Meteor Solutions, which helps companies track conversations as they travel through social media sites, has named Taddy Hall as chief operating officer. Hall, the co-author of the “The Online Advertising Playbook,” is the former Chief Strategy Officer for the Advertising Research Foundation.

Marchex, the Seattle online search and advertising company, said in a regulatory filing that Jonathan Fram, a partner at Seattle VC firm Maveron, has resigned from the company’s board. Marchex said the resignation "was not as a result of any disagreement with the Company or its management.” Fram served on the Marchex board since 2003.

Seattle biotech company Oncothyreon has hired Scott Peterson, formerly of ZymoGenetics, to be its vice president for research and development.

Northstar Neuroscience, which said in January it plans to shut down, has taken steps to get delisted from the NASDAQ. John Bowers stepped down as CEO and will be consulting with the company as it dismantles operations, Northstar said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The New York Times has an amusing article about how some authors, including humorist David Sedaris, are being asked to autograph electronic readers like the Kindle at book signings.

Headline of the day comes via GigaOm: "Tips on Innovation & Entrepreneurship from Jeff Bezos"  (And more quotes from Bezos’ talk via Tim O’Reilly)

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and Allen wrestles PaulAllen.org away from ‘Paul Alien’ filmmaker  

What’s in a name? A lot, if you are Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen — the software mogul who has tied his well-known moniker to high-profile philanthropic, research and business ventures.

But for the longest time, there was one important piece of the digital frontier that Allen didn’t own: PaulAllen.org. That has now changed, after a 3-person panel of the National Arbitration Forum ruled that Allen was entitled to the domain name.

But there’s more to the story. The Web site — at www.paulallen.org — had previously been owned by a Seattle-area independent filmmaker and monthly newspaper publisher who had used the Web site to promote his films, including a sci-fi satire of Allen known as "Paul Alien."

The decision granting the site to Allen was actually made Oct. 27. But Alex Mayer, the filmmaker who registered the domain in 2005, said he learned only recently that he had lost control of the site to one of the world’s richest men. Mayer found out when his hosting provider sent him a copy of the decision from the National Arbitration Forum.

"You think they would have notified me of it," said Mayer. "It brings up a free-speech thing. I understand registering BradPitt.com, but in this case it was a parody."

David Postman, a spokesman for Allen, said the company attempted to reach Mayer on a number of occasions but the email and physical address provided on the domain registration papers didn’t work.

As to Mayer’s claims that his ownership of the site was protected by his right to free speech, Postman said that the parody and satire claims didn’t hold much water in this case. "He was selling videos of his project and doing it by trading on the name of Paul Allen," said Postman. "It is a domain name that should clearly be in Paul’s control and not someone who is trying to make a buck off his name."

Postman noted that Mayer had taken large portions of the legitimate Paul Allen Web sites in order to make his site look as if it was connected to the billionaire.

Postman said they don’t have any big plans for the URL, though they will most likely re-direct visitors to one of Allen’s other Web sites. Allen already owns PaulAllen.com and PGAFoundations.com.

Mayer said he probably wouldn’t have fought the issue had he been notified.

"This project is long over," he said. "I have two kids now and live in the suburbs."

However, Mayer did say that he recently reduced the length of "Paul Alien" film to 20 minutes in length so it could be posted on Facebook. He thinks the shorter version is funnier, but it’s not quite a cult classic yet.

"I never made any money on it, but I did get some street cred," Mayer said.

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and Microsoft rethinking Soapbox after struggling against YouTube  

Microsoft is considering ways to "focus" its Soapbox user-generated video feature to fit the content and strategy on its MSN portal, executive Erik Jorgensen confirmed today. As reported by CNet News.com, that would essentially remove the company from direct competition with Google’s YouTube, the site that Microsoft was hoping to rival when it launched Soapbox less than three years ago.

But Jorgensen, MSN corporate vice president and chief media officer, declined to use such definitive terms when we spoke with him by phone this afternoon. No final decision has been made, he said, and MSN overall isn’t giving up on user-generated video.

"Soapbox as a destination isn’t as important to us as user-generated video content across the network," Jorgensen said. "That’s the whole premise of what we’re doing. The idea of user-generated video content is super important. The role of that (Soapbox) brand and the way it fits into MSN is something we’re continuing to explore, to figure out how it’s most useful and relevant to the MSN audience."

The site was positioned as a YouTube rival when it was launched in September 2006, with one Microsoft executive pointing out then that it was still "early days" in the user-generated video market. But Soapbox as a brand never gained significant ground on YouTube.

"Video in general is huge for us," Jorgensen said this afternoon. "We are looking at ways in which we get user-generated and blogger and social media through video in a smarter way moving forward — in a way that ties in directly to our content strategy for MSN in general."

The company, he said, is looking at Soapbox to see how it can "improve it and focus its effort moving forward."

Soapbox is housed on the broader MSN Video site.

Companywide, Microsoft has been making a series of cutbacks in the face of the difficult economy. The company last week said it plans to stop selling its Microsoft Money financial management software, the latest in a series of consumer software programs and online services to be discontinued.

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Amazon snaps up SnapTell  

Amazon.com’s search unit, A9, has purchased mobile image search startup SnapTell for an undisclosed price, according to a blog post from the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company.

SnapTell, which has a popular iPhone application, has developed a service that allows camera phone users to snap a photo of a product — say a DVD or video game — and have it identified with pricing information and reviews from Google, Amazon or eBay, reports TechCrunch.

Obviously, that sort of technology could have wide ranging applications for an online retailer such as Amazon, allowing it to compete for customers as they shop for goods in retail stores. It is also intriguing to see the acquisition tied to A9.

SnapTell said in the blog post that it will continue to add innovative features in order to "provide a great visual shopping experience."

"One of the most heard requests was how we could integrate better with Amazon’s fabulous shopping experience … We should be able to do so pretty well now," the company wrote.

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