Steam usage and catalog stats
Interesting Steam user stats. Includes data on users, games, and more.
Topic: Digital distribution
Google adds local news features to search, giving publishers more exposure
Local news organizations depend on organic search traffic as queries like “news near me” have tripled in the past five years, Google says.
Google to launch ‘enhanced news storytelling’ project with licensed content
But aggressive government intervention in Australia threatens Google's voluntary news licensing strategy.
Polished Microsoft News app joins rivals Google and Apple News
The new app and news experience is great for consumers, but is it equally beneficial for publishers?
European press agencies push for licensing fees for their content from Google, Facebook
It remains to be seen whether European legislators and regulators will pick up the cause, but there's a possibility that they will.
NFL-YouTube deal will bring highlight videos & related news directly into Google search results
Searches for specific NFL teams will deliver direct answers that include YouTube videos of highlights from games in progress.
Is It Time For Google To Rank News Content Behind Paywalls Better?
If Hollywood's paid content can be shown without fear of upsetting searchers, why not news? But with more visibility, all access subscription may be needed.
Getting Better, But Google Still Has Work On Piracy: The Game Of Thrones Story
The search engine scores exceptionally well fighting piracy on generic searches for the popular TV series. But for the piracy-prone searches it's supposed to be targeting, there are failures.
Spanish Newspapers Want Government To Force Google To Keep News Open In Spain
A new effort by the Spanish Newspaper Publishers Association (AEDE) to prevent Google from shutting down its News site in Spain is an amazing example of industry chutzpah or hubris. The action shows so much chutzpah in fact that it enters the realm of unintentional political satire. First the background if you don’t already know […]
Google Partners With ESPN To Deliver 2014 World Cup Video Highlights
Google has partnered with ESPN to deliver video highlights for World Cup related searches. Those searching for World Cup information may see links to ESPN clips within special informational boxes that now show up at the top of Google’s search results, as Google shared today. For example, a search for World Cup brings up a […]
The Confusing World Of Sharing Songs From Google Music To Google+
Exciting! Now you can share full songs from Google Music with others on Google+, like no other service allows. That’s how I heard the pitch watching the Google Music event today. The reality is much different. Nice, but still disappointing in ways. Google Music Vs. Android Market Google Music is Google’s cloud-based music service. Until […]
Google Launches Streaming Movies & Music
As widely expected Google launched its Music beta today at the Google developer conference, I/O. Right now the service is US only and invitation only. Users can store 20,000 songs and the service is free (for the time being). By implication Google Music will become a paid-service at some point in the future. No Music […]
Why Wikileaks Will Never Be Closed Or Blocked
Last weekend, rather than read stories about the US diplomatic cables that Wikileaks has released, I decided to read them directly myself. In doing so, I better understood why no one — certainly not the US State Department — is going to shove those cables back into the darkness. Finding Wikileaks My first step was […]
Going Head-To-Head With Amazon, Google Launches eBooks
Google has rolled out its long awaited digital ebooks program, the next step in the company’s ambitious but controversial project to scan and make searchable the estimated 130 million books that exist in print versions. “The next logical iteration for us is to open up a bookstore,” said Scott Dougall, product management director for Google […]
French Newspapers Partner To Sidestep Google News
A group of six French newspapers is partnering to create an online news site that they hope will be an alternative to Google News. France’s National Daily Press Union announced the plan yesterday and said the virtual newsstand will be launched in September. According to the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper blog, the French […]
AP & Google Reach A Deal – Sort Of
Google and the Associated Press have reached an agreement allowing Google to continue using AP content. But whether this is a long-term agreement replacing the one that expired last month is unclear. And despite the agreement, AP stories won’t be hosted by Google News any time soon, it seems. Yahoo’s also struck a new deal […]
Why An Exclusive Wall Street Journal (or News Corp) Deal Wouldn’t Help Bing
With Rupert Murdoch talking about blocking Google, Jason Calacanis suggests that Murdoch should cut an exclusive deal with Bing. If that doesn’t kill Google, it might at least win Bing a 10% search share or more within 6 months, he argues. I suggest Jason needs a reality check. Here’s one for him. From his post […]
Online Music Videos Make A Comeback
I want my, I want my, I want my OMV (Online Music Video)… Yes, that’s right! Popular music videos are about to make a comeback, not on the original music TV station per se, but on the most popular online video web site, YouTube. With just a quick query search and a click of the […]
Sony & Google Team Up In Digital Book Space
Sony, Google Challenge Amazo from the Wall Street Journal reports that Google is providing more than half-a-million public domain books to Sony, to offer on Sony’s digital book reader. Google Book Search has digitized millions of books and the partnership gives Sony users free access to these 500,000 public domain books in the Sony eBook […]
Google Settles Book Search Copyright Lawsuit For $125 Million, Paves Way For Novel Services
Google has settled the class action litigation entitled The Authors Guild, Inc., et al. v. Google Inc., which alleged that Google Book Search, including the company’s practice of scanning books to distribute them online, violated the copyrights of publishers and authors. Subject to final court approval, the settlement calls for Google to pay $125 million […]
3,000+ Hours Of Olympic Video: Can Search Engine Users Find It?
