The NCAA Basketball Tournament is just days away. And now that the teams are ranked and ready to play, we have you covered. Not only can you join our Webware Bracket Challenge, but we've compiled a list of online services that will help you get the most out of the tournament. Whether it's creating brackets, researching players, or just watching the games online, it's all right here.
Stream, stream, stream
CBS (which owns CNET News and the Webware blog) is the television host of all the NCAA men's basketball games this year, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the company is poised to unveil streaming options for every game in the tournament.
By surfing to CBS' March Madness On Demand page, starting Thursday at 12 p.m. EDT, users will be able to watch every single game on their computers for free.
Bracket it up!
CBS Sports You can join our Webware Bracket on the CBS Sports site. Along with choosing your winners, you can also engage in forum discussions or send e-mails to participants in your group. And if you want to go it alone and try to win cash and prizes by picking the best bracket, you can do that too. Disclosure: We'll say it again. CBS owns both CBS Sports and CNET News.
ESPN ESPN also offers an outstanding bracket service. Much like CBS Sports, ESPN's brackets are open to the public, and users can create their own groups. Picking teams is simple. The service is free, but if you want scouting reports or help with your picks, some ESPN content requires a subscription.
NCAA If you're the type who wants to use the "official" bracket for the NCAA Tournament, you'll need to use the NCAA's bracket service. It's easy to sign up, but I wasn't too pleased with how the bracket picking was implemented, and it was difficult to work my way through the process. But it is one of the best-looking offerings in this roundup.
Yahoo Pick 'Em Yahoo Pick 'Em is, one of the best tournament bracket services. It allows you to quickly choose winners by clicking on a name in the bracket, and regardless of the match-up you create, it provides you with a full look at the teams, including their record, points scored, points allowed, and the "Yahoo Outlook."
Extra goodies
AllBallers If you want to engage in some basic research or find out which teams others are picking for the tournament, AllBallers might be a good place to start. It's a community designed specifically for basketball fanatics and its forums are hopping with discussions on basketball in general and the NCAA Tournament in particular. It's a great resource to find out what others think about teams before you make your own decision.
CollegeHoopsNet CollegeHoopsNet is the best source for everything you ever wanted to know about college basketball. From national player rankings to scores and team evaluations, the site gives you the lowdown on what to expect from teams throughout the entire tournament. And although it's designed specifically for die-hard fans, you shouldn't worry: the articles and player details are so useful and worthwhile that novices won't have any trouble understanding them.
InfiniteHoops Maybe this has little to do with March Madness or the NCAA Tournament, but InfiniteHoops is a unique site that lets you find others in your area who might want to start a pickup basketball game. Users input where they will be playing a game and when, and others who want to play can join the game. It's a great way to connect with people around town when the tournament makes you want to play some hoops.
KlickSports If a simple bracket isn't for you and you want to engage in a head-to-head competition, look no further than KlickSports. The site recently unveiled its College Basketball Championship Challenge game, which will allow you to play one game against another user in each region in the first round and then continue to play one regional game in each round until the tournament ends. Even better, you can play both online and on mobile phones and the top players will win prizes when the tournament is over.
Pickspal Pickspal might look like any other sports news site, but it's actually a great resource for those who want to see some of the best college basketball news stories on the Web. Pickspal searches across the Web for basketball news stories about teams, players, or game results, and makes them available on the site. Although all the news and information is available elsewhere, Pickspal is one of my favorite places to find news, simply because it does all the legwork for me and puts all the top stories in one place for my consumption. It's also a handy tool when trying to figure out which team to pick.
Has all this bracket talk gotten you in the mood to pick your winners? If so, join our Webware Bracket Challenge! Simply sign up for a CBS Sports ID, follow this link, and input the password, webware, into the appropriate field. You'll then be able to pick your winners for this year's bracket.
Pick 'em before it's too late!
(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET Networks)Are you getting ready for the most exciting season in NCAA Basketball? So are we. And that's why we've created a public bracket for Webware writers and readers to create their own brackets and see who stands above the rest as the best March Madness performer in our community.
If you want to sign up and compete, sign up for a free CBS Sports ID, and once complete, follow this link to get to the Webware invite page.
You'll be asked to input a password. Type webware into the password field, and you'll be able to pick your winners. You can modify your picks until Game 1 on Thursday, March 19.
After each round, I'll be writing a quick update post, filling you in on who's winning, and once the tournament is all said and done, we'll announce the winner right here on Webware.
So what are you waiting for? Sign up for CBS Sports, and join our NCAA Bracket. Good luck!
Click here to get to the Webware Bracket Challenge page, and don't forget the password: webware.
Baseball season is almost under way. So it's time we all get online and start forming our fantasy leagues. Perennial favorite sites from ESPN, Yahoo, and MLB.com will probably top the list for most people when they decide which service to use, but more goes into fantasy baseball than simply signing up for leagues. What about stats? Did you forget about the news? Did you happen to remember scouting tools?
