We’ve been keeping an eye on the FCC’s 700MHz spectrum auction for the last couple of weeks. The bidding war commenced back on January 24, and, after seeing things get off to a slow start with several days of oddly small bites by various participates for the five “blocks,” (A,B,C,D,E) big money has now taken the stage. The portion of spectrum known as “C block” alone has already surpassed the $4.6B reserve mark. (That is the point at which the buyer agrees by default to abide by open networking rules.)

And as many of you know, Google has kept its sights strongly on C block, which many have considered essential to the company’s technological framework if it were to pursue the creation of its own US-based wireless network. (Some, including myself, believed that such an enterprise might have been planned.) Google negotiated forcibly with the FCC, against opposition brought by several established American telecommunications giants, to ensure that that particular aspect of the auction carry with it the requirement of remaining an open space by which any and all competitors could transmit data freely.

Well, for those of you who had hoped for the future arrival of “Google Wireless,” we may have to disappoint. News arrived this morning that essentially signified Google’s all-but-certain defeat by telecom megalith Verizon for the prized C block spectrum.

Last week, speculation as to the status of the auction was quite intense. Some said that Google had put forth a $4.7B ($100m north of the reserve price), giving it a strong chance of coming away from the process with its hands full. Earlier today, however, Elizabeth Woyke of Forbes.com reported that Verizon’s interest in the C block was not shaken by Mountain View’s move, and is likely determined to claim the wireless space in order to, in the words of Stifel Nicolaus analyst Rebecca Arbogast, “close the gap…(with) AT&T.”

Arbogast went on to say that she was “reasonably confident that Google does not have the spectrum now.”

While this update comes as something of a personal surprise (I have been observing the 700MHz auction rather eagerly), I cannot say that I’ve been entirely thrown. It was certainly a bit of a stretch to think Google would go through to the very end to claim the prize. I figured the chance of a Google win to be just a bit greater to that of another party’s. Nonetheless, Google appears slated to leave the auction empty handed.

Except, well, not empty handed. Remember, Google has ensured the openness of the 700MHz. Though the vision of “Google Wireless” is an idea now bound to reside only in the realm of fan fiction, we are guaranteed to encounter minimal technological barriers wherever the C block spectrum is ultimately employed. That’s something to look forward to, yes?

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According to CNET, video sharing site Revver is looking to sell itself for the relatively paltry sum of $300,000-500,000. Citing three different sources close to the company, CNET also notes that half of the company’s employees have left over the past 18 months.

While Revver has not been able to move into the top tier of video-sharing sites despite being one of the first to offer a revenue-share for content producers, the low reported sale price (and apparent lack of an interested buyer) is notable. In September, Revver announced it had dished out $1 million in revenue share to video producers, which implies they were at least making some money on ad sales on the front end while building an engaged community, albeit a much smaller one than YouTube.

However, the fact that two of Revver’s founders left the company last year probably doesn’t make buyers especially optimistic about the site’s prospects. Additionally, with YouTube now offering a revenue share, there isn’t much to differentiate Revver from a sea of video sharing competition. A buyer would also inherit about $1 million of debt according to CNET, meaning the real cost to buy Revver is around $1.3-1.5 million.

Nonetheless, it sounds like a fairly uninspiring exit for a company that raised nearly $13 million in venture capital.

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Just a couple of weeks after landing a $12 million round of funding, AdInfuse is announcing a new mobile advertising unit that’s designed just for the iPhone. This will bridge brands with iPhone users in the US and Europe, utilizing video and browsing formats for ad campaigns on the Apple handheld.

AdInfuse isn’t the first to look at the iPhone as a device that can be used specifically for optimized ad campaigns–AdMob tried out some localized branding efforts on its iPhone unit, in conjunction with the Land Rover brand, which was met with a good amount of success. So what’s the point of making ads just for iPhones? These multi-format ads will recognize the iPhone, and deliver ads that have been optimized for iPhone use. Combine this with the information that AdInfuse already has on mobile users in order to lend up its invaluable data for targeted mobile advertising, and you’ve got a double dose of targeting and optimization for a well-formated and relevant ad.

With 4 million iPhones sold worldwide, AdInfuse’s new ad unit is all fine and dandy, but is it necessary? The iPhone did more than introduce a new mobile device onto the scene–it brought about new standards for the industry, specifically towards mobile browsing. It’s this level of interactivity and likeness to a computer that has it primed for targeting when it comes to mobile websites, games, and other applications.

