Looks like Google sent out another bunch of invitations for Wave & since most of my friends are already on Wave, I thought why not give it away. So, in case you want one, just drop a comment (don’t forget to protect it against spamming by substituting @ with [at] & the likes) or mail with your name & email address. I’ll update the counter on top as I progress with the giveaway.
I’ve used Wave to collaborate on a couple of projects in the last couple of weeks. Some features are not yet functional, but it does look pretty promising. And yes, it seems that Wave is more responsive on Google Chrome than Firefox.
P.S. It wouldn’t hurt if you did your bit for the Water initiative by scrolling down to the Socialvibe widget on the sidebar & adding your signature to the cause on my blog.
Update (26/11): Sent out 6 invitations based on requests received in Facebook.
Update (27/11): I've sent out more invites based on comments on my blog & on Facebook.
Posted in Collaboration, Giveaway, Google, Invitation, Wave
Source:
http://web2.sys-con.com/node/1201547
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Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Microsoft Challenges Salesforce.com With XRM
In a bid to offer stiff competition to its contemporaries in the platform-as-a-service space, Microsoft has opened up vast capabilities of its existing CRM offering. Rebranded as xRM, the offering now allows customers to use its existing Dynamics CRM to build custom applications within minutes/days instead of weeks/months.
“XRM (Anything Relationship Management) is the natural evolution of CRM (Customer Relationship Management). In today’s dynamic business environment, companies demand for ability to manage anything (x=Anything), not simply relationships with customers,” said Sushant Dwivedy, Director, Microsoft Business Solutions, Microsoft India. “Microsoft CRM sits on the .NET platform, and because of that it is much more than a traditional CRM product. A better way to think of Microsoft CRM is as a rapid development application with an out-of-the-box CRM functionality, a vast array of Microsoft applications and capable of instantly leveraging the .NET platform.”
To enable quick application developments, Microsoft is offering both click-and-use and build features into xRM Dynamics. For simple applications that include data and metadata services, user experience services, access and security services and analytical services, the platform allows you to build applications without any coding. For more complex operations like extensibility services, integration services, architecture services and platform management services, Microsoft is offering an SDK—which either the customer or partners can use to develop advanced applications.
Microsoft is partnering with specialized domain expertise ISVs to develop vertical-specific solutions over xRM. Religare Technologies, one of the partners for Microsoft xRM offering, is building applications based on xRM for brokerage firms.
A Balakrishnan, President, Business Solutions, Religare Technologies said, “With xRM, we can build new applications for our existing Dynamics CRM customers, without spending much time on development. With our domain experience in the brokerage industry, we are able to build solutions like employee relationship management for brokerages that do not require CRM, with the help of xRM.”
Other partners too are building some domain-specific solutions. Infosys has built a wholesale distribution management solution over xRM that enhances operational efficiency through automated processes, escalations and workflow, improving the end-to-end lifecycle of wholesale distributors. For several customers like government, xRM is also available in Hindi. Other languages would soon be added.
According to IDC's India Packaged Software Market Analysis and Forecast 2009-2013 report, the India Enterprise Resource Management (ERM) solutions market was estimated at $263.3 million, during CY 2008, wherein Microsoft enjoyed a share of 10 percent in revenue. In the Indian CRM market, however, Microsoft held only 4 percent market share of $140.8 million pie in CY2008. This announcement could thus help Microsoft gain more revenues and market share in both CRM and ERM space.
The platform can work in both on-premise as well as hosted environments. In fact, experts believe that the Dynamics CRM Services box in the Microsoft’s Azure platform is actually xRM application services. This would mean that even xRM would be a part of Microsoft Live offering.
xRM is Microsoft’s answer to Salesforce.com’s popular Force.com platform. But will Microsoft be able to challenge the strong hold of Salesforce.com in the platform-as-a-service offering? Only time will tell.
Source:
http://www.crn.in/Software-019Nov009-Microsoft-Challenges-Salesforcecom-With-xRM.aspx
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“XRM (Anything Relationship Management) is the natural evolution of CRM (Customer Relationship Management). In today’s dynamic business environment, companies demand for ability to manage anything (x=Anything), not simply relationships with customers,” said Sushant Dwivedy, Director, Microsoft Business Solutions, Microsoft India. “Microsoft CRM sits on the .NET platform, and because of that it is much more than a traditional CRM product. A better way to think of Microsoft CRM is as a rapid development application with an out-of-the-box CRM functionality, a vast array of Microsoft applications and capable of instantly leveraging the .NET platform.”
To enable quick application developments, Microsoft is offering both click-and-use and build features into xRM Dynamics. For simple applications that include data and metadata services, user experience services, access and security services and analytical services, the platform allows you to build applications without any coding. For more complex operations like extensibility services, integration services, architecture services and platform management services, Microsoft is offering an SDK—which either the customer or partners can use to develop advanced applications.
