Qtopia: not quite utopia

Acquisitions:

• The acquisition of Clear Channel by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners was scuttled by the latter's inability to finance the buy. The buyers subsequently sued the reluctant banks for breach of contract to force the deal.
• CraveOnline, a network of sites for male audiences, bought basketball site HoopsVibe.
• HoopGurlz.com, a basketball site with a female bent, was purchased by ESPN.
• Answerology, a family and relationship site, has been bought by Hearst, which will likely integrate it into other family-oriented online sites.
• EA has again been rejected by Take-Two.

Ad Platforms:

• Demographic bidding is available for Google AdWords advertisers, allowing targeting of certain age or gender groups for both CPM and CPC campaigns.
• Sharp-eyed scouts have pinpointed the appearance of video ads alongside search results.
• Yahoo is rolling out a new algorithm for its HotJobs site, utilizing behavioral targeting and other factors to return relevant results for job seekers and employers.

Mobile:

• CBS News is partnering with Aggregate Knowledge on a mobile site that uses readers' past behavior as a guide for what they may find interesting in the future.
• Mobile phones using Google's "Android" operating system may begin appearing as early as this fall.

Online Video:

• The popular online series "Prom Queen" and its sequel "Prom Queen Summer Heat" will be re-packaged for broadcast in France and Japan.
• A new and not at all self-serving study from Hearst-Argyle Television shows local TV engenders great loyalty in its audience, an audience advertisers might be missing as they shift dollars online.
• Magna Global wants Nielsen to move beyond averages and actually provide granular measurement numbers for TV commercial pods to gauge the reach and retention of commercials.
• All of South Park's episodes, 12 seasons total, are now available online with ad support.
• New analytics on who has watched a video on YouTube are now available to the publishers putting their videos on the site, something that could be of tremendous use to marketers using it for video distribution.
• The lack of new episodes from the major networks is the likely cause of a dip in traffic to the major online video portals in February.
• But overall online video viewing in February was up six percent according to Nielsen, adding credibility to the theory that the lack of new TV was increasing people's appetite for online video.
• Content from Revision3, including many popular online shows, will be distributed through Blip.TV under a new deal between the two.

Publishing:

• Technorati has posted an article about the 25 most valuable blogs.
• New Bamboo and Scholastic UK launched an online book club for children.
• Publishers in Yahoo's Newspaper Consortium were reassured by the company that it remains committed isn't being distracted by the ongoing drama revolving around Microsoft's bid to take it over.
• The Washington Post is shutting down its Blogroll ad network. The paper says it will continue to service current members of the network for the time being but won't be accepting new applicants.
• UK paper The Guardian has decided it will not work with Phorm on behaviorally targeted ads, saying the firm's product just didn't match with the paper's values.

Social Networks:

• Creative Artists Agency and Pequot Capital teamed up to create WePlay, a new social network aimed at young athletes and featuring videos and footage of stars from the MLB, NBA and more.
• XING, a professional social network in Europe, has released its 2007 financial report.

Tools and Software:

• Adobe rolled out a scaled-down version of Photoshop as a free online tool. The features are limited, but it's intended for a mainstream audience, not professional designers.
• Proving nimble people will always outpace slow corporations, Vuze has introduced a tool that will let file-sharers see if their ISP is throttling their Internet connection.
• Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Google and others are in preliminary discussions to fund the roll-out of WiMax technology across the country.

Virtual Worlds: