Mostly because when Tobermory calls on a Thursday afternoon? I tend to answer.

Here’s all the news that’s fit to blog from last week and beyond…

Friday:
1. Continuing to follow the upheaval over at Yahoo!, the day after our last roundup an official reorg was announced. Then, late last week, rumours of the on-again, off-again courtship between Yahoo! and Facebook popped to the surface. Could an acquisition be in the works?

2. Google Audio ad service was launched in beta, facilitated by their acquisition earlier this year of dMarc, a company that

Connects advertisers and agencies directly to radio stations with a robust advertising platform that automates everything from sales to scheduling, delivery and reports. This enables advertisers to, among others things, purchase and track their campaigns effectively — and significantly reduce the costs associated with processing broadcast ads.

This is incredibly significant on many fronts (don’t be fooled by the whole “Google’s getting into radio advertising” angle – I think that’s totally secondary). Be thinking instead of the vast untappedness of the podcasting and Internet video advertising delivery (and tracking) space – and beyond.

Because it’s all based on clicks, unlike “regular” broadcasting, which throws the net wide and hopes for the best, the true monetization of social media and content delivery sites in general presents the possibility of the “Holy Grail” for advertisers: knowing for sure what percentage of people actually watched and/or responded to your ads – something we’ve all known has been possible for ages, but which no one seems to have been able to satisfactorily deliver…

Tuesday:
1. Lots of buzz this week about the Factiva Roundtable on Social Media. It was open to invitees only at a Palo Alto, CA restaurant.

The roundtable delved into the notion of social media measurements – and while some acknowledged that, “in a way, yes it was a Factiva focus group,” overall the event has spurred a tremendous amount of discussion, some of the best posts can be read here, here and here. Exciting times, because once the whole “ROI” thing is nailed down, social media will truly become mainstream.

Various

1. According to the BBC, 43% of Britons who watched online video said they watched less “real” TV as a result, 54% said that their online habits were “extra”, and did not affect their regular TV-watching schedule. Overall, however, only 9% of those surveyed watched video online on a regular basis, while 2/3 said they didn’t and had no plans in the immediate future to do so.

To me, stuff like this is just common sense – there are only so many hours in the day. While Jimbo may sneak in a few extra minutes of YouTube at work, it’s unlikely to affect his viewing habits until he can sit on his couch and watch Internet TV comfortably. By that point, the big nets will be broadcasting on-demand online anyway (or they’d better be).