London - One in four Internet users worldwide are online gamers, or a total of nearly 217 million people, according to a new report from Internet measurement firm comScore. [more..]

New York - Ratings provider Nielsen/NetRatings announced on Tuesday that it plans to shift from the current industry standard of using page views and unique visitors to measure the popularity of a website, to a new system that will tally the total minutes each user spends and total number of sessions. [more..]

Washington - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to keep its concerns about potential copyright infringement issues in mind as it considers the proposed merger of satellite radio firms XM and Sirius, CNET News.com reported. [more..]

Los Angeles - Gemstar-TV Guide International, the publisher of TV Guide magazine and a provider of electronic program guides for digital TV services, announced that it has hired UBS Investment Bank to help explore strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value, including a possible sale of the company. [more..]

Los Angeles - Five individuals were arrested over the weekend for attempting to bring camcorders or cell phone cameras into theaters to pirate the Dreamworks film "Transformers," according to a joint statement from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO). [more..]

Palo Alto, Calif. - Ning, a free platform that lets anyone create their own online social network, has raised $44 million in its first round of outside funding, led by Legg Mason, the company said on its blog. [more..]

Santa Monica, Calif. - In an advertising first, Sprint will sponsor a major label song distributed on file-sharing networks. [more..]

Alviso, Calif. - TiVo and partner Amazon.com said on Tuesday that TiVo users may now browse, purchase and rent movies from Amazon's Unbox video-on-demand service directly from their televisions, without the need for a PC. [more..]

Menlo Park, Calif. - Silicon Valley venture capital firm Bay Partners has announced a new program that will provide financial support to developers creating applications for the Facebook online social network. [more..]

Paris - Glowria, an online DVD rental service in Europe, has raised $8.3 million in new financing, Alarm Clock Euro reported. [more..]

Port Chester, N.Y. - Phantom Entertainment, a company that once planned to release a PC-based broadband gaming device, but later switched its target to an on-demand game software service that has yet to launch, announced on Tuesday that it has secured a $1.3 million loan to support the release of a wireless keyboard and mouse gaming accessory. [more..]

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Heather Hopkins blogs about Harry Potter star Emma Watson's increasing popularity, as shown by her being the sixth most searched for celebrity on the Internet in the UK. [more..]

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Scott Karp blogs about the difficulties involved when Nielsen wants to accelerate the death of the page view by announcing it would rank websites by time spend on the site instead. [more..]

Here are some simple "rules" that apply to the value of online video content. [more..]

LeeAnn Prescott blogs about Flickr's increasing popularity and truly global footprint. [more..]

Los Angeles - Electronic Arts on Tuesday provided some details of two games it is developing in collaboration with director Steven Spielberg, one an action puzzle game for the Nintendo Wii, and the other an action-adventure title for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Reuters reported. [more..]

San Jose, Calif. - PayPal, the online payments arm of San Jose-based eBay, on Tuesday launched a new mobile version of its service, known as Mobile Checkout. [more..]

Los Gatos, Calif. - Netflix said on Tuesday that its subscribers have viewed 5 million movies and TV episodes on its website, via a six-month-old feature that allows them to watch videos on their PCs instead of waiting for them to arrive on disc in the mail. [more..]

New York - Dailymotion on Tuesday announced the launch of a U.S. version of its France-based video-sharing service. [more..]

Denver - NBC News said on Tuesday that it has partnered with Thought Equity Motion to digitize and distribute select visual images from its library for licensing purposes. [more..]

Scottsdale, Ariz. - Polar Frog Digital, a provider of DVD-burning kiosks in retail locations, said on Tuesday that it has signed agreements to place its kiosks in airports. [more..]

Santa Monica, Calif. - Commodore Gaming said on Tuesday that it plans to launch a line of gaming PCs in the U.S. market in the third quarter of 2007. [more..]

Santa Monica, Calif. - Activision said on Tuesday that guitarist Slash, formerly of Guns N' Roses, will both appear in and provide an original track for its "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock" title slated for release in the fall. [more..]

New York - Take-Two Interactive on Tuesday announced the roster of titles its 2K Games and 2K Sports labels will show at the E3 industry event this week. [more..]

New York - Atari announced on Tuesday the forthcoming titles it plans to show at the downsized Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles later this week. [more..]