While the US tech bloggers are still digesting the Apple news and catching up on The Venice Project news (see GigaOm e.g.), behind their backs things are coming on strong with an Italian entrepreneur who seems to have a time-to-market lead over The Venice Project: Babelgum.

Yesterday they were covered in the Financial Times Europe, in the Companies International section. In an interview with its founder and investor Silvia Scaglia he admits that their prime focus is attracting content providers and excecuting on the "long tail" theory, which says that lots of money can be made with the infinite amount of non-mainstream content that is being viewed by - hopefully - millions of individuals. They still managed, from their London and Dublin headquarters, to sign on Reuters and Associated Press, which are household names, and who both have more and more video news clips on their websites. Test launch will be in March so it could well be ahead of The Venice Project, which is currently in search of a company name. Folks, I would simply leave it with Venice since everyone has heard of it now...

Francis reported below on the beta testing launch of The Venice Project. While we are still impressed by KaZaA and Skype founders' ability to make their ventures really work - and cash in, big time - I am a bit sceptical of this one. Have they taken on a challenge too far, this time?

My doubts come from some basic considerations. The whole thing is only going to take off IF they can attract big audiences, where advertisers will be motivated to spend money on targeted ads. But who are those end users? They said it is not the YouTube crowd since they won't be offering the video sharing that made YouTube so interesting to many people. (of course YouTube has not figured out yet how to make money with it). Now who currently watches TV channels on their PC? Nobody. How many watch IPTV right now on their TV set? Nearly nobody, and if so then over incumbents' or cable providers' networks, using their TV services and NOT over the public Internet. Ok, there are no HDTV broadcast TV sources available right now and that's why they have "near high-definition" in their news announcement, but that won't attract anybody either, I think. Also because in the next few years this is what we will get via terrestrial networks anyway, it will then become a commodity.

Again, if, and only if they attract millions of end users will anyone spend ad money, and will interesting content providers offer their TV channels. If not - and I cannot see where the users will come from - this remains a venture more likely to float elegantly around Venice itself than become an aggressive airborne broadcast TV market challenger.

What's missing here is someone - Apple, maybe? - to add at least one missing piece. The TV/Internet box cool enough, like iPod stuff, to attract the masses. The problem, of course, being that Apple will offer all that content (VoD, video clips, TV and radio channels, music etc.) themselves.

• Government programs to jump-start small businesses typically fail terribly. This is true for practically every program that I have seen so far. Politicians either do not understand what they are funding or have their own buddies in these projects. Now the US is trying something new, it seems. NASA is sponsoring a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program for which they have selected 120 proposals for negotiation of phase 2 contract awards in the US. The selected projects have a total value of approximately $72 million. The contracts will be awarded to 103 small high technology firms in 27 states. Now this is America. Cash rules. If these programs are more successful than the ones in other countries has yet to be seen, of course.
• Four Russian Internet DoS attackers have been sentenced to 8 years in prison each by a Russian court. In September 2004 the British High-Tech Crime Unit, Interpol, and the FBI together with a Russian minstry were able to arrest 3 of them.
• In Germany discussions about BenQ's insolvency and Siemens "chaos days" (as the FAZ reports them) are keeping outsiders amused and insiders scared to death. I read an interview in Switzerland with the BenQ CEO saying that this type of PR would have cost them a fortune to generate and they are now getting it for free. "No news like bad news." Hope this news is fake though...
• NOKIA announced a new technology called Wibree for short-range wireless communications, so a replacement for Bluetooth. Low energy consumption, a pain in the neck with Bluetooth, is the driving force behind it. On one hand the world number one mobile phone manufacturer needs to be taken seriously over such things; on the other hand it took ages to finally get Bluetooth off the ground, so this will not be different here. The "threatened" other short range wireless technology proponents are reacting quite relaxed so far.
• The Skype founders are in non-public beta testing with their new upcoming secure TV peer-to-peer service called The Venice Project. Public beta is expected in December as The Register seems to know.
• And the rumour of the day: Google is said to have started discussions buying YouTube for $1.6bln.