AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Google
We’ve received numerous requests to improve our indexing of Adobe Flash files. Today, Ron Adler and Janis Stipins—software engineers on our indexing team—will provide us with more in-depth information about our recent announcement that we’ve greatly improved our ability to index Flash.
Q: Which Flash files can Google better index now?
We’ve improved our ability to index [...]

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BusinessWeek
Moving past the Yahoo saga, the software giant is buying semantic search engine Powerset as a way of closing the gap with Google
Still smarting from a failed attempt to buy Yahoo! (YHOO), Microsoft (MSFT) is trying another tactic to gain on Google (GOOG) in Web search.
Microsoft is buying Powerset, developer of what it hopes is [...]

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Best overview of Google’s strategy in the mobile space that I’ve read:
From WIRED
“Is this interesting to Google?” That’s what Andy Rubin was asking Larry Page. It was a spring day in 2005, and the two were in a conference room just off the main lobby at Google’s headquarters. A simple yes and Rubin would have [...]

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The New York Times
Google is experimenting with a new method of distributing original material on the Web, and some Hollywood film financiers are betting millions that the company will succeed.
In September, Seth MacFarlane, creator of “Family Guy” on television, will unveil a carefully guarded new project called “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy.” Unlike “Family [...]

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The Wall Street Journal
As soon as Tuesday, Google plans to unveil a new service that measures Internet use, according to advertising executives who have been briefed on it. The tool is intended to help advertisers identify the best places to buy online ads by telling them which Web sites their target audiences visit.
Google’s approach, aimed [...]

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Advertising Age
Navic Networks Available on 35 Million Set-Top Boxes
The Microsoft-Google war has moved from the web to the TV. Microsoft today announced it will buy Navic Networks, an addressable advertising technology provider that enables marketers to dynamically target and measure audiences based on patented technology available in 35 million set-top boxes nationwide.
Scott Ferris, general manager [...]

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Forbes
Google is turning YouTube into its own kind of data gold mine. So what if a few founding employees wind up in the dust?
Google drew sneers when it paid $1.65 billion for YouTube in November 2006. Only 63 people worked at this little video distributor in San Bruno, Calif. It had minimal revenue but more [...]

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The Los Angeles Times
The effort to make it easier for Web surfers to connect with their friends is attracting a crowd.
After similar moves by the two biggest online hangouts, Internet search leader Google Inc. is introducing tools that are supposed to make any website more sociable.
The service, expected to be available on a limited basis [...]

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The Wall Street Journal

Sprint, Comcast, Google, Time Warner and Intel Join Forces in New Broadband Joint Venture
The race to bring consumers ultrafast wireless Internet service is on.
An unlikely alliance of titans from the cable, Internet and chip industries have agreed to invest $3.2 billion in a company that will deliver Web access for cellphones and [...]

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Variety
Advanced cable boxes to yield customizable ads

Called the holy grail by some TV advertising executives, the age of so-called addressable TV marketing — which would allow dog food ads to be sent only to dog owners — has arrived.
This new paradigm will feature advanced set-top boxes — courtesy of the cable industry’s hush-hush Project Canoe [...]

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