Media

On Wednesday, CNET News.com checked in with Jeff Berman, MySpace.com's general manager of video operations, to hear more about the gargantuan social network's latest project: MySpace TV. The New York Times reported Tuesday that MySpace would be refurbishing its in-house video operations this week, creating a new video hub at myspacetv.com (site not yet active) to host a mix of amateur and professional media content. Berman filled us in on exactly what to expect.

"It's really just the next step in what has been a very busy few months for us on the … Read more

The official numbers aren't in yet, but reports indicate that the debut of Michael Moore's documentary on the health care industry is a smash--this despite being downloaded on file-sharing sites a week before the opening.

Sicko sold out in the 43 theaters across the country where it appeared during "sneak" previews last weekend. The film's producers, the Weinstein Company, won't reveal earnings, but in New York, the movie appeared on one theater screen and still managed to bank $70,000. By all indications, this is a blockbuster number.

I've been tracking how Moore's expose … Read more

Seattle-based Marchex is launching more than 100,000 Web sites on Wednesday that are designed to serve as online yellow pages for all types of services and covering all of the United States. They also offer targeted ads.

There are more than 15 million business listings across more than 20,000 categories, everything from suntan parlors and auto repair to pest control and baby sitters. Sites run the gamut from the general to the specific based on city and category, such as: www.cuisine.com, www.podiatrist.com, www.dallasdoctors.com and www.90210.com.

Unlike many online business listing … Read more

Operator11 is a free service for people who want to broadcast live over the Internet using their Webcams. Following similar livecasting offerings out there, it gives people a fairly simple one-stop solution to hook up their Webcam and get a live video broadcast going. Users can also simply upload video clips from their computers to share with others. One of its more interesting features, however, is the capability to have multiple people drop in and out of a live broadcast, which is controlled using a live studio that runs right in your Web browser.

Like Mogulus [review], which offers a similar feature, Operator11 gives whoever is controlling the show the option to see everything that's going on in one screen, and swap back and forth between Webcams or other content on the fly. And like BlogTV, which I looked at last week, hosts can also invite their viewers to join the fray at any time--it's a very open system.

Operator11 users can record, embed, and share their shows with others. Channel owners get about 40 minutes per show before the system will stop recording, which is very generous. Other users can then watch the clip, comment on it, and rate it using a five-star system. Operator11 also keeps track of who the director was, along with others who participated. This information is also kept track of in user profiles.

There are quite a few of these video broadcasting sites now, and I'm absolutely convinced one of the best uses for them is for the next big content creator who's looking for an easy way to broadcast and syndicate live content. Likewise, even for large media companies such as CNET, free services like this offer a relatively simple way to deliver live event broadcasts (which we tried at Facebook's F8 platform launch using Veodia).

Operator11 is currently in public alpha, so expect a few occasional kinks if you give it a go. For a shot of the user interface, click the "read more" link below.

… Read more

In case you've haplessly been attempting to listen to Internet radio streams throughout the day, you might have noticed most are dead. This is by no means a fluke, and on a wider scale, it's a mass protest to the royalty rate increase that passed legislation in early March. The rate increase, which gives the RIAA (whose Web site is coincidentally down today) more money for every track served to listeners, has been the focus of much debate and controversy. The new fees go into effect July 15th.

The new fees don't just affect the smaller broadcasters … Read more

At an event in Google's New York offices on Tuesday, the company unveiled a new initiative to make its Google Earth geography software a more accessible tool for nonprofit organizations.

"We're now officially launching a program called Google Earth Outreach," said John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Maps. "Google is stepping up and validating this as a bona fide program that will be staffed in our group."

Google Earth Outreach is now live, and several downloadable layers from the program's inaugural partners--the Global Heritage Fund, Earthwatch and Fair Trade Certified--are now … Read more

TorrentSpy, the torrent-file search engine accused by Hollywood of aiding copyright violators, plans to remove links from its search results to pirated content using a new filtering system.

FileRights is an automated filtering system created by some of TorrentSpy's founders, including Justin Bunnell, according to a statement released Monday. The technology uses "hash" values to automatically remove links to infringing works from search engines that subscribe to the service.

The move comes as TorrentSpy fights a lawsuit brought against it last year by the major film studios. TorrentSpy suffered a legal blow earlier this month when the … Read more

The clip above is a demonstration of the newly announced Aviary, a suite of Web tools for tackling "creation on the fly" (the product's motto and URL). You can think of it as having a similar goal for the creative crowd to what Zoho aims to do for organizational productivity: create a diverse set of light but still functional Web-based applications that enable portability and collaboration.

When the suite is final, it will optimally include more than a dozen applications, each named after a different kind of bird. Each one will handle a different niche of multimedia … Read more

Video search site Blinkx is launching on Monday a service to allow Web site publishers to put contextually relevant text or video ads alongside or in video clips. The new AdHoc video ad platform uses speech recognition and looks at metadata in the clips and ads to match them up. For instance, the system would know to put a Home Depot ad with a video showing how to redecorate a kitchen. Separately, Blinkx is announcing that it will be powering the video search for the new RealPlayer, as well as powering video search for Infospace and extending a distribution deal … Read more