Trends

About all those little betas - they add up now into one stunning central contextual content product...
Google's search engine goes universal
AP via Yahoo! News
Google Book Search becomes more comprehensive
Google Blog

As Yahoo searches for the soul of a content company in an era of passionate user-generated content...
Yahoo’s search for itself
ZDNet
Yahoo Can Bring Differentiation To The Social Web
Seeking Alpha
Yahoo!'s New Mission: It's About the People
Read/Write Web

Ad-supported online video is the hot ticket but nobody really knows how to do it effectively yet...
The Race to Conquer Video Advertising
Read/Write Web

The Thomson/Reuters merger is on track to reinvent business information in the image of Wall Street...
Reuters agrees 8.7 bln stg Thomson takeover bid
Thomson via Hemscott
Thomson's $17.2 Billion Pact For Reuters to Face Reviews
WSJ Online*
Tom Glocer: “This may scare some of you…”
FT.com

By contrast, Murdoch must tread lightly to appease ownership that's concerned about change...
Murdoch Hones Pitch to Bancrofts
WSJ Online*
Dow Jones Board Won't Act As Bancrofts Deliberate
WSJ Online*
At Journal, Slim Margins Open Door to Murdoch
The New York Times*

As the newspaper industry searches for an elusive formula for long-term success...
New York Times Revenue Declines in April
AP via Yahoo! Finance
Briton Bullish on Buying Small Newspapers in Europe
The New York Times*
Panel discusses future of the newspaper
Stanford Daily

Social media challenges publishers and aggregators to come up with more compelling contexts for content...
MySpace launches video channels
AP via Content Agenda
NBC Jumps on the MySpace Train
Mashable
Are Social Bookmarking Sites Better at Search than Google?
Read/Write Web
The most important blog on your newspaper's website
USC Annenberg OJR
Twitter Founders Thrive on Micro-Blogging Constraints
Media Shift

But even when you find a valuable context is the hunt for search engine positioning compromising quality...?
Forbes: Revolt of the Page Slaves?
The New York Observer

In content as in real estate it's all about location, location, location...
Positioning phones to create new social networks
Reuters
BBC Bets Its Future On Location-Based Services, Names New Mobile Content Head
Moco News

The U.S. government seeks out stringent controls for intellectual property but fair use prevails in the courts...
Justice Department Focuses on Efforts to Protect Intellectual Property Rights
Media Newswire
Google wins part of photo suit
LA Times via Content Agenda

EMI's DRM-free strategy will unfold at an Amazon search result near you...
Amazon.com to Open DRM-Free Digital Music Store
TheStreet.com / Content Agenda

The moral of the story: "helping" audiences to build news that agrees with your outlook usually backfires...
Why is MySpace News a ghost town?
ZDNet

OK, time to chill out on the social media, we're going on maneuvers now...
Military blocks MySpace, YouTube
IT News
YouTube pioneers challenge Pentagon
AP via Yahoo! News

In other major trends in content this week...
Reuters Media Summit Roundup: Lagardere’s Acquisitions; WPP Digital; AT&T Ads; Sling Broadband
paidContent.org
infoUSA Calls on Shareholders to Reject Hedge Fund’s Baseless Allegations
BusinessWire
Ebook Readers Grow Up
Library Journal
Viacom CEO: no "splashy" purchase in sight
Reuters
New, searchable index of more than 5,000 vintage LA news photos
BoingBoing

Best Practices
How Scoble Reads 622 RSS Feeds Each Morning
Tim Ferriss
Web 2.0 'neglecting good design'
BBC News
Why founders should be part of their community
Bokardo
Bloggers and the Church-State Wall
Micro Persuasion
iProspect Survey Reveals Nearly Half of Search Marketers Place Content on Social Networking Sites
Promotion World
Saving Our Digital Heritage
Washington Post
the Uncanny Valley of user interface design
Bill Higgins
Search Friendly CMS Does Not Equal Search Optimized One
Search Engine Land
InfoWorld study finds social media still in early stages for b-to-b
BtoB Online

Cool Tools
uStream.tv Beta 2 Launches Tomorrow
Mashable
14 Great Ways You Can Use OpenID Right Now
Mashable
Bibme Launches an Automated Bibliography Creation Site
Mashable
JumpKnowledge an annotation tool
Really Simple Sidi
WordPress 2.2 has arrived
Download Squad
Watch live photo uploads with flickrvision
Download Squad
MetaCarta Partners With Clickability to Make Web Content Location-Aware
MarketWire
mCompanion Announces iGliss - A Breakthrough in Internet Media Content Sharing
Newswire Today

Deals, Partnerships & Sales
AOL Acquires Mobile Ad Firm Third Screen Media
ClickZ Network
TechTarget, Inc. Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering
BusinessWire via TMCNet
Voxant, the Viral Syndication Network, Adds Select Content From The Huffington Post
PR Newswire via Broadcast News
WPP agrees to buy 24/7 Real Media for $649 billion
BtoB Online
USNews.com Joins With Clinicahealth To Offer Online Health And Wellness Communities
Adotas
Healthline Selected to Power Intelligent Health Search Across the HealthCentral Network
BusinessWire via Syscon
Informa Investment Solutions to be a One-Stop Provider of Wealth Management Solutions
BusinessWire
FAST and Criterion Systems to Support Convera RetrievalWare for Federal Government
BusinessWire via Epicos
RSuite CMS Selected to Manage SAGE Publications’ Journal and Reference Content
BusinessWire
PennWell Acquires LEDs Magazine
PR Newswire via PR Inside

Products, Markets & People
Copyright Clearance Center Launches Enhanced Copyright.com Site
BusinessWire
Nielsen debuts first suite of Nielsen Connect services
BtoB Online
Autonomy Delivers Proactive Legal Protection With IDOL ECHO
PR Newswire via EarthTimes
Mark Logic Unveils MarkLogic Server 3.2: Provides Powerful New Content Search and Analysis
MarketWire
Launch of Amazon Podcasts Brings Customers Closer to Celebrity Authors, Actors and Musicians
WebWire
TiVo Launches New Universal Swivel Search
TMCNet
Penton's Supermarket News Launches Redesigned Web Site
BusinessWire via Broadcast News
Vignette Delivers Next-Generation Knowledge Sharing and Management with Collaboration
IT Wire
Mark Logic Announces MarkLogic Server OEM Edition
MarketWire
Bango eliminates final hurdle to selling on mobile with free "Starter" service
Mobile Europe
ebrary Launches New eBook Databases for Corporations
BusinessWire

Labels: summaries