During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, NBCOlympics.com is streaming 2,200 hours of exclusive live Olympic video, as well as over 3,000 hours of replays. This content is housed exclusively on the NBC site. Users can search NBCOlympics.com to watch their favorite highlights or catch something they may have missed. But can hungry Olympic video fans find […]
Google Video Redesigns & More Video Tips
Google Video has undergone yet another redesign. Both Google Blogoscoped and Google Operating System have detailed coverage with screen shots of the new design and how it compared to the old design. Tools For Your Video Career by Duncan at TechCrunch has an outstanding rundown on tools you can use to make your video producing, […]
TV Is Dead: Long Live Distributed Video
Almost since its mainstream introduction in the 1940s and 1950s, television has been the dominant mass medium. Today, television ad revenues in the US are estimated to be between $60 and $70 billion. But the internet, like cable TV and DVRs before it, is shaking up the industry and fundamentally changing consumer behavior. There are […]
Sony In Video Deal With Google & Viacom Deals With Five Competing Online Video Providers
Sony has announced a deal to provide Google’s YouTube five-minute clips of some of their most popular TV shows. Some of those shows include “Married With Children” and “Newsradio,” but they plan on adding more shows and even original content in the future. Viacom has agreed to provide videos for distribution on Dailymotion, GoFish, iMeem, […]
Report: Google Planning New Video Venture
The UK’s Guardian reports that Google is planning some sort of new TV/online video venture with Simon Fuller, the creator of the UK’s Pop Idol, the precursor of the US’s American Idol show.
Hotly Debated Video Destination Hulu Launches In Private Beta
TechCrunch and Techmeme offer lots of discussion and long posts about the NBC Universal and News Corporation joint video venture and challenge to YouTube: Hulu. The site is not yet open to the public but many of the videos it will be streaming can be seen today on distribution partner AOL. There are both full-length […]
Google Says It Goofed, Issuing Full Video Store Refunds
Last week we reported that the Google video store was closing as of August 15 — and causing people who had purchased videos to lose access to them. Google’s initial make-good offer didn’t cut it with consumers, and now the company is offering full refunds. When the news came out, Google gave a $5 Google […]
Google To Shut Down Video Store On August 15th
Google Is Closing Its Video Retailing Operation from the New York Times reports that Google will be closing down their video marketplace that they opened in January 2006. BoingBoing has an email that was sent to those who have made purchases at Google Video. Part of the email reads:
CBS To Distribute TV Shows Via MSN & AOL According To WSJ
CBS’s Web Reach to Grow from the Wall Street Journal reports that CBS is close to announcing a deal with MSN and AOL over distributing some of their TV shows and other video programming.
NBC & News Corp’s “OverTube” Not A YouTube-Killer — It Might Just Power Those
I’ve been traveling the past three days so am catching up on news — including that of the new supposed YouTube-killer being launched by NBC Universal & News Corp. But while the official release calls this a new "site" coming later this year, more reading makes it clear we’re talking about a video distribution network […]
Google To Provide Downloadable E-Books
Via Techmeme, Google plots e-books coup at the Times Online reports that Google is looking to make books more accessible to users. They hope to “allow readers to download entire books to their computers in a format that they could read on screen or on mobile devices such as a Blackberry.” Google’s director of Google […]
Intertainer Sues Google For Patent Infringement On Online Video & Audio Distribution
The NY Times reports that Google, Apple and Napster were all sued by Jonathan T. Taplin’s Intertainer for patent infringement of a 2005 patent. Intertainer’s patent covers commercial distribution of audio and video over the Internet. I believe this is the patent application filed on November 24, 2005, named “Digital entertainment service platform.” Google, Apple […]
YouTube’s Growth Worries Media Giants
YouTube brings out media giants’ competitive claws from the International Herald Tribune takes a look at how YouTube is threatening the large media companies, such as NBC, News Corp., Viacom and CBS. As YouTube continues to grow, especially with the $1.65 billion acquisition by Google, these media companies are now having second thoughts about distributing […]