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On Friday, the YouTube Blog announced that the video sharing site was starting to test full-length programming. Apparently, YouTubers have been asking “to be beamed up with Scotty, to devise a world-saving weapon using only gum and paperclips, and to get your grub on at ‘The Peach Pit’.”

Hey, I’m not making this up. Go to the YouTube Blog and read it yourself.

Through a deal with CBS, YouTube is now offering “Star Trek,” “MacGyver,” and “Beverly Hills, 90210” to the 91 million viewers in the U.S. who watch 5 billion videos a month (54.8 videos per viewer). Yes, yes, comScore Video Metrix reports there are another 19.7 million viewers in the U.K who watch 1.4 billion videos a month on YouTube.com (72.4 videos per viewer). But, I’m sorry, I can’t find out how many there are in Canada.

Nevertheless, the YouTube Blog says, “These shows will be available in the new Theater View style we rolled out earlier this week, which provides optimal experience for watching full-length programming on your computer.”

Yes, yes, but what does this mean to search engine marketers?

The YouTube Blog adds, “As we test this new format, we also want to ensure that our partners have more options when it comes to advertising on their full-length TV shows. You may see in-stream video ads (including pre-, mid- and post-rolls) embedded in some of these episodes; this advertising format will only appear on premium content where you are most comfortable seeing such ads.”

Ah, ha! You knew there was a catch!

Still, in order to make it clear to viewers, YouTube has labeled all full-length videos with a Film Strip symbol so they’ll know what kind of content they’re choosing to watch and what type of ads they might see.

I can’t wait to share this news with Matt Bailey, the founder of SiteLogic. My business partner, Jamie O’Donnell, talked with Matt about Trekkie lore and web analytics at SES San Jose 2008. Matt was the first to analyze “the Red Shirt Phenomenon.” (As any die-hard Trekkie knows, if you are wearing a red shirt and beam down to the planet with Captain Kirk, you’re gonna die.) But, check out the YouTube video below to hear Matt’s analysis for yourself.

Measuring Web 2.0 with Star Trek - & SiteLogic’s Matt Bailey

By the way, Matt Baily will be teaching one of the Search Engine Marketing Training Workshops at SES Chicago 2008. It’s the Search & Analytics Workshop: Using Analytics to Increase Search Effectiveness, which will be held on Friday, Dec. 12, 2008.

To prepare you for Matt’s workshop, here are some basic stats:
The Enterprise had a crew of 430 during its five-year mission (although, the show was only on the air for 3 years). In the 80 episodes that were produced, 59 crewmembers were killed, which represents 13.7% of the crew. So, that’s what Matt uses as the overall “conversion rate.”

Heck, I can’t explain it as well as he does. So, watch the video interview above — read his article over on the ClickTracks site — or prepare to be amazed during his workshop at SES Chicago.

In May, Google announced a new initiative called Friend Connect that enables site owners to add social media to their websites, and allows internet users to connect their social accounts more seamlessly. But while Facebook was initally part of the effort, later they banned Google’s Friend Connect from their site, citing issues with privacy and the redistribution of user data.

Instead of waiting for Google to comply, Facebook has announced their own initiative: Facebook Connect. It’s designed to do basically be a FriendFeed - to aggregate information from users’ various profiles on numerous social sites in order to view it all in one place. Here’s the details of what to expect:

• Trusted Authentication - easily authenticate into partner sites using your Facebook account
• Real Identity - leverage your real identity across the Web in a trusted environment
• Friend Linking - take your friends with them wherever they go, enabling trusted social context anywhere on the Web
• Dynamic Privacy - assurance that the same privacy settings users have set up on Facebook will follow them wherever they decide to login throughout the Web
• Social Distribution - share actions on partner sites with your friends back on Facebook through feeds

Straight out of the gate, the following sites will utilize Facebook Connect:

Digg
Citysearch
Twitter
Seesmic (online video conversation tool)
Six Apart (blog publishing platform)
Hulu
CBS.com
CNET
CollegeHumor
Disney-ABC
Evite
Flock (social media browser developed on Firefox)
Kongregate
Loopt (new social network for iPhone)
Plaxo
Radar
Red Bull
Socialthing! (think FriendFeed)
StumbleUpon
The Insider
Uber
Vimeo
Xobni

What do you think of Facebook Connect? Let us know in the comments!