Microsoft is partnering with specialized domain expertise ISVs to develop vertical-specific solutions over xRM. Religare Technologies, one of the partners for Microsoft xRM offering, is building applications based on xRM for brokerage firms.
A Balakrishnan, President, Business Solutions, Religare Technologies said, “With xRM, we can build new applications for our existing Dynamics CRM customers, without spending much time on development. With our domain experience in the brokerage industry, we are able to build solutions like employee relationship management for brokerages that do not require CRM, with the help of xRM.”
Other partners too are building some domain-specific solutions. Infosys has built a wholesale distribution management solution over xRM that enhances operational efficiency through automated processes, escalations and workflow, improving the end-to-end lifecycle of wholesale distributors. For several customers like government, xRM is also available in Hindi. Other languages would soon be added.
According to IDC's India Packaged Software Market Analysis and Forecast 2009-2013 report, the India Enterprise Resource Management (ERM) solutions market was estimated at $263.3 million, during CY 2008, wherein Microsoft enjoyed a share of 10 percent in revenue. In the Indian CRM market, however, Microsoft held only 4 percent market share of $140.8 million pie in CY2008. This announcement could thus help Microsoft gain more revenues and market share in both CRM and ERM space.
The platform can work in both on-premise as well as hosted environments. In fact, experts believe that the Dynamics CRM Services box in the Microsoft’s Azure platform is actually xRM application services. This would mean that even xRM would be a part of Microsoft Live offering.
xRM is Microsoft’s answer to Salesforce.com’s popular Force.com platform. But will Microsoft be able to challenge the strong hold of Salesforce.com in the platform-as-a-service offering? Only time will tell.
Source:
http://www.crn.in/Software-019Nov009-Microsoft-Challenges-Salesforcecom-With-xRM.aspx
Custom Web Design Chicago
Thursday, November 26, 2009
News Digest:Google, Joost, Sun TV, Telstra, 3G, WatchIndia, NeGP, Kindle & More
Google With New Ad Formats & New Google Search On Mobile For Movies
Google has been testing new ad formats focussed on specific information making ads on the search site more relevant and useful. These new ad formats have already been launched in the US. Ads will now include details from maps, such as driving directions, images of items with prices and more links for saving time. For movie searches, the ads will have accompanying video trailer of the movie.
Google has also announced the launch of its new Google Search results for movies. This new search lets users see the new movie listings page which includes buttons to play trailers right from the phone, ratings and categories, movie posters, upcoming showtimes, and a list of the nearest theaters and their distances from the user.
Video Portal Joost Acquired By Adconian
Online video portal Joost was launched in 2009 with $45 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Viacom, CBS and Chinese tycoon Li Ka-shingwhich. Tyler Moebius, CEO, Adconian told contentSutra that Adconion’s main aim in acquiring the video firm was to offer its web player to brand marketing client. It only makes sense for Adconian to acquire a video portal as its business is mass distribution of ads and branded entertainment. (Read more at paidContent:UK)
Ads On Sun TV To Cost From 9 to 33 Percent More
Sun TV Network Ltd has announced that it will raise ad rates on all its Tamil channels by 9 to 33 percent with effect from 1 January 2010. It has also raised ad rates and broadcast fee across all of the company’s Tamil channels.
Telstra Looking To Re-Enter India
Telstra, is looking to re-enter India as ISP, NLD (national long distance) and ILD (international long distance)player. The company has already applied to the FIPB for the purpose. Telstra might also be interested in the BWA auction that is scheduled after the 3G Auction in January. (Read more at DNA)
Shantonu Aditya To Resign As CEO, Bloomberg UTV
Shantonu Aditya, is resigning as CEO of Bloomberg UTV and contentSutra reports that this is his last week in the company. Aditya had joined UTV Broadcasting as executive director in April 2007 where he headed Bindass, Bindass Movies, UTV Movies and World Movies and when Arun Anant quit as the CEO of UTVi, he doubled as the CEO of the business news channel too. In September M.K. Anand was hired as CEO of UTV Broadcasting to oversee the four channels in and Aditya continued with Bloomberg UTV only. Before UTV, Aditya was CEO of Sahara One Media and Entertainment Ltd.
WatchIndia Brings Four Marathi TV Channels To The Web
WatchIndia has expanded with more Marathi TV channels. Zee Marathi, ETV Marathi, Zee 24 Taas and Saam TV are the additional Marathi channels. (Read more at Earth Times)
Tata Communications Ties-Up with Middle East Telcos
Tata Communications has tied up with, Bahrain Internet Exchange in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Nawras of Oman, Quatar Telecom of Quatar, Mobily of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Etisalat of the UAE to construct a new cable system into the Gulf to connect the region to all major business hubs and city centres of the world via Tata’s Global Network.
