Take that Viacom!

According to a spokesperson, YouTube is set to launch a mobile version of the popular video-sharing website in May 2007 for European users. The service will launch a month later for U.S. users as a result of the company’s exclusivity clause on a mobile video deal with Verizon Wireless.

In response to my question if YouTube is developing a mobile client, the spokesperson said that the company had been talking about it, but had no information to share at this time. Check out a preview of the blocked mobile site or this demo site: http://m.youtube.com/?client=ytdemo which you can see from some mobile phones (let us know if your phone can access it).

Katie Fehrenbacher has more.

On the eve of the 10-year anniversary of Yahoo! Mail, the company has announced that they are going to begin offering everyone unlimited email storage from May 2007 onwards.

When Yahoo! Mail launched 10 years ago, users got a whopping 4MB of storage for their entire mailbox. Today, you would fill that up with a single picture from your weekend.

For more details on the announcement and a quick snapshot of the service’s past, check out Yodel Anecdotal

Print media has gone the way of dinosaurs, newspapers and and magazines are closing shop and the smart ones are heading online. As the face of journalism changes and we embrace new mediums for disseminating information, how should journalism education adapt?

Here are some ideas:

1. Teach entrepreneurship
2. Embed online tools throughout the curriculum
3. Get real pros to teach you
4. Remember the basics

Read Between the Lines for more information.

When it comes to blog or website rankings, you have probably used either Alexa or Technorati. Stan Schroeder proposes a new methodology for ranking that has already piqued the interest of many A-list bloggers.

They have the data. They have the capabilities. Yet, they’re not maintaining any sort of top list of feeds with the most subscribers.

With 600,000 feeds in their roster, the service he is talking about is of course Feedburner. In the absence of any such formal list from the service itself, Stan has compiled a list based on the number of subscribers for each site. Certain conditions and limitations apply.

Here is a list of the chart topping 5:

1. BoingBoing
2. TechCrunch
3. Simply Recipes
4. Interesting Thing of the Day
5. 43Folders

Check out the complete list from Mr. Schroeder.

Ever wondered what Google would do if it was to use its powers for evil rather than good? Well here’s a list to start you off. Can you think of more?

1. Favor the emperor’s chosen few
2. Punish Citizens Without Due Process
3. Know Who Is Related To Who
4. Force Businesses To Advertise
5. Change The Laws And Keep Them Obfuscated

To see how these evil moves apply to Google, the search kingdom, and the internet in general, hop on over to SmallBusinessHub.

(With apologies to Krug for using the term ‘Web 2.0′)

There are of course those sites that you know of (Digg, Netscape, and so on) but what’s the point in covering those? Instead, take a look at this thorough list of sites that are generally and unfortunately often overlooked.

In order to separate the wheat from the chaff, I’ve spent the last 3 weeks visiting and trying out over 500 of these sites, and have compiled a list of the top 10 under rated Web 2.0 sites.

1. Reddit.com
2. Linkfilter.net
3. Shoutwire.com
4. Furl.com
5. Mag.nolia.com
6. Blinkbits.com
7. Simpy.com
8. StumbleUpon.com
9. Blogmemes.com
10. Squidoo.com

For more information on each of these sites, don’t forget to check out this article.

Usually when a new company wins the social media jackpot and is featured on Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and so on, the company gets thousands of immediate viewers but the traffic plummets soon afterwared. Scribd, on the other hand seems different. The company got a lot of attention at launch, but the attention hasn’t gone away.

100,000 or so unique visitors come the site daily. 12,000 documents have been uploaded to 8,600 unique accounts (35% anonymous). The team says the site’s traffic has been about an even split between U.S. and non-U.S. visitors (and about half of the documents are non-English).

Mikey has more.

OpenID, the open and decentralized way to manage your identity online has gotten a lot of news coverage lately and has been embraced by AOL, Digg, and several smaller companies such as Six Apart, Technorati, Magnolia. Today, Netscape has become the latest to throw their support behind OpenID.

You sent this feedback, and we have been listening. In conjunction with AOL announcing its role as an OpenID provider, and spurred by the rapid pace by which OpenID is being adopted on the Web, on Monday, March 26th, Netscape will not only support signing in with your current AOL screen name, but also OpenID as a way of accessing Netscape.com and My.Netscape.

Read the full release from the Netscape Blog.

Disclaimer: I am a Netscape Navigator.

Google is experimenting with a new idea. As an advertiser, you only pay if you get the desired results. If not, it’s on the house. According to the company’s remarks, advertisers will only be charged when an advertisement results in the consumer’s taking an action (i.e. buying a product) as opposed to the existing methods of paying based on the number of clicks or number of views.

“We’re optimistic that it will be something that will be very compelling for advertisers,” said Susan Wojcicki, vice president of product management at Google. Ms. Wojcicki said the system would also give participating Web publishers a wider choice of ad types for their sites.

The ‘cost-per-action’ model is more appealing for advertisers since it allows them to choose what kind of action they want to pay for (i.e. download, purchase, subscription), and consequently reduces their risk (since they aren’t billed for ineffective ads).

The New York Times has further commentary.

Yahoo! Widgets (read: Konfabulator) 4 has been made available for download. This version includes many new features for both the developers as well as the end-users. Here’s a brief look at the updates:

1. Widget Dock: Allows you to manage your widgets.
2. Updates: If there are updates available, Widgets now automatically update.
3. Widgets Discovery: If you get tired of the Widgets you already have, you can browse a gallery of over 4300+ more with just one click.
4. Improved User Experience: Many changes and simplifications have been implemented based on feedback from users.
5. Improved Performance: Decreased memory consumption by 40%.

For more details on these enhancements, and a look at many other changes, visit the Yahoo! Widgets Blog.