Paige Albiniak

Weekly DigVid Review
June 5, 2008

For this week, I'm renaming this feature the Weekly DigVid Review because I had a really hard time getting to the blog. If you check out this Monday’s edition of B&C, you will see why. Lots of stories on lots of diverse topics.

On to the news of the day … er … week:

Obviously history was made on Tuesday when Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) became the presumptive Democratic nominee and the first African American to lead a major party. It’s pretty clear that a big part of Obama’s hard-fought victory can be attributed to his campaign team’s very savvy use of technology – everything from launching a MySpace page way back when, keeping in constant touch with supporters through email, and building a strong fundraising network on the Web. Now we wait and watch to see how Obama handles all this in the general election and whether Sen. John McCain can figure out a way to match those efforts. AllThingsD has helpfully gathered a collection of Obama’s greatest Internet video hits, which you can watch here.

Carl Icahn, I’m so bored of you already. While I was off writing my head off earlier this week, Icahn was publicly and loudly complaining that Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang should be canned. Then Icahn complained about $2.4 billion in severance packages that Yahoo! put into place for its employees, saying they were yet another hindrance to a deal with Microsoft, which may in fact be like one of my girlfriends constantly trying to get back together with some guy who is already dating someone else. Stop! Think of your pride already! Anyway, Yahoo! shot back, with Roy Bostock, Yahoo!’s Chairman of the Board, writing: "Indeed, your stated view that 'the only way to salvage Yahoo! in the long if not short run is to merge with Microsoft' demonstrates that you have no other plan and causes one to wonder what exactly would happen to our Company if you and your nominees were to take control of Yahoo!.” Of course, Bostock is likely one of the nine board members Icahn is trying to oust, so that relationship has to be a bit rocky right about now. That Aug. 1 shareholder meeting is going to be something to behold.

Revision3 – the company that owns Digg.com and calls itself “the television network for the Internet generation” – has picked up Web show Epic Fu. The show is hosted by Rachael Ray/Rosie Perez lookalike Zadi Diaz and covers the Web’s “coolest tech, art and music.” Check out new episodes of Epic Fu on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Epic Fu joins Revision3’s other Internet TV shows: DiggNation, PopSiren, The Digg Reel, The GigaOm Show and many others. For the most part, Revision3’s shows feature regular-type people talking about what’s happening on the Web today in a patter the Revision3 folks apparently think is cool or cutting edge or something. I mostly find these shows annoying – kind of like eavesdropping on teenagers in the supermarket – but I’m pretty sure I’m way out of the demo.

CBS still refuses to come on board NBC and Fox’s Hulu.com, but on Wednesday it did announce a video-sharing deal with Yahoo! TV. Besides Yahoo! and CBS.com, CBS’ online content also can be found on YouTube, AOL, MSN, Joost, Veoh and Bebo. You’ll never have to miss CSI again.

Cox-owned Travel Channel on Wednesday launched a new high-definition video-on-demand service, offering such shows as Anthony Bourdain No Reservations, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern and Samantha Brown’s Passport Series. TVN Entertainment will be the service’s distributor. I personally will not be watching Mr. Zimmern eat monkey brains in HD, by the way.

Finally, I ask, and I receive. MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann revamped its Website. And not a moment too soon -- that site was previously a throwback to 1996. Of course, Countdown proudly displays its Bill O’Reilly rant remix on the site. I wonder if Keith (or The Daily Show/Colbert for that matter) will ever really get over that gift that keeps on giving.

Posted by Paige Albiniak on June 5, 2008 | Comments (0)