National e-Governance Plan
The Government has released the status of the State Wide Area Network status. According to the figure SWAN has already been implemented in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Delhi and Tripura. By December it is expected that it will be implemented in other 19 states and by June the all India implementation to be finished. The SWAN is the backbone of the National e-Governance Plan.
Defence To Get Fibre Optic Network For 25 Mhz 3G Spectrum
DoT has approved a proposal to build an optical fibre cable network costing Rs. 9000 crore for the defence forces in lieu of which the Defence will be vacating 25 Mhz 3G spectrum for the upcoming auction. The Cabinet on December 3rd will decide on the grant for the purpose. (Read more at Business Line)
Ignitee Is Essar Steel’s Online Agency
Essar Steel Ltd has appointed Ignitee Digital Solutions Pvt ltd, as their online agency. Ignitee will develop Essar Steel Hypermart’s website which will update customers on commodity prices and loyalty program online.
Snapfish Tie-Up With BabyCenter
HP’s Snapfish, has announced a partnerships with Johnson & Johnson’s BabyCenter to launch a co branded photo center to offer free prints and photo gifts to members of BabyCenter.
Pay Per Second Goes International
Airtel has announced pay per second plan on its virtual calling card service ‘Airtel CallHome‘ for users in the US that call India. The $6.99 plan has an administrative fee of $0.49 and lets users call India for 0.03 cents per second. The plan has a validity of 30 days.
Improved Kindle: Battery Life Up 85 percent
Amazon has annnounced that it has improved the battery life of the Kindle and also added a PDF reader. The company claims that battery life has been improved by 85 percent meaning battery will last seven days with wireless on. (Read more at ZDNet)
More Control For Founders In Facebook Inc
Facebook Inc., similar to what Google had done, has established a dual-class stock structure that will increase the voting power of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other existing shareholders if they hold onto their shares during an IPO. (Read more at WSJ)
Dropbox Raises $7.2 Million
Dropbox has raised $7.2 million in Series A investment which includes $1.2 million debt from Sequoia Capital and interest now converted to equity as part of the investment. Sequoia Capital led the round with participation from Accel Partners. (Read more at Gigaom)
Hulu Traffic Up 47 percent
Due to the fall TV season and ABC shows such as ‘Lost’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’, Hulu’s site traffic has increased almost 47 percent in October as compared to the previous month. According to comScore Video Metrix, unique visitors were up nearly 10% and minutes per viewer were also up from 92 minutes to 123 minutes. (Read more at Ad Age)
Source:
http://www.medianama.com/2009/11/223-news-digestgoogle-joost-sun-tv-telstra-3g-watchindia-negp-kindle-more/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+medianama+%28Medianama%3A+Digital+Media+In+India%29
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Google has been testing new ad formats focussed on specific information making ads on the search site more relevant and useful. These new ad formats have already been launched in the US. Ads will now include details from maps, such as driving directions, images of items with prices and more links for saving time. For movie searches, the ads will have accompanying video trailer of the movie.
Google has also announced the launch of its new Google Search results for movies. This new search lets users see the new movie listings page which includes buttons to play trailers right from the phone, ratings and categories, movie posters, upcoming showtimes, and a list of the nearest theaters and their distances from the user.
Video Portal Joost Acquired By Adconian
Online video portal Joost was launched in 2009 with $45 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Viacom, CBS and Chinese tycoon Li Ka-shingwhich. Tyler Moebius, CEO, Adconian told contentSutra that Adconion’s main aim in acquiring the video firm was to offer its web player to brand marketing client. It only makes sense for Adconian to acquire a video portal as its business is mass distribution of ads and branded entertainment. (Read more at paidContent:UK)
Ads On Sun TV To Cost From 9 to 33 Percent More
Sun TV Network Ltd has announced that it will raise ad rates on all its Tamil channels by 9 to 33 percent with effect from 1 January 2010. It has also raised ad rates and broadcast fee across all of the company’s Tamil channels.
Telstra Looking To Re-Enter India
Telstra, is looking to re-enter India as ISP, NLD (national long distance) and ILD (international long distance)player. The company has already applied to the FIPB for the purpose. Telstra might also be interested in the BWA auction that is scheduled after the 3G Auction in January. (Read more at DNA)
Shantonu Aditya To Resign As CEO, Bloomberg UTV
Shantonu Aditya, is resigning as CEO of Bloomberg UTV and contentSutra reports that this is his last week in the company. Aditya had joined UTV Broadcasting as executive director in April 2007 where he headed Bindass, Bindass Movies, UTV Movies and World Movies and when Arun Anant quit as the CEO of UTVi, he doubled as the CEO of the business news channel too. In September M.K. Anand was hired as CEO of UTV Broadcasting to oversee the four channels in and Aditya continued with Bloomberg UTV only. Before UTV, Aditya was CEO of Sahara One Media and Entertainment Ltd.
