Ok ok, I know it’s old news. Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom were married a month ago with lots of controversy and national press coverage. Yet, I couldn’t help but watch the two hour wedding special that aired on E! this weekend.
The glitz, the glam, and the 8 carat ring… oh my! From family fights to Vera Wang gowns, the wedding special didn’t disappoint. But the real shocker? Khloe and Lamar’s wedding was a major success for E! with 3.2 million viewers. I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised since I was a willing participant of the viewing crowd, right? Let’s just hope that Mr. and Mrs. Odom don’t disappoint their fans…
Holy smokes! The American Idol judges saved a contestant who should have gone home, and it wasn’t Adam Lambert!
I’m not going to lie, I was actually watching the NHL playoff games tonight (let’s go Devils!!!) and I missed this week’s elimination episode. You can only guess how surprised I was to Google “American Idol” to find this article saying that all four judges decided to spare Matt Giruad after it was announced that he had the fewest votes after this week’s performance.
I’m a fan of Matt Giruad and enjoy his Michael Buble esque style, and hope he does well and continues to get more votes in the upcoming weeks. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see what happens next week as two of the American Idol contestants will face elimination without the ability to be saved. Good luck to all 
It seems like not too long ago, when I was a MySpace fanatic, I encountered worms, viruses, and phishing scams on a daily basis. Lately, I’ve actually noticed how much I take Facebook for granted, with the lack of phony friends and messages with “click here” links and annoying garbage. Unfortunately, that’s all about to change.
As many of you may have heard, Facebook is planning to change the layout of the homepage and branded fan pages (yes, it’s happening again). Along with these new updates come threats of potential hazards to our precious community through the form of stolen identities of friends, fans, and brands on Facebook. According to Trend Micro, Facebook has had to fend off four hoaxes over the last week that would trick users into giving out their login information. Worse yet is the aptly named Koobface worm which installs malware on computers after users click on links for phony YouTube videos.
What does this mean for you? Don’t click on links in Facebook messages, even if they come from friends. Always be cautious of messages from people you don’t know. And finally, report any suspicious messages or users to Facebook support ASAP.
The Internet as News Central
Need more proof that people are dropping print for digital? The Internet has now surpassed all media (except television) as a news source, according to consumers surveyed in December 2008 by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
In December 2008, 40% of respondents said they got most of their news about national and international issues from the Internet, up from just 24% in September 2007.
Burger King sacrifices Facebook application
When Facebook blocked the application’s feature that would notify users when a ‘friend’ had sacrificed them for a free whopper, Burger King decided to do away with the application all together.
What would you do if your state were having a financial crisis?
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has turned to social media to urge constituents of the nation’s most populous state to pressure their lawmakers in the state legislature. He has even created a twitter account that now has 8,850 followers.
Question: You want to watch the Obama Inauguration but won’t have access to a TV or a computer - what would you do?
Answer: Watch it live from your iPhone with Ustream.
Part of Ustream’s newest “stuff”, the soon to be released iPhone application will let users watch any Ustream channel, live, directly from their iPhone. And not only that, users will also see and be able to participate in the live chat around the video as too!
Finally, it might not be online, but Men’s Vogue Doubles Up - Condé Nast has found a way to keep Men’s Vogue alive after shrinking the title to a twice-a-year publication in October. The spring issue will appear as a reverse-bound issue attached to the April issue of Vogue. It will be the first time Vogue has published a reverse cover.
Here are a few quick highlights from the world online… enjoy!
Forbes Eliminates 19 Editorial Positions and integrates online and print operations. The company cited the poor economic conditions for media in general as the cause of the layoffs, and just two months ago laid off 43 sales, marketing and administrative employees for the same reasons. The job eliminations in each case coincided with the integration, at long last, of print and digital operations.
Whopper Sacrifice
Do you get friend requests from random strangers on Facebook? What do you think when you see someone who has thousands of Facebook friends – could they really know that many people? Burger King wants to help with the addition of the Whopper Sacrifice application on Facebook. For every 10 friends you exile, Burger King will reward you with a coupon for a Whopper.
To date, 69,221 friends have been sacrificed. I wonder what Facebook thinks of this?!?!
China Blogger Population Exceeds 50 Million Bloggers
China now has more than 50 million bloggers as increasing numbers of people seek an outlet for their views, state press reported.
The number, reached by the end of November, compared to a blogging population of about 47 million a year earlier, according to Xinhua news agency, quoting figures from the Internet Society of China.
The group said there were 100 million blogs, or personal online journals, in China, meaning many people are keeping more than one
Sony is expected to launch Home later today. Home, which will be available for PS3 users, rivals the formerly popular SecondLife and allows players to create avatars that interact with other virtual characters in cyberspace.
Sony’s Home joins the PS3’s video download functionality which has 15 million subscribers worldwide.
Need proof that online video is continuing to grow?
According to ComScore, the viewing of videos on Google owned sites (i.e. YouTube) grew 6.5% to almost 5.4 billion views. In October, YouTube commanded a whopping 39.7% of all videos viewed, with its next closest competitor being Fox Interactive with 3.8%.At the same time, its share of the video category is down almost 10% over the same time period.
Why?
Because of new(er) sites like hulu.com which grew video views 97% between July and October to reach 235 million views and move into the No. 6 spot. It went from 1% of the share of online videos viewed to 1.7%. Hulu was also the biggest riser in terms of unique visitors, and noted ComScore, while the duration of the average online video was three minutes, the duration of the average online video viewed at Hulu was 11.6 minutes
Yahoo sites, which were responsible for 2.7% of all videos viewed with 363 million views, up from 2.4% share in July.
Fox Interactive Media sites lost 0.1% in share, but gained 74 million views.
And Viacom Digital lost 0.1% of share but gained 59 million views.
Disney lost the most share and was the only property in ComScore’s top 10 to actually lose video views between July and October; views were down 32%. But Disney property ESPN broke into the top 10 in October, with 105 million views.
When it came to unique viewers, the biggest riser was again Hulu, which broke into the top 10. In total, 77% of the total
U.S. internet audience viewed an online video in October, according to ComScore.
*Advertising Age - YouTube Gains Online Video Views but Loses Market Share
The Daily News is reporting that the New York Yankees have signed CC Sabathia to a 7 year $160 million dollar contract. While the details are still not confirmed, it sounds like Brian Cashman met with CC Sabathia and his wife at their home in San Francisco where they came to an agreement that upped the original 6 year $140 million offer.
Even with today’s economy as it is, there was a common belief within the industry that sports were protected from the economic downturn. Today, we’ve learned that isn’t completely true. According to the New York Times, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has announced that the NFL will cut 150 jobs after the upcoming Super Bowl. Compared to some other recent corporate layoffs 150 may seem like a small number, but it represents nearly 10% of the NFL staff. Job cuts will affect the New York, New Jersey, and LA offices for the NFL.