Digital Media

Texas college freshman "Kiki"--she asked CBS News not to use her real name--hopes to become an online star with her "How to Cheat on a Test" video.

"This method of cheating, it will work," she says in her online video.

She told CBS News science and technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg, "Um, like, I didn't know it was going to be kind of controversial."

There are more than 3,000 "how to cheat" videos on YouTube alone. Some are silly, using elastic bands. Others get creative with clothing. The most sophisticated turn soda bottle wrappers into detailed cheat sheets.

"It's a 21st-century form of showing your friends how cool you are," said John Palfrey, the author of a book about the digital generation.

There are worse videos online--showing drug use and fighting--but these cheat videos encourage bad behavior in otherwise good kids.

"I don't think I have any regrets. It's just, like, I posted that video for fun, you know, I was really bored one day and wanted to post it out of amusement," Kiki said.

"James," a ninth-grader from New Jersey, posted a series of cheat videos. He makes no apologies, but he doesn't want to be identified, either.

"Do you worry that anything you're doing is wrong or going to have some consequences later?" Sieberg asked him.

"I think it might, if people figure out this is me," he said. "But if they don't, I think it's fine."

Policing YouTube is virtually impossible. Thirteen hours of video are posted every minute. Guidelines ask for "no bad stuff," and if there are enough complaints, the video could be taken down.

But YouTube itself doesn't screen for immoral or illegal behaviors, making it easy for adolescents to indulge their worst impulses.

"Young people are going to wake up some years later and say, 'Gosh, I wish when someone Googled my name they didn't see that.' And it will be sort of like a tattoo on their arm, something they want to remove but will be very, very hard to get rid of," Palfrey said.

And is James afraid of getting caught?

"No. I don't think that's ever going to happen," he said.

James has had second-thoughts and has taken his videos down, perhaps worried about consequences down the road.

"I actually want to become a lawyer," he said.

He may want to brush up on his ethics first.

Courtney Holt, an MTV executive, will be named as president of MySpace Music, possibly as early as Monday, according to a source close to the company.

MySpace Music is the digital music service formed by News Corp. and the four largest recording companies. Some observers say that MySpace, with a well-established history of offering music, could emerge as a competitor to Apple's iTunes.

CNET News first reported that Holt was offered the job last month. He has long been a fixture at the intersection of digital technology and music. Currently, he is MTV Networks' executive vice president of digital music and media. Previously, he was senior vice president of New Media & Strategic Marketing at Interscope Geffen, and before that he was head of New Media at A&M Records.

Holt could not be reached Friday evening. MySpace declined to comment.

Launched in September, the service features downloads of MP3s and ad-supported streaming music. What was missing was a CEO. As the search for a chief dragged on and candidate names came and went, observers began asking whether anyone wanted to steer this ship.

MySpace Music is also expected to announce a new ticket and merchandising initiative, the source said.

Om Malik, founder of GigaOm.

(Credit: GigaOm)

Om Malik, the head of the Giga Omni Media group of tech blogs, said on Friday he is moving his ad business from John Battelle's Federated Media to a new advertising network IDG launched in March.

The companies, which have partnered for three years (and weathered differences of opinion involving a scandal over "conversational marketing" in which the writing of Malik, Battelle, and other bloggers was featured in ads for Microsoft), are splitting amicably. They are characterizing the move as them having grown in different directions, according to Malik and Federated Media Publisher Chas Edwards.

Giga Omni Media's seven Web sites are small vertical sites, which are more suited for a company with a trade publishing background like IDG, Edwards said in an interview.

Meanwhile, "the Federated Media approach is the Conde Nast or Time Inc. approach, (working with) larger brands, fewer of them, and national and global advertisers," he said. "Our model has not been well-suited to take those smaller sites where they wanted to go.

"I think it's actually a wonderful move for Om and, frankly, for Federated Media," Edwards added.

In a blog posting, Malik explained the situation like this:

"Progress is often accompanied by a divergence of ideas and ambitions within partnerships. At Giga Omni Media, we have been developing a network that revolves around niche verticals. As our needs became more specialized, we sat down with the folks at Federated to try and figure out how we could continue to work together. But both sides quickly realized that instead it was time to wrap up what has been a successful business relationship."

The situation is completely different from the circumstances that led to news aggregator Digg to switch from Federated Media to Microsoft for its advertising last year. While Microsoft serves up the contextual and display ads on Digg, Federated Media handles the sponsorships, including some banner ads, Edwards said.

Political site The Huffington Post has reportedly received a $15 million third round of funding, according to the Times UK.

That funding round brings The Huffington Post up to $40 million in raised capital, giving it an estimated valuation of $100 million, says a report in PaidContent.org

The Huffington Post anticipates using the proceeds to help fund its expansion, which will include offering local news and investigative journalism, according to the Times UK site.

Oak Investment Partners participated in this latest round. In previous rounds, SoftBank Capital and Greycroft Partners have provided investments.

Yahoo has sold its European comparison-shopping site Kelkoo to private-equity investors, according to a TechCrunch report.

Yahoo, which acquired Kelkoo for approximately 475 million euros ($579 million) four years ago, reportedly sold its wholly owned subsidiary for less than 100 million euros to U.K. private-equity firm Jamplant this holiday shopping season.

In a copy of an e-mail obtained by TechCrunch, Glen Drury, Kelkoo's managing director for the United Kingdom, had this to say about the organization's sale and rumors about its future. The "Toby" he mentions is apparently Toby Coppel, who heads up Europe for Yahoo, and "Laila," who co-signed the letter, is apparently Kelkoo's Laila Dahlen:

It has been since summer since I gave you update e-mail. I have waited because there are so many things nearing launch that I thought it best to wait till they had happened to give the update.