Most of these sites and games are hotbeds for advertisers on a computer browser, and so too they’ve become important for furthering the development and deployment of mobile ads. Considering AdInfuse’s added information it has on mobile consumers, will this make it a better competitor to other ad networks that are taking on similar tasks of optimizing for the iPhone?

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Facebook is modifying the notification system yet again. As usual, the application developers will be the ones experiencing the bulk of the change as a result of the changes made. The result for users? Less notifications per application - or at least, more quality notifications.

According to Facebook, the applications will no longer have a static upper limit of 40 notifications per user per day, but the number of notifications displayed will be based on several factors, which are based on feedback garnered from users. Such feedback looks at what types of notifications users hide, ignore, and report as spam, and these factors will all be considered for the ever-changing notification system.

For the developers, however, this could be seen as a useful set of metrics that will help them all in the long run. Facebook will be giving app developers stats for the behavior of their notifications, and responsiveness from users. These metrics will be found under the new Insights tabs, which are scheduled for availability next week.

While all this tweaking has been rather frustrating for many of the app developers out there, consider it a useful lesson that can be applied to future apps for not only Facebook, but for other networks’ platforms as well. The thing about having a first mover advantage is that everyone else gets to benefit from the ongoing experimentation, which will no doubt be utilized by everyone else that’s interested, in some degree, in third-party applications.

One thing that Facebook has not had the first mover advantage for is recommendations, but the popular social network has taken a few cues from LinkedIn. Facebook has also begun to use the social graph data it’s collecting on its users for a more direct, and seemingly non-commercial purpose: suggesting friends. It’s something that could’ve been added to Facebook long ago, but given the increased amount of interactivity and ability to connect with users outside your networks, it’s a feature that’s better late than never. What does this mean, however, for startups like Redux, that have built standalone sites that offer similar functionality through the creation of an entirely new network?

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Time Warner has announced that they will finally be splitting AOL into two units: its continually fading Internet access business, and the content and advertising business the company has recently been focusing on building. The move comes on the heels of Time Warner’s most recent earnings report, which showed a 32 percent decline in revenue at AOL, as the company lost another 740,000 dial-up Internet subscribers in the quarter and around 3.8 million over the past 12 months.

Meanwhile, AOL’s content and advertising business is clearly where the value lies in the company. AOL has made several high-profile acquisitions in the space, including Advertising.com, Quigo, and Tacoda. They’ve also added consumer and publisher facing services such as Userplane and Goowy, while their instant messenger product AIM remains the #1 tool in the category. I spoke with Michael Jones, the CEO of Userplane, about how the company plans to piece all of these parts together in their so-called “Platform A” strategy several months back.

What could be driving the decision to finally split these two vastly different businesses? According to the Associated Press, Google has the right to IPO their 5 percent stake in AOL this July. Google bought their stake for $1 billion in late 2005, which at the time valued AOL in its entirety at $20 billion.

Overall, this move is not unexpected, and probably long overdue. Assuming a recession doesn’t crush the online advertising market, AOL’s content and advertising business could conceivably go public and instantly become one of the highest valued publicly traded companies in the Web space, giving the company a currency to continue to aggressively make acquisitions. That would be good news for startups, since there has been some concern in the blogosphere that the potential Microsoft-Yahoo deal could greatly reduce M&A activity.

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FlowPlay first came on the scene about a year ago, when the company announced its plans to begin testing its casual game platform in preparation for its launch, which is scheduled for later on this spring. Having had a round of angel funding, FlowPlay has been able to build up its casual gaming platform, which consists of a virtual world for teenagers and young adults.

Today, we learn that FlowPlay has raised $3.7 million in a first round of funding, led by Intel Capital and Ambient Sound Investments. According to Seattle PI, FlowPlay has in fact turned down a few buyout offers in hopes of continuing on with its initial efforts of raising funding for product development.

Even with FlowPlay’s subscription model, which will cost $5.99 per month, the casual gaming environment within the virtual world has picked a fine year to launch its product. While there are a number of free virtual worlds out there, from Habbo to Second Life, FlowPlay’s focus on a family-friendly environment for game play could easily be supported by a willing group of paying members, as opposed to the other networks that have taken to ad-based methods for more niche and targeted demographics.

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Bebo has tons of users, an open developers platform, support for Facebook apps, and users that are apparently fairly responsive to the new apps. What more could this social network ask for? Well, in deepening its relationships with its users and branching out on more partnership opportunities in order to bring new options to its members, Bebo has teamed up with Music Nation to hold music contests in a new segment called Bebo OnStage.

