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Americans watched 12 billion online videos in May — That’s up 45 percent compared to the same period in 2007. While Google’s sites — especially YouTube — remained dominant, accounting for 34.8 percent of videos watched, Fox Interactive Media (owner of MySpace) climbed to 6.4 percent, up 1.3 percent from the month before.

Tesla breaks production “logjam” — Chief executive Ze’ev Drori acknowledges that the electric car maker has been putting the old adage that “good things are worth waiting for” to the test, but he says nine Roadsters have already arrived in California (as of Saturday), with more due soon.

Forbes: San Francisco is the number one city for yuppies – Great, now my New York friends have something else to gloat about.

EBay wins case against Tiffany — The outcome of the four-year-old suit means that jewelery maker Tiffany & Co. and other trademark holders are responsible for policing online marketplaces for violations. That takes the responsibility off eBay and similar sites.

Enterprise social networking becomes a battleground — InfoWorld looks at the competition and concludes — surprise, surprise — that consumer-focused startups like Facebook and LinkedIn may beat out established software vendors like IBM.

Veoh takes ad program out of testing mode — The video site shows ads based on a user’s past viewing patterns. The ads are targeted at nine groups, including fans of action, cars, pop culture, anime, science fiction and family fare.

Ad agency Method launches venture program with boxee – Method’s venture effort, dubbed Method Ventures, wants to team up with startups that have just raised seed funding to help them fine tune their ideas. The first partner is boxee, a startup that integrates media content with social networking.

Solar company Greenvolts plans to raise significant funding — Chief executive Bob Cart says he hopes to raise a second round of funding at the end of the year, although at “less than $100 million,” the amount would be smaller than that raised by some other solar startups recently. Greenvolts raised $10 million last year.

Google still testing Digg-style search results? — Google has been experimenting with ways to let users vote on search results, and a TechCrunch reader spotted what may be the latest version of that test.

Hoping to make healthcare education hip, Cigna Healthcare is announcing today it has created a virtual environment in the Second Life virtual world to educate people on how to improve their health.

The Cigna Virtual Healthcare Community is an “island” in Linden Lab’s Second Life world where users can walk through 3-D interactive displays with their avatars, play educational games, listen to seminars on nutrition and health, and receive virtual health consultations.

Designed by Method, a San Francisco brand experience agency, the island is unique in that visitors to the healthcare insurance company’s own web site can sign up for Second Life at the Cigna site and then transport their avatars directly into the virtual island. Upon entering the virtual island, an avatar character greets the visitor and then leads them to a virtual seminar, where participants can communicate via chat or voice.

Like many insurance companies, Cigna, based in Bloomfield, Conn., offers healthcare advice to those it insures as an attempt to keep its long-term costs lower and its insurance rates more affordable. But traditional seminars and web sites aren’t terribly interesting. IBM has opened a Virtual Healthcare Island in Second Life as well. The island demos the Healthcare Information Exchange system where users can create their own electronic medical records. These islands have richer health information than other entertainment-oriented virtual health games, such as Nintendo’s Wii Fit game. Cigna’s effort is part of an overall movement, dubbed Games for Health, to use electronic media to stimulate interest in health.

Claus Nehmzow, general manager of Method, said his company aimed to integrate the virtual experience into Cigna’s existing web site so that it would attract new users to Second Life. For now, the site is open only to Cigna’s member companies and their employees. Over time, it will be opened up to general visitors on the site.

“This is a cost-effective way to reach people about programs that educate people about being overweight, smoking, or managing stress,” Nehmzow said. “The existing ways to do this aren’t as effective and they’re expensive.”

As avatars, users can attend seminars and vote in real time on what they like or don’t. The seminars can impart information such as how much fiber you need to eat in a day. Simple games, such as “Whack a Food,” can also pass along information on how to make the right food choices.

Method has been working on the project since last October. The company has 150 corporate clients for its branding services and has 75 employees. It is based in San Francisco. In 2007, Cigna promoted and distributed for free the video game “Re-Mission,” designed to teach kids how to manage their health better while undergoing cancer treatment.