media

NEW YORK--When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg spoke to a room full of reporters shortly after announcing the company's new Facebook Ads initiative, it became clear that this move is a risky one. Facebook Ads, with its focus on "trusted referrals," is heavily rooted in viral distribution tactics. And it's well-known by now that while a viral phenomenon can reach soaring levels of popularity, it can also become synonymous with in-your-face annoyance.

Zuckerberg was insistent that Facebook users will appreciate the fact that they'll be seeing advertisements that cater specifically to their interests and that showcase … Read more

"Sometimes you just want to go out immediately, with reckless abandon."

So says the front page of CrazyBlindDate.com, which aims to get people together on sporadic blind dates with very little notice. The site--whose creators also are responsible for OKCupid.com--was soft-launched in Austin awhile back and officially entered a beta phase on Tuesday with new urban centers in New York, Boston, and San Francisco. The interface is sleek, and the concept is cool, but with this kind of thing it's really all about the people who use it.

Short version: You fill out a … Read more

Following weeks of rumors that his ousting was on the way, Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons announced his resignation effective January 1. On Monday, the media giant's board of directors announced that it has elected Jeffrey Bewkes, currently the company's president and chief operating officer, to Parsons' post.

"Dick Parsons has done an outstanding job during his tenure as chief executive officer," said Robert C. Clark, the board's chairman of the nominating and governance committee. "The board is grateful for Dick's exceptional leadership in turning this company around and putting it on a … Read more

Bill Gates announced Windows Home Server to much fanfare at January's Consumer Electronics Show.

The energy seems to have dwindled some during the product's elongated path to market over the past year. Microsoft finalized the code back in July, but HP said it would wait for an update to the software before releasing its MediaSmart server, in what was seen as the biggest endorsement of the product.

On Monday, Microsoft announced "general availability" for the software, although HP's product will not be shipping to consumers until later this month. Some servers from smaller computer makers … Read more

From the New York Times:

[M]ore than 12,000 screenwriters represented by the Writer Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East in the early morning hours in New York began the first industry-wide strike since writers walked out in 1988. That strike lasted five months...

Throughout the weekend, guild leaders held orientation meetings for strike captains, who would supervise picketing teams, and otherwise prepared for an effort to shut down as much movie and television production as possible...

The sides have been … Read more

FREE BEER!!!!

That was the rallying cry for the Reddit party in New York's East Village on Saturday night, the latest stop on the social news site's "Drankkit World Tour 2007"--an event series that has made it to San Francisco and Boston so far, with Toronto, Chicago, D.C., and a few others still to come. The Gotham installment took place in a woefully undersized Alphabet City dive called The Hanger Bar, and was not-so-woefully under-publicized. Reddit had reason to keep the rabble out.

That's because the beer was free all night long. Guess … Read more

Associated Press chief Tom Curley knows journalism. He just doesn't have any idea how to save his profession from a rendezvous with irrelevance.

Or at least it's not readily apparent to this former AP employee.

During the course of a keynote speech delivered Thursday night at the annual Knight-Bagehot dinner, Curley did acknowledge that young people "don't prefer our traditional platforms and packaging."

So far, so good. Unfortunately, I was hoping he would offer more than the usual corporate bromides. Curley included just two--that's right, two! references to the Internet. And the word "… Read more

The GOM Media Player (hands-on review) is more than meets the eye. The free multimedia player has presets to optimize sound quality (see CNET video) and some interesting built-in tools for capturing images (see CNET video) and correcting exposure for video playback. It also supports subtitles for karaoke glory.

Meet GOM Media Player in the First Look video below, or see other First Look videos.

Shortly after the nascent Stephen Colbert '08 presidential campaign filed to run on the Democratic ballot in South Carolina's primary, the state party voted on Thursday to kick the colorful comedian out of the race. According to the Associated Press, party officials met for approximately 40 minutes and then voted 13-3 to remove Colbert from the ballot.

Meanwhile, many members of the "1,000,000 Strong for Stephen T Colbert" group on Facebook, which currently hovers around 1,300,000 in membership, refuse to give up.

"I think it's stupid that they are trying to … Read more