New York - The Digital Media Association (DiMA) -- which represents large webcasters like AOL, Yahoo, RealNetworks, Live365 and Pandora -- announced on Thursday that it has reached agreements with SoundExchange on several thorny issues related to the disputed royalty rates for streaming music online. [more..]

New York - Online social network Facebook is "quietly working" on a new advertising system that would let marketers target users based on the personal information they provide about themselves on the site, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. [more..]

New York - News Corp.'s MySpace social network and Viacom's MTV on Thursday jointly announced that they will produce a series of one-on-one dialogues between the leading Democratic and Republican presidential candidates and young Americans. [more..]

Frankfurt, Germany - Sony on Thursday announced plans to introduce a TV tuner and digital video recorder accessory, called PlayTV, for its PlayStation 3 video game console, the Associated Press reported. [more..]

Tempe, Ariz. - Limelight Networks, a provider of content delivery network services for digital media, on Thursday announced that it has signed a multi-year deal to provide global media streaming and content delivery services to Microsoft. [more..]

San Diego - DivX, a developer of video compression and distribution technologies, announced on Thursday that it has acquired the assets of Veatros, a provider of real-time digital video processing that was spun out of the University of Kansas' Information and Telecommunication Technology Center. [more..]

Branchburg, N.J. - Magnitude Information Systems, a publicly traded holding company, announced that it has completed its acquisition of Kiwibox.com, a New York-based social network for teens with 1.8 million members. [more..]

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Lending Club, a peer-to-peer money-lending service that initially launched as a Facebook application, announced that it has raised $10.26 million in new financing, led by Norwest Venture Partners and Canaan Partners. [more..]

Seattle - Pluggd, a provider of video and audio search technology, announced on Thursday that it has raised $6 million in its first round of venture capital financing, led by Intel Capital. [more..]

Heather Hopkins at Hitwise blogs about how consumer search behaviour has changed over the past couple of years, for example, some social networks are now household names and people serach for them directly rather than do a category search.

 

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Santa Monica, Calif. - Electric Farm Entertainment on Thursday debuted its original animated Web series, "Afterworld," on News Corp.'s MySpace social network, the Los Angeles Times reported. [more..]

New York - Microsoft said on Thursday that it will voluntarily provide free alterations to a wireless racing wheel accessory for its Xbox 360 video game console, after hearing 50 reports that the devices can overheat and release smoke when the AC/DC power supply is used, Reuters reported. [more..]

Leipzig, Germany - U.K. telecommunications firm BT announced on Thursday that it has partnered with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe to develop GoMessenger, a service that will allow owners of Sony's PSP handheld game to make Internet telephone calls, and send and receive instant messages when connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot. [more..]

Leipzig, Germany - Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced on Thursday that it will offer a GPS satellite navigation feature for the PSP handheld game device. [more..]

San Francisco - Ecast, a maker of digital jukeboxes found in bars and restaurants, announced on Thursday that it has partnered with independent digital music distributor The Orchard, to license tracks from The Orchard's catalog for play on its over 10,000 Internet-connected jukeboxes. [more..]

Emeryville, Calif. - Orb Networks, a provider of media place-shifting software, announced on Thursday that it has passed one million registered users for its MyCasting application. [more..]