If you haven't already read all the hoo-raw about Hulu, then check out Techcrunch and The Motley Fool with coverage on the planned launch coming in October. For some previous coverage, see Jason Kilar Named CEO of NBCU, News Corp Joint Video Venture and NBCU and News Corp Detail New Online Video Site.

Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu, wrote on the new site, "Objectively, Hulu is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and rhymes with itself. Subjectively, Hulu strikes us as an inherently fun name, one that captures the spirit of the service we're building."

Ahh, yes...and just think about the possible mispellings--wholou, hoolu, hooloo, or huluhoop!

That's why they get paid the big bucks.

In our wired, tech savvy world, Americans can access a potpourri of information anytime, anywhere. Indeed, with an Internet search engine and a few quick keystrokes, the average citizen has a treasure trove of information at their fingertips. But what are we looking for online? Searchin’ USA, an irreverent new Internet TV show charting the week’s top 10 most searched-for terms on the web, provides the hilarious answers.

The weekly show uses a tongue-in-cheek, mock newscast format reminiscent of E!’s Talk Soup and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, with a little bit of David Letterman’s top 10 lists thrown in, to both chronicle what Americans are searching for and give viewers a license to laugh and marvel at the results. Searchin’ does so by way of episodes comprised of three weekly recap segments, strung together for maximum humorous effect. To keep things interesting, each episode features a different combination of such segments, many with colorful titles such as, “Gotta Plead Ignorant,” “Is It Porn?” and “Mis-splellings.”

Industria and Ikivo have partnered to offer a new SVG-based user interface across Industria’s Zignal entertainment delivery suite for set-top box, PC and mobile TV services. The partnership will enhance the user experience of the Zignal media-services software suite, enabling Zignal to run faster and smoother across devices ranging from set-top boxes to mobile phones. The partnership includes licensing of Ikivo technology to be used in Industria’s Zignal solutions, and complements the TV set-top box and web browser platforms already supported by Zignal.

AT&T U-verse has been named "Best Business Strategy" by Stratecast, a subsidiary of Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company. AT&T U-verse TV is the nation's largest deployment of IPTV service and is currently offered to millions of households across nine states. AT&T U-verse services are enabled by a 100 percent Internet Protocol (IP)-based platform delivered over AT&T's fiber-rich network, which brings optical connections deeper into residential neighborhoods. This strategy allows AT&T to deploy cutting-edge IP-based television and Internet services using only a fraction of the capital required by other providers. AT&T plans to pass approximately 8 million households by the end of this year and expects to announce plans for the Southeast region later this year.

The fifth conference will be held on September 27-29 in Kyiv within the context of the exhibition ЕЕВС 2007 Telecom&Broadcasting. Such questions as prospects of implementation and development of the innovative technologies in the countries of Eastern Europe and CIS, legislation and regulation in ICT- industry, standardization, technology issues, business models and solutions for the operators of infocommunication services will be proposed for discussion to the ICT-specialists.

Harmonic announced support for high definition 1080p encoding at 24 frames per second on its market-leading MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) encoder, the DiviCom Electra 7000. Today, seven of the ten largest satellite operators worldwide utilize Harmonic’s compression systems, and the majority of these customers have selected the Electra 7000 to power their HD H.264 services. Harmonic also announced that it will showcase its next generation H.264 compression technology for 1080p at 60 or 50 fps -- currently the most advanced HD technology available -- in the world’s first public demonstration at IBC 2007.

Harmonic announces that Manthan Broadband Services has implemented a complete video headend solution from Harmonic for its new digital cable TV service in Kolkata. The systems deployed include DiviCom Ion multi-channel MPEG-2 encoders, the Broadcast Network Gateway edgeQAM for QAM modulation and scrambling, and NMX Digital Service Manager for end-to-end monitoring and control of the video service.

The complete turnkey solution was sold by Simac Broadcast. System integration was key in the successful launch of the complete platform, and the local Simac Broadcast team worked closely together with the customer and Harmonic from the design phase to the on-air date. In addition to system integration, all supporting services are handled by Simac Broadcast through their support offices in India.

The latest research from Screen Digest released examines the rapidly expanding European market for IPTV. Well over 60 IPTV services operated across Europe at the end of the second quarter of 2007, with more to launch in the second half of the year. Whilst some major Western European states are used to competing with so many players, others are unfamiliar with such a jam-packed market.

