Jackson Traffic Threatened to Break Internet

(NEWSER) - Television is still churning out Michael Jackson-related content, but Web surfers quickly lost interest after his death, Jeff Jarvis writes for BuzzMachine. “We had consuming interest in Jackson when the news came out but that quickly faded,” Jarvis writes, citing Blogpulse and Google Trends data on Jackson traffic. “Yet cable news and the network morning shows especially are still ODing on MJ.” More»

Twitter tries and fails to take down another celebrity

(NEWSER) - Bill Cosby is not dead, despite what you might have read on the Internet this afternoon. In fact, the 73-year-old comedy legend is alive, well, and making up words on Twitter, reports WPIX . Using a term he created after a similar false alarm in February, he tweeted today, "Again, I'm rebutalling rumors about my demise." He added , "Emotional friends have called about this misinformation. To the people behind the foolishness, I’m not sure you see how upsetting this is." To learn more about things the web has actually killed, click here . More»

From NBC's site to Twitter lists, little need for actual TV

(NEWSER) - With watching the Olympics on actual TV being so, like, 2008, TechCrunch presents the best places to keep tabs online:

• NBC Olympics : Lots of scores and news—and if you’re a premium cable customer, 400 hours of live events.
• Vancouver 2010 : The host committee’s site has the usual stuff, plus maps and more local flavor.
• Facebook : The news, plus status updates and photos from athletes.

$25M search deals with Microsoft, Google push it barely into black

(NEWSER) - Twitter will be marginally profitable this year thanks to deals with Google and Microsoft that open up the social networking site’s streams to those companies’ search engines. The agreement with Google is worth about $15 million, while the Microsoft partnership should net Twitter around $10 million. The short message site is thought to have operating expenses between $20 million and $25 million. More»

Son's lucrative exploitation also includes book deal

(NEWSER) - Move over, Al Bundy: A project based @shitmydadsays, the Twitter feed engineered by the son of a cantankerous father, has been picked up by CBS. The creators of Will and Grace are on board as executive producers, with that selfsame transcriber of a son taking writing duties. The microblog’s title will change once on-air, the Hollywood Reporter adds, helpfully. More»