CBS buys Last.fm for $280m, plans more ads

As hinted at back in February, Last.fm has been trawling around looking for a buyer and today it found its harbour in the form of a US media giant. The 'social music' site has been bought by CBS Corporation for $280m (£140m). This is less than the earlier rumour, but still the largest-ever buyout of a UK-based "Web 2.0" site. The site was founded in the UK five years ago

Google buys Feedburner to sell ads into RSS

No wonder Google has acquired RSS management service Feedburner. FeedBurner publishes feeds for PC World, Computerworld, Macworld, Reuters, USA Today, AOL, Newsweek and many many more big and small publishers. That means the bulk of the content from these sites passes through Feedburner, and what does Google love? Content and data, but especially eyeballs. According to TechCrunch (following an unconfirmed rumour on Vecosys) Feedburner is in the closing stages of

Google buys Feedburner to sell ads into RSS

No wonder Google has acquired RSS management service Feedburner. FeedBurner publishes feeds for PC World, Computerworld, Macworld, Reuters, USA Today, AOL, Newsweek and many many more big and small publishers. That means the bulk of the content from these sites passes through Feedburner, and what does Google love? Content and data, but especially eyeballs. According to TechCrunch (following an unconfirmed rumour on Vecosys) Feedburner is in the closing stages of

Europeans dominate Second Life

There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason why there are more Germans in Second Life than Americans even though there are more American firms advertising inside the virtual world. Could it be down to better broadband in Germany? For now we'll have to ponder the results of a new Comscore study which finds that Second Life has a rapidly growing and global base of active residents. The report

Microsoft and Yahoo! talk merger – opinion roundup

Here are some breaking views on the reported merger between Yahoo and and Microsoft today: WSJ: "A year ago, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. explored the idea of combining to form a greater competitor to Google Inc. The talks led nowhere leaving Microsoft and Yahoo to forge their own paths in pursuit of Google. How did they do? Well, they're talking again." The Times: "Shares in Yahoo! jumped 18 per

Mobile screen-saver offers media platform

Celltick (the mobile content firm headquartered in London) is to help AIS Thailand (the largest mobile operator in Thailand) to expand its content discovery service, mLive! to reach 8 million subscribers by the end of the year. mLive! broadcasts streams of content teasers directly across the idle screen of user’s mobile phones like a screensaver, with subscribers offered “personalized content and promotions”. mLIVE! users see streams of free news headlines,

Content broadcast across idle mobile screens

AIS Thailand, the largest mobile operator in Thailand, plans to expand its content discovery service, mLive! to reach 8 million subscribers by the end of the year, according to the firm. Powered by Celltick (headquartered in London), mLive! broadcasts streams of content teasers directly across the idle screen of user’s mobile phones, with subscribers offered “personalized content and promotions”. AIS says that during its first year of operation over 40%

YelloWiki denies ‘passing off’ as Yell

YelloWikis may capitulate to Yell over their recent legal action due to lack of funds to fight a prolonged court battle. In an email interview with tbites, YelloWikis’ Paul Youlten said (words in bold are tbites’ emphasis): “We have to reply to their charges by next Monday and we are planning to deny the charges of “passing off” – though some solicitors seem to think that we will win quite

Yell yells at YellowWikis

The world's biggest yellow pages publisher, Yell, has threatened to shut down Yellowikis, the wiki-based yellow pages directory, accusing it of of "misrepresentation", "passing off" and suggests that using the name Yellowikis could "constitute an 'instrument of fraud'. It's contacted Yellowikis co-founders Paul Youlten and Rosa Blaus (his 15 year-old daughter) demanding they shutter the website, transfer the domain names to Yell and agree to pay damages to Yell for