MySpace has launched an internally developed application called Primetime that is essentially a custom media player providing access to all of Hulu’s video content. The app allows you to embed the player on your personal homepage and profile, and lets you to search Hulu and watch video from within the player.

MySpace previously allowed users to watch some of this content – like Saturday Night Live and 24 – via a special page on the site, but now, users can simply watch whatever they want from their homepage or profile (where there friends can also watch and in turn add the app). Like Hulu, videos will include various forms of advertising like pre and post-roll commercials.

While it’s not surprising that MySpace is moving to make better use of Hulu content – it is after all a joint venture between parent company News Corp and NBC Universal – it does represent a massive opportunity to expand Hulu’s distribution. MySpace is still the world’s second largest social networking site, reaching more than 100 million unique visitors per month.

And while Hulu has shown impressive growth in its first year, many of those 100 million MySpace visitors probably haven’t checked it out yet - that all changes with the Primetime app. Smart move by News Corp to better integrate these two properties.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Hulu on MySpaceTV PrimeTimeMySpace and HarperCollins Hook Up in Hopes that Teens Still Read BooksVeoh Taking Over Prime Time TV?MySpaceTV Signs the BBCMicrosoft Photosynth To Appear On CSI:New YorkHappy Holidays Hulu Style: 2500 InvitesHulu Worked for Video. How About Music?

Source:Mashable!

Popacular, a site that measures popularity of websites according to the number of related tweets, has a huge counter that counts the overall number of tweets. I don’t know how accurate this thing can be, given that it’s third party, but if it is, then we’ve recently surpassed the billionth tweet mark.

This is just another sign of how big Twitter has become. For comparison, Facebook recently announced they host 10 billion photos in their database; however, Facebook is huge and has been around much longer than Twitter. If anyone ever needed a clear sign that Twitter has gone mainstream - however you define it - this milestone is it.

Also, seeing that counter spin amazingly fast makes us sorry for all those times we’ve made fun of Twitter’s engineers for not being able to keep the site up during a traffic rush. Sorry, guys, we understand now.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Current TV to Integrate Twitter into Presidential Debate CoverageTwitter Local - Find Out Who’s Tweeting Near YouTwitter: What’s The Best Business Model?Twitter to Launch Special Site for Tracking the Presidential DebatesTwit.io: And the Twitter Economy Lives OnTwitter Vote Report Will Track Election Day Shadiness (and Long Lines)Twitter + Location Based Feeds = TwitterWhere

Source:Mashable!

This article is part of the Open Web Awards, an open, international contest for the best websites and services.

Unlike most categories in The Open Web Awards, social shopping is comprised largely of companies that sell physical goods (or at least procure them on behalf of their customers). Last year, our people’s choice winner was Zlio, a French company that lets you create your own online stores, while our judge’s choice was Woot, the “deal a day” website with a cult-like following.

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—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Yahoo Divesting in Shopping Site KelkooZlio Partners with Shopping.com in the USStyleFeeder Customizes Shopping.com Search, Joins Glam NetworkMyShape’s Personal Shopper FundedThisNext Gets Another $5M So Social Shopping Can Live OnMyThings Giftlist Tries to Prevent Lame Christmas PresentsOsoyou, Women’s Social Network, Gets $2 Million

Today’s Examiner features a front-page story on Moose’s, the recently remodeled North Beach bar-with-a-very-nice-restaurant-attached that Valleywag has taken over as our Friday happy hour spot. Co-owner and bar dominatrix Valen “rhymes with Van Halen” West lets Owen park his PowerBook right where 20th-century gossip legend Herb Caen’s typewriter used to be. I’ll be there, too, with a couple extra pairs of sunglasses in case you forgot yours. 4 p.m. until Owen’s corporate card maxes out. 1652 Stockton Street on Washington Square. Valet parking for Valley people, or the 9X/30/45 lines for Munitards. (Photo by Jason Steinberg/San Francisco Examiner)

Source:Valleywag

A constant thorn in copyright-holders’s sides, The Pirate Bay is finally taking on water. Swedish authorities, aided by evidence gathered during a 2006 raid, are preparing legal battle against captains Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm for “conspiracy to breach copyrights.” Although Pirate Bay doesn’t actively host files, it indexes shared BitTorrent files, which in Hollywood’s eyes makes it equally culpable. The founders are confident they’ll win. The prosecutor, Hakan Roswell, is confident that even if they lose, it “wouldn’t stop the service.” Of course. If Sweden cracks down, the pirates will just seek less-hostile waters.

Source:Valleywag

Valleywag has learned that Amazon.com has invested $4 million in sale-a-day e-commerce site Woot. The deal gives Amazon right of first refusal to buy the company should Woot hit certain unnamed sales targets, want to go public, or sell to another company. For the most part, the companies operate independently. But there’s more to Woot, and its ties to Amazon, than meets the eye.

The company has an extensive back-end sales and distribution network, buying and selling closeout goods to other companies in the industry, including finding items for Amazon to sell on its Gold Box promotion site. It’s expanding into T-shirts and wine, as well. Its fulfillment operations are large and sophisticated enough to qualify for FedEx and USPS’s SmartPost service (though plenty of users have complained about missed SmartPost deliveries, so that’s nothing to brag about). Perhaps the most astounding tidbit of information we got? Woot gets 250,000 views in the first three minutes after midnight from consumers looking to grab the next new item for sale.

