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Verizon Wireless this week told companies that send out text messagesthat starting Nov. 1 it will impose a fee of 3 cents for each message it delivers to the phones of its subscribers. The plan prompted waves of protest among many of the companies that use text messages, and Verizon has backed off the details.

The 3-cent fee would be in addition to the fee of as much as 20 cents that those subscribers pay Verizon to receive the same message.

Text messages have become a popular way for companies to send bits of information to customers — sports scores, flight delays, bank balances or the latest updates from a social network.

The charge by Verizon Wireless, the nation’s second-largest cellphone service provider after AT&T, may prompt companies that have been working to tap into the texting boom to rethink their strategies. Many may simply stop sending messages to Verizon customers.

Steve Livingston, the director of marketing for mBlox, which processes text messages for companies including News Corporation’s MySpace social network and The New York Times, said the volume of messages it handles could fall by more than half.

Read more @ The New York Times

After months of experimenting with long-form video, YouTube said on Friday it would start offering full-length episodes of some television shows on its sprawling Web site.

The staggering growth of YouTube — five billion videos were viewed there in July — has come primarily from short videos that last only a few minutes. But Internet users are gradually becoming more comfortable watching longer videos online, prompting YouTube’s commitment to the format.

“This is what the users want,” said Jordan Hoffner, the director of content partnerships for YouTube.

With the addition of TV series like “Dexter,” “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Star Trek” through a deal with CBS, YouTube is catching up to other Web sites that have promoted long-form video for some time.

Continue reading @ The New York Times