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There's no more room for smut and naughty bits on build-your-own social network service Ning, according to a post on the company blog. Ning has announced that it will shut down its "Red Light District" of adult content, and on January 1 will formally ban it.

"We are exploring ways for adult networks that will no longer be available on Ning to export their content in addition to their members," the post by CEO Gina Bianchini read. The reasoning, she explained, is that it's costly and problematic--something you just can't deal with in … Read more

Amazon has enlisted a half dozen of its most dedicated (addicted?) reviewers to act as holiday gift experts this season. They'll be responsible for providing gift picks, tips, and other advice regarding their favorite products available on the mega-retail site.

Putting a "real people" face on holiday shopping is key for Amazon in a season full of thin wallets and nervous spenders: research firm eMarketer just lowered its projections for online holiday shopping. Many of the tips provided by Amazon's reviewers, for obvious reasons, deal with cost-cutting recession strategies.

Amazon has offered customer reviews since 1995, … Read more

Much is made about YouTube and the democratization of content, but if the top-20 YouTube videos of all time are any indication, the future of YouTube is corporate, as The Guardian reports.

A look last week at the site's current 20 most viewed clips of all time--all with more than 50m hits--offered a snapshot of the corporatizing effect. A good half of them were professional music videos...Even among actual user-generated content, many of the most popular clips are based on bestselling pop culture.

So, while Hulu has been winning the profit war against YouTube because of its focus on quality, … Read more

Akamai Technologies announced Wednesday that it's cutting 7 percent of its workforce, as the Web content delivery company pares back its costs.

Cambridge, Mass.-based Akamai expects to cut 110 positions in the fourth quarter, a move that is anticipated to result in a $4 million restructuring charge.

"We have not changed our business outlook," J.D. Sherman, Akamai CEO, said in a statement. "However, we want to ensure that we can keep investing for growth even in the current economic climate."

The Web content delivery company also expects to lose approximately $2.5 million … Read more

AOL is ending its foray into user-generated video, the company confirmed Monday after a weekend of blog reports. On December 18, its AOL Video Uploads service will officially close its doors.

Users who have videos currently hosted through the service will receive an e-mail this week, and will be given the chance to transfer their videos to AOL's preferred alternative, start-up Motionbox, before December 18. If they don't, their videos will be deleted.

AOL has made a concerted effort to shake off some of its older and less successful properties--Journals, Hometown, and AOL Pictures, to name a few, … Read more

To some YouTube fans, the Web's iconic video-sharing site may appear to be losing its soul.

Two years ago, YouTube executives disdained anything but the most unobtrusive forms of advertising (no prerolls for them), and even promised to pioneer new ad formats. At the same time, YouTube refused to license rights to TV shows and feature films. Instead, the company bet big on the creative force of the masses to draw huge audiences and eventually advertising dollars. But things didn't turn out that way.

In the past week YouTube has announced it will auction off search terms as … Read more

I was interviewed by BrandWeek the other day for a story on the recent hype around “Design Thinking” in marketing. They were looking for a skeptic and found me. First of all, it is worth noting that the term “design thinking” is of course a clever marketing buzzword. It’s ironic that marketers themselves embrace it as the next big thing as it doesn’t create a new marketing paradigm so much as it proves that marketers are prone to being persuaded by their very own tricks. “Design Thinking” has become a brand, and brands are all the more powerful … Read more

It's not exactly winter yet, though it feel fairly cold. However, folks at Pinnacle Systems think differently and on Thursday announced a new Pinnacle Theme Winter Pack for the Pinnacle Studio consumer video-editing application.

The Winter Pack is released together with the 12.1 update of the Pinnacle Studio software. The pack offers more than 80 additional winter-themed titles, DVD menus, and Pinnacle Montage templates. It will be included in special Pinnacle Studio Plus and Ultimate Winter Pack Editions at selected retailers until December 31.

The Winter Pack enables people to quickly create movies with themes relating to the … Read more

(Credit: Plan Spark)

Now that the exhaustively inspirational Pop!Tech 2008  is over, it’s worthwhile taking a look at what’s next, in other words, at the conference's theme for 2009. The organizers’ choice is pretty telling and may be indicative of a larger shift among not only the elite thinkers gathering at Pop!Tech, but also broader public opinion. Succeeding this year’s theme “Scarcity and Abundance” will be “America Reimagined,” a “top-to-bottom look at America’s opportunities, its challenges, and its future” that promises to explore what it means to be a “superpower in the … Read more