YouTube to play full-length TV shows

By Joshua Hill

In the most recent attempt to squeeze money out of YouTube traffic, Google unveiled full-length episodes of some fan favorite TV shows. "We are starting to test full-length programming on YouTube, beginning with some fan favorites requested by you," the YouTube blog announced.

The full-length episodes will be available in traditional view as well as YouTube’s new “theatre view,” which seems to play upon the belief that people want fake curtains (and a ‘lights off’ gimmick) framing their online video watching. In addition, Google is playing around with a new advertising method, playing 15-second ads at the beginning of the video. Ads also roll in during playback and after.

“As we test this new format, we also want to ensure that our partners have more options when it comes to advertising on their full-length TV shows,” YouTube said. "You may see in-stream video ads embedded in some of these episodes; this advertising format will only appear on premium content where you are most comfortable seeing such ads."

However, the full-length videos are not available for viewing outside the U.S. Non-U.S. users trying to access the videos are greeted with a note saying that “This video is not available in your country.”

It is somewhat surprising to us that it took Google and YouTube so long to integrate full-length videos, while other services, foremost Hulu.com, have positioned themselves as leading services in this segment.

Can Google and YouTube turn the new service into a goldmine? Time will tell.

Sinking shares could make Yahoo a target again (AP)

When Yahoo Inc. co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang spurned Microsoft Corp.'s rich buyout offer this spring, he promised brighter days in Sunnyvale were just over the horizon.

Now the market collapse has helped drive Yahoo's value to a fraction of what Microsoft originally bid. If Microsoft — or another buyer — were to float a new offer, the acquisition would come much cheaper, and Yahoo would likely be under even greater pressure to take it.

Matt Rosoff, an analyst for the independent research group Directions on Microsoft, said Microsoft is much less likely to bid for all of Yahoo this time. Its search engine, No. 2 to Google Inc.'s, would likely be Microsoft's target.

Rosoff said Yahoo's pummeled stock price leaves time on Microsoft's side. The company can afford to throw money into its own Internet search operations and swoop in when Yahoo is finally strapped.

"I think they're looking at Yahoo as a rapidly declining asset," he said.
On Feb. 1, Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo for $31 per share, or $44.6 billion at the time, in a mixture of cash and stock. The offer marked a 62 percent premium to Yahoo's closing price of $19.18 the day before.

Microsoft later sweetened its bid to $33 per share, or $47.5 billion — an amount Yang and board chairman Roy Bostock said in May still undervalued Yahoo.

Since then, Yahoo's share price has been halved and analysts are seeing few bright spots as they slash expectations for Web display advertising, Yahoo's strength, in the coming quarters.
Microsoft's stock has been battered as well, but even at the shares' current level, Microsoft's original stock-and-cash bid for Yahoo would be worth about $37.1 billion to Yahoo shareholders. That's more twice Yahoo's current market value.

Having missed that opportunity, many Yahoo shareholders would love to see another one emerge now.

Mithras Capital, a Napa, Calif.-based investment fund that said it holds more than 1.9 million Yahoo shares, this week urged Microsoft to come back with an offer to buy just Yahoo's search business for $10.3 billion, a tactic that failed for the software maker in July.

"It is imperative for the Yahoo board to embrace this proposal as the best outcome for long-suffering Yahoo shareholders," Mithras' Mark Nelson wrote in a statement.

The bigger question is whether Microsoft is still interested, even though its plan to pour more resources into Web search and online advertising have not borne fruit. And given the lack of support for a deal among Yahoo executives and employees, regulatory uncertainty that will last at least through the November elections and the economic turmoil, a deal could simply take too long, Rosoff said, giving Google time to grow even stronger.

Shares of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo fell 62 cents, or 4.9 percent, to $12.03 on Friday, and Microsoft's stock sank 82 cents, or 3.7 percent, to $21.48.

Smartphone Success May Be in the Touch

By Judy Mottl



Handset designs that meet user needs will be market winners.

There's no debate that the touch screen is having a phenomenal impact on the smartphone market. Apple's iPhone finger-tap panel design is literally rattling the competitive smartphone industry into refreshing traditional small static screens and is driving handset innovations across the device from the keyboard to applications.

Now such a phenomenon may happen again, and possibly to a greater degree, as Research in Motion's BlackBerry Storm 9730'click technology' touch screen is viewed as an advancement on Apple's innovative design. And just like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), RIM's tenacity in taking its time in development and to get to market, to get it right out of the gate may pay bigger, according to one industry watcher.

The reason? RIM (NASDAQ: RIMM) understands its user base just as well as Apple does, IDC analyst Ryan Reith told InternetNews.com. While many market watchers are already calling the Storm 9730, which RIM formally announced today, the biggest 'iPhone Killer,' Reith believes both smartphones will command impressive market segments.

"Smartphones are all similar but it's the touch screen that's the comparison point with these two devices," Reith said. "Apple and RIM both took their time but have different visions and different approaches," he explained.

Apple's vision, said Reith, was to provide an easy, enjoyable multimedia experience. The iPhone's multi-touch user interface lets users tap once to open applications and access functions, twice to reset the screen panel, and move icons around, and slide/swipe to browse music files, photos, e-mail and Web pages. For text, users tap on a keyboard that will magnify certain letters during activity to help avoid mistyping.

RIM's new touch screen mimics the look and feel and incorporate the 'click' bump of current BlackBerry keyboards. That provides users with a familiar experience, explained Reith. As another pundit noted in a report issued yesterday it provides "superior" typing accuracy as compared to the iPhone -- "leveraging a RIM hallmark" in the handset maker's push into the consumer market.

In typing the BlackBerry touch-screen is depressed "ever so slightly," according to a product press statement. Users experience a gentle “click,” similar to a physical keyboard, according to RIM. Users can also tap and slide screens for navigation needs.

Calls to RIM and Apple regarding touch screen strategy were not returned by press time.
"RIM has put precision into where the user's finger needs to be when typing," said Reith.
"I'm not saying one is right and one is wrong but RIM is pushing the next wave in this [design] area," he said. RIM went with its touch 'click' approach as testing revealed that iPhone touch and as swipe would frustrate RIM's heavy text user base. BlackBerry users are typically enterprise application users and that means much more text and e-mail use.

"What RIM did was make sure its touch screen fit the needs of its users, just as Apple did," said the analyst. "Both are sticking to the core fundamentals and the needs of their users," he added.
The fact that RIM is not deviating from what its loyal 'Crackberry' audience likes and wants could easily keep it ahead of Apple in the market race, and way ahead of newcomers like Google and its G1 Android-based HTC handset, said Reith.

"For example Google's G1 interface is going to change, as its users' needs come into play. BlackBerry already has the core foundation and is not giving up any efficiency, stability or security aspects in its design changes," said Reith.

"Yes, some will say the Storm is the number one iPhone competitor and see them as head to head," said the analyst. "But both have unique audiences and both are targeting those audiences."