Hear are the rest of the sites you need.
Step 1: Form the league
There are a number of fine league-building services out there, but if you want to have the best experience, stick to these selected few:
CBS Sports Not only is CBS Sports' Fantasy Baseball league free, it provides real-time scoring, live chat so you can talk with buddies during the game, and adequate player news and stats to help you make more informed decisions. I've used it a few times over the past five years and find it to be easy to use and high-powered for a private or public league. Disclosure: CBS Sports and CNET are owned by the same parent company: CBS.
ESPN Fantasy Baseball provides an easy-to-use interface.
(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET)ESPN Fantasy Baseball I've also used ESPN's fantasy sports services for years, and I've been impressed with how much they offer. Leagues are free, player news and stats come straight from ESPN, one of the best sources for sports news, and managing your team couldn't be easier. But ESPN's penchant for charging for extra scouting help and more in-depth player information is annoying.
MLB.com If you want the most basic offering for your fantasy baseball league, you'll probably want to use Major League Baseball's service. It's free and makes it easy to set up a league. But I'm generally unimpressed with its stat tracking, and managing a team isn't nearly as easy as it is in competing services. It's a well-known fantasy site, but it's not the best.
Yahoo Sports Yahoo was one of the first companies to start fantasy leagues. More than a decade later, it's still providing an outstanding experience. All the leagues are free, player information is always up-to-date and reliable, and the service's stat tracking is second to none. Yahoo does charge some hefty fees for access to a draft kit ($9.99) and a scouting report ($14.99), but it's still a great service.
... Read more
Yahoo announced on Wednesday that it has entered an agreement with CBS Radio that will see the media giant gain full control over Yahoo's Launchcast Radio, a service that provides more than 150 free stations of music, talk, news, and sports content.
Launchcast will be combined with CBS Radio's current offering, and all advertising sales responsibility will be passed from Yahoo to CBS. A new CBS Radio player will be integrated into the Yahoo Music site, and most importantly, Launchcast will finally be available to Firefox, Mac, and Safari users. The software was previously available only to Windows users running Internet Explorer.
Yahoo has spent considerable energy revamping its music service this year. In February, the company closed its subscription-based music service, citing poor performance, and in September, it announced a partnership with Rhapsody that allows users to stream full-length songs in search results.
Now that CBS Radio has taken Launchcast off its hands, it seems that Yahoo is trying to find the right balance between offering music and reducing expenses.
The new Launchcast will be unveiled sometime during the first quarter of 2009, on CBS Radio's streaming service.
Disclosure: CBS Radio is a wholly owned subsidiary of CBS, publisher of CNET News.
On Monday Boxee, the Mac, Linux, and Apple TV-only Xbox Media Center derivative, announced the immediate support of video programming from Hulu and CBS. Users are now able to access the entirety both services catalogs of movies and TV shows through Boxee's interface. I spent the greater part of last night giving it a spin and while not perfect, it's off to a tremendous start.
Unlike some of the streaming solutions I've seen on other platforms, like the unofficial Netflix Watch Instantly for Windows Media Center plug-in, the beauty of Boxee's solution is that any semblance of a browser (the platform that these video viewers were designed for) is nonexistent. The Hulu player is the same as you get through your browser, but it's been modified to run without some of the border options like the "dim lights" and full screen toggles which, when using Boxee's system, become irrelevant. Likewise, the CBS player has had its user comments and rating system removed in favor for Boxee's own community tools.
The removal of both players' UIs in place of Boxee's presents some problems. With both the Hulu and CBS video player you're able to jump around to different parts of a show. In Hulu's current iteration this isn't possible. What's worse is that the player controls are still present, but you're not able to click on them since the Boxee UI pops up to block them with any user movement. This isn't a deal breaker with short 20 minute programs, but on longer, hour-long shows it's a pain.
Catch on old episodes of Alf on Hulu, now on Boxee--along with CBS programming.
(Credit: CNET Networks)I still think one of Boxee's greater draws is not as a video player as much as being a highly capable Internet radio jukebox for multiple platforms. You're able to tap into Last.fm, the BBC, Jamendo, and standards like Shoutcast. Managing any of these services is just as easy with a remote control as it is with a keyboard. Considering most game consoles and set top cable boxes can't do this, there's some serious potential for bringing these services into your living room, where before it was only possible with a home theater PC.
Boxee remains in private beta, although is on track for a public release at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in January.
Note: CBS is the parent company of Webware's publisher CNET News and owner of the Last.fm social music service.
Browse through full episodes or clips from CBS' catalog.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
A look at the new Last.fm homepage.
