Welcome to July's Click-thru, your indispensable round-up of the latest online industry news, brought direct to your inbox from the Internet Advertising Bureau.

The close of the 2006 World Cup is approaching and although there is little to celebrate about the displays of England in the competition, the internet has, thankfully, perfomed much better throughout the tournament. Much was made in the months leading up to the show-piece event about how 2006's competition was going to be the internet World Cup. But few could have predicted the volume of traffic heading online, hungry for news, highlights and broadband powered live games.

Other stories to tempt your cursor this month include the calls for certifying website content by age; Channel 4 making broadcasting history; and YouTube and Facebook's influence continuing to grow.

Elsewhere our comment piece this month traces the progression of podcasting since it bcame the latest technological watchword at the beginning of last year.

All this and a story about David Hasselhoff... Who needs footballing success when you've got the Hoff?

Kind regards



Guy Phillipson
IAB, CEO

Podcasts: A tasty alternative? Podcasting was declared word of the year in 2005. Has its pan flashed? Or is this on-the-go media continuing to flourish? As individuals and now brand owners recognise the potential of the medium, the IAB trace the story of podcasting so far. Read the full podcast story

The online audience

Internet is super-sub as 31 million highlights clips are downloaded from Fifa Word Cup site The internet has been facilitating a football-crazy world. In the first week of the World Cup, obsessed fans downloaded more than 31 million clips of streamed video from the official Fifa World Cup site. Figures that may support law firm Brabners Chaffe Street's pre-tournament prediction that workers following the action online during office hours could cost businesses £4billion. Meanwhile Blake Chandlee, of site and tournament sponsor Yahoo!, has described 2006's tournament as a truely internet event. Read more on the internet World Cup at Revolution, Times online and the BBC. BBFC calls for film classification system for websites Soon your favourite websites could be accompanied with a U, PG or even 18 certificate. The British Board of Film Classification has called for a voluntary certification scheme for the internet, where websites could warn users of possible sex, violence or bad language. Read more on the BBFC website certification proposal at the Times online UK consumers pants are on fire! New research from email marketing firm Adestra has revealed that 54% of UK consumers admit to filling in false information on the internet. Adestra warns that marketers' customer data could, therefore, be deeply flawed and calls for increased use of behavioural targeting to ensure successful email campaigns. Read more on the Adestra survey at netimperative The Hoff: Big in Germany, massive on the internet Speedo-sporting, car-chatting, slow-mo moving, chest-haired legend David Hasselhoff features in more viral emails than any other male star according to a Pipex poll. The Hoff also is searched for online more than any other cult hero beating Mr T and Arnie. Read more on the internet's obssession with the Hoff on the Sun website

Entertainment

TV

Niche ipTV channels fulfilling passions High speed broadband connections mean that, not only can you find websites and blogs on your favourite hobbies, but there is also a growing possibility that you could also discover entire online TV channels dedicated to your passions too. A BBC article discusses the growing number of niche ipTV channels that are springing up on the "open network" that broadband facilitates. Read more on ipTV at the BBC The Times moving with TV As more niche ipTV channels spring up across the internet media owners are beginning to recognise the benefits of launching their own services to bolster their online presence. Times TV launched in June, supplying news clips from third party providers and eventually newsworthy content from readers, the Times hopes the service will boost its online audience. Read more on Times TV at the Times online The Channel 4 online broadcasting History was made in June when Channel 4 became the first broadcaster to begin broadcasting the majority of its programming live on the internet. Chief executive, Andy Duncan, hopes the scheme will boost Channel 4 revenues and will begin selling advsertising space on the internet stream later this year, once they have had the opportunity to assess the volume of online viewers. Read more on Channel 4's online broadcasting at the Times Online

Radio

Radio 1's Easter figures egged on by Murray's "big gay disco" dance After a record breaking Easter the Radio 1 website continues to perform well, with 1m users visiting the site each week, according to BBC Online statistics for April. Despite internet traffic being generally down for the Easter period, Radio 1 figures were boosted by DJ Colin Murray's "big gay disco dance" video, which was downloaded 368,000 times through the site, with YouTube swelling that figure by a further million. Read more on Radio 1's record breaking Easter at Brand Republic

Online news

Guardian to launch "web first" service The Guardian is set to launch its "web first" service that will see it become the first British national newspaper to put major news from business journalists and foreign correspondents online before they appear in print. The Guardian believes the move - a departure from the widely used "once-a-day" publishing - will benefit the Guardian's growing global audience. Read more on the Guardian's "web first" service at the Media Guardian

