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Yahoo announced on Thursday that it has added Wikipedia deep links and images to its search results. The company, which is using its SearchMonkey platform to add more third-party content to its results, claims that all Wikipedia results in its search will now include links to the first four sections of the article, as well as an image. The feature can be turned off through Yahoo's preferences pane.
MediaGlow, AOL's publishing unit, announced the launch of a new sports site Thursday. Dubbed FanHouse, the site sports a new design and "an expanded lineup" of national sports columnists covering major sporting events. According to the Time Warner division, the new FanHouse will expand its coverage of Nascar and other auto racing, as well as include coverage of mixed martial arts. The new site is live.
David's Bridal, the nation's largest bridal retailer, has launched a "Dress Your Wedding" campaign on its site. The contest enables brides-to-be to choose bridal gowns, bridal party dresses, accessories, and tuxedos. Once complete, brides can then share their plans for making their wedding days unique.
David's Bridal plans to judge the wedding plans, giving the winner a $5,000 gift certificate for David's Bridal, a consultation with a company style expert, and a blog on the retailer's Web site to talk about the experience. The contest ends February 24 at 11:30 a.m. PST.
eBay sellers and buyers gave a record $36 million to U.S. nonprofit organizations in 2008 through eBay Giving Works, the auction site announced Thursday. More than 15,000 organizations received funds from more than 1.5 million users. According to eBay, more than $68 is raised through its program each minute, and eight nonprofit organizations have raised more than $1 million through Giving Works.
Sharpcast, makers of the SugarSync online data backup and storage service, announced on Thursday that the company has secured $10 million in a Series AA round of financing led by Sigma Partners. SugarSync, which can be downloaded onto multiple devices and PCs, enables users to upload files online to the Sharpcast portal. Users can also "push" data to any other device that has the software installed.
By now you've probably heard about it: AOL has formed yet another business unit conspicuously devoid of "AOL" branding, and this one's about the blogs.
Called MediaGlow, the just-announced division encompasses AOL's digital content assets from gossip hub TMZ to tech heavyweight Engadget. It's the first time that AOL has formally pulled together the titles it acquired with blog network Weblogs Inc. in 2005, blogs launched since the Weblogs acquisition, and the vestiges of the old AOL portal like AOL News and AOL Sports.
It's about time, though I expect there will be plenty of "lipstick on a pig" comments. But the real news is the expansion that AOL plans for MediaGlow, under the leadership of programming chief Bill Wilson: in 2009, it plans to launch about 30 new editorial sites (read: blogs). AOL also plans to open "MediaGlow Studios" in both New York and Los Angeles that will focus on video production, as well as work acquisitions Relegence and Sphere into "an unprecedented effort to build thousands of medium and long-tail focused automated sites." We'll have to hit up AOL soon to find out exactly what that means.
The new MediaGlow unit complements AOL's two other "core businesses": social-networking division People Networks, which was put together after AOL's $850 million acquisition of Bebo last year; and Platform-A, its conglomeration of advertising products both built in-house and acquired.
It's no secret that parent company Time Warner has been preening at least part of the company for a sale, with CEO Jeffrey Bewkes making it clear that its flagging dial-up access business is on the blocks. Executives haven't confirmed widespread rumors that the rest of AOL could be up for sale as well, but this sort of neat packaging into "core businesses" could be an indicator in either direction.
If you look on the sunny side, the timing is opportune: Print publishing is gasping for breath, and due to repeated old-media missteps there still isn't yet a digital publishing power on a truly big-media level. Blog networks like Gawker Media have stayed small- to medium-sized and have certainly not been exempt from recessionary woes. IAC/InterActiveCorp, which owns properties like The Daily Beast and CollegeHumor, hasn't pulled them together in the same way. (Disclosure: CBS Interactive, which publishes CNET News, is unquestionably a player in this game as well.)
On the traffic front, AOL has reason to push forward with MediaGlow. The company says that page views are up 40 percent year-over-year and that "vertical content advertising revenue" was up 20 percent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2008. Ad revenue as a whole, unfortunately, has slid in sync with the media recession. And with so many pundits talking about the impending burst of the blogging bubble, it's worth questioning whether launching 30 new titles will be intrepid or just foolish.
So here's my verdict: This is something that AOL needs to do, and probably should've done much sooner after its Weblogs Inc. acquisition. Unfortunately, given the way things are these days, even a valiant effort at expansion can flop.
P.S.: AOL, you might want to look into buying the domain Mediaglow.com. Registered in Wellington, New Zealand, the site appears to be a placeholder. Go get it!
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