Rival to the Governator?

Agencies and Marketing Execs:

• Interpublic chose Quentin George, ex Global Lead-Digital Media/Strategic Innovation at Universal McCann, to head digital media at Mediabrands.
• Sara Weinstein was made Account Executive at Revenue Science/New York.
• Shane Steele joins Tremor Media as VP of Marketing. She left Coca-Cola last year and has since been running her own marketing consulting firm.
• Meg Whitman left her board member posts at Procter & Gamble, eBay and Dreamworks to pursue the gubernatorial seat in California.
• Senior Executive-Digital Operations Matthew Goldberg of the Dow Jones was chosen by BBC Worldwide to become CEO of Lonely Planet, a travel guide business.

Biz Buzz:

• Yesterday Google launched Picasa for Mac. Unlike previous Mac-ready supplements (like the Picasa Web Albums uploader and an iPhoto plugin), this version of Picasa avails the photo-sharing, editing and sync features, once exclusively enjoyed by PC users, to the Mac community.
• Microsoft fixed a bug that made 30GB Zune players, released in November 2006, cease operation prior to the new year.
• It's already on the hit list of a number of governments, but Google Street View's made one more enemy: Porsche, which it caught testing new models on Colorado's Mount Evans Road.
• Silicon Alley Insider compiled a list of the 20 VC firms most exposed to web 2.0. The news is good in a macabre sort of way: most VCs didn't invest heavily in the hype, which bodes well for them as the bubble bursts.

Email:

• Xobni ("inbox" backwards") has raised $7 million in Series B financing from Cisco. The firm strives to make Outlook email keyword-searchable, drawing comparisons to Google's Gmail service.

Mobile:

• Yankee Group research suggests banks may find salvation in mobile CRM, marketing and commerce (mobile payment) efforts.

Music:

• Apple may be working on a deal that limits where music purchased on iTunes can be played (think strictly on iTunes or an iPod).

Opinion:

• Google divulged to users that its Gmail program works best on Firefox and Chrome, a browser it launched in 2008. Some feel that, ethics of optimizing its Gmail program for its own browser aside, it should have left it up to users to gauge whether Gmail works less well on rival browsers like IE8.

Publishing:

• Bowing to economic pressures, The New York Times has begun selling display ads on its hallowed front page.
• The National Union of Journalists is taking strike action against job cuts sweeping Newsquest, owned by media firm Gannett, which in October '08 announced plans to reduce its staff by 10%.
• San Francisco-based AsianWeek is shuttering its print edition.

Search:

• Google launched "timeline view" across select search results.

Social Networks:

• Fantasy football invades Facebook in the form of myriad sports-related applications.
• According to a compilation of reports, social networks that do not find a way to monetize their models in 2009 will likely be shuttered. Top networks, including MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, have yet to find a way to wring money from their userbases.
• Hitwise reports Facebook traffic hit its peak on Christmas Eve 2008, totaling 2.18% of all US internet visits.