Interactive Business

A string of striking media partnerships is redefining the Internet landscape. Within the past few weeks alone: Google will supply eBay with Web search advertising; YouTube is in talks with record labels to post music videos; MTV will distribute clips over Google's ad network.

Google Inc. and eBay Inc.'s advertising deal unveiled on Monday is the latest in a string of striking media partnerships, and occasional mergers, that are redefining the Internet landscape.

Highlights of announcements in the past year follow:

Aug 28 - Google will supply eBay with Web search advertising outside the United States and the two will join forces on "click-to-call" ads that link online shoppers to customer service operators. The deal combines Google's search advertising prowess with eBay's lead in online auctions and its Skype Web-calling franchise.

Aug 15 - YouTube Inc. said it is talking with record labels to post thousands of music videos online, seeking to build on its lead as the most popular site for home-produced, short-form videos into more mainstream entertainment.

Aug 7 - News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media to use Google's search and advertising system to direct traffic across its Internet sites, including the wildly popular MySpace.com. Google agreed to pay Fox at least $900 million in return for revenue sharing for advertisements it runs on Fox properties.

Aug 6 - Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks to distribute clips over Google's Internet ad network, in a test of a possible new economic model for Web-based video delivery. The deal highlights Google's ambitions to move beyond text and graphical ad delivery into formats ranging from print to radio to video.

June 27 - Television network NBC will create an "NBC Channel" on YouTube Inc.'s online video site featuring clips of upcoming fall TV shows. The move marks a sharp turnaround for NBC, which had sought to stop YouTube from allowing users to post replays of its shows. Clips from the network's "Saturday Night Live" late-night comedy show attracted millions of viewers on YouTube -- more than the live TV broadcast.

May 25 - Yahoo Inc., the world's largest Internet media company, will become the exclusive provider of online banners and other graphic advertising on eBay, and provide some search services within eBay's U.S. site to connect buyers to items they seek. Yahoo will promote PayPal, eBay's popular online payment system used by 73 million U.S. consumers.

May 25 - Google will install its search software on Dell Inc. computers in a bid to ensure its Web search remains prominently featured on PC browsers amid moves by Microsoft Corp. to drive users to its own Web search in the upcoming version of the Windows Vista operating system. Google subsequently inks similar Google Toolbar distribution deals with Adobe Systems, Skype and others.

May 1 - Microsoft scores a win against rival Google as Amazon.com began using its new Web search advertising technology to power the Internet retailer's A9 search unit, replacing Google which had previously provided ads to A9.

Jan 6 - Google unveiled its own online video store to compete with Apple Computer Inc. that offers consumers free programming, low-cost rentals and outright purchases of premium entertainment and sports shows ranging from episodes of Star Trek to National Basketball Association league games.

Dec 20 - Google to invest $1 billion to take a 5 percent stake in AOL as part of a plan to expand their Web search and advertising alliance to offer the sharing of video and instant messaging. The deal shut out Microsoft, which had fought hard for a deal with the Time Warner Inc. unit.

Oct 12 - Walt Disney Co.'s ABC agreed to sell TV programs through Apple's iTunes Web site for computers and iPod video players, in what analysts now see as a watershed event for legitimating Web video sites as a mechanism for distributing high-value Hollywood movie and TV programming.

Oct 12 - Microsoft and Yahoo to allow the hundreds of millions of users of their rival instant message systems to contact one another. The deal marked the first major alliance between two of main providers of instant messaging and overcame long-standing resistance by market pioneer AOL to opening up its AIM instant messaging system.

Sept 12 - EBay agreed to buy Internet phone-calling companySkype of Luxembourg for up to $4.1 billion, putting the online marketplace leader into further competition with rivals ranging from Google and Yahoo to the local phone company.

July 18 - News Corp. to buy Intermix Media Inc., owner of the popular MySpace.com social networking site, for $580 million in a move to expand the media conglomerate's Internet offerings. News Corp. is initially criticized for overpaying for the deal, but in hindsight Wall Street analysts say Rupert Murdoch's move looks prescient as MySpace has emerged as the premiere online destination for youthful Web users.

Source: Reuters