Barring a last-minute fix or change of strategy, at midnight Tuesday Hulu.com will switch from a co-host for online video of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report to a referral engine for the popular shows. Viacom (NYSE: VIA) execs like to call it a test but…

News aggregator Daylife will begin reselling pictures posted by users of London-based citizen-photo journalism site Demotix to create an “open image wire service.” The arrangement is an expansion of Daylife’s existing image programs. Last fall, Daylife began partnering with Getty Images—which is also an investor in Daylife—on products that lets…

Celebrity gossip site TMZ has quietly unveiled a gentler fashion-oriented offshoot called Too Fab. Although TMZ maintains high traffic—February uniques were up 6 percent to 14 million, per comScore (NSDQ: SCOR)—and gained new credibility by breaking the news of Michael Jackson’s death last year, many advertisers remain uncomfortable with the…

With services that make it easy for users to share their location—like FourSquare and Gowalla—gaining buzz and usage, Facebook is finally set to fire back with its own move into the hot location-aware space. The NYT reports that the social network will release a new feature in late April that…

Plancast, a startup which lets users share their plans, has raised $800,000 from SoftTechVC, True Ventures, Founders Fund Angel, Zelkova Ventures, as well as a number of angel investors. On Plancast, users post what they plan on doing later; users can track each others’ accounts and also indicate publicly that…

PlumWillow, a to-be-launched social shopping site betting that teens will skip the mall for online—as long as online shopping is social enough—has raised a seed round led by Crossbar Capital. The site promises to “empower its members to shop together with friends, make wardrobe choices from multiple brands, design their…

It took just two years for Gabe Rivera to have four verticals, including tech “front page” Techmeme, running off his algorithm for discovering and highlighting news. The fourth site, BallBug, launched for opening day in 2006. It took four years to add one—Mediagazer, a site launching today to aggregate news…

IAC-owned local guide network Citysearch is expanding its local listings ad service CityGrid through a partnership with search marketer OrangeSoda. Citysearch is also providing an investment in Utah-based OrangeSoda, the amount of which is undisclosed. The move is part of a more aggressive effort by Citysearch to attract more ad…

Posterous, the popular quick blogging platform, has raised $4.4 million in additional funding, CEO Sachin Agarwal tells us. The site—which is likely best known for letting users blog simply by e-mailing text, photos, or files to a default Posterous account—has grand ambitions for its service; it says it “wants to…

iVillage is looking to expand its advertising role to include sites not specifically aligned with parent NBC Universal (NYSE: GE). The female-focused lifestyle site has struck a deal with recipes and nutrition information and part of EatingWell Media Group to oversee advertising for EatingWell.com. The move is seen as a…

No need for explaining, watch the clip.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO) held its advertising upfront yesterday and unlike the traditional TV upfront events that are getting under way, the focus here was the company’s range of cross-platform offerings, all of which are tied together with social media elements. The centerpiece of the presentation was a…

Roger Ebert thrives on the web. Now he’d like to get paid for it but not by blocking access to the site or its 10,000-review archive. Instead the Chicago Sun-Times movie critic—a master blogger and tweeter—is going the value-added route, launching The Ebert Club: annual subscriptions $4.99 through the end…

When Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) unveiled Windows Phone 7 last month, we figured that was the extent of its comeback plans in mobile. But now, there’s evidence that the software giant has something else up its sleeve. Two reports released today from unnamed sources indicate that Microsoft’s “Project Pink” is alive…

The other day, MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) Judy McGrath was asked about the company’s image in the age of the Jersey Shore, and she talked about reality shows hooking younger viewers, which is the ultimate focus for the network. Today, at the Billboard Music & Money Symposium, Billboard’s Antony Bruno…

Former MySpace (NYSE: NWS) CEO Chris DeWolfe—who left MySpace last April—is back in the social media space via the acquisition of social games portal MindJolt. DeWolfe is partnering with fellow MySpace co-founders Colin Digiaro and Aber Whitcomb, along with VC firm Austin Ventures, to buy the company. He’ll also join…

As traditional dating sites stagnate, investors appear to be sensing an opportunity in social dating startups. European venture fund 360 Capital Partners is investing $2.2 million in SmartDate.com, a social dating site which launched just three months ago. The site integrates with Facebook Connect so that users can link up…

Playdom, which said it would use some of its recent $43 million funding round for acquisitions, is following through on that pledge. The social gaming company is buying up Offbeat Creations, the developer of several Facebook titles, including dice game Super Farkle, which has more than one million users. Super…

Arkayne, which makes a plug-in designed to automatically add related links to web pages, has raised $1 million in an angel round. The plug-in scans all of the posts on a website in order to automatically suggest related items that a visitor should read. A version for bloggers with “moderate…