Universal profile and reputation service SezWho and Creative Weblogging blog network, have formed a partnership that will bring SezWho to Creative Weblogging’s 150 professional blogs.

SezWho drives traffic for bloggers by displaying their universal profiles on social media sites– including blogs, forums, and bulletin boards. Readers can drill-down through interesting content on member profiles – it brings comments to life by connecting people and expertise. Because SezWho facilitates content-discovery around “context,” including subject matter expertise and a contributor’s previously-rated posts and comments, readers can quickly find quality across all SezWho-enabled sites.

SezWho is currently being rolled out on Creative Weblogging’s English-speaking network. In the coming weeks, support for the networks other languages (Chinese, French and German) will be enabled.

TiVo Inc. announced the availability of YouTube videos on the TV via a TiVo DVR. A partnership between the two companies allows broadband-connected subscribers with TiVo Series 3 and TiVo HD DVRs, to access hundreds of millions of user generated videos hosted on YouTube.

At least, there will be an alternative now to some boring TV programs… some boring videos.

Comparison shopping website Become.com announced that it has raised $8 million in Series D invesment from the European Founder’s Fund.

This brings the total investment in Become, Inc. to $37.2M, including a recent Series C investment from TPG for $17.5M. Become.com has been profitable since fourth quarter of last year and raised these rounds to facilitate aggressive growth.

At a time when independent documentary films are experiencing a creative boom, yet theatrical distribution channels have gone bust, the beta launch today of SnagFilms helps both independent filmmakers and iconic production companies – and the audiences that want to see their movies.

SnagFilms was created to address the bottleneck in distribution for quality documentaries that has left many great films unable to reach their potential audience or to provide a viable financial return. It also offers established media companies with deep libraries a way of getting “long-tail” documentaries out of the vaults and before a worldwide, on-demand audience.

Founded by Ted Leonsis, AOL Vice Chairman Emeritus and producer of award-winning documentary films; backed by Leonsis, AOL co-founder and Revolution LLC Chairman Steve Case, and venture capitalist Miles Gilburne; and led by industry veterans, SnagFilms brings the best nonfiction films to a global web audience, promotes viral web distribution through virtual movie theater widgets, and encourages users to engage with the films’ issues and supporter communities.

At launch, more than 250 films are available for immediate streamed playback, requiring no software downloads, sign-ups or waiting, and an additional 200 films, already under contract, will be added by mid-August.

Meebo announced a new product called Meebo Community Instant Messaging designed to integrate open instant messaging into online communities. Beginning with DanceJam, Flixster, myYearbook, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group’s AddictingGames, Piczo, SparkArt, Sugar Publishing and Tagged as major launch partners, the integrated IM service will enable live interaction and real-time conversation between members of online communities such as social media, gaming, and blog networks. The result is the creation of an open and federated instant messaging network based on the collective social graphs of some of the Web’s largest community sites. Users will be able to exchange IMs with friends and community members seamlessly on site, and then continue those conversations at meebo.com.

AOL released an updated version of its media player Winamp. The new update offers users a collection of new product features and enhancements including a comprehensive new multimedia artist discovery experience, integration of the new AOL Radio powered by CBS Radio, a customizable toolbar that lets users control Winamp from their browser, a commerce platform to purchase digital downloads, physical CDs, and ringtones, and language support for Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

Leveraging AOL Music, Truveo and SHOUTcast Radio, Winamp’s newly launched artist discovery experience provides users with a robust multimedia experience giving music fans unparalleled access to artist songs, bios/news, related videos, radio stations, and photos. Users can get extended information about artists they already know, or discover new artists by exploring recommended artists that are either similar to or have influenced their favorite artists.

Winamp also allows music fans to purchase digital downloads, physical CDs, and ringtones. The commerce platform which will be extended to include tickets in the near future, allows multiple commerce providers to be integrated into Winamp.