This will work much like Music Nation’s main site, where users are “pitted” against each other in head-2-head battles, letting the community choose the winner. In offering its service to Bebo, Music Nation gets wider exposure to a global audience, and Bebo gets a ready-made, socially involved tool for engaging users and making itself even more popular by helping an independent artist to launch their career.

For Bebo OnStage, this partnership brings about a wealth of new opportunities for the artists, as the joint effort between Bebo and Music Nation will result in grand prizes like a chance to perform at the SXSW conference next month, and a record deal with Original Signal/Epic Records. This particular contest is the one that’s kicking off Bebo OnStage, with voting beginning on February 11th.

Even with the previous partnerships Bebo has participated in, none have really established the social network as being on the same level as MySpace when it comes to transitioning individuals into a level of stardom. Taking such a focus on music could help Bebo grow in this area, especially as MySpace is ramping up its own efforts to offer original content across its multiple platforms, and has just unveiled its developer platform.

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Mobile social networking tool Loopt has signed a deal with CBS Mobile to provide advertising based on GPS location information. This means that if you’re a Loopt user and happen to be browsing a CBS Mobile site, such as CBS Sports, you may see an ad for a restaurant that happens to be right down the street.

The ads are delivered on WAP pages versus SMS, so, they will feel similar to a banner ad on the Web, except they will be hyper-targeted.

Currently, Loopt is a mobile social networking tool of sorts for keeping track of the physical location of your friends – useful for planning a spontaneous meetup or for the more adventurous, meeting new people. The service also recently added the ability to broadcast your location to non-Loopt users by way of IM or text messaging.

Assuming Loopt can continue to grow and the mobile Web will gain popularity (big assumptions, but), it seems like they will have a lucrative business model attached. Advertisers pay a premium for hyper-targeting, and in Loopt’s case, not only will they have demographic information based on user profiles, but also know a user’s precise location at a given time.

As for the CBS deal, it’s a sizable media partner; the company currently claims more than 75 million page views across its mobile sites every month.

Loopt has raised $12 million in funding from from New Enterprise Associates and Sequoia Capital.

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Gaming networks are all the rage, right? From end users to advertisers, games have been one of the few application types to do well on the web and on mobile devices on nearly every front, and they continue to be the cause of feverish, productivity-killing addition, as we’ve seen with the Scrabulous video that was released earlier this week.

King.com is among those companies that has seen a great deal of success, especially as of late, through its partnerships with the likes of Yahoo, and its recently revised gaming platform. King.com is reporting a 138% increase from January 2007 to January 2008, representing rapid growth for the company.

What’s this all about? King.com is attributing the growth to new and improved games, as well as the new back-end architecture that was unveiled last fall, to support further growth for the company. As I mentioned before, King.com has also leveraged some useful partnerships with large portals, and has also gone so far as to hook up with popular television shows to create games for programs like “Deal or Now Deal” and “The Biggest Loser.” Such partnerships don’t just span the US, but have taken King.com on a global journey of integrated and branded games that appeal to locaized user bases.

What’s next? More partnerships, I’m sure. Online games are a hotbed for advertisers, and live interaction amongst web users, and with King.com’s existing relationships with entities including Real Networks, I imagine more branding opportunities will surface in the coming months.

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One of my absolutely favorite fresh blogs on the internet is TorrentFreak. These folks write about issues such as piracy, legality of torrents and freedom of communication on the internet with consistence and authority, and I read them religiously.

Their latest article is a very interesting insight into the daily online activities of an admin of a BitTorrent tracker; the article goes through all the security measures this person has to take to avoid being harassed/caught (whichever is your preference) by the RIAA/MPAA/IFPI and similar organizations.

These security measures involve concealing one’s identity, connecting through a secure VPN over a local open wireless network, having someone unrelated register all your domains, paying with disposable credit cards, hosting in an “exotic” country, and the like. Here’s a particularly revealing paragraph:

“I never let anyone know anything important about me, no matter how small. Small clues can easily add up to answers when put together like a jigsaw. Let people think they know your real name if you like, it’s functional and no-one really gets hurt. For the survival of the site I believe it’s acceptable for me to lie about my country of origin, my age, marital status and even my sex, but beware, pretending to be a girl will get you LOTS of attention! Look after the small things and everything else looks after itself.”

As a side remark, from a technical standpoint, I can find certain holes in this person’s security measures. I guess it goes to show that you can never get paranoid enough (;.

Opinions about the activities described in the article will invariably differ from person to person; one might think of this person as a hero, while other will describe him as a common criminal. Regardless, I find the article fascinating; it’s an eye opener to where we stand as far as the freedom to pursue certain practices (like running a BitTorrent tracker) on the internet goes.

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