Yahoo and Google are still going full steam ahead on their awesome search deal, according to the Seattle Times. The two companies decided to pair up in June, and let the US Justice Department decide if their love was legal – even though they didn’t have to.

In a July 15 hearing, a Senate Judiciary Committee "expressed concerns" that the coupling would remove an important check on Google’s dominance of the $65 billion online advertising market. How goes it? Well, the deal would mean that Yahoo would show Google ads (which incidentally are more expensive) and get a share of the revenue alongside its own promotions.

By the by, did you know that the search market is actually benefiting from the slower economy? Advertisers are more into search than anything else these days. Online advertising in general, too.

Seek no more: mtvU, a division of MTV – the rich panderer of guilty pop culture pleasures since the mid-80′s – is launching an online network of campus guides, a la Citysearch, that will list "everything from local night life to bus and dining room schedules," Reuters reports.

The network, which broadcasts on 750 U.S. college campuses, wants the network to be a "one-stop shop" for college students. It will aggregate content from college newspapers and Zvents, a local Internet search and advertising network. Northwestern, UT Austin and U Penn are among the 25 colleges for which it will have guides available this week – a total of 50 are planned to launch by the end of the year.

"We’re simplifying students’ experience and providing national, regional and local advertisers a powerful connection to this hard to reach audience," said Stephen Friedman, general manager of mtvU.

Ahh, that’s what we were looking for – advertisements. Talk about targeting…! Events listings are some of the easiest, most obvious kinds of contextual advertising, yes? And college kids are always on the lookout for something new – and hot – to do. On a quest for fun, their eyes may stray mischievously to a banner, or two – or four.

The Internet has finally surpassed TV as the Numero Uno Fun Thing to Do for kids in the 10-14 age bracket, reports the New York Times, citing data from a DoubleClick Performics study. Some 83% of kids in the group spend an hour or more online every day, compared to 68% who watch television for the same amount of time.

Something to consider: 72% of the kids surveyed belong to a social networking site, and 60% said they barely – or never – read blogs. That makes sense, because blogs are the web equivalent of watching the evening
news for kids. They’re full of info and not terribly social or interactive. MySpace, however, has all of the interactive entertainment that TV has yet to offer.

TV, put on your jammies. It’s time for bed.

So, Obama has chosen Sen.
Joe Biden as his running mate – and told the world about it via text message,
three million, actually, according to estimates from the Wall Street Journal.

An interesting calculation,
done by Silicon Alley Insider: if Obama spent between 5-10 cents per message,
that means he spent somewhere between $1.3 and $1.8 million to send it out. Why
would you do that? Is it a final door slamming on Clinton, as a rebuttal to her
controversial 3am "phone call" ad campaign (the text was sent at 3am
on Friday). Or as a way to snub the media – who got a hold of the news anyway,
but certainly not through official channels.

Or did he feel the need to
support the wireless industry, who doubtless were the ones who profited the
most from the deal? If you’re trying to get behind the "little guy,"
Obama, stop giving your money to AT&T and Verizon.

Whatever it is, it reminds
us of the power of new media for this election. Imagine getting a text saying "VOTE!"
on election day. And knowing, too, that those who sign up to receive campaign
updates are likely to be more gung-ho than the next guy, he’s tapping into a
great word-of-mouth resource: the Young. the politically Passionate. the
Digitally Connected.

I would just have loved to
see the look on the face of whoever actually texted in the word "Biden"
- according to T9, the man is "Aged." Don’t they mean,
"Mature?"

The Outside Lands Festival was held this weekend in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. I have two words to describe this event: Brr, and brr. Some other individuals who are better qualified to describe the experience (as they actually attended) might be more exuberant in their reactions: Awesome! Amazing! Rad!

In any case, the 3-day event made Net history by being the first "digitally mashed up" (no, not moshed up, but that’s fun too) concert to be 100% documented on the web – by the thousands that did attend.

CrowdFire – sponsored by Federated Media, Microsoft, and Intel – is a real-time "digital media mashup"
of all of the varied media generated at the live show, including
camera-phone pictures, hand-held digital-video recordings, blog posts
and Twitters, reported AdAge.

Participants upload their digital content via kiosk pavilions at the concert. They are encouraged to tag the photos and videos so that other users can conduct specific searches, e.g., "bitchin" "dude" "stage one" from the aggregated content.

It’s basically a social network for concertgoers, said Rick Farman, co-founder of Superfly
Productions, creators of Outside Lands and co-creators of the Bonnaroo
Music Festival. "…A perfect synthesis of music, online networking
and face-to-face fun," he boasted.