More deal rumours…

Google has just acquired JotSpot. Look out for Google Wiki.

Steve Rubel lays out the pros and cons of allowing bloggers to blog live from conferences. I have to say I’m with him – blogged conferences are much, much more interesting, lively, interactive etc etc etc.

Rumours are flying that Digg is in talks to sell out to a search giant. The Web 2.0 feeding frenzy continues…

An  internal paper which sets out Google’s goals as a business has been seen by Google Blogoscoped and the highlights drawn out.

Google is getting worried about the inappropriate use of its brand name.

The Daily Express has decided to outsource its business section the Press Association. This is part of a campaign to cut 60 jobs, reports the Guardian.

Mark Cuban posts an interesting account of what supposedly went on behind the scenes in the YouTube and Google deal.

There are signs that Google is developing its advertising model, according to John Battelle.

He quotes from Read/Write Web that this possible reconfiguration of the advertising model by Google is similar to what Microsoft and IBM have already done:

One interesting sub-plot here is that Google needs more “inventory” to sell the different flavors of advertising. Jeff mentions adsense for podcasting in his post – and that is certain to be one way Google will increase their inventory. Also this puts the likes of Feedburner, Meebo, edgeio and Commission Junction squarely in Google’s sights as potential acquisitions. All of those ‘web 2.0’ startups have no shortage of inventory!
In terms of Google’s overall goals, as summarised at Google Blogoscoped, this rumored re-org falls under the “push their ad system” category. It really makes sense for Google and shows not only that they are innovating in technology – but maturing and expanding as a media/advertising entity. The benefit for Google’s customers is that it enables them to target certain leads across different types of media. They can do that from one ‘console’ and they will work with 1 Google salesperson/account manager on their account.

Jeff Jarvis reports that US newspapers have enjoyed a surge in traffic.

Quoting the Newspaper Association he says:

On average, over 56.9 million people visited newspaper sites each month in Q3 2006, up almost 24 percent since Q3 2005. . . . The group earlier this month reported unique visitors to newspaper sites rose 31 percent during the first half of 2006 over the same period in ‘05. Unique visitors to paper sites averaged more than 55.5 million per month during the first six months of ‘06, up almost a third from the 42.4 million during the first half of last year. Newspaper sites generated 2.7 billion pageviews in the third quarter, and visitors spent more than 41.5 minutes each month on the sites, according to the report. During that period last year, visitors viewed around 1.9 billion paper pages, spending 40.4 minutes on the sites on average monthly.

But, he says, this is not good news.

I think this further feeds the idea that newspapers are in “free fall,” as The Times said last week: The rush online is getting faster and faster and if media execs and ad execs don’t catch up, they will be left behind… sooner than they think.

I call out ad execs for a reason: They are holding back the progress in media.

Unless they get their act together, he argues, they will lose the market. There’s a lesson here for all of us, I suspect.