Online community sites

Oh, YouTube likes to be by NBC's side NBC will promote clips of their shows on YouTube after the broadcaster signed a deal with the video sharing website. NBC will also run a competition on the YouTube site where fans of the US comedy series The Office can create their own promo ads for the show. The NBC/ YouTube agreement is surprising as it was only February when NBC threatened YouTube with legal action over copyright infringement. Read more on NBC's collaboration with YouTube on the Media Guardian YouTube threatens cultural revolution A Sunday Times article in June discussed the impact of YouTube, where it claimed the video site was a "sensation" that is threatening to become a "cultural revolution". YouTube enables people to post and rate videos of themselves or clips of interest online. 50,000 plus video clips are uploaded daily with many being watched an astonishing 50 million times. Read more on YouTube at the Times Online It's official... Facebook better than sex Facebook is another online social networking site that is threatening to take over the world. A lifestyle tracking survey of the most important things in US students' lives has revealed that beer, iPods and Facebook make up the top three. Facebook has been described as an online who's who, where people can network and advertise their parties and politics. It must be good, students in the US value it more than sex! Read more on Facebook at the BBC

Broadband

TalkTalk's free broadband walks the walk The demand for TalkTalk's "free" broadband offer has been described as overwhelming by the Carphone Warehouse. In just eight weeks 340,000 customers have signed up, double the company's initial forecast. Despite the demand and call centre queues, Carphone Warehouse chief executive, Charles Dunstone, has stated that "every single customer is going live ahead of time". Read more on TalkTalk's free broadband at the Media Guardian

Blogging

Another hungry blog to feed The editors across BBC news joined forces to launch a blog in June, ingeniously called The Editors. Intended as a discussion forum for news programming issues and dilemmas, The Editors offers a valuable insight into the news gathering process. Read more on The Editors at the BBC UK says blogg off! Despite the UK being perceived as a nation of curtain twitchers, it would appear we are not actually that interested in other peoples' business after all. Blogging in the UK is less than half as popular as it is in the US an international newspaper readers' study has revealed. Read more on the international newspaper readers' study at the Media Guardian

Online Creative

Viral

Always look on the 'coke side of life' The "coke side of life" campaign is using a viral campaign to show that the iconic fizzy drink is 'happiness in a bottle'. A series of films have been created using online to help move the campaign beyond traditional advertising. Read more on the 'coke side of life' at Brand Republic Ecko and the graffiti-men Droga5's viral campaign for, clothing company Ecko featuring a graffiti artist tagging Air Force One with the words "still free" has shared the Cyber Lions Grand Prix prize with Crispin Porter & Bogusky. Building on Ecko's 'still free' graffiti heritage, the campaign was created to boost the clothing line's street credibility. Read more on the Droga5 viral for Ecko at Brand Republic 1-2-3-4 Nabs declares a thumb war A fundraising viral for NABs features two thumbs battling it out in the ring to become the ultimate thumb war champion. The campaign from BLAC encourages agency teams to create individual costumes for their thumbs. The public will eventually vote for the ultimate champion. Read more on the Thumb Wars at Brand Republic

Online awards, events and polls

glue London's 'Ave a word' campaign for Mini has one May's Creative Showcase Awards.The MINI Cooper S campaign from glue London uses email and viral movies to engage the target audience for its new model and features hard man Daniel delivering a blunt personalised message in a viral email to male drivers.

Visit bannerblog to view a gallery of all the latest online creative

IAB's Engage for Brands Wed July 12, 2006 The IAB has organised this event to ensure that marketers can understand how their brand communication can adapt to the opportunities the internet offers. In a compact half-day programme, you will hear the latest research demonstrating the impact of online marketing on brand awareness and favourability. Book your place

Global snapshot

The internet is the at-work medium A new US research study from the Online Publishers Association (OPA) has revealed that the internet dominates television for at-work media use. The study called, "A Day in the Life: An Ethnographic Study of Media Consumption reported that the internet has a 54.6% reach at work, compared to TV's 21.1%. Read more on the OPA study at emarketer IAB US report adspend figures close to $4billion The US Interactive advertising Bureau's survey with PwC reported that 2006 Q1 adspend reached a new record of $3.9bn, a year on year increase of 38%. Read more on the IAB US/ PwC adspend study at the ft