Presidential hopeful Barack Obama is a phenomenal figure in the U.S. politics not only for his political acumen and rhetoric but also his charisma online music videos.

Chicago Sun-Times reports more and more celebrities are showing their support to Obama through online music videos. Aside from the smash hits “Yes We Can” from Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am and “I Got a Crush … on Obama”, Twisted Sister’s guitarist Jay Jay French is the latest icon to join the viral campaign. French will turn the music “I Wanna Rock” to “I Want Barrack.”

Moreover, pop-funk band Fall Out Boy is rumored to participate in this initiative since the band leader appeared in Rolling Stone March 6 issue wearing an t-shirt displaying the Obama 08 logo.

Despite all the hype, the Obama remains mum about this trend.

Here’s another study in praise of iPhone and its significant impact to the mobile landscape.

Mobile media research firm M:Metrics reveals that it is the most popular device for accessing news and information on the mobile Web, with 85 percent of iPhone users accessing news and information in the month of January.

The table below compares iPhone use to other leading smartphones in the market as well as the general consumption.

“This data indicates that the iPhone’s widgets are and effective means to drive mobile content consumption,” said Mark Donovan, senior analyst, M:Metrics. “Two featured widgets, YouTube and Google Maps are extremely popular among iPhone users: 30.4 percent accessed YouTube and 36 percent used Google Maps. In comparison, only one percent of all mobile subscribers accessed YouTube and 2.6 percent checked out Google Maps.”

The ongoing riot in Tibet displays China’s Internet censorship prowess at its finest. Other countries pay attention and jot down notes. It turned out blocking YouTube and Google News is just an initial salvo.

BusinessWeek reports the Chinese government has banned journalists and tourist from entering Tibet to control the flow of information. To make matters really worse, there is a stricter measure implemented over the Internet.

All comments in different blog-hosting companies are filtered to be consistent with the news release from state-controlled media companies including China Central Television and Xinhua News Agency.

Even popular search engines like Baidu, Yahoo! China and MSN China are playing safe to avoid suffering the same fate as Google News. These leading sites only add news coming from state-owned media companies.

It goes to show how China is obsessively compulsive when it comes to suppressing freedom of speech and flow of information. However, it should not underestimate the power of the frustrated online mob for it has the power bypass all these controls.

Ning, a platform enabling everyone to create his or her own social network, is expected to cross 300,000 social networks in “a matter of weeks” as announced by its co-founder Marc Andreessen in his blog.

This bold prediction comes up after Andreessen recently announced that Ning officially crossed 200,000 social networks for the first time. Based on its current growth rate, he estimates that 1,000 social networks are added per day.

Combine that growth rate with increasing usage will yield stronger growth and in terms of registered users and page views. In short, the milestone of 300,000 social networks will become a reality soon.

Andreessen also shared some interesting stats on about Ning at his blog. Here’s something really interesting:

There are now more — actually, a lot more — social networks on Ning than there are on the rest of the Internet in total, including all of the other services that let you create your own social network combined (i.e., all of our honorable competitors combined).

There are so many weird stuffs you can stumble upon on eBay. Now here’s a cool way to get over your romantic partner and land a spot on Yahoo’s Odd News section.

Meet Ian Usher, a 44 year-old Brit who moved to Perth, Australia in the name of love and now selling practically all his belongings at eBay in the name of love (lost) once again.

The Telegraph reports Usher is selling everything including his three-bedroom house, car, jet ski, motorcycle, job in a rug store (with employer consent) and even his friends to the highest bidder so he can forget the bitter memories he had in Australia after a failed 5-year marriage. You can check out the complete details at www.alife4sale.com.

This so-called “life package” is his clever exit strategy as well as starting fund to start all over again. Usher expects to get £230,000 out of this online bidding.

So if you’re bored with your life, want to experience the adventures of Usher from a first-person perspective, and most importantly have enough money to win the bid, this whole weeklong bidding fiesta will kick off on June 22. Wife sold separately.

For a brand notorious for being youthful, contemporary, spirited and spontaneous, it’s just a matter of time before it taps social networking as its marketing tool.

Global brand Pepsi has partnered with Youniverse.com to create a social networking site www.pepsiyouniverse.com which is focused on soccer and its superstar players. This online campaign will start in Europe.

At the center of this platform is VisualDNA, Youniverse’s technology which pioneered the use of images to allow people to illuminate their personalities, emotions, and motivations and to discover affinities with people, lifestyles, and products.

“We are genuinely excited about this project as we believe this will revolutionize the way consumers, communities, and brands interact and collaborate with each other in an organic fashion,” said Richard Lee, Pepsi’s VP marketing on Pepsi, Starbucks and Sobe.

Apple’s iTunes has another reason to worry this year. Popular peer-to-peer site LimeWire has launched its own online music store, following the move of other sites such as Napster and BitTorrent to go legit.

Currently in beta phase, LimeWire Store’s pricing structure is similar to iTunes – 99 cents per track. But there are also different payment plans like $10 for 25 downloads per month, $15 for 50 downloads, and $75 for 75.

However, it cannot yet compete against the massive collection of other online music stores. Initially, it holds more than 500,000 tracks mostly from indie artists but as Download Squad pointed out, it carries big names like Dolly Parton, Gloria Gaynor, Bell X1 and Josh Rouse.

LimeWires promises to update its collection and boasts it will add thousands of tracks daily from across all genres.

via AppScout

China is doing what it does best in times of crisis – block Internet access to control the flow of information. News and blogs report China has blocked Google News and YouTube to curb the distribution of video footages covering the violence happening in Tibet these days.

This trick is patterned after Myanmar’s signature move of cutting off Internet access to control information gathered during the last protest against military activities staged by Burmese monks.

Several videos were uploaded at YouTube showing peaceful demonstrations and marching. But there is also a restricted video showing the actual riots and injured bodies during the demonstration in Tibet. Even though this brutal clip is restricted to 18 years old and above, it is the most viewed video with more than 80,000 hits to date.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of Web, is protesting against the plan of many ISPs in the UK to install Phorm, an ad serving technology which tracks our online activities to deliver the most relevant ads at the right time and frequency.

In fact, BBC reports he’s very much willing to change ISP once this is implemented. This Semantic Web advocate compares Internet service to other utilities like water for it must supply “connectivity with no strings attached.”

Even though Phorm claims it protects personal privacy and provides protection against phishing sites, the company is compelled to offer a universal opt-out option due to negative publicity and complaints from privacy groups. Now, some ISPs are thinking about offering both opt-in and opt-out to avoid privacy issues with their client base.

Knowing the clout of Berners-Lee in the world he created and his theory about Semantic Web, it will be a tough challenge for the people behind Phorm to fine-tune its already tarnished image.

Well, what exactly do you think Google CEO Eric Schmidt will say when asked about Microsoft – Yahoo deal? A match made in heaven? No way! Of course he will paint a really gloomy picture craftily hidden in powerful words and compelling statistics.

Here’s an example quoted by Conde Nast Portfolio and posted at AHN.

“It’s an unstable condition. But the theoretical issue is the concentration of Microsoft’s resources and its history, combined with the very large share that it would have in certain applications – like instant messaging and email – that could be used essentially to break the internet and diminish choice.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the real reason why Google is helping Yahoo! It’s not for profit or any vested interests. I know it’s hard to believe but yes it’s really hard to believe! Microhoo deal is a big threat to Google, maybe not in search but in the mobile Internet. So, it’s very likely Google will do anything in its capacity to thwart that deal.