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BlogThis: PRWeb offers new social media tool for press releases

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prweb.jpgPRWeb, an online press release distribution newswire and a Vocus company, announced the launch of “BlogThis,” a new social media tool enabling bloggers to easily post and comment on PRWeb press releases in their blogs.

Part of PRWeb’s growing social media toolset, “BlogThis” leverages the growing influence of Web 2.0 technologies to provide additional online visibility for PRWeb press releases. Bloggers can link their PRWeb account to their personal blog, providing a shortcut to post commentary on PRWeb news releases to their blog.

“As blogs and other social media grow in importance to public relations professionals and marketers, PRWeb continues to pioneer new methods to enhance the online visibility of our customers’ press releases,” said Joel Baker, PRWeb’s President and COO. “BlogThis increases the interaction between social media and our customers, facilitating the process for bloggers and increasing the potential coverage for our customers’ press releases within the social media world.”

Originally posted on May 10, 2007 @ 7:44 am

YouTube taking a bow to the king?

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Vissani Meeyo, a spokesman for the Thai information ministry said that YouTube is likely to remove all video clips seen as insulting to Thailand’s king, thus paving the way for the ban on the video sharing site being lifted.

The site has been blocked to Thai users since early April, when clips showing digitally-altered images of revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej began appearing.

Thailand’s army-backed government had considered suing YouTube over charges of lese majeste – insulting the monarchy – a serious crime that carries up to 15 years in prison.

Originally posted on May 11, 2007 @ 9:35 am

Intel Capital announces $31 million in 6 investments

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Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of Intel Corporation, kicked off its eighth annual CEO Summit with the announcement of six investments totaling $31 million. The deals include: China-based 51.com (social networking) and Phoenix Microelectronics (microelectronics ); Aternity (application management software) and Ceedo (portable computing environment), both based in Israel; and from the United States, Jajah (Internet telephony solutions ) and Tutor.com (education network ).

This year’s CEO Summit is being attended by more than 400 executives from Intel Capital portfolio companies and global 2,000 companies. The event includes keynote presentations, expert panel discussions and more than 500 matchmaking meetings between portfolio company CEOs and industry executives as part of the focus on learning and deal-making.

“With global reach, larger investment stakes and active collaboration, Intel Capital is a leader in company building and becoming engaged with companies beyond our initial investment,” said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital. “By bringing together savvy business executives, global decision makers and our inspired entrepreneurs, the CEO Summit demonstrates our proactive strategy in helping our portfolio companies succeed. We look forward to welcoming CEOs, executives and entrepreneurs from around the world to this year’s event.”

Originally posted on May 11, 2007 @ 6:25 am

USA Network and Yahoo Music inks music pact for television

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USA Network and Yahoo! Music announced that they have entered into an agreement to discover and promote new music and emerging artists through a non-traditional marketing model. The collaboration, the first of its kind for television, seeks to move beyond the boundaries of traditional marketing by enhancing USA Network’s slate of innovative programming and promotional content through relevant and breakthrough music.

“We’re thrilled to be involved in this innovative partnership that has the potential to create a new model for the way musical artists are discovered and developed,” said Chris McCumber, USA’s senior vice president, marketing & brand strategy. “We look forward to combining the resources and creative synergy of USA, Yahoo! Music and media architect Spencer Proffer to carve a unique sonic brand for the network.”

Under terms of the venture, USA Network will then sign the mutually agreed-upon performing artists, integrating them into the network for an incubation period. Music industry innovator Spencer Proffer of Meteor 17 will oversee the development and promotion of the artists along with USA
Network and Yahoo! Music. USA will utilize the artists’ recordings for marketing and programming on the network and will benefit from a flexible source of new music for use on all platforms. Yahoo! Music will employ artists’ music for further exposure.

Originally posted on May 9, 2007 @ 5:56 pm

MySpace protects copyright holders

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MySpaceMySpace announced the launch of Take Down Stay Down, an innovative new feature for copyright holders that prevents users from re-posting video content in the MySpace community after that content has been removed at the request of the copyright owner.

Take Down Stay Down utilizes a number of steps to ensure the content is identified, taken down, and kept out of the MySpace community. When a content owner informs MySpace that a user has improperly posted its content onto MySpace Videos, not only is the video promptly removed by MySpace, but MySpace also creates a digital fingerprint of the video content and adds it to its copyright filter, which is based on industry-leading Audible Magic technology. If any user tries to upload the same content that has been removed, the filter will recognize the digital fingerprint and block the content from being uploaded. This way, when copyright owners remove content from MySpace, they will have greater comfort that it will stay down and not be reposted. MySpace is the first to offer this feature to copyright owners.

Originally posted on May 11, 2007 @ 11:30 am