Google Releases Annual "Zeitgeist" Lists of Top Search Terms

By
Mark Hefflinger
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0

Mountain View, Calif. – Google (NASD: GOOG) this week released its annual
"Zeitgeist," a listing of the most popular and trending search terms
in 2010, which revealed "Chatroulette" to be the fastest rising
search term worldwide this year.

Other fast-rising search terms included
"iPad" and "Justin Bieber."

In the sports world, World Cup-related
queries were popular, such as "vuvuzela" and "Paul the
Octopus."

Charity-related search terms also spiked this year, after
earthquakes in China, Chile and Haiti, floods in Pakistan and the Gulf oil
spill.

The full collection of Google Zeitgeist lists for 2010 is available from the link below.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3yvp2dx
(Google blog)

http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2010/

Report: U.S. Video Game Sales Up 8% to $2.99B in November

By
Mark Hefflinger
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0

Port Washington, N.Y. – U.S. video game sales saw their best
November sales on record, rising 8% to $2.99 billion from a year ago, according
to sales data compiled by market research firm NPD Group. Sales in all
categories were up in November from a year ago, with the exception of portable
device hardware and software.

Game hardware sales were up 9%, to $2.95 billion,
led by Microsoft’s (NASD:  MSFT) Xbox 360, which saw a 68% sales increase from last November.

Meanwhile, software sales rose 4% to $1.46 billion, and accessories — fueled
by the Kinect and PlayStation Move — saw sales leap 69%, to $413 million.

"The 360 platform accounted for over 40% of total industry sales driven by
the successful launch of Microsoft’s Kinect," said NPD analyst Anita
Frazier.

"Xbox 360 accessories accounted for 60% of that categories’
dollar sales this month."

Activision’s (NASD:  ATVI) "Call of Duty: Black Ops"
was the top-selling game last month, with sales of 8.4 million units.

Other
titles in the top ten included "Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood" and
"Just Dance 2" (Ubisoft); Electronic Arts’ (NASD:  ERTS) "Madden NFL 11";
and Microsoft’s "Fable III."

 

 

Related Links:
http://www.npd.com

File-Swapper Asks Court to Reduce Copyright Damages to $0

By
Mark Hefflinger
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0

Los Angeles – Convicted file-swapper Jammie Thomas-Rassett
has asked the court to reduce the damages a jury ordered her to pay the record
labels as punishment for copyright infringement from $62,500 per song to zero,
the Recording Industry vs. The People blog reports.

Thomas has now been ordered
to pay substantial damages by three juries examining her case, and along the
way has had some success in getting the damages she must pay — which under
U.S. Copyright laws can reach up to $150,000 per song — reduced.

The new
motion from her legal team argues that the record labels provided no evidence
of actual damage as a result of her offering songs for download from her
computer on the Kazaa file-sharing network.

 

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2gygowg
(Recording Industry vs. The People)

http://tinyurl.com/238gsn5
(DMW previous coverage)

Echo360 Raises $1 Million to Record University Lectures

By
Mark Hefflinger
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0

Dulles, Va. – Echo360, a provider of Internet audio and
video technology used by universities, has raised the first $1 million in a
planned $2 million notes offering, according to a filing with the Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Nine investors have taken part since the first
sale on Dec. 1.

The company last raised $26.4 million in a round that began in
late 2008 and closed in April.

Dulles, Va.-based Echo360’s main offering helps
universities record and replay lectures from professors through podcasts, video
and rich media.

The technology was developed in partnership with the University
of Western Australia.

The company initially was born as a subsidiary of
Anystream, and in 2007 acquired Lectopia, a company providing lecture capture
services in Australia and New Zealand.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2f5wa29

http://www.echo360.com  

IAB Creates General Counsel Office, Promotes Three Executives

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Washington – Looking to bolster the digital marketing
industry’s interests in DC, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the New
York-based industry organization representing more than 460 media and
technology companies, said on Friday it has created an office of general
counsel and promoted Mike Zaneis to the roles of senior vice president and
general counsel.

Zaneis most recently served as the organization’s vice
president of public policy, and earlier served as the executive director of
technology and e-commerce at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in DC.

"Public
policy has taken center-stage as one of the most critical issues facing the
digital marketing industry, and no one is better equipped to represent the IAB
and our members than Mike," said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of
the IAB.

In addition, the IAB has promoted Patrick Dolan, formerly chief
administrative officer, to COO, and David Doty, previous senior vice president
of marketing and thought leadership, to CMO.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2dx45ul

U.S. Military Bans Removable Media in Response to WikiLeaks

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
3

Washington – The U.S. military has told troops to stop using
removable media — CDs, DVDs and thumb drives — that could be used to transfer
classified data in a means similar to how whistleblower site WikiLeaks received
its trove of documents, Wired reported.

Orders have been issued to all military
branches for servicemembers to cease using removable media on the Defense
Department’s secure network — or else face a possible court-martial.

Meanwhile,
Dutch authorities yesterday arrested a 16-year-old, alleged to be a hacker
involved in the pro-WikiLeaks group Anonymous’ "Operation Payback"
denial-of-service attacks on the websites of MasterCard, Visa and PayPal.

To
help maintain the future of the whistleblower concept of WikiLeaks — whose
head Julian Assange is currently in jail in Britain — some former members of
the WikiLeaks team are creating a new service, called OpenLeaks.

Unlike
WikiLeaks, OpenLeaks will accept secure, anonymous submissions, but work with
other publishers like newspapers, who will ultimately release any documents.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2aes7zs
(Wired)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20025215-281.html

http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/10/wikileaks-defectors-openleaks

8D World Gets $5.25 Million for English-Teaching Virtual World

By
Mark Hefflinger
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0

Woburn, Mass. – 8D World, the developer of a virtual world
for learners of English as a foreign or second language, has raised $5.25
million in a second round of venture capital financing.

Investors included
Mizuho Capital, and previous investors Spark Capital and Gobi Partners.

Woburn,
Mass.-based 8D World hired assembled a team of English educators, speech
technology experts and multiplayer game designers to create "Wiz World
Online," its educational virtual world.

The company said it has partnered
with CCTV and ONLY Education, as well as hundreds of schools in China.

 

Related Links:
http://www.8dworld.com

Google: 300,000 Android-Powered Smartphones Activated Daily

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Los Angeles – Google’s (NASD: GOOG) Android operating system is now being
activated on more than 300,000 smartphones daily, up from 200,000 in August,
Fortune reported, citing a tweet from Google’s Andy Rubin. That number bests
daily activation tallies for iPhone, BlackBerry and Nokia’s Symbian.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/27th9jo
(Fortune)

YouTube Lets 'Select' Users Upload Videos Longer Than 15 Min.

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Bruno, Calif. – Google’s (NASD: GOOG) YouTube announced on Thursday
that it is raising the upload limit for "selected users" above 15
minutes, citing the success of its Content ID system for identifying and
removing copyrighted video uploaded to the site. In July, the service raised
the upload limit for all users to 15 minutes. YouTube said the privilege would
be reserved for users "with a history of complying with the YouTube
Community Guidelines and our copyright rules."

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2e7orq7
(YouTube blog)

Musicians Seek Channel Subscribers in MyYouTube Contest

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Bruno, Calif. – Google’s (NASD: GOOG) YouTube has launched a contest
in partnership with more than 50 recording artists and record labels, to wee
which artist can attract the most subscribers to their YouTube channel. A new
MyYouTube site was created for the contest, which features participating
artists including Rihanna, Kanye West, Justin Bieber and Soulja Boy.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2c7aqwz
(YouTube blog)

http://www.youtube.com/myyoutube

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