Hulu is apparently a popular dance partner at the moment. The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are all in "confidential" discussions about buying the popular video service. YouTube remains the dominant video site online, but it's built around user-generated, amateur videos. Hulu, on the other hand, has agreements with major TV networks that gives it access to current (and professional) programming -- an area that YouTube has been trying to beef up for a few years now. That kind of programming is what attracts ad dollars, as the Times report explains: Hulu' [...]

Related Topics: Google: YouTube & Video | Microsoft: MSN Video | Search Engines: Video Search Engines | Yahoo: Video

The recently redesigned MSN is now in preview. We wrote about it when the redesign was announced in early November. The portal has a massive global audience of more than 600 million according to Microsoft. Different countries will have somewhat different looking MSNs, which it turns out is the source of roughly 45% of Bing’s query volume. Thus MSN is critical, at least for now, to Bing's continued success. If MSN grows and gains users Bing will presumably gain and grow query volumes. One of the very nice features of MSN is the "local edition" area, which contains news and other loc [...]

Related Topics: Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: MSN Video | Microsoft: Partnerships

Bing and MSN have combined to create Bing Videos, a new video portal that combines the content from MSN Videos with Bing's search technology. According to today's announcement (and more here), the new site combines videos from a variety of sources. The former MSN Videos offered original programming, as well content from the likes of MSNBC, Fox Sports, National Geographic, and others. Bing Videos will house that content, and offer web-based videos from sites like YouTube, Hulu, MySpace, and others. Videos are organized into a handful of categories (News, Sports, TV Shows, etc.) and th [...]

Related Topics: Microsoft: Bing Videos | Microsoft: MSN Video | Search Engines: Video Search Engines | Top News

Today Microsoft and Viacom announced a wide-ranging content and advertising deal that involves Viacom content distribution on Microsoft-owned sites, ad serving by Microsoft on Viacom properties, mutual distribution of game-related content and ads, as well as collaboration in other areas. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the announcement are apparent guarantees of Microsoft advertising on Viacom TV properties and online. The release lays out the full scope of the partnership, said to be worth $500 million over five years. Viacom famously and very publicly had a falling out with Google [...]

Related Topics: Microsoft: MSN Video | Microsoft: Partnerships

Hooked on Google from the San Jose Mercury News revisits a theme from Microsoft that I've reported to readers over the years. That's how Microsoft's failure to beat Google in search -- despite millions in spending -- gets the "it's early days, give us time" defense from Microsoft. The defense is partially true, but it gets weaker and weaker as the actual years of saying that mount. The Mercury News article comes off Microsoft chairman Bill Gates making his regular appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. Last year, his comments at CES about Google being [...]

Related Topics: Microsoft: General | Microsoft: MSN Video | Stats: comScore | Stats: Popularity