WatchIndia Brings Four Marathi TV Channels To The Web
WatchIndia has expanded with more Marathi TV channels. Zee Marathi, ETV Marathi, Zee 24 Taas and Saam TV are the additional Marathi channels. (Read more at Earth Times)
Tata Communications Ties-Up with Middle East Telcos
Tata Communications has tied up with, Bahrain Internet Exchange in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Nawras of Oman, Quatar Telecom of Quatar, Mobily of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Etisalat of the UAE to construct a new cable system into the Gulf to connect the region to all major business hubs and city centres of the world via Tata’s Global Network.
National e-Governance Plan
The Government has released the status of the State Wide Area Network status. According to the figure SWAN has already been implemented in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Delhi and Tripura. By December it is expected that it will be implemented in other 19 states and by June the all India implementation to be finished. The SWAN is the backbone of the National e-Governance Plan.
Defence To Get Fibre Optic Network For 25 Mhz 3G Spectrum
DoT has approved a proposal to build an optical fibre cable network costing Rs. 9000 crore for the defence forces in lieu of which the Defence will be vacating 25 Mhz 3G spectrum for the upcoming auction. The Cabinet on December 3rd will decide on the grant for the purpose. (Read more at Business Line)
Ignitee Is Essar Steel’s Online Agency
Essar Steel Ltd has appointed Ignitee Digital Solutions Pvt ltd, as their online agency. Ignitee will develop Essar Steel Hypermart’s website which will update customers on commodity prices and loyalty program online.
Snapfish Tie-Up With BabyCenter
HP’s Snapfish, has announced a partnerships with Johnson & Johnson’s BabyCenter to launch a co branded photo center to offer free prints and photo gifts to members of BabyCenter.
Pay Per Second Goes International
Airtel has announced pay per second plan on its virtual calling card service ‘Airtel CallHome‘ for users in the US that call India. The $6.99 plan has an administrative fee of $0.49 and lets users call India for 0.03 cents per second. The plan has a validity of 30 days.
Improved Kindle: Battery Life Up 85 percent
Amazon has annnounced that it has improved the battery life of the Kindle and also added a PDF reader. The company claims that battery life has been improved by 85 percent meaning battery will last seven days with wireless on. (Read more at ZDNet)
More Control For Founders In Facebook Inc
Facebook Inc., similar to what Google had done, has established a dual-class stock structure that will increase the voting power of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other existing shareholders if they hold onto their shares during an IPO. (Read more at WSJ)
Dropbox Raises $7.2 Million
Dropbox has raised $7.2 million in Series A investment which includes $1.2 million debt from Sequoia Capital and interest now converted to equity as part of the investment. Sequoia Capital led the round with participation from Accel Partners. (Read more at Gigaom)
Hulu Traffic Up 47 percent
Due to the fall TV season and ABC shows such as ‘Lost’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’, Hulu’s site traffic has increased almost 47 percent in October as compared to the previous month. According to comScore Video Metrix, unique visitors were up nearly 10% and minutes per viewer were also up from 92 minutes to 123 minutes. (Read more at Ad Age)
Source:
http://www.medianama.com/2009/11/223-news-digestgoogle-joost-sun-tv-telstra-3g-watchindia-negp-kindle-more/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+medianama+%28Medianama%3A+Digital+Media+In+India%29
Chicago Website Design
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Google Acquires Teracent To Apply Machine Smarts To Display Ads
Google’s on a bit of a shopping spree this holiday season. The search giant just acquired AdMob for $750 million a few weeks ago. Today, Google has acquired display advertising company Teracent for an undisclosed amount of money. The deal is expected to close this quarter.Teracent’s Intelligent Display Advertising technology creates display ads entirely customized to the specific consumer and site. The startup’s proprietary alogirthims automatically pick the creative parts of a display ad (images, colors, text) in real-time determined by like geographic location, language, the content of the website, the time of day or the past performance of different ads.
To date, Teracent has only raised $5.8 million in funding. Google says that Teracent’s technology will now be offered to its display advertising clients who run campaigns in Google’s Content Network and to DoubleClick clients. Google had been rumored to be in talks with Teracent about a possible acquisition a few weeks ago. Earlier this year, Yahoo announced a partnership with Teracent as part of its “Smart Ads” program for PC and mobile advertisers. With Teracent’s acquisition by Google, I’m assuming this partnership is nullified.
