>> Happy Tax Day. I hope your taxes are filed and out of your hair because it's Tuesday, April 15, and it's time to get Loaded.
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>> For those of you who watch Loaded as a podcast, we are sorry about all the technical issues we've been having over the last few days. CNET TV New York does things a little different than our San Francisco counterpart. When we jump to a new system, there were some hiccups. We are working to fix them, but thank you so much for sticking with us. And now to the news.
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>> After nearly a year of closed beta testing, Google has announced that it will soon open its TV advertising initiative to all commerce. This service allows anyone with a computer and a Google account to log in and buy ad time. Test within Dish Network's local ad inventory have proven stable and sources close to the project say that a public beta is imminent. In other Google news, the company also launched the ability to put YouTube videos in Google Maps. So every time you click for more information about a business listing, that list then will have the capability of hosting a related YouTube video. Only business themselves can have these videos though, so you won't see user-generated footage of your friends at a local donut shop. Yahoo is rolling out its new indexing software called Yahoo! Slurp 3.0. This is Yahoo's attempt to index the web a bit better. Google introduced its own new indexing software late last week. That is an attempt to uncover previously hidden pages by filling in web pages forms. We assume Yahoo! Slurp is doing the same, but Yahoo did not confirm that in the search blog that announced the new crawler. The purpose of all these is so that Yahoo learns to give us better search results. The Associated Press has announced a set of changes designed to alleviate the financial burdens currently strangling local newspapers. In the plan the AP not only will cut membership fees, but also launch and maintain a mobile site that will split, add revenues with local papers. The mobile site will include both targeted local stories and world coverage. In addition to these changes, the AP recently announced the multi-million dollar initiative to encourage its members to start tagging its digital media with meta data, so that it's better optimized for search engines.
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>> A new video site called Strutta launched today. We got a demo of the service last week and as you might tell from my reaction, I'm not the target audience for a site like this.
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>> Strutta is a site when you can come, teach, compete at whatever you're good at.
>> What does that mean?
>> It means that we think that there's a lot of people are already, sort of trying to pretend they're the best right now on YouTube.
>> Uh-hum.
>> And they're like uploading their videos there and try to vie for like the most views or most favorite. We're trying to create a site that allows people to put it into a more federated environment, kind of like the Olympics. You can represent your country and you can upload a video of you doing whatever you can do. So, the competition is structured in a yearly format. You play throughout the year and the best of the best qualify for the finale at the end of the year where we name the best of 2008.
>> So, what would be my motivation to vote for a video here rather than just give it five-stars on YouTube?
>> Well, here you get to sort of support your favorites, so like if you really have a favorite yoga poser.
>> Uh-hum.
>> You'd be able to support her or him by clicking on vote -- enable them to get to the top and basically build a name for themselves -- turn them into a micro-celebrity.
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>> I have to say, I still can't really decide why I would chose to vote for a video on Strutta rather than star it on YouTube. Also, I think a year is too long to follow a video contest. I certainly am not gonna follow along to see the best beer opening video for an entire year, but again, I might just be the wrong demographic. What do you think, would you follow Strutta? Write in at loaded@CNET.com. A New York law may require online retailers to charge in State sales tax when they sell to New Yorkers. This is being called the Amazon Tax. Right now, retailers without a physical presence in the State don't have to charge date sales tax. The State of New York wants to change that and says that if retailers don't agree they will go after them with years of back tax fines. The New York Post is estimating that Amazon may take this one to court and I hope they do. This stinks. I just moved here, can't something be easier in New York besides public transportation? Lifetime Networks wants in on the online TV game. The network will be launching something called My Lifetime, which is a portal for its 15 new original webisodes plus interactive features like blog, make-over tools and photo sharing. Now I realize that the majority of my audience probably does not watch Lifetime Television for Women, but look at it this way. If Lifetime moves their touching and inspiring made-for-TV movies off of the TV and on to the computer, it's less likely that your wife or girlfriend will make you watch it with her. Those are all your headlines for today. Join us tomorrow when we take a look at interactive billboard. I'm Natali Del Conte with CNET TV and you've just been Loaded.
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