In a genius pairing of subject and artist, here is the best online viral video this week from Conan O’Brien’s “Tonight Show,” featuring actor William Shatner reciting outgoing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s recent farewell speech verbatim.
You simply can’t make this stuff up.
For all the noisy hubbub over should-we-or-shouldn’t-we-publish confidential documents hacked from password-protected accounts of Twitter employees, as well as a Twitter spouse, it is actually pretty simple.
Stolen equals stolen.
But, because this is a “hot” issue and it concerns an even hotter Web 2.0 company–Holy traffic-gooser, Batman!–the debate will surely go on and on, even as the stolen information inevitably leaks its way out.
Still, let’s not pretend what it is and is not.
Where is Microsoft spending its $100 million in marketing for its new Bing search service?
Here’s a photo that was forwarded to me showing an advertisement on top of a taxi in Manhattan of a goodbye message from Bing, as well as NBC, to the late pop legend, Michael Jackson.
Even if it never makes any money, Twitter certainly does provide fabulous material for television spoofs.
So far, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have done several funny bits on Comedy Central, deftly mocking the microblogging service.
And now, Conan O’Brien is doubling down with two skits so far dubbed “Twitter TRACKER” on “The Tonight Show.”
In them, a loudmouthed voice delivers pointless celebrity tweets as a flock of blue cartoon Twitter birdies is murdered in various ingenious ways.
Just after he got the job 10 days ago, BoomTown got the chance to chitty-chat a bit with Scott Moore, the former Yahoo media chief, who is returning to Microsoft, where he will lead its online content efforts for the U.S for its MSN online service.
Apparently, you can go home again!
It’s a touché tale because it feels like Moore was pretty much rehired by MSN exec Greg Nelson (also in on the conversation with Moore) to give Yahoo a wallop where it really will hurt–its powerful content business, one of Yahoo’s only bright spots.
Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor Sarah Palin did a very smooth–if sweetly awkward–job in her appearance on “Saturday Night Live” last night.
It was a good decision to go low key and also do a bit of stunt casting by bringing in Mark Wahlberg, who was mocked in an impersonation last week by SNL, and also Alec Baldwin. Palin also appeared later, rocking out to a very funny rap.
Sometimes politics can be really ugly and sometimes silly–this time Palin managed to poke fun at herself without being either.
Well, here’s a good reason not to write off Joost quite yet:
When it officially debuts its new Web-based service in mid-October, the London-based company will have some pretty hot content with its half-dozen seasons of the former NBC hit, “Friends.”
Also, there will finally be no more irksome plug-ins.
There will also be cooler social-networking elements.
While all this is not going to make up for the lost time the online video service has wasted with its annoying P2P-based desktop client download, going to a Web-based, all-Flash service with more robust content is certainly the right way to stop rival service Hulu from continuing to clean Joost’s clock.
BoomTown has decided to reinstate our practice of showcasing excellent online videos that we started posting during the writers’ strike.
Our premise has been simple: That online video in both short and long form is the future and its development is important to pay attention to.
As a huge fan of the now-defunct “The West Wing” television [...]
5. Because his World Wide Pants production company took only two weeks to bang out a separate agreement with writers to go back to work at his “Late Show” on CBS from their strike after saying they would try to make a deal.
4. Because he will get the best guests now, because actors would rather [...]
Why does the idea of a marriage between Hollywood writers and VCs make me slightly queasy?
But that’s just the feeling I got when I read the always sharp Joseph Menn of the Los Angeles Times, who penned an interesting piece earlier this week about writers in Hollywood turning to venture capitalists as the strike drags [...]
Doug Morris is still a very, very grumpy man about the digital arena.
We did not think it could get worse than NBC honcho Jeff Zucker (pictured here), who demanded a vig for every iPod sold because “Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content and made a lot of [...]
In my post–OK, diatribe–yesterday about Facebook and the dangers of it getting so much of the wrong kind of media attention, I neglected to also mention an interview its ubiquitous founder, Mark Zuckerberg, did with the “Today” show’s Meredith Vieira in mid-June.
Since NBC will not let me embed it and it has not hurtled over [...]
So yesterday in a very short post, I said the $1 billion valuation that NBC Universal and News Corp. were reportedly putting on its online video joint venture was, shall we say, premature.
Here’s why: No users, no track record and no revelations about what it is actually going to look like. Also no firm launch [...]
In this post on his NewTeeVee site, Om Malik said organizers of the still-in-the-planning-stages joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp. are making the rounds, trying to raise $100 million for the online video service designed to counter the growing power of YouTube.
That puts the valuation of the still-unnamed project at $1 billion.
Is it [...]
It’s probably no surprise that Joost nabbed a giant $45 million in funding yesterday, given it has positioned itself as Hollywood’s best hope for resurgence on the Web.
Now, I wonder, what the much-touted online video service–launched in beta last week–is going to do with that cash? Heavy-duty marketing, for sure, along with (I hope) [...]
Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
Don't miss a post! Sign up for our Daily Email and get AllThingsD.com delivered each day.
Get columns, blogs and video from D and All Things Digital on your iPhone. Download now »
