In today’s Signal, Barry Diller’s IAC  top Google’s returns; Facebook’s IPO gets its…er, close up; Ross Levinsohn wants to position Yahoo as more of a media company than a technology company; the Huffington Post tests the content creation waters; and much more.

To the links…

Diller Beats Google With Top Web Stock: Riskless Return (Bloomberg) Billionaire Barry Diller’s IAC delivered the best returns of any Internet media company worldwide, trumping Google Inc. and Baidu Inc. Diller, who has spent decades in media and entertainment, was interviewed by our own John Battelle last week at the FM’s Conversational Media Summit. Grab a front-row seat to their conversation here.

Facebook IPO Equality Under Scrutiny, Merriman Says (Bloomberg) This is just one of dozens of pieces about what has become a very rough debut for Facebook.

Yahoo Becomes Media Company Under New CEO (Reuters) Yahoo is hoping that Ross Levinsohn, its new interim chief executive, can turn the company into a digital entertainment destination that wins back the advertising dollars flowing elsewhere.

Social Media Marketer Vitrue Has Been Bought By Oracle For $300 Million (TechCrunch) Oracle’s acquisition of Vitrue will give it a strong Facebook marketing platform to offer its enterprise clients. Beating out several bidders, Oracle will instantly gain a massive list of notable clients.

The Huffington Post Wants to Help Brands Create Their Own Content Sites (AdAge) In an effort to expand the way it works with brands and cash in on the popular brand-as-publisher trend, HuffPost has been talking to agencies (Razorfish, specifically) and marketers about helping them build websites for brands, and subsequently aiding in content creation, curation and distribution to consumers. Plus…

HuffPost Names First Publisher Amid AOL Moves (AdAge) The appointment of Janet Balis as the Huffington Post Media Group’s first publisher is a sign that AOL is making a series of changes that seem designed, in part, to restructure the company in a way that makes individual content brands within the AOL portfolio more responsible for their businesses.

Battle of the Digital Brands: Ford vs. GM (Digiday) As solid templates for other brands in the social world, both GM and Ford understand the power of the social world, and each uses Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in creative ways. But Ford wins out, says Digiday, because of its social hub, Ford Social, where people congregate to connect on all things Ford.

Sears Marketer: The Big Idea is Dead (Digiday) Ian Gomar, CMO of sporting goods, fitness & toys at Sears Holdings, believes that retailers need to think about being wherever consumers are, both from a marketing and a commerce perspective: “Everything starts with small ideas that start in a social community and then developing the big idea from the small ideas. … It’s about solution-based content; it’s habitual. … Create a gravitational pull. Make people habitually come back to your site or Facebook page. Be a voice, but don’t try to control the community.”

Seven Things Ad Tech People Have Been Saying For the Last Five Years That Are Total BS (Kirby Winfield) Have a read, and then let us know below if you agree, disagree or have something to add to the list.

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