Devoted to online marketing, viral marketing, and web marketing

Admitting that he knew the pornography he sent and received over the Internet involved minors, former San Francisco radio talk show host Bernie Ward pleaded guilty today to one count of distributing child pornography.

Ward admitted, "I engaged in exchanging an image of a minor engaging in sexually explicit activity."

His lawyer asked U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker to "defer the acceptance of the plea until the issue of whether Ward will be required to be imprisoned immediately is answered. That question won't be answered until the sentencing hearing on August 28."

A report on one of the most visited independent news sites on the Web, World Net Daily, revealed the increasing amount of porn on the popular Wikipedia Web site, which is highly visited by children.

One Wikipedia representative, Mark Pelligrini, responded to the story saying, "Wikipedia's goal is to provide an encyclopedia that contains the sum of all human knowledge. To that end, Wikipedia does not censor objectionable material.

"[I]f someone goes to the articles on 'sex,' 'penis' or any graphic topic, we do provide frank descriptions and images. For images, we aim for clinical pictures of the sort you would find in an anatomy or medical textbook."

Pelligrini needs to look at the Web site he says aims for "clinical pictures" before he makes these assertions. There's a lot of filth and rot on the site that is nothing other than hard-core porn.

A number of Yahoo (Nasdaq:YHOO) shareholders (as expected) are so angry with how CEO Jerry Yang and the board of directors handled the offer from Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), they're working stridently behind the scenes to get support to get rid of Jerry Yang and the board of directors in a proxy fight. Their purpose is to bring Microsoft back to the bargaining table.

Much of the action was taken by several huge Yahoo shareholders, who contact Microsoft and independent members of Yahoo's board in order to reconsider the offer.

Larry Haverty, portfolio manager with Gamco Investors Inc., which owns shares in both companies, said putting an opposing board in place would get "'overwhelming' support from shareholders."

"If Jerry's smart, he will reopen negotiations," Haverty said. "He is fighting a losing battle."

While Bill Gates talked about the second ten years of the Internet being completely different than the first ten to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, he didn't offer up any specifics as to what he had in mind.

He did say that at the July shareholders' meeting for Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), he will "really go through and explain why the work by Microsoft research makes us feel that in that online area where we're going to do some breakthrough work."

Concerning Steve Ballmer's role in the attempted acquisition of Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) and other Internet initiatives, Gates said Ballmer is the one who is making, or will continue to make, the major decisions in these areas.

South Korean Deals

A survey from Accenture (NYSE:ACN) called "2008 Global Media Content Survey," found that 52 percent of executives in the media industry from Brazil, North America and Europe, say content supported by advertising will continue to lead the way over the next five years.

They added that digital advertising will surpass traditional advertising during that same time period.

For advertising-based models, when asked to project out where things will be in five years, percentages went up to 62 percent of respondents believing that's where things will end up.

Other models like subscriptions and pay-per-play services didn't fare as well, with 25 percent saying subscriptions would lead the way, and only 11 percent saying pay-per-play would.

After adding $5 billion to their original offer for Yahoo (Nasdaq:YHOO), Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) decided to drop its bid for the company, not willing to increase the offer. The final bid valued Yahoo at $47.5 billion: $33 a share. The first offer was for $31 billion.

Yahoo and co-founder CEO Jerry Yang were delusional in their assertion the company was worth $40 a share; the amount they said they would only do the deal with. Even the $37 a share they probably would have accepted is far more than the company is or will be worth anytime soon.

The rejection of the Microsoft offer by not accepting a value that is more than the company is worth, will end up with a flurry of lawsuits Monday, which will have a strong chance of succeeding. The legal responsibility of the management and board of a publicly held company is to its shareholders first.

The racing of the 134th Kentucky Derby today, where the post time is 6:04 PM EST, is a great look at a product branded and marketed in a highly efficient and successful way.

It takes in numerous variables, which when added together, make it such a successful event and brand.

What's amazing about it to me, is the race isn't the real event, it's the experience of the entire process and involvement for those participating as fans that is so valuable.

Now that doesn't mean the race is parenthetical, just that the race alone could never be what makes this an event - and so popular.

Regressive and oppressive Web sites like Moveon.org, Daily Kos and the Huffington post may be in danger of extinction, as the actions of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Howard Dean in appearing on the Fox News Channel, reveals they don't consider these characters as adding any value to their campaigns or the Democratic Party.

While these Web sites are scrambling after the declaration they are irrelevant, their assertion that they are the Democratic Party base is evidently something they stroke each other's egos with, but in reality their hate-filled rants have pretty much been their own undoing.

They are now the ones who are marginalized, as Democrats realize hearing both sides of a story and issue are important and valuable to Americans. People also tired of the hate spewed from the keyboards of these ranters, and want to hear how someone really stands on issues.

The MySpaceTV unit of News Corp. (NYSE:NWS-A) is drawing upon its network experience to produce shows that advertisers will feel comfortable placing their products beside.

It's something for online marketers who have the desire to build an online video business to keep in mind.

While there will always be the jackass stuff to appeal to an engaged, but limited audience, it's those who produce the type of entertainment advertisers feel comfortable with that will flourish on the Web.

In the case of MySpaceTV, their challenge is to keep their younger viewers coming to the site, yet at the same time develop content suitable for advertiser needs.

The idea that monetizing online video is so hard to figure out baffles me; it's not that difficult.

Probably the major reason it seems so difficult is the continuing mindset by some on developing or creating a mass audience on the Web; something that's not going to happen. Even social networking sites really aren't mass audiences, they're simply a bunch of individuals using the services to interact with a smaller group of people.

It's an illusion when the large numbers of people using these services are thrown about. It makes it look like a mass audience, when it's far from it.

Anyway, monetizing online video will definitely be bigger when we think smaller.