CES 2008 - As the Consumer Electronics Show comes to an end, one take-away is the rapid change in how the general public found out about what was going on in Vegas. As a blogger myself, I know the importance of this new form of communication all too well (as well as the discussion about whether it is "real" journalism or not), but rarely have I seen such a powerful demonstration of how widespread the blogging phenomenon has become.

New York - Publisher Conde Nast's online unit CondeNet said this week that it will turn its Flip.com community site for teens into a Web application for social networking platforms, starting with Facebook. The company will continue to operate the Flip.com site, but shift development and marketing focus to distributed applications for the Flip application, which claims 300,000 users and lets teens create and share multimedia flipbooks.

New York - Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing said on Friday that it has partnered with Ball State University, to distribute live, interactive Web broadcasts featuring authors and illustrators to more than 30,000 schools nationwide. The Electronic Author Visits program will utilize BSU's Electronic Field Trips program, which will provide the live video, discussion forums and downloadable learning activities. Participating authors so far include Andrew Clements, D.J. MacHale and Margaret Peterson Haddix.

San Francisco - WeGame this week debuted its service that lets gamers capture video of their gameplay and publish it to the company's website for sharing. The company has so far raised $500,000 from True Ventures and The Hit Forge, TechCrunch reported. San Francisco-based WeGame's service utilizes Microsoft's DirectX technology in an application that can capture "screencasts" for the 16 PC games currently supported. The service then automatically shrinks the resulting video file to a size easily uploaded to WeGame's YouTube-like video-sharing site.

Paris - Vivendi Games Mobile announced this week a deal with cell phone maker Nokia, to offer a range of its games on Nokia devices via the company's Nokia Download service. Customers will be able to download Vivendi mobile games directly to their Nokia handsets.

Hyderabad, India - India-based game developer 7Seas Technologies has acquired the online game portal Neodelight from Germany-based Neokolor. Financial terms were not disclosed. 7Seas said that Neodelight's 300 games and more than 1 million unique monthly visitors, as well as its game engine technology, will benefit 7Seas' own offering at OnlineRealGames.com.

Washington - The Library of Congress said that it has signed a deal with software giant Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) that will "electronically expose" its vast historical collections to the public through the use of technology.

Cambridge, Mass. - Basis Technology, a provider of software for text analytics, information retrieval, and name resolution in several languages, on Friday announced that The Appeals Court of Massachusetts has ruled in its favor over online retailer Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) in a long-standing dispute relating to the establishment of Amazon's Japan subsidiary and its Japanese e-commerce site.

Washington - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will approve a $19.5 billion deal that will see Clear Channel Communications (NYSE: CCU), the nation's largest radio broadcaster, become a privately-held company, the Associated Press reported. Clear Channel shareholders have already approved the deal, under which a group led by private equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners will offer $39.20 a share, a premium of about 10% on the company's current share price.

New York - Swedish prosecutors are preparing to file charges later this month against the operators of The Pirate Bay, the notorious file-sharing hub that U.S. entertainment companies and the U.S. government has targeted for years, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) estimates there are 157,000 movies, songs and other files available on The Pirate Bay, and that the site draws 1.5 million visitors daily, banking $60,000 a month in advertising revenue.

CES 2008 - I spent this week at what is probably the largest tradeshow in the world. The sheer size of CES means that information overload is inevitable, and the consistent challenge for any exhibitor at a show like this is rising above the clutter. If you think about it, this challenge is no different from any other tradeshow or exhibition ... though CES is surely more difficult to stand out at than most. Throughout the show, there were a few vendors that did do something noteworthy to stand out. This post is about how they did it and some marketing lessons you can learn from their efforts.

Seattle - Confirming earlier reports, Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) has announced the addition of DRM-free MP3 music downloads from major label Sony BMG to its Amazon MP3 store, making it the only retailer to offer MP3s from all four major labels.

Chatham, N.J. - Fictionwise, an independent eBook retailer, announced this week that it has acquired the eReader.com eBook retail business unit of mobile content distributor Motricity.

Collinsville, Conn. - Fanzter, an early-stage new media development company, announced this week that it has raised an undisclosed sum of first round financing, from investors including Richard Barton, Second Avenue Partners, Curious Office Partners and multiple angel investors.

• Live Nation to launch tickets business in '09 (Reuters)

• Robbie Williams threatens to ditch EMI: report (Reuters)

• Reznor favors $5 ISP tax on music (CNET)

• The Swedes Come Down Hard On The Pirate Bay (TechCrunch)

• Microsoft looking to aquire the Limelight? (CNET)

• Toshiba Shows Prototype TV Running on PS3 Chip (PC World)

• Under pressure from EMI, RIAA could disappear (Ars Technica)

• Universal, Paramount deny move to Blu-ray imminent (Ars Technica)

Ask.com Chief Executive Officer Jim Lanzone is leaving the company in a management shake-up at parent InterActiveCorp, the company announced late Wednesday.  Lanzone took over the CEO spot in April 2006 when then-CEO Steve Berkowitz left to head up Microsoft's MSN and Windows Live expansion. Lanzone will serve as entrepreneur-in-residence at Redpoint Ventures while remaining in an advisory role at Ask.com for a few months.  The Ask.com leadership change comes as IAC prepares to spin off HSN, Ticketmaster, Interval International, and Lending Tree.

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