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Drop in MySpace Traffic to Cut $100M Off Google Ad Deal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 5, 2009 - 1:00pm.
New York - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace may lose out on at least $100 million of the $900 million it was contracted to receive from a search advertising agreement with Google (NASD: GOOG), due to lackluster traffic to the website, the Financial Times reported.

YouTube Head of Content Partnerships Steps Down

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 3, 2009 - 10:33am.
San Bruno, Calif. - Google's YouTube has lost its head of content partnerships, as Jordan Hoffner has left to joint a new content venture at IAC headed up by Ben Silverman, PaidContent reported. Hoffner will be replaced at YouTube by Chris Maxcy, who was leading YouTube's music content partnership efforts.

Lala to Offer Artists More Customized Google Music Search

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 2, 2009 - 11:41am.
San Francisco - Artists will eventually be able to use online music service Lala's platform to point users searching Google (NASD: GOOG) to specific content of their choosing, as well as sell products other than MP3s via search results, Lala co-founder Bill Nguyen told CNET News.com. Lala, along with iLike and several other online music services, recently partnered with Google to provide streaming songs and links to their services within Google search results.

tags: Music | Search | Google | Lala |

Live U2 Concert on YouTube Serves 10 Million Streams

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 29, 2009 - 9:41am.
San Bruno, Calif. - The live video webcast of U2's concert at the Rose Bowl on Sunday via Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube served up nearly 10 million streams, a company spokesperson told NewTeeVee.
tags: Video | Music | Google | YouTube | U2 | Webcasting |

Google Debuts Music Search Feature with Lala, iLike

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 29, 2009 - 8:11am.
Mountain View, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) announced on Wednesday the launch of a new music-focused search feature, "OneBox," which adds streaming songs via Lala and MySpace's (NYSE: NWS) iLike, along with links to an artist's website. Along with Lala and iLike, Google will also include links to digital music services Pandora, imeem and Rhapsody (NASD: RNWK). The feature will in many cases allow users to listen to the full song they are searching for right there from the search results page; licensing issues mean that some songs will only feature 30-second samples, and that subsequent searches after a song is streamed in full once will only provide a 30-second sample.

Motorola, Verizon to Sell Droid Smartphone for $199

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 28, 2009 - 11:55am.
Libertyville, Ill. - Motorola (NYSE: MOT)and mobile network partner Verizon (NYSE: VZ) on Wednesday introduced the Droid, a new Google (NASD: GOOG) Android-powered smartphone that will run on Verizon's 3G network. The touch-screen device features a 5-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi, and will sell for $199 with a two-year contract when it goes on sale Nov. 6. The Droid will also be the first smartphone capable of running Google Maps Navigation, the company's new turn-by-turn navigation application.

Google Introduces "Social Search" Feature

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 28, 2009 - 11:01am.
Mountain View, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) has introduced a new experimental search feature from its Google Labs, Social Search, which adds relevant public content from a user's friends and contacts to search results.

Google Offers Turn-by-Turn GPS Directions for Android Phones

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 28, 2009 - 10:49am.
Mountain View, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) on Wednesday announced the release of Google Maps Navigation for Android mobile phones, an update to its popular mapping application that provides turn-by-turn directions, as well as voice-powered search and other features.

Labels, Artists Target YouTube in Germany Over Copyrights

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 27, 2009 - 11:45am.
*A correction was made to this story.

Hamburg, Germany
- Google and YouTube face a copyright-related investigation in Germany, after a group of independent labels, publishers and artists filed complaints against the companies, Billboard reported. Parties to the complaints include labels Highball Music and Coconut Music; publishers Gerig Musikverlage, Bishop Songs and Musikverlag Progressive; and artists including soprano Sarah Brightman.

Google Offers Speech-to-Text Voicemail Translation Feature

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 27, 2009 - 11:29am.
Mountain View, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) has extended the voicemail text translation feature of its Google Voice service to mobile phone users who wish to keep their existing numbers.

AT&T to Sponsor Vevo Music Video Portal Venture

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 27, 2009 - 10:33am.
New York - Vevo, the online music video portal joint venture between Universal Music Group, Sony (NYSE: SNE) Music and Abu Dhabi Media Company, has signed AT&T (NYSE: T) as the first sponsor of the site.

iLike's Ali Partovi on a New Golden Era for Music

Authored by Jay Baage on October 26, 2009 - 12:17pm.