First $150, then $129. Now, Woot, the deal-a-day online retail site, is selling the first-gen Zune for $99 to any suckers who overpaid the first two times. No refund this time either. [Woot]

Well, that was much too easy. The organizers of the Demo conference, it turns out, have gone back on promises made on the website (”the list is not released prior to the conference”) and has put the list of startups appearing at next week’s event out in a press release. Bastards! The list is technically embargoed until Monday at 7 a.m., but if so, why’d they put it out on the Net? Well, it turns out that the secret secret is what the companies plan to demonstrate. So here’s your chance to send in the real dirt: If you have the inside track on any planned demonstrations, send it in by Sunday. After the jump, the full list of companies.

DEMOfall 07 Demonstrators

360desktop, Pty Ltd.; Victoria, Australia; www.360desktop.com
Advanta; Spring House, PA; www.ideablob.com
AgendiZe; Grapevine, TX; www.agendize.com
Apprema, Inc.; Sunnyvale, CA;www.apprema.com
Attendi, Inc.; New York, NY; www.attendi.com
BatchBlue Software, LLC; Barrington, RI; www.batchblue.com
CashView, Inc.; Palo Alto, CA; www.CashView.com
Check Point Software Technologies, Ltd.; Redwood City, CA; www.checkpoint.com
ClipBlast!; Agoura Hills, CA; www.clipblast.com
coComment; Geneva, Switzerland; www.cocomment.com
CodaSystem France S.A.; Paris, France; www.shootandproof.com
CornerWorld; Dallas, TX; www.cornerworld.com
Digital Fountain; Fremont, CA; www.digitalfountain.com
Diigo, Inc.; Reno, NV; www.diigo.com
DimDim, Inc.; Burlington, MA; www.dimdim.com
earthmine, Inc.; Berkeley, CA; www.earthmine.com
EncryptaKey; Cypress, CA; www.encryptakey.com
Exalead, Inc.; New York, NY; www.exalead.com
FastCall411, Inc.; Hollywood, CA; www.fastcall411.com
Fluid Innovation, Inc.; Austin, TX; www.fluidinnovation.com
Fusion-io; Salt Lake City, UT; www.fusionio.com
Generate, Inc., Maynard, MA; www.generateinc.com
Glam Media; Brisbane, CA; www.glammedia.com
Global Communications, Inc.; Houston, TX; www.globalcasttv.net
Global Mobile Technologies, LLP; San Francisco, CA; www.push-it.com
Graspr, Inc.; Sunnyvale, CA; www.graspr.com
iForem, Inc.; Redwood Shores, CA; www.iforem.com
InstaColl; Bangalore, India; www.live-documents.com
Jasper Wireless; Sunnyvale, CA; www.jasperwireless.com
kannuu, Inc.; Dallas, TX; www.kannuu.com
LiveMocha, Inc.; Bellevue, WA; www.livemocha.com
LogMeIn, Inc.; Woburn, MA; www.logmein.com
LongJump; Sunnyvale, CA; www.longjump.com
matchmine, LLC; Needham, MA; www.matchmine.com
MetaRADAR, Inc.; San Bruno, CA; www.metaradar.com
mig33; Burlingame, CA; www.mig33.com
MotionDSP, Inc.; San Mateo, CA; www.motiondsp.com
mSpoke, Inc.; Pittsburgh, PA; www.mspoke.com
MuseStorm, Ltd.; Yahud, Israel; www.musestorm.com
Myndnet; East Palo Alto, CA; www.myndnet.com
Myxer; Deerfield Beach, FL; www.myxer.com
Ncursion; Carlsbad, CA; www.ncursion.com
PeopleJam, Inc.; Los Angeles, CA; www.peoplejam.com
Phreesia, Inc.; New York, NY; www.phreesia.com
PlanHQ; Wellington, New Zealand; www.planhq.com
Prolify, Inc.; Waltham, MA; www.prolify.com
Propel Software Corporation; San Jose, CA; www.propel.com
Proxure; San Luis Obispo, CA; www.proxure.com
Pudding Media, Inc.; San Jose, CA; www.thepudding.com
Quire, Inc.; Mountain View, CA; www.myquire.com
Qumranet; Santa Clara, CA; www.qumranet.com
Real Time Content, Ltd.; Ipswich, England; www.realtimecontent.com
RedSquare Ventures, Ltd.; Moscow, Russia; www.redsquareventures.com
RelevantMind, Corp.; Berkeley, CA; www.RelevantMind.com
SceneCaster; Richmond Hill, Canada; www.scenecaster.com
SpaceTime; New York, NY; www.spacetime.com
spigit; Pleasanton, CA; www.spigit.com
Sway, Inc.; Middleton; WI; www.shoutlet.com
Talari Networks, Inc.; Cupertino, CA; www.talarinetworks.com
Trovix; Mountain View, CA; www.trovix.com
Truphone; London, England; www.truphone.com
Tubes Networks, Inc.; Boston, MA; www.TubesNow.com
Tungle Corporation; Montreal, Canada; www.tungle.com
Vello; Mountain View, CA; www.myvello.com
Vitarati, Inc.; San Luis Obispo, CA; www.seenr.com
Vyro Games, Ltd.; Dublin, Ireland; www.vyro-games.com
WMS Gaming; Waukegan, IL; www.wms.com
Your Truman Show, Inc.; San Francisco, CA; www.YourTrumanShow.com
Yuuguu, Ltd.; Manchester, England; www.yuuguu.com

Source:Valleywag

Woot has even more Zunes to “give” away at the bargain price of $129. Apparently the fire sale is to clear shelf space for a rumored Zune 2.0 — though at these prices, who will be left to buy the new version? [Woot]