Source:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/23/google-acquires-teracent-to-apply-machine-smarts-to-display-ads/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Open-Xchange Integrates Facebook, Twitter With E-mail Inbox
Open-source collaboration software vendor Open-Xchange plans to open its e-mail inbox to messages from social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Open-Xchange wants to simplify dealing with multiple modes of communication by making them all accessible in its e-mail client, said Rafael Laguna, the company's CEO. It plans to offer that functionality in a February software release. Users will be able to automatically filter messages so that the ones from web-based e-mail services and social networking sites, for example, go into a personal inbox.
Prediction: Google Acquires TiVo by July 31, 2010?
Version 6.14 of Open-Xchange, launched Tuesday, lets users bring in contact data from social networking sites and web-based email services such as Gmail and Yahoo Mail, Laguna said. It can also bring in messages from Gmail. Integration with Google's calendar service is on the way, he said. Users can either have separate address books for different sites or a unified one with all their contact information.
Open-Xchange has improved the user interface for the team calendar view in version 6.14. Users can now see what their co-workers are up to from hourly to monthly views and zoom between the two. Previous versions have only had static daily or weekly views. When the grid is large a hover window can give a more detailed view, according to Laguna.
During the first year Open-Xchange Server Edition costs US$1,312.50 for 25 named users and a one-year maintenance subscription. Additional users are $ 52.50 each. Renewing the maintenance subscription for another year costs $328 and $13, according to Open-Xchange's price list. The pricing applies worldwide and the software is available globally.
Source:
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2009/11/24/open-xchange-integrates-facebook-twitter-e-mail-inbox
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Open-Xchange wants to simplify dealing with multiple modes of communication by making them all accessible in its e-mail client, said Rafael Laguna, the company's CEO. It plans to offer that functionality in a February software release. Users will be able to automatically filter messages so that the ones from web-based e-mail services and social networking sites, for example, go into a personal inbox.
Prediction: Google Acquires TiVo by July 31, 2010?
Version 6.14 of Open-Xchange, launched Tuesday, lets users bring in contact data from social networking sites and web-based email services such as Gmail and Yahoo Mail, Laguna said. It can also bring in messages from Gmail. Integration with Google's calendar service is on the way, he said. Users can either have separate address books for different sites or a unified one with all their contact information.
Open-Xchange has improved the user interface for the team calendar view in version 6.14. Users can now see what their co-workers are up to from hourly to monthly views and zoom between the two. Previous versions have only had static daily or weekly views. When the grid is large a hover window can give a more detailed view, according to Laguna.
During the first year Open-Xchange Server Edition costs US$1,312.50 for 25 named users and a one-year maintenance subscription. Additional users are $ 52.50 each. Renewing the maintenance subscription for another year costs $328 and $13, according to Open-Xchange's price list. The pricing applies worldwide and the software is available globally.
Source:
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2009/11/24/open-xchange-integrates-facebook-twitter-e-mail-inbox
Web Design Firms Chicago
NFL Player Has Twitter Account Hacked With Embarrassing Consequences
There have been several high profile hackings of Twitter Accounts, with the likes of Britney Spears and even Barack Obama having their accounts compromised (with bizarre tweets sent from them) for at least a few minutes.
But what happens when your average NFL football player gets their account hacked? Apparently, not much. And unfortunately for New York Jets Wide Receiver David Clowney, his hacker is going above and beyond what others have done and is cursing and directing insults at fans, as you can see in the screenshot below:
The Jets have used their account to inform fans about what’s going on, but the damage has been ongoing for about three hours now. We’ve also sent a note to Twitter (Twitter) in hopes the issue can be resolved swiftly, but with more public figures continuing to join the service, it’s an indication that “verified accounts” might not yet go quite far enough (though Clowney’s account isn’t officially verified).
Source:
http://mashable.com/2009/11/23/david-clowney-hacked/
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But what happens when your average NFL football player gets their account hacked? Apparently, not much. And unfortunately for New York Jets Wide Receiver David Clowney, his hacker is going above and beyond what others have done and is cursing and directing insults at fans, as you can see in the screenshot below:
The Jets have used their account to inform fans about what’s going on, but the damage has been ongoing for about three hours now. We’ve also sent a note to Twitter (Twitter) in hopes the issue can be resolved swiftly, but with more public figures continuing to join the service, it’s an indication that “verified accounts” might not yet go quite far enough (though Clowney’s account isn’t officially verified).
Source:
http://mashable.com/2009/11/23/david-clowney-hacked/
Custom Web Design Chicago
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Microsoft Offers To Pay News Publishers To Pull Content From Google
The next battle in the search wars could be over access to news content. The FT reports that Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)—which has made increasing the market share of its Bing search engine its top online priority—has reached out to “big online publishers” in order to get them to pull their sites from Google (NSDQ: GOOG). Among the parties currently in discussions with Microsoft is News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), which has very loudly threatened to block search engines from crawling the content of its newspapers.