Online video production and distribution solutions GeoBeats, Inc. has signed an agreement with NextTrip.com for licensed travel videos that will be featured on NextTrip.com, a video and social community travel site.

As a part of this private label agreement, NextTrip.com will receive 30 two- to three-minute videos per month. The videos will provide the site’s travel audience with insightful glimpses of unique attractions and helpful tips to aid in their travel-planning decisions.

The first videos to be featured on NextTrip.com’s site include a vignette on the famous lookout point in Florence, Italy, Piazzale Michelangelo, and a look at Berlin’s nightlife.

Special-interest media company Future US has acquired BallHype, Inc, the owner of ballhype.com and showhype.com, for an undisclosed sum.

BallHype was founded in 2007 by Jason Gurney and Erin Gurney. Since its launch, it has rapidly grown its unique user base to nearly 2 million per month. Using proprietary technology, it aggregates and clusters news and video content around the theme of sports and entertainment.

Okay, Apple iPhone is totally cool, especially the 3G. You wish you can have one, don’t deny. But consider also that there is always an alternative. One-stop comparison site for cellphones and wireless phone plans Wirefly announced its top ten cell phone alternatives to the Apple iPhone.

Phones that made the list include those that have the type of touch-screen and multimedia features that make the iPhone popular, plus many features that the iPhone lacks, such as a full keyboard, live TV, video recording, photo/video messaging, removable battery, stereo hands-free Bluetooth, and a memory card slot to expand memory capacity.

According to Wirefly, the Top 10 cell phone alternatives to the Apple iPhone are:

LG Vu CU920 (AT&T) – This sleek touch-screen phone has a large display and a matte black finish, with 3G data speeds, wide-screen virtual keyboard for texting, and streaming live TV.

LG Vu CU915 (AT&T) – If you can live without live TV on your phone, the new LG Vu CU915 may be the best deal in touch-screen phones today. It’s the same phone as the LG Vu CU920 without live TV.

LG Voyager (Verizon Wireless) – The Voyager has a unique design with flip-up touch-screen and hidden full QWERTY keyboard, plus Verizon’s EV-DO can be up to 40% faster than the iPhone 3G’s maximum data speeds.

HTC Touch (Sprint/Alltel) – The most compact touch-screen phone on the market features the incredibly easy TouchFLO touch-screen technology and the faster EV-DO high-speed internet.

LG Dare (Verizon Wireless) – This brand new model for Verizon is super thin, with a brilliant huge touch-screen and EV-DO data speeds; 3.2-megapixel camera/camcorder includes face detection.

Samsung Glyde (Verizon Wireless) – Samsung’s high-end phone is the best of both worlds, with a full touch-screen interface and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, plus EV-DO high-speed internet.

HTC Tilt (AT&T) – This powerful and popular smartphone with a full tilt-up keyboard does it all, from WiFi to GPS to a 3 megapixel camera/camcorder, plus Microsoft Windows Mobile.

BlackBerry Curve (AT&T/Alltel/Sprint/T-Mobile/Verizon Wireless) – The best-selling BlackBerry is available for all carriers, with internet browsing, texting, instant messaging, plus camera, music, and video.

LG Glimmer (Alltel) – The cool slider phone for Alltel has a touch QVGA display plus a traditional keypad; music player, camera, and expandable memory round out the feature set.

Palm Centro (AT&T/Sprint/Verizon Wireless) – The slimmest and best Palm ever is power-packed with Microsoft Windows applications plus high-speed internet, camera, video and music player.

Mulitiplayer online games provider OGPlanet has received funding from venture capital firm DFJ Athena. This funding supports its continued growth and the company is expected to reach profitability soon.

OGPlanet licenses online games from Korea and markets them in the US. Its growing portfolio of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games includes Cabal Online, Rumble Fighter, Albatross18 and the recently announced La Tale coming in the third quarter of 2008. OGPlanet operates all of its games under a free-to-play model while in-game item purchases are available through a micro-transaction system.