Americans time spent with TV, Internet and mobile videos keeps on increasing, according to Nielsen’s latest Three Screen Report.

The report found that the average American every month watches 153 hours of TV at home. In addition, the 131 million Americans who watch video on the Internet watch on average about 3 hours of video online each month at home or work. The 13.4 million Americans who watch video on mobile phones watch on average about 3.5 hours of mobile video each month.

During the first quarter, the growth of online video was driven by both strong brand marketing and large media events including the Presidential inauguration, the Super Bowl and March Madness.

Teens continue to watch the most mobile video, clocking in with an average of 6.5 hours of video on their mobile phones each month.

With broadband levels increasing in the U.S., online video audiences will continue to grow as consumers begin to upgrade their computers to support increased video consumption.

Growth also depends on how broadband channels promote themselves. As sites continue to heavily market themselves, they’ll increase the levels of growth by creating demand.

Mobile video viewing has increased 52 percent in Q1 2009 from the previous year, up to 13 million Americans. The most popular categories are comedy and weather.

Is Google Your Big Brother? So think the residents of Greece, where one Grecian official declared, “We are not going to allow our country to become a Big Brother society.” The official is part of the Hellenic Data Protection (HDP), an organization intent upon preserving the country’s proprietary information, and determined to resist the Orwellian intrusion of the omniscient “Big Brother.” The debate stems from Google’s attempt to gain photographs of the city’s streets for use in its map feature, “Street View.”

It is not the first (or last) objection to Google’s photographing streets for its mapping services street view. In the UK, Sussex residents resisted Google’s photographic intrusion, complaining about similar reasons—the lack of privacy. And, for obvious reasons, the U.S. Government put the kibosh on Google’s taking pictures on military bases.

It’s not that Greece is against the progress of technology (or a potentially sweet view of the Acropolis in a drive-by picture shoot). It’s just that they want a little bit more info on how Google is going to process original images, how they will store them, how long they will keep them, how they will protect them from harm or molestation, and how Grecian denizens would know that they were being photographed if a tripod-mounted car drove past. Google has already intoned that they would blur out people’s faces, that they would blur the license plates of vehicles, and that they would even take pictures down if people requested that they do so.

But Greece is serious about privacy. So serious, in fact, that they have a government agency (Hellenic Data Protection, HDP) whose sole mission is to protect people’s privacy. The group even outlawed security cameras because of their potential misuse regarding privacy concerns.

In a challenging curveball from the European legislative body, the gargantuan semiconductor company, Intel will go to court to defend itself for allegedly ignoring antitrust regulations.

On Friday, European Commission officials met to discuss the issue, and now they are prepared to bring the issue before the European College of Commissioners, the next check in the legislative process. After that, Intel gets to respond to the challenges, and potentially faces staggering monetary losses.

Intel’s disregard of the European antitrust regulations is an eight-year old issue which dates back to their spat with AMD in 2000. Intel purportedly tried to shut down the competition by subsidizing computer manufacturers for not buying AMD chips. Instead,

Intel drove their own prices down—so low that they were below cost—only to keep the competition away from Intel’s wish-list target markets. The strategy worked. Intel captured those big-name accounts and drove the prices back up to customary costs. In addition, some accuse Intel of blatantly paying retail chains to sell only Intel-installed products.

Obviously, such actions would warrant a second-look by trust-busting hounds. The European Union first filed complaint in 2007, but has since garnered additional charges that are expected to be part of Wednesday’s philippic against the California-based chip-maker.

Anti-trust laws are very complex items indeed. And filing said charges is no simple matter. That’s why the EU has taken a very long time in composing their case and in submitting it. This particular case could be bigger than any other in European history.

Twitter is the hottest microblogging site on the planet. As 25 million Twitter addicts tweet their way through life, several tech giants have cast the eager eye of acquisition on the young company. It was no surprise when rumors leaked of Google, Microsoft, and Facebook’s interest in buying Twitter. But it really raised the eyebrows when notable, and oh-so-reliable, sources began murmuring about an Apple takeover.

