First off. Lets be clear. We have to kill the phrase 'online classifieds'. At best, it has the weary note of strained metaphors like moving staircases and horseless carriages. At worst, its symptomatic of a dated way of thinking about the world. These days, winning in classifieds really means winning in markets. And that, dear readers, is a much tougher job.

If baby boomers day dream about winning the lottery, Gen Xers just fantasise about selling out to Google. In their video message to the YouTube community announcing their sale to Google - founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen could barely suppress their grins. And by the endof the clip, they were killing themselves laughing. I don't blame them.   US$1.65 billion buys a lot of Ferraris and pina coladas. But as with all big media deals - the 'what' is never half as interesting as the 'why'.

Two counter culture youth icons. One has 100m members. The other 82m viewers. The first is transforming the online promotion of music, and just got a fat $900m revenue guarantee from Google. The other established video as the ultimate vehicle for music promotion, and even after a quarter century, continues to seduce big brand advertisers. In the showdown between MySpace and MTV, its tempting to call the round on the numbers. But there is a more interesting comparison to be made.

Online video has hit prime time. YouTube now claims to be streaming 100 million clips per day. Viacom and Google are experimenting with delivering short TV clips through online ad inventory space. Most of the major US networks are delivering traditional programming via iTunes or their own download service. And social networks like MySpace are