VentureBeat

Here’s the day’s action:
1) CNET sells its photo-sharing site Webshots at loss, may be ready to try again
2) Comcast isn’t the only ISP manipulating traffic
3) Apple may lose Warner Music, too
4) Yahoo’s Cammie Dunaway goes to Nintendo
5) Trusted Opinion, social recommendations, raises $1.3 million
6) JackBe, enterprise mashup software, raises $9.5 million
7) EchoSign, electronic signatures, takes $6 million

CNET sells Webshots to American Greeting for $45M – CNET bought Webshots, a photo-sharing site, for $70M in 2004, so the purchase apparently didn’t do much for the company. CNET itself is losing money, and also recently took on a $250 million loan, which may signal a desire for more (but hopefully better advised) acquisitions of internet properties.

Comcast isn’t the only ISP interfering with P2P — This post by Om Malik points out that other ISPs are probably also interfering with Net traffic. So much for Net Neutrality. Companies that rely on P2P traffic may have to count on lawmakers for relief if ISPs become bolder in their efforts to minimize certain traffic. Luckily, they’ve got congressmen like Rick Boucher, who has put the issue at the top of the House tech agenda.

Apple’s iPod aura wearing off with music labels — Last month it was Universal Music Group, this month it’s Warner Music. As record label’s contracts with Apple run out, the companies are deciding they don’t really want to be in a controlling relationship, and would prefer to see other distributors. Both Universal and Warner are shifting to a month-to-month contract with Apple that will allow them to strike deals elsewhere. If the companies have figured out yet that they don’t have to be in constant control of their own content, that might even mean a few crumbs for startups.

Yahoo-er Cammie Dunaway has indeed left for Nintendo – The New York Times confirms the rumor that Valleywag had the other week.

Recommendation-focused social network Trusted Opinion raises $1.3 million – More here.

JackBe, enterprise mashup software company, raises $9.5M more – The company, based in Fremont, Calif., raised the third round of financing from Harbert Venture Partners, Core Capital Partners, and existing investors Intel Capital, Darby Technology Ventures and Blue Chip Venture Company. The company’s Presto platform allows users to create applications by pulling in data from various sources, and faces numerous competitors, including Nexaweb and Xignite. It had previously raised $9.5 million.

EchoSign takes $6 million for signature automation — A month ago today, we reported that competitor DocuSign had taken $12.4 million to continue developing its electronic signature technology. We wouldn’t say they’re copying, but does anyone else hear an echo? (OK, sorry for that one.) This is EchoSign’s second funding, led by Emergence Capital and also participated in by previous investor Storm Capital.

If you’re skeptical of Amazon’s customer reviews and find that Netflix’s recommendations are never quite right, you might check out Trusted Opinion.

The Palo-Alto, Calif, company believes that your friends’ recommendations on things such as books, restaurants and music events should have more weight than those of the anonymous masses. The answer? Yes, another social network.

Trusted Opinion today added the ability to instantly add a recommended movie to your Netflix queue, an interesting touch, considering that Netflix not an open system, and Trusted Opinion expended significant effort to add this function.

We’ve been trying out Trusted Opinion’s general service for several months, and came to dislike it because it makes it a little too easy to spam everyone in your e-mail contacts and other social networks. We registered, and were getting notes from friends about everything they like and dislike — not just movies, but on other things too — even though we hadn’t opted in to get the notifications. Aggressive email campaigns, however, are par for the course these days — for drawing users.

Flixster, and more especially Spout focus on user-generated recommendations mixed with social elements, but Trusted Opinion’s main hook is its customized ratings. The ratings you see, on a scale from one to ten (including decimals) are based on the opinions of the people in your immediate and extended network. Friend2Friend has a similar approach, but focuses on consumer products instead of movies.

We wonder, though, if this latest feature of Netflix integration will be worth it; Netflix already has a decent recommendation system, and is currently trying to make it more social already.

Trusted Opinion has raised a little more than $1 million.