The Cost
The price tag on a proposed Twitter buyout could reach $700 million, maybe higher. Twitter said no to $500 millionish offers from other tech giants. Apple, sitting on a $30 billion pile of cash, has the chutzpah throw the price tag up a couple hundred million. But isn’t that a lot of money for a social networking site? As history tells us (Facebook and MySpace) social networking sites aren’t exactly the most profitable businesses. Why would Apple spend so much money on Twitter?

Could Twitter be different? Or maybe it’s Apple that’s different, and will be able to capitalize in a way that only Steve Jobs could conceive of. Either way, Apple is rumored to spend a sizeable chunk of their well-earned cash to buy a website—a website where people tell their followers what they ate for lunch.

The Reason
When Apple makes a move, you can be sure it is a calculated and thought-through move. As techies ruminate on the proposed Apple-Twitter union, one word comes to mind: iPhone. Although you can tweet without an iPhone, the cool iPhone apps that help you tweet like a pro are only available through Apple…and an iPhone. Although it seems like small brick upon which to build a castle, this could be a driving reason why Apple may make the purchase. But then again, Apple may have something new in the works that may make a Twitter purchase make perfect sense.

The Timeline
As with all Apple rumors, we won’t know the truth until June 8, when Apple holds the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California.

The Walt Disney Company has reached a deal with online video site Hulu to put its ABC programming on the web property.

Disney joins NBC Universal, Fox parent News Corp and Providence Equity Partners in the venture. As part of the deal Disney has agreed to take a nearly 30 percent stake in Hulu.

The deal will add to Hulu’s programming line-up with full-length episodes of popular programs like “Lost,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Scrubs,” “Ugly Betty,” “General Hospital,” and “The View.” The programs will be streamed on Hulu on an ad-supported basis.

“From our landmark iTunes deal to our pioneering decision to stream ad supported shows on our ABC.com player, Disney has sought to meet the constantly evolving viewing habits of our consumers, and today’s Hulu announcement is the next important step in that ongoing journey,” said Robert A. Iger, president and CEO, The Walt Disney Company.

Select programs from the Disney Channel including “Wizards of Waverly Place” and “Phineas and Ferb” will also be available on Hulu.

In March Hulu became the third most popular online video site for the first time according to comScore. The site had 380 million videos viewed representing a market share of 2.6 percent. Hulu also attracted 41.6 million viewers during the month. The partnership with Disney will only lead to even stronger growth.

“Hulu’s growth has been fueled in part by the combination of a compelling user experience, increased consumer awareness of the brand, and an overall market trend toward viewing long-form online video content,” Andrew Lipsman, Director, Industry Analysis, comScore, told WebProNews.

The Oracle has spoken. And once again, it is good news. Mere months ago, the only voice that could be heard was “the sky is falling.” Now, however, the situation is reversing. The technology sector as a whole is wondering why everyone is talking about a recession. Nobody is talking about a recession in Redwood Shores, California, home of the database mogul, Oracle. Instead, they are developing, planning, and expanding like never before—in the middle of a recession like never before.

2008 was a good year for Oracle. As software sales shot up early in the year, they glanced back at IBM, whose sales they had already eclipsed. By the end of the 2008 calendar year, Oracle had posted a 29% growth, and profits to the tune of 5 and a half billion.

But that was only the prelude to their success story. Early in 2009, As congress bantered around big numbers to save big business, Oracle was bantering around big numbers to buy big business. They picked Sun Microsystems, and after a few high-level talks, Sun Microsystems became part of Oracle on April 20. Nobody makes mammoth acquisitions during a recession. But Oracle just did.

As Oracle closed the books on the third quarter of their fiscal year (February 28), they posted a modest profit—over 4%. Catz, president of Oracle claimed, “We are running our business at record operating margins.” And nobody doubted him.

Still, Oracle shows no sign of slowing. Since 1999, Oracle has gobbled up 54 companies in its acquisition-centered growth strategy. At more than five acquisitions a year, Oracle has proven that it has a big appetite. Who is next? With a war chest of around 12 billion, and a steadily climbing growth rate, they are proving that the recession has nothing on the technology sector.

The News Corp owned MySpace has announced that MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe will be stepping down but will continue to serve on the board of MySpace China and will be a strategic advisor to the company.