Firstly, I would like to end the speculation from the last few months about the future of Kelkoo. Both Toby and I have announced that we were exploring strategic options for the business. One of the options that Laila and I were exploring, in fact pushing for, was to find it a new home for Kelkoo. I am pleased to announce, today, that we have done just that!

The new owners of Kelkoo are a U.K.-based private-equity company called Jamplant, funded by several angel investors, and in their own words: "Jamplant Limited is very excited about the price comparison space, and being able to help Kelkoo continue its rapid growth.

Philip Smyth, chairman of Jamplant, believes that with our backing, Kelkoo should be able to accelerate its growth much faster as a standalone company. We are looking forward to working with the highly experienced and established management team at Kelkoo."

Laila and I are also very excited about this new phase in the history of Kelkoo, accelerating the growth strategies we have put in place over the last year, and exploring new opportunities for all of us.

Remember that little old BlackBerry app for MySpace that premiered last week? Apparently it struck a chord with users because RIM reported just after midnight on Friday (EST), that it hosted more downloads for the product's first week than it has for any other app.

While 400,000 downloads in one week for the BlackBerry-compatible MySpace software is a drop in the bucket compared to Firefox 3's 1 million downloads in 24 hours, it did beat out the initial release of RIM's Facebook app.

RIM did not reply with comparative numbers.

In a statement, RIM's co-CEO Jim Balsillie regards the download count as a proof of "an evolving consumer lifestyle where social connectivity and information access are more important than ever." Yet, the spike could as easily correspond to a more concerted marketing push, to a growing adoption of BlackBerry phones among consumers versus business users, or to first-time BlackBerry owners responding to the sexier looks of the Bold and Storm.

Either way, RIM has a lot of work to do if it wants to join Mozilla in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Updated at 6 p.m. PST: Adds comment from Michael Seibel, CEO of Justin.tv.

A 19-year-old man has committed suicide while broadcasting himself on Justin.tv, according to a report at NewTeeVee.

The teenager took an overdose of pills while on camera and was apparently encouraged to do so by commentators on Justin.tv and a bodybuilding site, according to the report.

Justin.tv enables users to broadcast video live to the Internet. NewTeeVee said it confirmed the man's death with the Broward County medical examiner's office, which is near Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. This will undoubtedly raise questions about the power of Web video and whether its voyeuristic nature can go too far.

The young man apparently posted threats of killing himself to Web message boards in the past, according to numerous online reports. Because of this many of those who watched the man's suicide were skeptical that it was a legitimate suicide attempt and began mocking him.

Some viewers did take him seriously and contacted the Broward County Sheriff's Department. It appears that deputies broke into the man's room and discovered his body.

In response to the tragedy, Michael Seibel, CEO of Justin.tv, issued this statement to CNET News:

"We regret that this has occurred and respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time. We have policies in place to discourage the distribution of distressing content and our community monitors the site accordingly. This content was flagged by our community, reviewed, and removed according to our Terms of Service."

The San Francisco Bay Area is a region already well known for its fabulous food, innovative technology, and breathtaking beauty. In the coming years, we could add one more thing to the list: electric vehicles.

On Thursday, the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose held a press conference at San Francisco's city hall to announce their ambitious goal of turning the Bay Area into the electric vehicle capital of the country. Here are details of the nine-point plan that will launch in December, as released by the San Francisco Mayor's office:

• Expedited permitting and installation of electric vehicle charging outlets at homes, businesses, parking lots, and other buildings throughout the Bay Area;

• Incentives for employers to install EV charging systems in their workplaces and provide similar incentives to parking facilities and other locations where EV charging stations can be installed;

• Harmonize local regulations and standards across the region that govern EV infrastructure to achieve regulatory consistency for EV companies as well as expanded range for EV consumers;

• Establish common government programs that promote the purchase of EVs;

• Link EV programs and infrastructure to regional transit and air quality programs;

• Establish programs for aggressive pooled-purchase orders for EVs in municipal, state government, and private sector fleets, and future commitment of purchasing preference for EV vehicles;

• Expedited permitting and approval for facilities that provide extended-range driving capability for EVs in the region through battery exchange locations or fast-charging;

• Identify and secure suitable standard (110V) electric outlets for charging low-voltage EVs in every government building in 2009;

• Identify roll-out plan for placement of 220V EV-charging equipment throughout each city including city parking lots and curbside parking.

Yahoo closed at $8.95 a share, down 2 percent, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average cratered 444.99 points to close at 7,552.29.

For Yahoo, its shares have not traded at this point since February 2003, while the S&P 500, which fell 6.71 percent to 752.44, has not seen these levels since 2002.

The markets reacted late in the session as signs pointed to a delay in moving a massive bailout for the automotive industry forward.

Last week, Yahoo's shares moved in the $9 a share range and the day before that the $10 a share range.

The growing economic slump doesn't appear to have fully struck Web advertising.

Internet advertising revenues for the third quarter were nearly $5.9 billion, representing an 11 percent increase over the same period last year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

The bad news is online advertising appears to be slowing down. The third quarter in 2008 was up only two percent from the second quarter. For the first three quarters of the year, however, ad revenues totaled $17.3 billion, up from $15.2 billion for the first three quarters of 2007. The IAB said the $5.9 billion quarterly results were the second best ever.

Meanwhile, ComScore issued an ad-focus ranking for October. Platform A, AOL's ad platform reached 173 million Americans or 91 percent of the 190.6 million American's online. The Yahoo Network came in second by reaching 164 million people and was followed by Google's Ad Network with 158 million.