There are no surprises here except perhaps the branding of Yahoo’s new advertising platform as “AMP!”

Dear Fellow Stockholder:

The vote you will cast for directors at Yahoo!’s August 1, 2008 annual meeting is the most important for stockholders in our history.

We believe that the reelection of our current board is in the best interests of Yahoo!’s stockholders. Under the leadership of the current board and management team we are executing on our strategy to create value that is gaining traction. In addition, in responding to Microsoft Corporation’s proposal to acquire the company and exploring strategic alternatives, Yahoo!’s board has been focused on one central goal: how best to maximize stockholder value. In this regard, you should know that we have at all times been open to a transaction with Microsoft if it offers our stockholders full and certain value. We write to ask you to support our slate of highly qualified and capable directors standing for reelection.

You are probably aware that Carl Icahn proposes to replace our entire board of directors with his hand-picked slate. Mr. Icahn has no credible plan except to sell the company to Microsoft — despite the fact that Microsoft has publicly indicated that it has no current interest in such a transaction. Given Microsoft’s stated position of not wanting to acquire Yahoo!, the election of Mr. Icahn’s slate could result in substantial erosion of stockholder value.

We Urge You To Act Now To Protect Your Investment By Rejecting Mr.
Icahn’s Slate
And By Voting For Our Board Today, By Telephone, Internet, Or By
Signing, Dating,
And Returning The Enclosed WHITE Proxy Card.

Last year, after making changes in management, our board oversaw an intensive review by the new management team, led by Jerry Yang, of Yahoo!’s business and strategy. The result was a more focused strategy, a more streamlined company and a significant acceleration of specific initiatives to capitalize on the fast-growing online advertising market. As part of that strategy, we made a deliberate, disciplined decision to make investments that would generate greater long-term value for stockholders.

We started from a great place. Yahoo! is clearly a one-of-a-kind asset. We’re a leader in search, a pioneer in mobile advertising, and the clear leader in display advertising — where we see the greatest growth opportunity in online advertising. With more than 500 million monthly users worldwide, many best-in-class technology platforms, and strategically unique Asian assets, we are well-positioned to capture growth in an online advertising market that is projected to grow from approximately $40 billion in 2007 to approximately $75 billion in 2010.

The key is the knowledge and experience to execute with this unique asset. We believe that successfully executing on our strategy of being the “starting point” for the most consumers on the Internet and the “must buy” for advertisers will enable us to generate double-digit growth in operating cash flow and will lead to improved stockholder returns.

Our recent financial results, coupled with a number of strategic acquisitions and a string of significant product rollouts demonstrate that we are executing on our strategy:

– We’re continuing to see benefits from last year’s rollout of Panama, our new search monetization platform that is helping to close the monetization gap.

– Our acquisitions of Right Media, BlueLithium, Zimbra, and Maven Networks have all helped advance our core strategies.

– We are winning new business partners and expanding relationships with existing partners — WPP, Wal-Mart, CBS, and more than 770 newspapers now in our newspaper publisher consortium.

– Soon, we will roll out our new advertising management platform — AMP! from Yahoo! – that will enable us to offer advertisers and publishers an extraordinarily simple, seamless way to market over the Internet, helping us further our goal of becoming the “must buy” for online advertising.

Our Board Is Committed To Maximizing Stockholder Value.

Our board carefully evaluated Microsoft’s original offer and determined that it substantially undervalued our company and was not in the best interests of our stockholders. Over the ensuing months, we engaged in serious discussions with Microsoft, including numerous face-to-face meetings, some of which included one or more of our independent directors. During this period, our board was fully engaged, meeting more than twenty times to review the status of the discussions with Microsoft and to consider other available alternatives to maximize stockholder value. At all times, our board and management have made clear that they have been open to entering into any transaction, including a sale to Microsoft if it valued the company fairly and offered our stockholders certainty that they would receive that value, an important consideration given the likely lengthy regulatory review process before a deal would be approved.

