Searching Inside Videos— (NYT) Blinxx combines speech-recognition technology with contextual patterns to search for internet video. CIQ: There are lots of entrants into this space, including Google. It’s good news for content makers, as effective search is one step towards monetizing content.

Publishers Come Out with Different Readers— (FT) Associated Newspapers, Forbes, and Hearst all say they are coming out with proprietary reader formats based on Windows. The New York Times already has one. The Windows-based formats are a challenge to Adobe. CIQ: Steve Jobs? Are you out there? Cool device needed. Also some leadership. MP3 devides were out for years before you did the iPod, but no one could get it right. The eReader space needs you.

Evolution of Video Ads— (Forbes.com) Pre-roll doesn’t work. But bottom-of-screen ad tickers and other wrap-around seem to. CIQ: Everything old is new again. Remember Juno and NetZero? There are probably other ideas (dismissed prematurely) that we can bring out of the closet and dust off for Web 2.0.

Picture this: You visit a site and are greeted with the following proposition…

Hello Visitor. This site is produced by legions of writers and editors who need to be paid for what they do. Therefore, we are going to offer you a choice. You can see the content for free, as long as you also accept advertising. Or, you can pay $29.95 a year and get the site ad free.

Oh, by the way, in order to make the advertising really work for us and you, we’d like to know what sort of ads you are interested in seeing.

I would love this. I will look at health and beauty ads all day long. In fact, we know women who buy women’s magazines are at least as interested in the gorgeous ads that promise a better life as they are in the content (that promises a better life). 

 WeatherBug used this strategy, and it didn’t really work. Why? Because they didn’t have enough advertisers involved. When I asked for my health-and-beauty ads, all I got was TrimSpa.

 Recently I had lunch with John Messina, a former legend at AOL, who is now with AWS, the company that owns WeatherBug. They are moving their ad-selection technology onto gaming sites. Where it seems to be a perfect fit. We would like to see this pick-you-ad technology on every publisher’s site as well.

NY Times Embraces Innovation — (FT) Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr recently said he did not know, or care, whether the NYT print version would be around in 5 years. And a whole team of new people at the NYT have been hired to confront the digital future. One main focus is the Times Reader. CIQ: Evidence that one solution for print will be the advent of eReading devices.

Microsoft Fined $1.52 Billion in MP3 Patent Case — (NYT) The jury decided in favor of Alcatel-Lucent, one of whose forebearers is Bell Labs. Bell Labs was involved in the initial development of the MP3 format and owns the patent. MS uses Windows Media player to play MP3s and only pays royalties to a German company with rights to some, but evidently not all, of the technologies involved in MP3. CIQ: Watch out Apple.

Fox Buys Ad Measurment Company–(Media Post) By buying Strategic Data Corp, Fox hopes to be able to finely target advertising to users on its community site My Space. CIQ: Great move. We would also like to see users choose their advertisers.

Measuring Outdoor–(NYT) The Traffic Audit Bureau is developing better ways to measure outdoor advertising, which cannot be Tivo-zapped or avoided. According to Jon Mandel, chief executive at the NielsenConnect unit of the Nielsen Company in New York“There’s a little something called the Internet, something that all other media are trying to get as accountable as.” CIQ: The article predicts the growth of outdoor once there are better metrics. This, we predict, will be a boon to online, which has been compared to outdoor since inception.

IBM Tells Media Companies: Loosen Grip on Content— (Media Post) The report from IBM’s media consulting arm advises media companies to allow their content to be used creatively in mash-ups and overdubs. It also recommends developing new content for the digital medium rather than serving old wine in new bottles. CIQ: Right on target.

Pay Model to Eclipse Ad-Supported Video Downloads–(Financial Times) According to Adams Media Research consumers will spend approximately $4.1bn a year on films and television programmes – a significant increase on the $111m spent in 2006. Providers using ad-supported distribution, on the other hand, will likely see revenues of only $1.7bn annually, compared with $409m last year. CIQ: This makes sense, once I can search TV like the Internet for the content I want and download it immediately. A missed point: what about new content forms invented just for online?

Private Equity, Not Ad Firms, Invest in iShops–(WSJ) AKQA and Digitas are the latest examples of internet ad shops receiving large infusions of VC money. The big ad holding companies are slower to invest. CIQ: Ad agencies may share the same fate as print media if they do not invest in the digital future.

So Much Video, So Little Money–(Ad Age) Websites are chock full of streaming video content. But the biz is still in search of an ad model. CIQ: This space needs more organization, editorial input, and directorship. Once there is a content framework instead of a free-for-all an ad model will be easier to see.

UCG for the Rolex Set: Google Docs–(Information Week) It’s a little-known Google site where you can upload and collaborate on documents and spreadsheets. For instance, using this free site, several people can collaborate on a business plan, book, classroom project. The audience? Half a million people. A third of them earn $100K plus. Three-quarters earn $50K plus. CIQ: Here is the basis for an ad model.