MySpace makes $30 million a month; YouTube award winners; Lonelygirl15 product placement; Wikipedia rival launches

The social web weekly: a quick-fire roundup of some of the news, announcements and conversations that have occurred throughout the week…

• MySpace makes $30 million per month. According to analyst Richard Greenfield, MySpace generates "in excess of $30 million" a month in revenue, with about $24 million in domestic revenue and $6 million internationally. Even more impressive, Greenfield estimates that this will double in the next twelve months to $60 million per month. It certainly pays off to be the number one social networking site in the US. Maybe Google CEO Eric Schmidt was right when he (allegedly) told Murdoch that the MySpace acquisition will prove to be the best deal of his life.
• YouTube awards. And the winners are... According to the awards site, "2006 was a pioneering year for online video, user-created content and the YouTube community." I don't disagree, but still wonder why it took them three months to recognize the fact. Anything to do with that pending court appearance?
• Lonelygirl15 accepting product placement. The popular "video blog" that turned out to be fiction has started experimenting with product placements. Acknowledging the risk of a viewer backlash, the show's producers were wise enough to consult the community first. According to co-creator, Greg Goodfried, of the 200 people who responded, 90 percent approved.
• Wikipedia rival launches. Citizendium is a "citizens' compendium" of general knowledge, started by self-proclaimed Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger. It works much like Wikipedia in that anyone can submit information, however, Citizendium requires users to register with their real names, and its articles are governed by an editorial board, in the hope that this will ensure the site has more authority. Right now to become a contributor requires having a non-free email address (so no Hotmail, Gmail and the like), ruling out participation for lots of people.