Our board also explored and continues to explore a variety of other ways to maximize stockholder value.

Carl Icahn Has No Credible Plan To Create Value.

Mr. Icahn’s only plan for Yahoo!, if his slate is elected, is to hope that Microsoft — which withdrew its acquisition proposal more than a month ago and has since publicly reaffirmed that it is not now interested in a full acquisition — can be persuaded to come back to the table and agree to acquire our company. But this is not a strategy.

In our opinion, Mr. Icahn and his slate are not the right individuals to guide Yahoo! as a standalone company.

Our current board has the independence, the experience, the knowledge, and the commitment to navigate the company through the rapidly-changing Internet environment, execute on our initiatives to capitalize on the fast-growing online advertising market and to deliver value for Yahoo! and its stockholders.

The future of Yahoo! and the value of your investment are in your hands. We ask you to vote for your highly qualified and dedicated directors today. If you have questions about voting your WHITE proxy card, please call MacKenzie Partners, Inc. Toll-Free at (800) 322-2885.

Thank you for your support.

Roy Bostock Jerry Yang
Chairman of the Board Chief Executive Officer

Yahoo has joined the CBS Audience Network as a distribution partner. Yahoo TV will add CBS’x online catalog of full episodes and network programming to its lineup, which already includes NBC, FOX and over 15 cable networks.

CBS will get a boost from the Yahoo TV’s audience. With Yahoo, the CBS Audience network will reach 92% of U.S. web users with 300+ video partners.

“As the #1 online TV site, Yahoo! TV is committed to offering our users the most comprehensive television experience on the Internet,” said Karin Gilford, Vice President of Entertainment and Lifestyles, Yahoo!. “The partnership with CBS significantly expands our video offerings and provides our users with a consistent and best-in-class viewing experience. It’s all part of our strategy to become the starting point for the most consumers on the Web.”

“This announcement underscores the value of CBS’s open, non-exclusive, multi-partnership strategy for distributing our content online,” said Anthony Soohoo, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Entertainment, CBS Interactive. “We are delighted to add Yahoo! to the Audience Network, not only because of their reach, but also because they offer a great user experience for CBS content. This is a win-win in that it bolsters the distribution of CBS content while giving Yahoo! users access to programming that has proven to be among the most popular professional content online.”

This won’t be the first TV partnership between Yahoo and CBS. In December 2005, Yahoo announced that it would be offering four episodes of CBS sitcoms in what was dubbed the CBS Comedy Bowl.

Related Reading:
Yahoo Signs Deal With Reality Programming Company
Fox, NBC and Others Testing Online TV With Hulu.com

Mobile search and advertising company Medio Systems has announced the launch of a new content partnership. The Medio Mobile Content Partner Program will add high-quality content to the over 300 existing feeds on Medio by signing companies who are strong in a given niche.

The content program will complement Medio uSearch, the company’s universal search offering, available later this year. Medio says uSearch will simplify mobile search by enabling users to quickly find the on- and off-deck content from a single search box. Personalization and analytics technologies will power this new mobile search service.

“The Medio Mobile Content Partner Program is the first step in creating the most intuitive, user-friendly universal search experience available,” said Brian Lent, CEO of Medio Systems. “We have enlisted category leaders to provide the information that mobile users want. The caliber of these partners is a strong indication that our universal search will provide the best content experience in mobile.”

Medio has been making significant headway into the mobile content industry. Last October, CBS chose Medio for mobile search and advertising capabilities on its mobile sites. And in March 2007, Medio launched a mobile PPC text ad platform.

During last night’s 60 Minutes segment on Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg set up Lesley Stahl’s profile — and an old colleague reached out quickly to her delight. Thus one of the major benefits cited was finding all your lost buddies or colleagues.
Yet I don’t believe that people-search is the key strength of Facebook, until [...]

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