currents

Al Gore-backed VideoSurf generating buzz

Let's face it: Video search blows. It's easy to use YouTube's search box to find straightforward Internet video memes like cats playing pianos, skateboard tricks, or Rick Astley remixes; try for anything more intricate and you might be out of luck. There are established companies in the space, like the U.K.-based Blinkx, but none of them has captured the market share that video search potentially could.

Enter VideoSurf, a company launching later on Wednesday at the TechCrunch50 conference that's been getting a choice spot in the tech-blogger limelight thanks to a Los Angeles Times preview.… Read more

Report: Digg walked away from $100 million offer from Al Gore

Plenty of would-be buyers have been named for social news site Digg, but one we haven't heard much about: Current Media, the cable and Web news channel that was launched by former vice president Al Gore.

It's one of the juicy tidbits detailed in BusinessWeek columnist Sarah Lacy's book, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0, which hits bookstores on Thursday. In an excerpt posted to TechCrunch, Lacy writes about how executives Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose turned down a $100 million offer from … Read more

Portishead gives an exclusive live performance on Current TV

Trip-hop heroes Portishead have linked up with Current TV for an exclusive 40-minute broadcast performance on April 11, 2008. The show includes eight songs from their highly anticipated new album, Third, and will air multiple times on the television channel (see showtimes below) over the following week. Fans without cable can stream it online from Current TV's Web site. The album hits stores in the U.S. on April 29.

For those who like their music one tasty bite at a time, you can listen to Third's first single, "Machine Gun" , right here on Download Music. … Read more

CNN's citizen journalism site iReport goes live

As we wrote on Monday, CNN's citizen journalism pet project iReport was due to get a site of its own. Today the service finally went live as iReport.com, and is already filling up with user content both old and new.

iReport's site has a lot in common with YouTube, showing off a grouping editor-selected videos (and photos) on the top of the page alongside a queue of the latest news content that's been uploaded by users. Each iReport user gets their own page with a listing of their uploaded photos and videos. Similar to Current, content is marked to show if it's been featured on CNN's televised or Web news reporting. adding incentive for others to click on it.

In addition to hosting any news story videos uploaded by users, iReport dishes out assignments to fledgling videographers and photo journalists. On top of the list is the 2008 Presidential elections, alongside weather reports, the ever popular "offbeat images", as well as "stories from Second Life," Linden Lab's MMORPG. Users can upload up to 10 videos and videos at a time, with each one taking up to 100MB in size.

Interestingly enough, the videos on iReport.com cannot be embedded on third party sites, although there are links to share it on five major social bookmarking and news services. Users also have the option of making the file downloadable, letting others grab it to play on their PCs or portable media devices. Syndication (albeit direct) is the name of the game.

In the future the service plans to increase the ties between stories, as well as where users are reporting from by integrating world maps. Already there is a "more on this story" feature that groups together content by assignment. The service also employs tags and a "newsiest" feature which "combines freshness, popularity, activity, and ratings" in an algorithm not unlike the ones found on social news sites like Digg and Reddit.

More screenshots after the break. … Read more

Al Gore's Current Media files for IPO

Current Media, the youth-oriented cable channel founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, has filed for a $100 million initial public offering.

The company aims to trade under the Nasdaq symbol CRTM; neither share prices nor number of shares have been disclosed.

Acknowledging that it has "a history of losses," relies on an "unproven media model," and had an accumulated deficit of $31.9 million at the end of 2007, Current Media is nevertheless pushing forward in the hopes that it will be able to better cover expenses as a public … Read more

Radiohead to perform free New Year's concert on Current TV

To promote the release of their new album, In Rainbows, Radiohead is debuting a pre-recorded hour long set on Current TV. According to Billboard, the program will feature Radiohead performing the new album in its entirety.

Radiohead is embracing the internet more than any other band out there today, from their much publicized "pay what you want" internet release of In Rainbows back in October to this news today. This New Year's Eve concert just solidifies their web presence. Radiohead is leading the way right now and I expect to see other bands start to follow suit … Read more

Current TV launches new site

Al Gore has proven that there can be life after politics. He's written several best-selling books, received an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth, helped develop Current TV, a cable television station focused on getting young people interested in the world around them. and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last week. Seven years ago, he was running for president and since that time he's done all this.

Today Current launched a new website at Current.com that not only brings all the television content to the web, but also seeks to build a new social media platform. … Read more

Current TV gets the Web site it deserves

Current TV launched in 2005 with a dual-platform message: It was a TV station with a built-in Web component. But it was clear that it was really a TV station first, that the site was its feeder system. Today, though, Current TV becomes just Current. The new Web site is a much better destination than the previous version, and makes Current into an honestly multinetwork media product. Current's Web site has content and social features that make it interesting if you never bother to tune in Current on TV.

Current has become a good-looking social bookmarking and community site. … Read more

CNET News.com feature: Big media hunts for Web cred, again

This summer has been an unusual hunting season for the start-up world, with nascent Internet companies firmly in the crosshairs of major media conglomerates.

This month alone, Hearst Publications purchased social-shopping site Kaboodle, The New York Times "absorbed" the Freakonomics blog, and bookmarking start-up Clipmarks was rumored to be in the midst of a deal with Forbes.

In July, cable conglomerate Discovery Communications snapped up eco-blog TreeHugger. And this spring, CBS Interactive acquired both music community Last.fm and finance video blog Wallstrip.

Read the rest of the CNET News.com story here.