Top Items:
Michael Barbaro / New York Times:
Wal-Mart and Studios in Film Deal — Wal-Mart Stores may have lost the online DVD rental battle, but it has no plans to lose the higher-stakes video downloading war. — Today the company will introduce a partnership with all of the six major Hollywood studios — Walt Disney, Warner Brothers …
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Gizmodo:
Breaking! Wal-Mart First to Offer Digital Movies From All "Big Six" Studios — Interrupting my sleep and scoring a major coup in digital distribution—one not even his Jobsness has pulled off (yet)—Wal-Mart has become the first (and thus far, only) digital distributor to go into business …
InterActiveCorp:
IAC Reports Q4 Results — IAC (Nasdaq: IACI) released fourth quarter 2006 results today, reporting $1.8 billion in revenue, an 8% rate of growth over the prior year, and $268 million in Operating Income Before Amortization, reflecting slight growth. Adjusted EPS was $0.67, compared to $0.50 in the year ago period.
Discussion:
Search Engine Land
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Danny King / Bloomberg:
IAC Profit Declines 98% on Writedown of Coupon Unit (Update3) — Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) — IAC/InterActiveCorp, the Internet and media company assembled by billionaire Barry Diller, said fourth-quarter profit fell 98 percent after the company wrote down the value of its entertainment coupon division.
Discussion:
Screenwerk
Tropical SEO:
Andy Hagans' Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and Social Media Marketing — Is anyone else sick of link baiting yet? I sure am. It's dominating talk on all the SEO forums and conferences; it's gumming up the works of all of my favorite social bookmarking sites; and it's forcing me get off of my lazy rear and make good content.
Reuters:
Gorbachev to Gates: Show software 'pirate' mercy … MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) — Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Monday asked Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to intercede on behalf of a Russian teacher accused of using pirated software in his classroom.
VoIP News:
Hacking Skype: 25 Tips to Improve Your Skype Experience — How versatile is your Skype? Ours can podcast, translate French, take conference calls from 15 people, and tutor calculus. — HACKING SKYPE: 25 TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR SKYPE EXPERIENCE — How versatile is your Skype?
Martin Beckford / Telegraph:
Apple warns iPod users against Vista — IPods could be damaged by Microsoft's new computer operating system, the company behind the popular digital music players has warned. — Apple, the long-standing rival of Bill Gates's Microsoft, is urging users not to upgrade their PCs …
Google Blogoscoped:
Google Links Tool Shows Other Sites' Links, Too — The new backlinks checker of the Google Webmaster Tools has a bug that lets you see all the backlinks of unverified sites, too. This allowed me to check all backlinks for Google.com, for example, and download the links table as CSV file.
Discussion:
SEO Book.com
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USA Today:
Kodak plans to sell inkjet printers with cheaper ink — Struggling photo giant Eastman Kodak is launching a new line of inkjet printers aimed at luring digital shutterbugs back to Kodak paper. The pitch: cheap ink. — Kodak's ink will sell for about $25 when the printers hit stores in March.
Joseph Menn / Los Angeles Times:
Disney yet to refresh website as promised — Walt Disney Co.'s commitment of late to new technology has boosted the company's stock and earned Chief Executive Robert Iger a reputation as a far-seeing leader in a hidebound industry. — Now for the downside.
Kotaku:
What's Wrong With You? — Seriously. Microsoft pulls out the annoying with its WHATS WRONG WITH U campaign aimed at Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea. A click on the English language Korean version pulls up the following question: … Select from these choices: — GREAT JAPANESE GAMES
Katie Fehrenbacher / GigaOM:
Helio hits 70,000, 100K by next quarter — Helio, the MVNO backed by $440 million from Earthlink and South Korean mobile company SK Telecom, is finally ready to give some subscriber numbers. Because the company is backed by public companies, the announcement is partly as a result of the fact …
Amy Roe / Seattle Times:
A Kirkland cafe with no prices — With its blood-red walls and black leather sofas, Kirkland's Terra Bite Lounge looks like any other coffee shop — until you get to the menu. There are no prices listed. Terra Bite doesn't have them. — You read that right: No prices.
Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:
The need for a measurement summit — Comscore and Federated Media (which sells some ads on this blog) have teamed up to try to improve measurement in the long tail of social and niche media online. And that's good. — Except I argue that the panel means of measurement is doomed to miserable failure in the mass of niches.
Mike / Techdirt:
Now The RIAA Wants You To Believe That You Should Be Paying Much, Much More For CDs — from the nice-try dept — By now, it's no secret that the folks running the RIAA have no clue about basic economics, but that's no excuse for some of their more ridiculous claims.
Mike / Techdirt:
Destroying The MPAA's Claims On The Canadian Camcording Epidemic — from the let's-try-that-again dept — Over the last few weeks, we've noted that the MPAA is on a new publicity campaign to make Canadian laws stricter when it comes to people caught videotaping movies in the theater with camcorders.
Bill Carter / New York Times:
A New Boss at NBC, and Even Newer Issues — When Jeff Zucker is named the new chief executive of NBC Universal today, succeeding Bob Wright, he will be completing one of the most spectacular ascents of any recent media executive: from part-time sports researcher in 1986 to corporate C.E.O two decades later.
Discussion:
PaidContent