(Credit: Last.fm)Social music site Last.fm has unveiled a new look: a slick new design, an iPhone app, a partnership with Logitech to stream music to compatible home stereo systems, and a host of new features.
With the new features, members can receive music recommendations instantly by naming a few bands and artists they like. Previously, they had to hook up their music libraries so that the site's engine, or "scrobbler," could read and analyze what songs they'd listened to recently. The site's music charts now also update in near-real time.
Unfortunately, when I tried to load the new Last.fm, the site had crashed. TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld said he experienced problems, too. (Update at 12:33 p.m. PDT: the site loads but unreliably.)
That said, we certainly have seen recently that server outages aren't limited to Twitter. Ironically, I managed to get Last.fm's iPhone app working just fine.
(Disclosure: Last.fm is owned by CNET News parent company CBS Interactive.)
Back in January, social music service Last.fm announced that it would be launching something called the Artist Royalty Program that allows unsigned artists to reap royalties each time one of their songs is played through the site's ad-supported streaming music feature or Web radio. (They just have to upload their music first.)
On Wednesday, the service announced that the Artist Royalty Program had gone live and that more than 450,000 tracks have been uploaded in conjunction with it.
"We're leveling the playing field by offering them the same opportunities as established bands to make money from their music," Last.fm co-founder Martin Stiksel said in a release Wednesday. "The young musician making music in a bedroom studio has the same chance as the latest major label signing to use Last.fm to build an audience and get rewarded.
It's also an incentive for them to promote Last.fm as a promotional hub for their music, potentially eating into a market dominated by News Corp's MySpace.
Disclaimer: Last.fm is owned by CBS Interactive, which also owns CNET News.
This post was updated to clarify the size of Imeem compared to Last.fm.
Music videos from Universal Music Group's artists are now available on social music site Last.fm, the companies announced Tuesday.
That will make ad-supported videos from artists like the Killers, Jay-Z, Snow Patrol, and Amy Winehouse available on Last.fm, which already had a partnership to stream Universal's music catalog.
It's the first time Last.fm is bringing music videos to its site, which began offering original video programming last month.
"We want to offer a video library that rivals our unparalleled music catalog, as we work towards Last.fm becoming the only place you need to go to for all music-related content," co-founder Martin Stiksel said in a statement, "and this deal marks the first step towards that goal." Rival Imeem, a start-up that focuses more on playlist creation than music discovery and which pulls in either comparable or greater traffic than Last.fm depending on which metrics source is used, has also been inking video deals, and the far bigger MySpace offers music videos on its MySpaceTV player.
However, the Universal Music announcement comes just a week after Warner Music Group, another major label, pulled its catalog from Last.fm's music service. CBS Interactive, which acquired Last.fm last year, said that a new contract is under negotiation.
Disclosure: CNET Networks, parent of CNET News.com, is set to become part of Last.fm parent company CBS in an acquisition expected to close in the third quarter.
Heavy, a niche video content company focused on the "dude" demographic, is slimming down.
The company said Wednesday it will spin off Husky Media, its video advertising platform, into a separate company. It'll remain under Heavy's oversight alongside the Heavy.com portal, but will be run by a different team.
Husky Media operates a technology called Video-Skin, which lets bloggers and other publishers "wrap" any video player in Husky ads and then pull in revenue. Husky also runs a Video Guide that offers publishers a library of video content in exchange for splitting ad profits.
Also on Wednesday, Heavy announced that its Burly Sports Show program will be syndicated on CBSSports.com, with ads served by the Husky platform.
Disclaimer: CBSSports.com is owned by CBS, which has agreed to acquire CNET Networks, publisher of News.com. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.
Last.fm, the music-focused social site , announced Wednesday the launch of a project called "Last.fm In A Box," which distributes the site's ad-supported streaming radio services to partner companies.
Launch partners include a variety of social networks, personalized home page services, and music sites, like the AOL-owned Bebo, Billboard.com, Break Media, subscription service eMusic, Frengo, Gigya, iGoogle, concert promoter Live Nation, Meebo, MP3.com (owned by CNET News.com parent company CNET Networks), Netvibes, Ning, Pageflakes, the News Corp.-owned Photobucket, Piczo, blogging platforms Six Apart and WordPress, teen site Stardoll, Wayn.com, as well as CBS properties CBS Television Stations and CBS Affiliates.
Last.fm audio content is already distributed on CBS Radio's online stations. The music service announced earlier this year that it had deals with all the major music labels to offer ad-supported streaming music to its members.
The "In A Box" project follows a distributed model slightly similar to the one that CBS Interactive has adopted for online video with the CBS Audience Network, which makes the company's television and other video content available on partner sites like AOL, Veoh, and now Yahoo TV.
Last.fm is owned by CBS, which is set to acquire CNET News.com parent company CNET Networks in an acquisition expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