Unclear how far along these discussions are, although TechCrunch also reported a week ago that Microsoft had a meeting with representatives from top British papers, including the Financial Times, about giving their content “premium positions” on Bing.
This report seems to take that a step further since not only would Microsoft presumably be giving the content of its partners better play, it would also be paying to ensure that their content could not be found directly via the search engine of its arch-rival.
That would give Bing bragging rights to something Google does not have. Its other attempts at doing so haven’t been as successful. For instance, after it announced a deal with Twitter to feature Tweets from the microblog in real-time, Google followed up with its own agreement hours later.
For the newspapers, of course, the question is whether Microsoft’s dollars can make up for the loss of traffic that Google generates for them.
Source:
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-microsoft-in-talks-to-get-news-publishers-to-pull-content-from-google/
Web Design Firms Chicago
Unclear how far along these discussions are, although TechCrunch also reported a week ago that Microsoft had a meeting with representatives from top British papers, including the Financial Times, about giving their content “premium positions” on Bing.
This report seems to take that a step further since not only would Microsoft presumably be giving the content of its partners better play, it would also be paying to ensure that their content could not be found directly via the search engine of its arch-rival.
That would give Bing bragging rights to something Google does not have. Its other attempts at doing so haven’t been as successful. For instance, after it announced a deal with Twitter to feature Tweets from the microblog in real-time, Google followed up with its own agreement hours later.
For the newspapers, of course, the question is whether Microsoft’s dollars can make up for the loss of traffic that Google generates for them.
Source:
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-microsoft-in-talks-to-get-news-publishers-to-pull-content-from-google/
Web Design Firms Chicago
Friday, November 20, 2009
Google, Yahoo, Microsoft: The WiFi War is On
The web is supposed to be a breeding ground of innovation, but lately it's begun to look like a game of monkey-see, monkey-do.
First came last month's Twitter love-fest, when web giants Microsoft and Google made back-to-back announcements on the same day that their respective search engines would begin to incorporate Tweets in search results.
WiFi goes MiFi aka My WiFi
Now giving away free Wi-Fi Internet access appears to be the promotional tool du jour.
On Tuesday, Yahoo promised free Wi-Fi to the estimated 500,000 people who wander through New York's Times Square on any given day. The company will light up Times Square for the next twelve months.
Not to be outdone, Google announced on Tuesday that it was offering free Wi-Fi at 47 US airports through January 15 as a special "holiday gift."
VoIP over Wi-Fi will be of great interest for SMBs
Meanwhile, MediaPost reported that Microsoft has its own free Wi-Fi plan through a partnership with JiWire. The companies have been offering free Internet access at North American airports and hotels in exchange for a consumer conducting a single search on Bing, Microsoft's revamped search engine.
As the web giants compete to sell ad impressions, they're increasingly trying to rope in web surfers at the starting gate - or at least at airports and in Times Square.
Source:
http://www.ciol.com/Technology/Networking/News-Reports/Google,-Yahoo,-Microsoft-The-WiFi-war-is-on/111109127560/0/
Custom Web Design Chicago
First came last month's Twitter love-fest, when web giants Microsoft and Google made back-to-back announcements on the same day that their respective search engines would begin to incorporate Tweets in search results.
WiFi goes MiFi aka My WiFi
Now giving away free Wi-Fi Internet access appears to be the promotional tool du jour.
On Tuesday, Yahoo promised free Wi-Fi to the estimated 500,000 people who wander through New York's Times Square on any given day. The company will light up Times Square for the next twelve months.
Not to be outdone, Google announced on Tuesday that it was offering free Wi-Fi at 47 US airports through January 15 as a special "holiday gift."
VoIP over Wi-Fi will be of great interest for SMBs
Meanwhile, MediaPost reported that Microsoft has its own free Wi-Fi plan through a partnership with JiWire. The companies have been offering free Internet access at North American airports and hotels in exchange for a consumer conducting a single search on Bing, Microsoft's revamped search engine.
As the web giants compete to sell ad impressions, they're increasingly trying to rope in web surfers at the starting gate - or at least at airports and in Times Square.
Source:
http://www.ciol.com/Technology/Networking/News-Reports/Google,-Yahoo,-Microsoft-The-WiFi-war-is-on/111109127560/0/
Custom Web Design Chicago
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
MySpace Acquires Imeem Social Music Service for a Song
After grumblings earlier in the week, the deal is now apparently done: MySpace has inked a deal to buy imeem. The going price? A pittance, apparently — a lowly $1 million in cash. For that, MySpace will bring in about half of imeem’s 55 employees and use some of the company’s assets to pay off its significant debt.After a number of iterations during its lifetime since it was founded in 2003 and first debuted in 2005, imeem finally gets its exit. We doubt it was the exit founder Dalton Caldwell was hoping for, but the company’s trajectory plus the overall bleak state of the Online Music service playing field (thanks in large part to relentless assault from major label lawsuits) led it to this ultimate fire sale.
