share than it does right now (as a destination online). Mail is still the dominant offering in Live and M$ should have leveraged it better to their advantage!

Two hackers who are known as Mondo Armando and Müstaschio, say they are going to start a ploy during April to expose security holes, one a day, in MySpace.

"We could have just as easily gone after Google or Yahoo or MSN or IDG or whatever. MySpace is just more fun, and is becoming notoriously obnoxious about responding to security issues," Mondo Armando is supposed to have said.

These hack campaigns are a mix of self-promotion for the hackers and also high profile ways to try to force well known sites into improving security.

Here's a great list of web 2.0 start ups from the UK, kindly provided by The Register. It's a really good list containing a lot of the old favourites (OnOneMap, Last.fm, Crowdstorm, Zopa etc) but also there are some sites I've not seen before which you may find of interest (Garlik, MailSpaces, SelfCastTV etc).

Worth a read!

When it's time to redesign or tweak your e-commerce website what areas should you focus on? Is it just a matter of rebuilding from scratch or applying a new coat of paint? Or are there key areas you should be focusing on?

Help is at hand... Jakob Nielsen, that bastion of usability and helpful tips (although I know some people don't agree with everything he says and I'm one of them) has published a new article titled 10 High-Profit Redesign Priorities.

There's some really good points on where you should focus your efforts so this is well worth a read for anyone who wants to increase their conversion rate and get more revenue.

Nice little app here called CSSFly which allows you to view any web page and edit it in real time while seeing the results instantly in the browser. It works by caching a copy of a page and updating with any changes to the code you make.

Could be very useful for any CSS/XHTML developers who want to experiment without getting their coding tools out. Also great for those of us who like to see what's under the hood of our favourite designed websites.

After lengthy negotiations over copyrighted clips on YouTube, Viacom has hit Google and YouTube with a lawsuit accusing the popular video-sharing Web site of "massive intentional copyright infringement" and seeking more than $1B in damages.

The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York states that nearly 160,000 copyrighted clips of Viacom's programming have been available on YouTube and that these have been viewed more than 1.5 billion times.

This seems like another disgruntled media giant trying to force Googles hand into coming up with a proper way to share revenue. I can't see the case resulting in Google paying out, however it could result in a takedown notice being issued for all the offending clips.

If Google don't get some form of copyright protection out the door along with an attractive revenue sharing scheme this could get very messy for GooTube as other media owners joing the current lawsuit bandwagon! This is the first really clear example of the troubles YouTube could bring to Google, all cases so far have been minor and easily settled, this one could be a little more tricky.

So Google is now moving into TV advertising. Reports state that they've begun buying ad time on a small cable TV station called Astound in Concord, California. They're then selling ad breaks to advertisers via an auction system that's similar to the one they're trialing for print ads. The auction system doesn't use technology however, rather it's using salespeople to regulate the auctions as they're technology isn't yet up to the job.

This trial is partly to test the concept for advertiser buy-in (something I'm certain they'll get) and also to test they're own network infrastructure in anticipation of rolling out TV ad's to cable networks globally.

This is the first confirmed news of the move into TV though there have been mentions in a previous earnings filing.

Google have also filed a patent to deliver ads to billboards recently. If they keep up this momentum we could see Google become one of the biggest advertising networks very quickly. Having such broad coverage on web, building penetration in print and with the move into TV they could quickly become a dominant (if not the dominant) force in ad placement.

Quite how this fits with the company mantra of making information useful and accessible is beyond me...

Edit: Another story has just broken about Googles' TV ad desires which sounds much more like it could become a good fit for them. The below taken from Marketing Vox about the rumours of an upcoming deal with Dish Networks:

The rumors of a Dish Networks deal come just a day after reports were confirmed of Google's testing TV ads in Concord, California. But delivery over Dish Network's system would allow the commercials it serves up to be better targeted and relevant to what people were watching.

There's also the issue of interactivity. Dish operates one of the most interactive networks in the country, allowing users to search by keywords and define their programming according to their tastes.

All of that is data that Google could potentially mine to serve up ads that appeal directly to the viewers.

Now that sounds right up Googles' street. Attention meta-data to be had and targetted advertising a plenty...

Mark Cuban has changed tack from pressuring Google on his blog to filing a subpoena in federal court in Texas now. Cuban, who famously said that the purchase of YouTube for $1.65bn was moronic, has now put his lawyers into the fray.

Cuban is a partner in Magnolia Pictures, a film distributor; Magnolia is demanding that YouTube/Google reveal details of users who uploaded clips of its movies. The subpoena demands the details be handed over by 20^th March; Google has issued its standard silent response so far.

Cuban has made it clear the filing about making a point to Google. He told Reuters: "We don't expect to get valid user information. If we do, we will contact them and ask them what induced them to upload content they don't own."

Probably the last thing Google needs right now is a subpoena from someone who’s not doing it to force their hand on an advertising deal. Where as Fox obviously subpoenaed them to force the issue of a partnership deal, Cuban seems to just be doing it to make life difficult for them.

The Turks have taken a dislike to a video posted on YouTube which showed Greeks criticising Turkey and insulting the Turkish flag. As Turkey receives it’s web access solely via ADSL from Turk Telecom it’s a pretty easy job to block it for the vast majority of the population.

This (as far as I know) is the first country to block it, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see nations such as China follow suit as soon as they find something they don’t like…

Web OS is the talk of the town at the moment. From web based office packages, to applications under development using Proto and Pipes, everyone seems to want to bridge the gap between the browser and the desktop by creating applications that run inside your web browser.

Xcerion have a product which promises to move applications away from the desktop and into the cloud. It's said to be due to launch in the 3rd quarter 2007, but they're offering budding programmers the opportunity to sign up for forthcoming betas on their website.

This Information Week article has more.

Sounds interesting and like a lot of work is going into it!

Techcrunch has a great article describing some really good services offering users the ability to mash up data and web services to come up with something new. Well worth a read!

Babelgum has just launched into Beta offering a similar iPTV service to Joost. This Belgian rival has plenty of backing as well so it will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

Competition in this arena is key as it will give the content owners more channels to market and the opportunity for exclusive deals which should help secure better content for the viewers.

A success story for YouTube this week following on from all the takedown requests and lack of commitment from some major US media companies.

The BBC has signed a deal with YouTube to bring specially commissioned content and news clips to the video site. The director general of the BBC, Mark Thompson, said the deal is a ground-breaking partnership between the BBC and YouTube and "fantastic news for our audiences". He added in a statement: "It's essential that the BBC embraces new ways of reaching wider audiences with non-exclusive partnerships such as these."

The main BBC channel on YouTube will include news clips along with short-form promotional content linked to popular programmes such as Doctor Who. Video diaries by stars of the shows - including tours of the sets - will also appear. The BBC Worldwide entertainment channel will show clips from shows such as Top Gear and Spooks, along with factual programmes and a "limited amount of advertising". BBC World will offer around 30 news clips per day to users outside of the UK and will also be funded through advertising.

YouTube has also announced 1000's of deals with small content owners.

Viacom, Fox and NBC however are still staying away. Viacom claims that traffic to it's websites has risen sharply since they had the content and clips pulled down from YouTube (they obviously don't understand the point of cross promotion!). A deal with CBS has also failed to appear, it's all gone very quiet from both camps on this subject.

Ultimately, I'm sure they all really want to get a deal done, it seems YouTube need to come up with a better offering for these media behemoths in order to hook them into their service.

The BBC's foray into YouTube is said to be advertising funded, perhaps that funding is not enough for the large US media companies? Or maybe they are just waiting for some proper copyright protection to come into force?