MySpace’s numerous positions in the top 10 are evidence of a solid brand. “Search term data is the closest proxy for what is on the minds of Internet user’s, and is a great measure of brand equity,” said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise. “For example MySpace saw tremendous growth in traffic in 2006 which is a reflection of the increased brand equity for MySpace. MySpace related search terms accounted for half of the top 10 search terms to all sites in 2006.”

Other sites that made the top 10 over all categories were mapquest ranked at number 5 and the generic term “lyrics” at number 10. All other spots were taken by variations on MySpace and Yahoo.

In the entertainment category for movies, “Imdb” held the first spot with “Netflix” in second and the general term “movies” in the third position. The top athlete search terms were Michael Jordan in the number 1 spot followed by bittersweet Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro and Nascar driver Danica Patrick.

For television related search “weather” was the leader followed by “ESPN” and “weather.com”. The top television show search terms were “American Idol”, “Deal or No Deal” and “Days of Our Lives”.

The top destination search terms were Las Vegas, Six Flags and Walt Disney world.

The rankings are based on a sample of ten million U.S. Internet users and exclude search terms sending traffic to adult content.

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |

Mike is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.

In a surprising move, Microsoft’s upcoming video uploading site codenamed Warhol, has been given the final moniker of “Soapbox”, and will not be categorized in the Windows Live brand.

At the Lehman Brothers Technology Conference earlier this week, keynoter speaker Steve Berkowitz, Microsoft’s Senior Vice President of Online Services, informed attendees that Microsoft had a renewed interest in MSN.

“Rather than just abandon these hard-to-attract customers, simply because they prefer a pre-programmed entertainment-portal-style experience to a more geeky Windows Live one, why not try to steer them toward Microsoft’s Live platform as it evolves? If you can convince MSN.com users to take the time to enter their contacts into Live Messenger and their address books into Live Mail, you’ve got them hooked,” said Berkowitz.

Berkowitz also stated that Microsoft hopes to put MSN in a position to be, “the best partner for media companies” based on the fact that Microsoft “doesn’t compete directly with them.”

The project was originally created to be a contender in the incredibly competitive online video sharing market, in which YouTube currently holds the monopoly. Since YouTube’s inception and release to the public in July of 2005, its number of viewers has skyrocketed and is nearing the 50 million mark

However, MSN should be a viable competitor to the already established online video sites with its 465 million user views a month. Also, the fact that the site is run by the software giant Microsoft should be enough to gain a significant amount of traffic.

The Soapbox site is currently still an internal beta, but is expected to move into public territory in the next few weeks. Current features include:

- Upload videos in almost any format-like from your video or digital camera (maximum file size is currently 100MB)
- Tag and categorize your videos to make it easy for other people to find them
- Watch original videos and browse for new ones at the same time
- Set up your own personal RSS feeds for videos you’re interested in
- Use your Windows Live Spaces profile with Soapbox on MSN Video
- Embed a video on your Web site or blog

Ultimately Berkowitz says the goal with its Live.com destination is to “flesh it out with its other core Windows Live services, like Mail, Messenger and Spaces.”

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl

Autmn Davis is a staff writer for WebProNews covering ebusiness and technology.

Visual development of Swing applications comes to the JDK, Sun Microsystems revealed along with other news about Java SE 6. Downloads of the second beta release of the Java SE 6 may be found online.

Form construction can be accomplished more rapidly through the use of the GroupLayout from Project Matisse in NetBeans. Sun said this would make “the design of a Java technology GUI as simple as using a WYSIWYG drawing program,” without needing to know the underlying Swing technology.

The Java DB, Sun’s supported distribution of Apache Derby, will be part of the weekly Mustang builds of Java SE 6. The 2MB Java-based database is fully transactional. Sun noted it can be embedded directly into a Java application, or used in client/server mode.

Java will receive more exposure on hardware as a pair of Chinese technology powers have agreed to distribute the Java Runtime Environment on their OEM hardware. Founder Technology Group and Lenovo both inked licensing agreements that should have the JRE on their desktop and laptop machines by the third quarter of 2006.

Other PC OEMs that wish to license the JRE may do so online. Sun has established an online application for those manufacturers to apply for JRE licensing.

A final release of Java SE 6 is on track for the fall of 2006.

—

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl

Bookmark WebProNews:

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

The Kentucky Derby and blogging seem to have a couple of things in common, and a few differences that merit further explanation. At the MoreThanDerby website, the writers helpfully point out, “The Kentucky Derby is the ideal sporting event for bloggers. Instead of going on and on for hours, the race lasts approximately 2 minutes, thus matching the attention span of most bloggers.”

They advise bloggers who may be traveling to Churchill Downs on Saturday that though they may blog in pajamas at home, “people still dress up for the Derby.”

For the bloggers who are staying at home, MoreThanDerby provided a useful list of tips for the viewer:

Many race fans prefer to take in the Kentucky Oaks the day before the Derby in person, and spend Derby Day at parties where they can watch the Run for the Roses on TV while enjoying a beverage or two. But check out the websites for the Derby or the Oaks first. Especially if you’re a blogger.

—
Tag:

Add to | DiggThis | Yahoo! My Web | Furl

Bookmark WebProNews:

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

He bought a superfecta ticket for the Kentucky Derby with race winner Giacomo on a $1 bet. To win a superfecta, you have to pick the top four horses in the races in order. Hertzog bought 100 tickets at $1 each. Little did he know he would hit a winner.

He had dropped a couple of his tickets. Then he got lucky. The mutuel clerk Brenda Reagan had been informed that she had sold a winning ticket. Hertzog in the meantime, aware he had bought a winning ticket realized he didn’t have it. He and others poured through bags of garbage looking for his lucky little slip of paper. They could not find the winning ticket. Then he got lucky again.

Ms. Reagan found a couple of tickets that didn’t get thrown away by her machine that prints tickets. One of them happened to be Mr. Hertzog’s ticket. Mr. Hertzog was most fortunate. The ticket paid $864,253.50 and after taxes $604,000. I bet Ms. Reagan gets a thank you card.

The 2005 Run for the Roses will go down as one of the great Derbies because of the longshots. Giacomo won at 50-1 odds. Closing Argument placed at 72-1 and Afleet Alex showed at 4.5-1. Fourth place was Don’t Get Mad at 30-1. It’s the second biggest upset in the history of the Derby and certainly the biggest pay out. No one bet a $2 superfecta. It would’ve paid $1.7 million.

John Stith is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.