It’s not known whether the imeem brand will even continue to exist under MySpace (MySpace) management, or whether the talent and assets will be folded into MySpace’s own extensive lineup of music and music video offerings. Until the deal is officially announced though, anything could happen. A MySpace spokesperson declined to comment to us on the terms of the sale or the potential roadmap for the company.
Are you an imeem user sad to see its bitter end, or hoping for its continuation under new parent company MySpace?
Source:
http://mashable.com/2009/11/18/myspace-acquires-imeem/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Chase Commits $5 Million to Facebook Charity Campaign
Chase announced Monday a partnership with Facebook to power the finance company's inaugural "Community Giving" campaign, which will allocate a total of $5 million to small, local nonprofits voted on by Facebook members.The campaign takes the form of--you guessed it--a Facebook Platform application, in which members can choose their favorite of more than 500,000 nonprofits. Naturally, then, they're encouraged to use the hallowed "Social Graph" to encourage their friends to do so as well.
The winner gets $1 million in a grand-prize announcement slated for February 1; five runners-up get $100,000 apiece, and then the entire top 100 receives $25,000 apiece. There's an advisory board consisting of celebrities and Chase execs, as well as Facebook vice president of communications Elliot Schrage.
The publicity effort for Community Giving, which reached out to celebrity Twitter users in both the entertainment and nonprofit space in addition to the mainstream press to spread the word, says it's been an early success: over 12,000 Facebook members signed on in the first day.
That's not quite as many as the hundreds of thousands who rallied to support a prospective Stephen Colbert presidential campaign in the matter of a week, or the tens of thousands who opted to follow actor Neil Patrick Harris in his first 24 hours on Twitter, but for something that's a legitimate charity effort rather than a goofy viral meme, it's respectable.
Facebook has traditionally been hands-off about partnerships on its application platform, but nonprofit and public interest-related projects have been the exception: the social network forged several media-outlet deals during the 2008 presidential election, partnered with nonprofits to create virtual gifts for its "Facebook for Good" campaign, and synced up with the Huffington Post for a "social news" experiment.
It was less than two years ago that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that corporate philanthropy wasn't an immediate goal for the social network because, at the time, it simply didn't have the profits.
Source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10400134-36.html?tag=mncol;title
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Monday, November 16, 2009
Is Facebook Getting Uncool For 18-24s?
In its early days, Social-Networking site Facebook was propelled to popularity by a college-age crowd that sought it out as an exclusive sanctuary in which to connect with their peers. For that market, it was an attractive alternative to sites deemed to have lost their cool -- like MySpace, which had become a haven for pre-teens and high schoolers.Now, it seems, Facebook might be suffering a similar migration. According to comScore, as it has gained a broader audience, the older teens and twentysomethings that drove Facebook's initial popularity are using it less. And research by WPP Group's Mindshare suggests that group is reevaluating the site's worth as a tool for developing friendships. Others believe Facebook's cool factor among younger users is waning. "When you start getting friended by your grandmother, I think that's when it starts to lose its cool," said Huw Griffiths, evp and global director of marketing accountability and research at Interpublic Group's Universal McCann.
The numbers have fueled a debate among agencies about the implications for marketers. For some, it has raised a warning flag that if the trend continues, clients may have to revise their social-network marketing strategies. Others believe Facebook's broader growth outweighs any declining usage by the college-age crowd. And still others aren't convinced that younger users on the whole are less enthralled with Facebook, and believe some may be accessing the site via mobile devices that don't show up in the comScore numbers.
According to comScore, the average number of minutes spent online with the site among 18- to 24-year-olds fell in September for the third consecutive month compared to the same period a year ago. And the drop-off rate is accelerating. In July, usage fell 3 percent, in August 13 percent and in September 16 percent.
"There's a 'parents turn up at the party, the party's over' kind of thing going on," said Mark Potts, North American managing director for consumer insights at Mindshare.
Potts said signs of change began appearing a year ago, when members of Mindshare's so-called "Scout Network," a group of trend-spotting consumers scattered around the country, began reporting shifts in the way they and their friends were using the site.
"We began getting comments like they didn't know how they acquired 300 friends when they didn't know half the people on the list," Potts said. Others remarked on the shallow nature of Facebook friendships. "They talked about using it more to coordinate events and gatherings but less so overall," he said, because of something lacking in the quality of the friendships.
Separately, Mindshare in August surveyed 1,200 consumers about their social-networking habits. More than half of the 18- to 24-year-old respondents (51 percent) agreed that "social-networking sites like Facebook are diluting the quality of relationships." And 40 percent of that group said they now visit social networks that are based on particular interests, such as TV, music or movies.
