Apple hums a happy iTune

Xheah = Apple hums a happy iTune

Yahoo! continues its leadership as the most visited Web site, attracting 104 million unique visitors in November, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. But Apple posted by far the strongest year-over-year gain, showing a 57% jump to 31 million unique users. That`s the biggest gain of any top Web brand, fueled by the exploding popularity of its iPod media player and iTunes service.

According to thestreet.com, traffic on Yahoo! gained 10% as people were attracted by Yahoo!`s popular features, including fantasy football, personals and email. The company also has recently been adding other services that are growing in popularity, such as podcasts. Yahoo! fell 30 cents to $40.75, while Apple rose 50 cents to $71.88.

"Among the top Web brands, fierce competition for share of online visitors continues to be a catalyst for the launch of new products and features," says Gerry Davidson, senior media analyst at Nielsen/NetRatings, in a statement. "These additions appear to be spearheading much of the top Web brand growth, because they keep visitors interested and engaged."

Electronic Arts (EA), a bellwether company among video game makers, reported on Tuesday that its holiday sales would be "well below" earlier projections, the latest sign of a sharp slide in performance for the industry.

Newyorktimes.com says tSkip to next paragraphhe announcement from EA, the largest independent game publisher, came less than a week after Activision, a competitor, also reported unexpectedly weak holiday sales. NPD, a market research company, reported last week that video game software sales were down 18% last month from November last year.

The evidence suggests the video game industry is experiencing its most lackluster holiday selling season in at least a decade, and one of its most disappointing quarters ever.

"No one`s buying video games this Christmas," says Evan Wilson, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities.

Seeking to boost its online advertising, Reuters launched a pilot program Tuesday to allow blogs and other online sites to run video news reports updated every day by the news agency.

Redherring.com reports that under the program, owners of the sites sign up for an affiliate network with Reuters Labs, the experimental technology site operated by the London-based publisher and financial information service.

Visitors to an affiliate site can watch the news reports from a player embedded on the site without needing to install either RealPlayer or Windows Media Player. The videos will be able to run both on Windows and Apple computers.

The affiliates will also be able to share in revenue from adverts that Reuters plans to include with the players once the program formally launches in the first half of 2006. The adverts may run as short videos before one of the news stories that a visitor to the site selects.

The Music Publishers` Association said Monday it plans to launch by early February its first major push to shut down Web sites that illegally offer copyrighted sheet music.

According to informationweek.com the New York-based group plans to send "cease and desist" letters to commercial sites that offer unlicensed print music, MPA President Lauren Keiser says. The group also plans to send letters to Internet service providers, notifying them that they are hosting sites engaged in illegal activity.

"We`re not going after fan sites," Keiser says. "We`re going after Web sites whose sole business model is to take unlicensed copyrighted material and publish it on their sites."

Many of the targeted businesses are drawing revenue from banner advertising from large companies, Keiser says.

IBM acquired Bowstreet, a Massachusetts-based maker of software that helps companies combine documents, databases and other information into a single application.

Financial terms weren`t disclosed. IBM said adding Bowstreet to its portfolio of offerings will help customers develop tailored, integrated portals designed for their specific business and industry.