Why were so many people in the technology world wrong about Hulu? It was an idea that seemed like a relic of the worst excesses of the dot-com era: a portal for content run by a joint venture of media companies. Could any venture have more going against it?

The key words are “technology world”.  Joost failed because a bunch of technologists (KaZaa, Skype) hired a technology executive (Mike Volpi) and thought that better technology would prevail.

Also, the perception of what happened at Hulu is somewhat different than what actually happened at Hulu, which basically spawned from NBC’s initially ill-fated NBBC venture.  I am not sure if Hulu would have succeeded without the lessons and leadership of the NBBC experience.  At WatchMojo.com, we worked with NBBC, Hulu and Joost and trust me, Hulu is far and away more impressive when you see how many other ventures in video have failed… but I think chalking it up to content or UI alone is over-simplifying it.

Turns out he died.  Or, at least, some folks on YouTube thought that he was… Michael Jackson.  Read and laugh:

At stake is nothing less than the future of television shows and movies on digital platforms at a time when online viewing is exploding, but still remains a minuscule percentage of overall television viewing.

Read more on FT.com:

Plenty of chief executives have been caught with their trousers metaphorically around their ankles but few, if any, have actually dropped their pants to win a business deal, as Jean Pierson, the former head of the aircraft maker Airbus, apparently did.

According to a new book published today, the colourful Frenchman was in the offices of Stephen Wolf, then-chairman of US Airways in 1997, negotiating a mega-deal to sell the airline 400 jets.

When, at the last minute, Mr Wolf demanded a further 5 per cent discount, M. Pierson employed his bizarre tactic. “Pierson began slowly lowering his trousers and saying ‘I have nothing more to give’,” John Newhouse, the former New Yorker writer, recounts in his book, Boeing versus Airbus. “He then allowed the trousers to fall around his ankles.”

The ploy worked. Mr Wolf replied: “Pull up your pants, I don’t need any more money,” and the deal was signed. The author says he got the story from M. Pierson himself, who has since retired from Airbus. If the Airbus chief was red-cheeked, he apparently did not show it. As events turned out, the embarrassment was to become all Boeing’s. The US Airways deal enabled Airbus to break into Boeing’s back yard and usurp its historic position as the world’s biggest jet maker two years later.

Read the whole thing here.

From Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney, via SAI:

1) The Click Isn’t Everything - Currently, rich media CTRs average about 0.1%, with entertainment sites having the highest CTRs at 0.17% and Fin. Services having the lowest at 0.06%. Also, 80% of display ad clicks come from less than 20% of the Internet population, indicating that clicks are not necessarily as relevant to brand advertisers.

2) Display Impacts Search 4 Weeks After Exposure - According to comScore’s analysis, there was more than a 50% lift in ‘Net users conducting a query on a brand term one week after exposure to the display ad. After four weeks, the lift was around 38%, which is still significant. Indeed, a month after viewing the ad, 30% of ‘Net users actually visited the advertiser’s site.

3) Branded Display Improves Advertiser Site Engagement - Those who viewed a branded ad in this study spent around 34 minutes per unique visitor on the advertiser’s site, which was a 55% lift in time spent vs. the 22 average minutes per unique when they were not shown the ad.

4) Branded Ad Campaigns Improve eCommerce Spend By An Average Of 7% - When comparing the users who were exposed to the branded ads vs. those not exposed, comScore found a 7% lift in average eCommerce spend per ad site visitor. Specifically, travel spend was 9% higher among exposed users, CPG spend was 14% higher, and consumer electronics was 22% higher.

The So-What? Efficacy Of Branded Advertising Is Material - When exposed to branded ads, the impact may not be direct or immediate, but there appears to be strong evidence that users engage better and transact more with brands once they’ve been exposed to them. With new/larger ad formats, and the potential for richer ad formats in sponsored search results, this efficacy should improve.

Read more on Mahaney’s comments on SAI or read our earlier post called Search captures intent, display captures interest.

Too much supply of money, not enough exits.  So what is the solution?

More money, to the tune of a $300M fund by Marc Andreessen.  Should be interesting.

Om Malik, whom I respect quite a bit, publishes a post that doesn’t really say much.  Read his post a few times and tell me what are you supposed to walk away with?  Of course, Om is a VC as well, so he probably won’t berate any of these crappy companies that have too much VC money riding them anyway.

Here’s what I want Om (or anyone) to say:

Slide was a joke, everyone outside of the Valley’s incestuous circle knew it, and Facebook-based business models were a joke (just as Twitter and Twitter-based business models are a joke).

Here’s a crazy prophecy: at a $500M valuation at its latest round, Slide will shut down before you know it.  No way will their VCs want them to burn through their $58M in capital to find out.

Expect many more such clunkers to die soon.  One more thing, Max Levchin is probably a brilliant bloke, but just because you kicked ass as a CTO, CIO, CXO somewhere doesn’t make you a badass CEO.

Hey Max, if you’re looking for a gig, let me know.  You might found this hard to believe ut with $58M in funding, your VCs might be a bit unhappy with the state of affairs.

Anyway, he’s blaming himself for MySpace’s woes.  I blame Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal.  I’ve yet to read any media mention this, but it seems like a no brainer, around the time he began the proceedings to buy it, MySpace tanked.

Personally I wonder why TMP bothered raising money if they’re profitable.  I think some entrepreneurs (ie. me, in 2007) get enamored with the notions of raising capital… then reality sets in.  Methings Josh Marshall will wake up from this nightmare sometime in 2011.

Read more.