Brands used to fear consumer generated content. Jimmy equates this fear to the early days of the Internet when it consisted primarily of negativity on forums and message boards. Since it has now reached a higher level of quality and credibility, companies see the value in using it.

Brands such as Pepsi and Burger King have embraced consumer generated content through advertising and have received a large response from the community. Jimmy believes that any brand can find a way to advertise using CGM, but each brand has to discover how to interact with the consumer in order to be successful.

So, what’s in store for the future of consumer generated content such as Wikipedia? For starters, we should expect to see a lot more of it. Jimmy also predicts we will see other forms of CGM emerging that will offer even more business opportunities. It will be challenging, but success doesn’t usually come without hard work and innovation.

Speaking specifically about Wikipedia, Jimmy also clarifies what Wikipedia actually is and the reasoning behind Wikia Search shutting down.

Previously, Topix allowed its users to access the news of any region of their interest and to comment and discuss it. The response was great. Over 1 million people posted more than 5 million comments, which totaled up to more than 30,000 comments each day. The majority of the traffic was from local channels. The only problem — there was still a lack of local news even with 50,000 news sources. The news that was there, was not able to be conformed enough with merely algorithms. As a result of these findings, Topix.com completely opened up their site in order to give any user the power to discuss, as well as edit and share the news of their choice.

Topix is unique in that, no one else has all the local content around news that they have. People in small towns especially enjoy the site, if their town does not receive a lot of coverage.Topix acquires around 10 million comments each month. According to Tolles, Topix considers themselves to be a standard body and not a journalists’ organization. They do not want to give any one person full authority over a specific region.

In the beginning, Topix founders created the first open development directory for the Internet called the Open Directory Project, but is now the largest human-edited web directory. Jimmy Wales, best known for his role in founding Wikipedia, was a first licensee of of the Open Directory. According to Tolles, Wales credits the Open Directory Project as the genesis behind the idea of Wikipedia. Tolles does point out that they borrowed the idea of logging and making public logs from Wikipedia.

According to Tolles, advertising has been a difficult issue for Topix. They currently only use Google, but will most likely begin to directly sell to specific advertisers. Topix.com does include a Classified Ad section on its site that is being monetized on Google. As they obtain more traffic, they will get more ads. According to Tolles, it’s a challenge to monetize locally, especially since everyone is not on the Web right now. They believe time is in their favor since the Internet is continuing to grow and flourish.

Microsoft has also staffed more than 200 employees trained in Exchange and Outlook to answer phone calls. Microsoft has seen a 68 percent increase in support calls related to DST. Many computers require an update to adjust to the new time. Personal consumer support calls remain free, but Microsoft charges companies using Windows 2000, Exchange 2000 and Exchange five-point-five or any other products that don’t have mainstream support around four thousand dollars to patch up old products.

Connecticut lawmakers argued over a bill on Thursday to compel social-networking sites such as MySpace to confirm users’ ages and make minors to get parental consent before creating profiles. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal proposed the bill to shield children from sexual predators. Blumenthal sited six alleged sexual assaults in Connecticut with older men and under-aged girls linked to MySpace last year. Blumenthal said applicants would present a driver’s license or other form of identification and the Internet site would check the age, address and date of birth. Sites that don’t verify ages under 18 without parental consent could face civil penalties of up to five thousand dollars. If passed, this would signify the first bill in the United States to inflict rules on the social-networking sites.

Analysts think Yahoo will lose after a probable reorganizing of its deal with AT&T. The Wall Street Journal reported today that AT&T looks for a review of how the companies contribute to advertising and Internet access revenue in their years-long arrangement to sell cobranded broadband services to customers in the U.S. Yahoo obtains between 200 and 250 million dollars in annual revenue from the partnership, but the Wall Street Journal said AT&T seemed stronger and less dependent on Yahoo.

Yahoo’s stock dropped almost five percent of Friday.

Pope Benedict called a press conference on Friday to endorse family values and disapprove of the Internet and Television. The Pope believes both mediums have a “destructive” influence on young people. The Pope said the media had a “pervasive role in shaping culture,” and that the control has shifted from print to electronic media. The Pope asked for the media leaders to protect the common good, support the truth, guard human dignity and encourage respect for family needs.

Nonprofit online encyclopedia Wikipedia plans on building a search engine to secure five percent of the Internet search market. Founder Jimmy Wales expects Wikia to compete with Google and Yahoo. Wikia will focus on specific markets and make money from advertising revenue. Wales said the collaborative search technology could change the power structure of the web. Wales acknowledged that the company received a four million dollar investment from “angel investors,” as well as a very large investment from Amazon.

Internet advertising revenue reached sixteen point eight billion dollars during 2006. The fourth quarter of 2006 was the highest quarter ever, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau;revenues for that period were just under four point eight billion. IAB CEO and President, Randall Rothenberg stated, “The continued growth in Interactive advertising is clearly based on marketers’ recognition that they connect with consumers most effectively through Interactive media. The increase underscores marketers’ understanding that Interactive advertising can engage consumers, build brands and sell products and services.”

Mike Arrington at TechCrunch reported that blog ad firm Federated Media was raising money and looking for a buyer. John Battelle later commented that neither statement was true, although like any startup, a future sale could take place. Apparently advertising is booming on blogs too! Accoding to Arrington Federated Media projects $30 million in sales and “several million dollars” in profit in 2007.

YouTube fans in Turkey will not be able to reach the video-sharing site. A Turkish court ordered the country’s biggest telecom to block access to YouTube after videos insulting the founding father of Turkey appeared on the site. Turkish media notes the ongoing “virtual war” between Turkish and Greek site visitors. Insulting videos seems to be a standard method of attack. The video implied that the Turkey founder was gay. Insulting Ataturk is called Turkishness and is a crime punishable by prison.

Wikipedia will still allow contributors to be anonymous. But after a prominent editor who claimed to be a theology professor in a New Yorker magazine interview proved to be a college dropout, Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales said the website will require people to document the professional expertise they claim to have. Twenty four year old Ryan Jordan, was exposed as a dropout from Lexington Community College .. which by the way is only 5 minutes from WebProNews headquarters in Lexington KY.