Palo Alto, Calif. - Specialty finance firm Hercules Technology Growth Capital said on Wednesday that it has provided $20 million in debt financing to Glam Media, which operates a network of lifestyle websites, blogs and magazines aimed at women. The financing was part of Glam's recent $84.6 million funding round.

New York - CBS-owned (NYSE: CBS) music discovery service Last.fm said on Wednesday that, since it launched free full-song streaming on its site in January, overall CD and download sales through its partnership with Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) are up 119%. The free streaming feature has also fueled a 66% increase in album and tracks purchased at Amazon from existing Last.fm users. "In just over two months it's become clear that people will buy CDs and downloads if they get access to the kind of service we offer," said Last.fm co-founder Martin Stiksel, who added that minutes spent on site are also up 118% month-on-month.

New York - The National Hockey League (NHL) on Wednesday announced the launch of NHL Network Online, which offers a new broadband media player and exclusive studio shows, live events, news, video features, podcasts and NHL Radio. The programming and features on the new site are sponsored by companies including Bud Light, Cisco, Dodge and Verizon Wireless.

Bethesda, Md. - WEbook, an online platform for authors, editors and writing groups to collaboratively create written works, on Wednesday launched a public beta test of its website. The company, backed by Greylock Partners Israel and several individual investors, is the brainchild of Itai Kohavi, an author of two novels and one children's book, who serves as chairman. WEbook also announced the release of "Pandora," its first published book, collaboratively written and edited by 17 alpha members of the online community.

McLean, Va. - USA Today said on Wednesday that it has launched a new tool that will let readers use AOL's AIM instant messenger to search current and archived headlines and set up news alerts. Once logged into AIM, users can add "USA TODAY" to their buddy lists. They can then type key words into the dialogue box, and receive a return IM when the paper publishes articles containing those words. Readers also can use the service to browse and search headlines.

London - The BBC announced on Wednesday that it will release a version of its BBC iPlayer video-on-demand service for the Nintendo Wii. Once the service goes live, a message will be sent to all Wii consoles in the U.K. connected to the Internet, letting them know about the new feature. The BBC said that the total number of requests for downloads and streams of its programming via the iPlayer was 17.2 million in March, up from 14 million in February and 11.2 million in January.

Sunnyvale, Calif. - In the midst of its efforts to ward off -- or sweeten -- a takeover bid from Microsoft (NASD: MSFT), Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) announced on Wednesday that it will embark on a limited test of Google's (NASD: GOOG) AdSense for Search service, which will deliver Google's ads alongside Yahoo's own search results.

Lead manager for new customer relationship development for the new media group. Acts as the first point of contact between a potential licensee and BMI. Participates on the team overseeing the future development and maintenance of the Digital Licensing Center and proposes enhancements and improvements to help make the service more effective.

Los Angeles - Digital civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) earlier this week filed a brief on behalf of an eBay seller who was sued by Universal Music Group for reselling promotional CDs, arguing that the record label is violating copyright law's "first sale" doctrine.

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Yahoo's (NASD: YHOO) Flickr photo-sharing site on Wednesday launched an anticipated video-sharing feature for its 42 million monthly users.

Los Angeles - Following the switch to MP3 format at retail giant Wal-Mart's digital music store, songs from artists on major labels Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG and Warner Music (NYSE: WMG) have disappeared from the site, Digital Music News reported. Wal-Mart announced last August that it would migrate from Windows Media Audio to the unprotected MP3 format, saying at the time that EMI and Universal Music were on board.

Jakarta, Indonesia - Several Internet service providers in Indonesia have blocked access to Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube video site, over the posting of a Dutch film that purports to accuse the Koran of inciting violence, Reuters reported, citing an official with Indonesia's information ministry.

Scottsdale, Ariz. - Propelled by the global expansion of broadband, expanding music catalogs and mobile music downloads, digital music sales will account for 40% of the total worldwide music market by 2012, up from 10% in 2007 and 6% in 2006, according to a report offered Wednesday by market research firm In-Stat.

Austin, Texas - Vignette, a provider of content management and other services to businesses, announced on Wednesday that it will acquire Vidavee, a provider of white label video services, for $6.6 million.

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) announced on Wednesday that it will acquire the assets of IndexTools, a provider of Web analytics software for online marketing.