DMW Vlog: In anticipation of the secretive Oct. 28 event hosted by Google (probably), LaLa, iLike and others at Capitol Studios in LA to DISCOVER MUSIC!, here's a exclusive short video interview DMW's Jay Baage did a few weeks ago with Ali Partovi, CEO & Co-Founder, iLike, at Digital Music Forum West. In it, Partovi talks about a new golden era for music, what iLike will bring to MySpace, which recently acquired the company, and where he sees iLike and MySpace going from here (new verticals etc).

Google to Include Real-time Twitter Data in Search Results

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2009 - 8:57am.
Mountain View, Calif. - Shortly after Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) announced a similar deal, Google (NASD: GOOG) yesterday said that it had signed a deal with Twitter, to include real-time status updates in its search results. "We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months," Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, wrote in a blog post.

Microsoft to Add Facebook, Twitter Data to Bing Search Results

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 21, 2009 - 8:54am.
San Francisco - Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) announced on Wednesday that it has signed separate deals with Facebook and Twitter, to bring real-time status updates from the services to its Bing search engine. While financial terms of the nonexclusive agreements were not disclosed,  PaidContent cited earlier reports pegging Twitter's take as "several million dollars," in addition to a share of ad revenue.

Reports: Google, Lala, iLike Teaming on Music Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 21, 2009 - 8:34am.
San Francisco - Google (NASD: GOOG) is gearing up to launch a new music-related search service, likely called One Box, according to published reports. CNET News.com reports that One Box will organize music-related search query results, to include artist bios, videos and song samples from partners Lala and MySpace-owned iLike -- which have licensing deals with the major labels.
tags: Music | Search | Google | iLike | Lala |

YouTube to Stream Live Webcast of Full U2 Concert

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 20, 2009 - 12:13pm.
San Bruno, Calif. - Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube has announced plans to offer a live webcast of U2's concert this coming Sunday at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The live webcast of the entire concert -- a first for YouTube -- will kick off at 8:30 p.m. PST and be available for free to users in 16 countries. Viewers will also be able to chime-in in real-time via a Twitter widget on U2's YouTube channel. A rebroadcast of the full show will also become available on Monday.

tags: Video | Music | Google | YouTube | U2 |

Independent Label Group PIAS Signs YouTube Deal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 19, 2009 - 12:00pm.
London - Independent record label PIAS Entertainment Group has signed a deal with Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube, under which PIAS sell and manage the advertising sold against videos from its artists on the site, and share revenue with artists. The deal includes both official and user-generated videos, and will additionally see the parties collaborate on channel and page sponsorships.

Google to Launch Its Own E-book Store Next Year

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 15, 2009 - 10:04am.
Frankfurt, Germany - Google (NASD: GOOG) announced on Thursday that it plans to open its own online e-book store next year, Google Editions, that will deliver e-books to any device with a Web browser. The store will launch with around a half-million titles, secured from publishers with whom Google already has relationships.

Apple, Google Resolve FTC Concerns on Shared Board Members

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 13, 2009 - 9:25am.
Washington - The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said that Google and Apple have resolved its concerns over shared board members, following the departure of former Genentech CEO Arthur D. Levinson from Google's board yesterday. "Google, Apple, and Mr. Levinson should be commended for recognizing that overlapping board members between competing companies raise serious antitrust issues and for their willingness to resolve our concerns without the need for litigation," said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.

YouTube Serving "Well Over a Billion Views a Day"

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 9, 2009 - 9:29am.
San Bruno, Calif. - Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube is now serving "well over a billion views a day," CEO and co-founder Chad Hurley wrote in a blog post. "Three years after the acquisition, our platform and our business continue to grow and evolve," Hurley wrote. "As we've started to see demand for longer, full-length content, we've brought more shows and movies to the site. We're working hard to keep up with the fast pace of technology to bring you everything you would expect from the world's largest video site: better quality; a full spectrum of choices and tools for users, partners and advertisers; and ways to make the YouTube experience your own anywhere, anytime."