Google's (GOOG) YouTube Gains Share, MySpace Loses

from Silicon Alley Insider by Dan Frommer

YouTube continues its impressive growth in the online video market...while No. 2 MySpaceTV shrinks.

Nielsen//Netratings' August traffic report says YouTube's traffic grew 66% year-over-year from 34 million unique visitors last August to 56.5 million uniques this year. News. Corp's (NWS) MySpaceTV, meanwhile, fell 6% from 17.9 million uniques last August to 16.8 million last month. While Nielsen doesn't break down the numbers, it would be interesting to see how YouTube's distribution on Apple's iPhone and Apple TV products has juiced its traffic.

Of note, Yahoo! Video doubled year-over-year and Veoh's August uniques grew 346% from 663,000 to 3 million. We wonder: where will News Corp.'s next project -- its two-years-too-late Hulu venture with NBC -- show up on this list next year? Nielsen's chart after the jump.

See Also: CBS's Quincy Smith: Hulu Strategy a Waste of Time, Money, Economics of Online Video 3: $5 CPM = Keep Day Job

+------------------+---------------+--------------+----------+
| Site             |     Aug-06 UA |    Aug-07 UA | % Change |
|                  |         (000) |        (000) |          |
+------------------+---------------+--------------+----------+
| YouTube          |        34,039 |       56,453 |      66% |
| vids.myspace.com |        17,923 |       16,759 |      -6% |
| Google Video     |        13,483 |       14,450 |       7% |
| AOL Video^       |            NA |       13,632 |       NA |
| MSN Video        |        11,984 |       12,486 |       4% |
| Yahoo! Video     |         5,958 |       11,987 |     101% |
| Metacafe         |         2,822 |        4,151 |      47% |
| Break.com        |         2,926 |        3,954 |      35% |
| Veoh             |          663* |        2,958 |     346% |
| Atom Films       |         1,102 |        1,422 |      29% |
+------------------+---------------+--------------+----------+
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

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Samsung's F700

from Gizmodo by Addy Dugdale

We went a bit moist and gooey earlier this year when we saw Samsung's F700 in Barcelona. Now the touch-screen smartphone with 3-megapixel camera and QWERTY keyboard has got a release date in Europe and a carrier: November; and Vodafone. I'd take a punt on it hitting our shores in early 2008, though. Full specs, another pic and the press release after the jump.

Samsung F700 Specifications
HSDPA 3.6 Mbps, EDGE
900/1800/1900 MHz + 2.1GHz
3 Megapixel camera with Auto-Focus
Display: 265,536 TFT (3.2", 240x432)
Full Touch Screen
MPEG4/H.263/H.264/ MP3/AAC(+)/eAAC+
QWERTY Keypad
MMS / E-mail / JAVA / WAP 2.0
Bluetooth® 2.0 / USB
Flash UI / Document Viewer
Full HTML Browsing
Offline Mode, BGM
Memory
microSD™
112 x 56 x 16.mm

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Virgin America launches in-flight, air-to-ground broadband

from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin

[ Boing Boing Gadgets ]: Virgin America shared more details today on its partnership with in-flight wireless broadband provider AirCell -- air-to-ground wireless internet will be available on all VA flights "sometime in 2008," and will be offered two ways: BYOD (bring your own device, laptops or pdas or whatever), and also through VA's inflight entertainment system called Red.

AirCell also has a deal in the works with American Airlines for air-to-ground wireless, but from what I can suss out in the press release, two things make the VA deal different...

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Fair use industries returned $4.5 trillion to the US in 2006

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

The Computer and Communications Industry Association has just released a study it commission to calculate the value returned to the US economy by fair use and other exceptions to copyright. We often hear stories about how much money the US economy generates by giving certain sectors and companies exclusive access knowledge and information, but it's rare to see such a quantitative approach to the value created by not creating regulatory monopolies in certain cases. Even more interesting is the sum that the study comes up with -- according to the economists (who worked "in accordance with a World Intellectual Property Organization methodology"), "$4.5 trillion in revenue [was] generated by fair use dependent industries in 2006, a 31% increase since 2002, fair use industries are directly responsible for more than 18% of U.S. economic growth and nearly 11 million American jobs. In fact, nearly one out of every eight American jobs is in an industry that benefits from current limitations on copyright."

"As the United States economy becomes increasingly knowledge-based, the concept of fair use can no longer be discussed and legislated in the abstract. It is the very foundation of the digital age and a cornerstone of our economy," said Ed Black, President and CEO of CCIA. "Much of the unprecedented economic growth of the past ten years can actually be credited to the doctrine of fair use, as the Internet itself depends on the ability to use content in a limited and nonlicensed manner. To stay on the edge of innovation and productivity, we must keep fair use as one of the cornerstones for creativity, innovation and, as today's study indicates, an engine for growth for our country"

Link (Thanks, Trey!)

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Texas: Giant web woven by a variety of spider families

from Boing Boing by David Pescovitz

Scientists report that the massive 200-yard spider web recently discovered in Texas's Lake Tawakoni State Park was woven by spiders from many different species working collaboratively. Thousands of spiders have rebuilt the web three times after it's been torn up by rain and wind. Texas A&M University entomologist Allen Dean has identified spiders from such families as funnel web weavers, sac spiders, orb weavers, mesh web weavers, wolf spiders, pirate spiders, and others working on the Web. From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (photo from Tx. Parks & Wildlife Dept.):

The motive may well be food, researchers say. The larger the web, the more flies and bugs get stuck, providing an abundant food supply for the spiders. "Spiders generally are cannibalistic and keep their webs distinct," Dean said. "We're not sure what started the initial webbing ... but there probably have been thousands of spiders working on the web. "With the amount of rain that has occurred this year and the huge food supply available, it just created the right condition for all of this."

Link to Star-Telegram, Link to Texas Entomology site about the web

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