Microsoft to open European search technology center

[m]any have argued that online video will satisfy the world’s advertisers in ways that traditional television never could. With online video, the pundits proclaim, channels are infinite, and you can choose whatever you like whenever you want it. That means advertisers know exactly what you’re interested in – and they can serve you the perfect ad.  But at the moment, this is little more than a pipe dream. So says YouTube.  Supernova2008, a business-centric tech conference that kicked off this afternoon within shouting distance of San Francisco Bay, YouTube’s Jordan Hoffner pointed out that many of today’s advertisers aren’t all that interested in the so-called fragmented audience.  ‘The one thing that’s not there with the fragmentation of media is a large audience,’ said Hoffner, YouTube’s head of content partnerships.  ‘We’ve seen that because of the increased fragmentation of audiences, brand advertisers that we deal with – Coca-Cola, Proctor and Gamble, General Motors – feel like they’re missing something. They want to know how you reach a large number of people with a small amount of money.’”

The International Herald Tribune writes that “[t]he onslaught of cellphone calls, e-mail and instant messages is fracturing attention spans and hurting productivity. It is a common complaint. But now the very companies that helped create the flood are trying to mop it up.  Some of the biggest technology companies, including Microsoft, Intel, Google and International Business Machines, are banding together to fight information overload.  Last week they formed a nonprofit group to study the problem, publicize it and devise ways to help workers – theirs and others – cope with the digital deluge.  Their effort comes as there is mounting statistical and anecdotal evidence that the same technology tools that have led to improvements in productivity can be counterproductive if overused.

In a different article, the International Herald Tribune reveals that “[t]he Associated Press, one of the largest news organizations in the United States, said that it would, for the first time, attempt to define clear standards for how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites could excerpt without infringing on The AP’s copyright.  The effort to impose some guidelines on the freewheeling blogosphere, where extensive quoting and even copying of entire news articles is common, may offer a prominent definition of the important but vague doctrine of ‘fair use,’ which holds that copyright owners cannot ban others from using small bits of their works under some circumstances. For example, a book reviewer is allowed to quote passages from a work without permission from the publisher.

According to Internetnews.com, “[d]issident Yahoo investor Eric Jackson on Monday urged fellow shareholders to vote for a board comprising five existing directors and four nominees from billionaire investor Carl Icahn’s slate.  Jackson, who leads a group of 146 investors holding 3.2 million Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) shares, said that while he supported Icahn fully, he recognized that major shareholders may not. So he proposed a "third option" to create a new board that is more responsive to shareholders’ concerns.  Icahn, who owns more than 4 percent of Yahoo, launched a proxy battle in May to replace the Web pioneer’s board in the wake of Microsoft’s failed effort to acquire the company.  ‘Neither side running for election can guarantee that Microsoft will ever come back to the table with an offer for Yahoo,’ Jackson said in a statement.  ‘We must accept that reality and select a board to do the best job in the current situation, even as distasteful as the situation is.’”