Alex Weprin

Late on Friday night, former MSNBC host and soon-to-be Current TV host Keith Olbermann launched his new website, FOK News Channel.

As we reported last week, the site is accessible at FOKNewsChannel.com

The site features three sections: “The First Guess,” which features Olbermann’s thoughts on the news of the day. “Snappy Answers to Stupid Headlines,” which has Olbermann snarking to headlines from various news outlets and “Worst Persons of the Day.” which is the online version of his popular TV show segment.

News of the site’s launch has already left the blogosphere and made the mainstream media, with ABC News and The Washington Post.

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Former MSNBC 8 PM host Keith Olbermann has already announced his plans to join Current TV, but it seems he also has some digital ideas in the works.

Olbermann tweeted through his @FOKNewsChannel account:

“Proud to announce: Coming very very soon – your FOKNewsChannel website…”

So where will it be? The early signs point to FOKNewsChannel.com, which was registered the same day as Olbermann created the @FOKNewsChannel Twitter account.

The site was registered anonymously, using the same registrar that purchased TheKeithOlbrmannShow.com a few days before Olbermann announced his departure from MSNBC.

Still, Olbermann’s tweet raises questions:

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News Corp.’s iPad newspaper “The Daily” is only a few days old, but now that I have spent some time with it, I think it may be one of the best overall values on the App Store. Why? The crossword puzzle.

Every day “The Daily” features a new crossword puzzle and sudoku game. The interface is the best I have seen for any crossword puzzle on the iPad, and the puzzles are challenging but still fun. In short, for many people the crossword and sudoku puzzles alone may be worth the $0.14 a day.

All that other stuff, the “news” and “content,” it’s all just gravy.

But I have a suggestion for Rupert Murdoch and Jesse Angelo: the iPad is not a piece of paper, so you have an opportunity to really innovate here.

Crossword puzzles and sudoku took off in newspapers because there are only so many things you can do on paper. The iPad does not have those limitations, so there is no reason that the puzzles should only be ports of newspaper games.

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This morning, your WebNewser editor attended the launch event for “The Daily,” News Corp.’s iPad newspaper.

You can read the recap of the event from our sister blog FishbowlNY, but we wanted to focus on how “The Daily” interacts with the rest of the web.

There was concern early on that “The Daily” would be an island, isolated from the rest of the web and instead restrcited solely to the tablets.

As we learned this morning, that is not the case.
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Your WebNewser editor will be helping to moderate tomorrow’s Beet.tv Online Journalism Summit live from The Washington Post. More about the summit available here, including where to watch.

We will be joined by the Washington Post‘s Chris Cillizza, as well as a lineup of executives from the TV, print and online worlds.

The full lineup is available at the conference site. Feel free to tune in at 9 AM ET!

First on WebNewser: In a significant expansion of its original digital offerings, Syfy has picked up a new, 10-part science fiction web series, “The Mercury Men.”

“It is a modern web series that hearkens back to ‘Flash Gordon’ and ‘Buck Rogers,’” Craig Engler, senior VP of Syfy Digital tells WebNewser. “It is black and white, there is a ray-gun, there is a brain in a jar, you don’t see brains in jars anymore!”

The web series does not have a premiere date yet, as the network is currently looking at which of its television properties it wants to launch it with. By tying the launch of a web series to a TV event like a season premiere or finale, Syfy can market the program to millions of already-engaged viewers.

Syfy just successfully launched a new series, “Being Human,” to 3.8 million viewers on its premiere night, so the season finale of that show could be a possibility. The network also has the season premieres of “Warehouse 13″ and Eureka” on tap for later this year.

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The Federal Communications Commission passed so-called “Net Neutrality” rules by a 3-2 vote Tuesday. Ironically, exactly what the rules are is yet to be announced by the FCC, but they will prohibit phone or internet companies from discriminating against or favoring internet content or services, like those owned by competitors.

What do you think of the FCC’s decision? Let us know in the comments.

The following is a post from PRNewser’s Tonya Garcia.

Thrillist was started by two guys – recent college grads – who felt there wasn’t a resource for cool gadgets, restaurants, and other lifestyle topics that resonated with them.

“We were reading a bunch of city guides that weren’t speaking our language,” Ben Lerer, co-founder of Thrillist told us in part one of our Media Beat interview.

Now this daily newsletter for men has celebrated its fifth anniversary, has 18 editions spanning the U.S. and London, and just launched a redesigned website.

Thrillist also offers social media, video, and apps, all with the goal of giving its male audience what it wants. And what is that? “All the things you assume guys would like, but hope they won’t,” Lerer says.

Part 2: We talk with Ben Lerer about Jack Threads, Thrillist’s events, and what they mean to the brand.

Part 3: Ben Lerer describes what it’s like to lead a start up and talks about the company he launched with his dad, Lerer Ventures.

CNBC is launching a premium digital and mobile service, CNBC Pro, with a suite of features meant to appeal to Wall Street professionals. At launch, the service will be available on PCs and Blackberry devices, with support for most other smartphones, as well as the iPad, coming early next year.

It will be available for $24.99 a month or $269.99 a year.

Among the offerings: real-time global market data from over 100 exchanges across the globe and real-time price and breaking news alerts.

Another unusual offering is access to CNBC US, CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia-Pacific live on the computer or smartphone. While all of the news networks will occasionally offer some live programming through mobile apps or their websites, they have so far not made rolling live coverage of their regular programming available. CNBC is changing that with this premium product.

More information, after the jump.

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YouTube has launched a cool new product to highlight the hottest videos of the moment. Called YouTube trends, it will automatically pull trending videos and topics in a central location, along with a twice-daily editors-selection of videos pulled from the trending clips and from other video curator sites.

There will also be a blog that will examine “in-depth and contextual explorations of videos, trends, and cultural phenomenon as seen through the lens of YouTube, using YouTube’s own internal data.”

Or as YouTube Trends manager Kevin Allocca writes:

The idea for YouTube Trends started with our desire to find new ways of identifying the viral and newsworthy content people love to share and packaging it in an easy to digest format. With over 35 hours of video now uploaded to YouTube every minute, we wanted one place to distill the videos people were sharing and discussing with their friends as well as understand what YouTube could teach us about our culture and current events.

Twitter got the “trending” ball rolling with its “trending topics” feature, and YouTube is very similar in many ways. Both have a plethora of content uploaded every minute, with most of it being of use to only a small audience. By highlighting what is trending, it makes it easier to find content that is interesting.

Check out a video explaining Trends below.

And after the jump, a video walk-through.
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