worth noting 11th August 2003

net1

:: Online tracking service Hitwise has launched a fast way to measure traffic to movie-related Web sites in a bid to spark interest from filmmakers and others.

:: Reed Elsevier has become one of the largest online companies in the world after increasing the amount of paying subscribers to its professional research Web sites.

:: BT is facing a new complaint over its DataStream wholesale ISP service, after UK IP network service provider mediaWays.uk complained to Oftel about new price increases.

:: The Sun newspaper has joined forces with Sky Interactive to launch its Dream Team fantasy football game on Sky's interactive TV platform. The move will enable 6.5m Sky digital homes in the UK to access the Dream Team competition, in which entrants have a fictional budget of £40m with which to build an 11-strong line-up. Users can access the game via the interactive button on the Sky remote and choose Sky Gamestar or Sky Winzone, or by pressing the red button when viewing a SkySports channel. Registration is open until 13 September and costs 25p/minute via iTV and £5 per team online.

:: IBM has signed a technology deal with Danish toy maker Lego in which it will replace systems from competitor Hewlett-Packard with pay-as-you-go computing that it said will cut Lego's costs during the holiday season.

:: Google has been forced to withdraw a new 'Related Searches' feature from its AdSense contextual advertising product, following a backlash from Web publishers that use the product. AdSense enables Web site owners to serve targeted ads provided by Google on content pages, and share in the revenue generated when users click on the text-based ads. Google used run ads on behalf of charities in situations where it had no paid ads or when the context for a page couldn't be determined. But recently the company decided to feature related searches, which would send users that clicked on the ad to a Google-related search page, containing links to Web sites that incorporate related topics based on the page's content. This angered Web site owners, because it could in effect end up driving traffic away from their site to their competitors, generating clicks for Google but no revenue for them.

:: Search advertising network Overture has revealed plans to launch its paid placement service in Australia by the end of the year. The company has opened an office in Sydney and appointed former VP of AltaVista Asia Pacific, Mel Bohse, to head up the new Australian business.