online ads

Hulu's days as a free online video site could be ending soon.

Comedy Central's decision to yank two of the most popular shows on Hulu -- "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" -- in a dispute over splitting ad revenue is the latest blow to the entertainment industry's attempts to make money off ads that run with free video.

Yet Hulu's most viable alternative -- charging for access to some videos -- could turn off viewers and crimp the site's explosive growth. Ultimately, the remedy to Hulu's current troubles could leave the site even worse off, a poor shadow of its former self.

The world is finally waking up to the full implications of Google's business, and they're not all pretty.

Leading the rebellion is News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, who is threatening to keep his newspaper content beyond the reach of Google searches. Murdoch wants to keep Google from reaping so many of the financial benefits of advertising placed adjacent to News Corp. content. He's being aided and abetted by Microsoft.

The free video site Hulu.com, which has been helping to change TV-watching habits, could undergo a change. On Wednesday, an executive with one of Hulu's parent companies suggested the popular video site could start charging for content next year.

Chase Carey, president and COO of News Corp., told the Broadcasting & Cable OnScreen Summit in New York City that the value of the content presented by Hulu isn't being served by a free-only model, and he hopes that it will evolve into a subscription model.

No Decision Yet

With their advertising revenue drying up, newspaper publishers spent much of the spring and summer debating whether to cut off free online access to some of the material they run in their shrinking print editions.

It looks like the talk will turn to action this fall, when some large newspapers are expected to put up Internet toll booths.

On Facebook, most people make friends the old-fashioned way -- by sending a request to be added to someone's posse of pals. Now, an Australian marketing company hopes to save you time and energy by simply buying you a few thousand buddies.

The service from uSocial is mostly meant for businesses, celebrities and other individuals looking to expand on the social network, and Facebook isn't happy about it.

Over the past three decades, a few titanic rivalries have defined the technology industry's megatrends, ultimately determining which products eventually end up in consumers' and companies' hands.

Now, adding to the annals of competition that include Microsoft's clashes with Apple in the '80s, IBM in the '90s, and Google in this decade, the new defining rivalry in tech may be between Google and Apple. Google CEO Eric Schmidt's resignation from Apple's board on Aug. 3 highlights the degree to which these companies are more foe than friend.

Coming soon to your TV: More advertising, in places you might not expect.

The ads are showing up where people used to enjoy a break from advertising, such as video on demand and on-screen channel guides. Even TiVo, which became popular for its technology that lets people skip TV commercials, is developing new ways to show ads.

The impetus to regulate online marketing may be gathering steam. On June 18 a House of Representatives subcommittee held a hearing to take a closer look at how advertisers gather and use information on consumers' Web-surfing habits.

Microsoft has acted to stop what it says is an illegal family advertising scheme. The software giant filed suit in U.S. District Court for Western Washington against three Canadian family members, accusing the trio of massive click fraud.

Click fraud is committed when a person, computer program, or automated script imitates a Web surfer by clicking on an online ad to get a fraudulent "charge per click" without any interest in the ad's link, according to Tim Cranton, Microsoft's associate general counsel for Microsoft Internet Safety Enforcement.

Microsoft has acted to stop what it says is an illegal family advertising scheme. The software giant filed suit in U.S. District Court for Western Washington against three Canadian family members, accusing the trio of massive click fraud.

Click fraud is committed when a person, computer program, or automated script imitates a Web surfer by clicking on an online ad to get a fraudulent "charge per click" without any interest in the ad's link, according to Tim Cranston, Microsoft's associate general counsel for Microsoft Internet Safety Enforcement.