The decision was a mutual agreement between News Corp Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller and DeWolfe.

Miller is also in discussions with Tom Anderson, MySpace’s president about him taking on a new role in the organization.

“Chris and Tom are true pioneers and we greatly value the tremendous job they’ve done in growing MySpace into what it is today,” said Mr. Miller.

“Thanks largely to their vision, MySpace has become a vibrant creative community with 130 million passionate followers worldwide. It is an enormously successful property and we look forward to building on its achievements with a new management structure we’ll announce in the near future.”

News Corp is reportedly going after former Facebook Chief Operating Officer Owen Van Natta as a possible replacement for DeWolfe.

Everyone is talking about getting stimulus money these days. Where there is money to be had, there will be eager hands to take it, and the technology sector is one area that Obama intends to stimulate. The need is for wider access to high-speed broadband. Dealing with the status quo is “holding us back as individuals, it has cost our economy billions, and things are only going to get worse if we don’t do something about it.” That’s Michael Copps, FCC commissioner, speaking in an interview with Business Week last month. But the excitement turned to disappointment as talks lagged and plans bogged down.

But what about now? Amidst the delayed talks, an unclear plan, and no new broadband access, people are wondering if that much-talked-about $7.2 billion is funding anything but talk right now.

Things are moving, however. According to a fresh report from Business Week, several states have stepped up to receive the allocated funding for wider broadband access. Among the states that expect to receive funding are Colorado, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Local governments are now getting a say in the game, and that has helped push the issue forward faster. State and municipal authorities have a more accurate perspective of exactly how the broadband stimulus plan could drive economic development in their areas-and they want it, badly. To them, it’s about more than putting broadband access in rural homes and businesses; it’s about creating jobs and reviving businesses.

There is more good news. Now that local governments are involved, the creative juices are flowing as to exactly how the money will be distributed. “We would like to see public-private partnerships to expand the deployment of broadband,” is the wish of Virginia’s Technology Secretary, Aneesh Chopra, who understands that private companies, working responsibly, can help drive the economic development. From the mom-and-pop Internet service provider to the mammoth AT&T, that could be very good news. Putting the task into the lap of a private company means that the money comes with fewer strings attached.

And while this does not hail the end of the recession for tech companies by any means, it is at least a bit of good newswith more to come, perhaps.

YouTube and Universal Music Group are working together to launch a music and video entertainment service called VEVO that will feature UMG’s professional video content.

VEVO will launch later this year using technology provided by Google’s YouTube. The two companies will also share advertising revenue. On YouTube, VEVO will have its own branded channel in addition to the standalone site.

“We believe that at launch, VEVO will already have more traffic than any other music video site in the United States and in the world,” said Doug Morris, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Universal Music Group.

“And this traffic represents the most sought after demographic for advertisers, especially as advertising dollars continue their shift from old media to new.”

At launch, people will be able to access UMG’s entire catalog of music video content on VEVO, as well as artist-generated content and user-generated content hosted on YouTube.

Currently, UMG’s YouTube video channel has more than 3.5 billion views, making the UMG channel the most watched on YouTube.

“Technology has allowed fans to discover music in endless ways while creating new business opportunities for artists and labels alike,” said Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer of Google Inc.

U.S. online traffic to classifieds Web sites increased 84 percent in February 2009 compared with last year according to a new report from Hitwise.

As the state of the U.S. economy has declined, visits to classifieds Web sites have continued to increase, up 28 percent from December 2008 to February 2009.

“Consumers have embraced free classifieds as a way to generate income by selling personal items, while others take advantage of the deals available at the fire sales,” said Heather Dougherty, Hitwise research director.

“Currently the economy is driving the growth among online classifieds, but satisfied buyers may continue to turn to the Web sites when researching purchases.”

The market share of U.S. Internet visits increased 90 percent to the Craigslist Cities custom category year-over-year in February 2009, while visits to all other classifieds grew 22 percent. This trend indicates that the U.S. economy may be boosting visits to classifieds Web sites and contributing to the recent increase in visits to both Craigslist and all other classifieds.