The research and trend-spotter feedback led Potts to conclude that younger Facebook users are "adjusting their relationship to it in some fundamental way," which might call for marketers to adjust their strategies if the trend proves long term.
Source:
http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/media/e3i15e6314384dccfe3fbf6715a445e0e2b
Custom Web Design Chicago
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Google Social Search Disappears
Google Social Search, launched in late October as an experimental way to combine your social networks with Google’s (Google) search results, has mysteriously disappeared today.
When trying the service, we’re greeted with the message: “The experiment you’re trying to access is no longer available. Go to experiments overview”.
Pulling the feature so soon after launch would be unusual, given that social networking is clearly a large part of search’s future development. One possibility is that Google has decided to take another approach to bringing social networks to search. A more likely explanation, given that it’s a weekend: the feature has erroneously disappeared and Google’s staff have yet to catch the issue.
We’re putting an email in to Google and we’ll update when we have more information.
Source:
http://mashable.com/2009/11/15/google-social-search-disappears/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29
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When trying the service, we’re greeted with the message: “The experiment you’re trying to access is no longer available. Go to experiments overview”.
Pulling the feature so soon after launch would be unusual, given that social networking is clearly a large part of search’s future development. One possibility is that Google has decided to take another approach to bringing social networks to search. A more likely explanation, given that it’s a weekend: the feature has erroneously disappeared and Google’s staff have yet to catch the issue.
We’re putting an email in to Google and we’ll update when we have more information.
Source:
http://mashable.com/2009/11/15/google-social-search-disappears/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29
Web Design Firms Chicago
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Facebook Provides Alibi for Robbery Suspect
A 19-year-old New York man who was arrested for armed robbery has been exonerated thanks to a status update he posted on social networking site Facebook.
Rodney Bradford was arrested and held for 12 days in connection with an October 17 armed robbery of two people in the Brooklyn housing project where he lives, prosecutors said.
But he insisted he was in Manhattan at the time of the crime -- a claim he backed up by an update he made to his Facebook page from a computer in his father's Manhattan building, prosecutors said.
A spokesman at the Brooklyn District Attorney's office acknowledged that Facebook played a role in the dismissal of charges.
Source:
http://www.ciol.com/Global-News/News-Reports/Facebook-provides-alibi-for-robbery-suspect/131109127643/0/
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Rodney Bradford was arrested and held for 12 days in connection with an October 17 armed robbery of two people in the Brooklyn housing project where he lives, prosecutors said.
But he insisted he was in Manhattan at the time of the crime -- a claim he backed up by an update he made to his Facebook page from a computer in his father's Manhattan building, prosecutors said.
A spokesman at the Brooklyn District Attorney's office acknowledged that Facebook played a role in the dismissal of charges.
Source:
http://www.ciol.com/Global-News/News-Reports/Facebook-provides-alibi-for-robbery-suspect/131109127643/0/
Chicago Website Design
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Opera 10 Browser is Here

The Opera 10 Browser is now ready to download for Windows, and Mac, and Linux, three months after the beta first emerged (hands-on Opera 10 beta review).
If you've been keeping up with the beta updates, the final build of the cross-platform browser shouldn't surprise you. Opera Turbo, the browser's much-publicized compression engine for slow-poke connections, remains a feature highlight. Opera claims that Opera Turbo runs the browser up to eight times faster on suffering connections than do competing browsers.
The refreshed user interface is also noteworthy. Joining the new default skin (changed from version 9.6), are changes to tab bar behavior. The conventional tabs double as thumbnail images. Double-click the thin gray bar below the tabs (indicated by dots) or click and drag to expand open tabs into preview windows that you can navigate by clicking among them.
Other enhancements include an expanded Speed Dial (a feature that has later been adopted and adapted in Google's Chrome browser) that shows more commonly visited Web pages than in previous Opera browsers. You're also able to customize it with a background picture. You'll see that spell check will be applicable to any text field (for 51 languages), and that Opera's incorporated e-mail client takes a page from Google's books by threading e-mail conversations.
Developers get access to a newer version of Opera Dragonfly, the publisher's online development tools, but everyone can benefit from the speedier rendering engine that, according to Opera, makes version 10 up to 40 percent faster than version 9.6--before switching on Turbo's compression.
Despite all the additions that Opera hopes will keep Opera 10 competitive, there are still two notable omissions for this final release. The first is Opera Unite, which uses your browser as a Web server for sharing your content with others. The second is the Carakan JavaScript engine that promises to process JavaScript about 2.5 times as fast as the engine used in Opera 10 alpha.
Source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-10320478-7.html
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Google's Chrome browser,
Opera,
Opera 10 Browser,
version 9.6
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