IPTV service launches swamp the pay-TV markets
The number of services in certain countries, like France, has given consumers an overwhelming array of suppliers to choose from. The country boasts eight IPTV operators and is a nation now saturated with TV services.

Orca Interactive announces that it is first to market with a unique combined IPTV and WebTV solution. Orca is delivering its innovative new WebTV technology to Blockbuster Israel, enabling the leading content provider to deliver advanced digital content services to its subscribers.

Expanding on Orca Interactive’s cutting edge RiGHTv middleware platform with all-new capabilities, the combined IPTV and WebTV solution supports both managed and unmanaged environments, eliminating boundaries to help service providers expand their customer base and market reach. IPTV service providers will also be able to broaden offerings to existing subscribers with anytime, anywhere TV services for on-the-go digital content over mobile PCs. In addition, content offerings can be extended beyond IPTV to enable WebTV, diverse multimedia, niche content and user generated content.

Accedo announces that a range of its interactive services have been integrated with the AmiNET130 IPTV Set-top-box from Amino. Accedo will be supplying applications from its Accedo Application PortfolioT, including games, karaoke and video art. Amino's AmiNETT series of IPTV set-top boxes has been used in commercial deployments and trials in over 80 countries worldwide.

"We believe that High Definition services will be an important driver for the future IPTV market. We are pleased to be working with Amino to create a set of interactive entertainment services that can help telecom operators in their quest for service differentiation and incremental revenue" commented Fredrik Andersson, VP Business Development, Accedo Broadband. "The integration process with AmiNET130 has been very smooth and we will continue to add additional services to our HD line-up for Amino"

The worldwide market for digital set-top boxes experienced continued strong growth in 2006, with smaller Asian manufacturers advancing up the market share ladder. Traditional STB stalwarts still remain the worldwide leaders, but are facing increased competition from lower tier manufacturers. The digital STB market reached an estimated 122 million units shipped in 2006.

French STB maker Thomson held on to its leader position in 2006 with double-digit share due primarily to its dominant position in the US pay-DTH market, and the company's strong entry into the European IP-STB market. Motorola nearly doubled its digital cable STB output compared to 2005, and has further extended its share lead over US-based competitor Scientific Atlanta. Chinese-based Tongda has gained ground on the top tier players by tripling their satellite STB output in 2006, with volume shipments primarily to Asian markets. No longer trailing the STB heavyweights, Philips Consumer Electronics has ascended into the top five worldwide share leaders by supplying the continued growth of pay-DTH markets in Europe and Asia.

Verizon expands its industry-leading FiOS TV service to more New York consumers, which is provided on the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network straight to customers' homes. Verizon is now taking orders for FiOS TV in parts of the Westchester County communities of Yonkers, Scarsdale and Bronxville, and on Long Island in the villages of Floral Park and South Floral Park. In addition, Verizon has launched FiOS TV in the following parts of the Town of Islip: Bayport, Bay Shore, Bohemia, Hauppauge, Holbrook, Oakdale, Ronkonkoma, Sayville, West Islip and West Sayville.

AT&T announces the availability of the Big Ten Network across all U-verse markets in the most popular U-verse TV programming packages. Starting Aug. 30, the Big Ten Network will showcase more than 400 live events, original programming and conference football games in standard and High Definition. U-verse TV customers can enjoy access to the Big Ten Network in the U100 programming package and above, which starts as low as $44 a month. With an HD service subscription for $10 more a month, U-verse customers can watch the Big Ten Network in spectacular HD. Available games will be aired on channels 650 in standard definition and 1250 in High Definition.

Mornington Communications selects the Calix C7 multiservice access platform and the Calix Management System to enable a wide array of new services. The company has also purchased Calix’s four-port 2.5 Gbps GPON service interface module for the C7, enabling Mornington Communications to deliver advanced, very-high-bandwidth services such as high definition IPTV. The Calix C7 MSAP is being deployed throughout Mornington’s ILEC and CLEC operating areas in southwestern Ontario.

Now millions of Facebook users have the ability to customize their own personal Internet TV viewing experience with Pyro.TV. Vibe Solutions Group announced that its innovative Pyro.TV video channel service has been integrated with Facebook Platform, the Internet’s leading online social network.

Facebook is a social utility that offers an efficient way for people to stay connected with their friends and the people around them. Facebook users communicate and share information through the service’s “social graph,” the network of connections and relationships between people. With more than 24 million active users, Facebook is the sixth-most trafficked website in the United States.