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Archive for September, 2009
MySpace, Hulu working on new video service
September 21st, 2009 | 
Author: Rupert Murdoch said in July he wanted to reshape MySpace into more of an entertainment hub, and sources say the site now plans to launch a new video service sometime in the next several months with the help of sister site Hulu, CNET News has learned.
The big question is whether MySpace’s service will offer downloads or a subscription service.
Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman
(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET Networks)
Murdoch, the chairman of media conglomerate News Corp., intends to overhaul MySpace Video by bringing in a larger number of feature films, TV shows, and music videos. The social network’s new video area will be given a major face lift, more exposure, and be re-branded so as to make it more attractive to advertisers, according to two sources with knowledge of the plans.
A MySpace spokeswoman declined to comment.
Murdoch’s News Corp. owns MySpace and a large chunk of Hulu, which also boasts NBC Universal and Disney as its other stakeholders.
MySpace already streams some of Hulu’s TV shows and a tiny number of full-length movies to users. But MySpace Video, as it is now, can’t come close to competing with the Web’s top video services, such as YouTube, Netflix’s Watch Now, or Crackle.
A visit to MySpace Video on Monday evening revealed a section that provided few clues that feature films or prime-time TV shows were even offered there. Besides being buried, the content is displayed on a jumbled Web page. The links to the few long-form films and shows are mixed in with the much more plentiful short clips and trailers. To be frank, the site is a mess.
“MySpace’s intention is to do a much better job of monetizing the video area,” said one source.
What isn’t clear is whether MySpace Video will offer downloads and subscriptions. Last week, Murdoch and and Jeff Zukor, CEO of NBC Universal, said ad-supported Hulu is considering whether to offer pay-per view and a subscription service.
Whether a new MySpace video service would also offer these isn’t clear.
But it seems logical to set up a Hulu storefront at MySpace, which would enable the site’s users to purchase a movie download or rent a flick without having to hop over to Hulu.
Source :
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10358200-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Google hoping history repeats itself with display ads
With a new display ad exchange developed by its DoubleClick subsidiary, Google is hoping to give its one-trick pony another act.
Google has turned into one of the Internet’s largest and most influential companies on the popularity of its search engine and the profitable text ads it sells alongside those search results. This business generates the vast majority of its revenue and profits and gives Google the resources to tackle a variety of other projects from Google Apps to Chrome OS to Google Books.
But like just about anything, that business can only grow so fast. Google will need another profitable, growing business to maintain its spot atop the Internet world, hence the motivation for its $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick a year ago and the launch of the DoubleClick Ad Exchange Friday.
The DoubleClick Ad Exchange is sort of like a stock exchange, where buyers and sellers meet to haggle over prices for display ads, such as banner ads or video ads. Companies that sign up to participate in the exchange can search for open spaces in which to place their ads and bid on that space just like Google’s text-ad auction system for search keywords. It will also plug into Google’s existing infrastructure for AdWords–ads sold on Google search results pages–as well as AdSense–ads hosted by Google but displayed on third-party Web sites, giving those customers another option for their marketing campaigns.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10356697-265.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Posted in Communication, Google, Internet | 
Tags: Adsense, Adwords, DoubleClick, Google | 
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AT&T customers, check your plan once in a while
I’ve been a customer of AT&T every since 2003, when I got myself my first cell phone ever, and I’ve been a very good one. The proof: I set my bill to autopay from day one and even convinced a few friends to move to AT&T (mostly so that we don’t have to use the minutes to talk to each other.)
I found out Thursday that AT&T hasn’t been very nice to me.
I called the company’s customer service as there was a noticeable increase on my August bill. A helpful customer representative named Gilbert immediately took care of the false charge without much ado. While waiting for him to get the job done, I ran through my online bill and found a monthly charge of $9.99 for MobileTV service, which I had no idea existed in my plan.
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10355892-233.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Google rolls out revamped DoubleClick Ad Exchange
Having conquered the Web’s text-based ad market, Google is setting its sights on graphical display ads–a market dominated by rival Yahoo.
The search giant on Thursday took the wraps off a revamped DoubleClick Ad Exchange, a public exchange that allows publishers to offer excess ad inventory they can’t sell to advertisers looking for a bargain. Google said the exchange will meld DoubleClick’s ad exchange with Google’s own technology.
“Better technology can help make display advertising work better for all involved,” Neal Mohan, Google’s vice president of product management, said in a statement. “We’re focused on growing the display advertising pie for everyone. The DoubleClick Ad Exchange is a major part of that goal.”
The revamped exchange will incorporate Google’s AdWords and AdSense programs, as well as feature real-time bidding and a new API (application programming interface) designed for ad networks.
Yahoo, which runs the largest online ad exchange through RightMedia, an exchange it purchased in 2007 for $680 million, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Google’s dominance of the search engine advertising market has been fueled by text ads. In 2008, it completed its $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick in hopes of expanding its presence in display ads. Display ads–banners or image-based advertisements–haven’t produced the same return that search text ads have to this point but are still an important part of most Web sites.
Internet display advertising accounted for $7.6 billion in 2008, roughly a third of the $23.4 billion in revenue generated by all Internet ads for the year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10356263-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Eee PC maker Asus goes gadget
It made a splash with the Eee PC. Now Asus, once known chiefly as a components maker, is looking to make the leap to consumer gadget maker.
One of the largest manufacturers of motherboards for two decades, albeit it a largely unsung one, the Taiwanese company finds itself smack in the middle of a transition from components maker to serious contender in PCs and accessories. Asus (pronounced “ah-soos”) is attempting to establish itself as a brand name worldwide while making new forays into software and design.
The original Eee PC, launched in 2007.
(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET)
In addition to creating a new line of consumer products like TVs, VoIP phones, e-readers, and streaming Web video gadgets, the company’s leadership has its sights squarely set on being the third-largest notebook manufacturer in the world by 2012, while remaining the world’s largest supplier of motherboards. While it sounds somewhat ambitious for a company known more for nuts and bolts, there’s precedent: Fellow Taiwanese company Acer was in a very similar position a few years back and was able to transition from microchip maker to one of the largest laptop producers in the world.
Could Asus could be another Acer in the making?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10356079-92.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Phone calling coming to Twitter
Twitter users on Thursday will, for the first time, be able to make voice calls directly to each other through the microblogging service.
A new third-party offering from Jajah known as Jajah@call is expected to go into beta Thursday morning that will allow Twitter users to initiate a two-way voice chat with other users by typing “@call @username”–where “username” is someone’s Twitter ID–into any Twitter client. During the beta period, the company said, the calls will be limited to two minutes, but the company will evaluate that length during beta. However, it sees the two minute period–after which the call will end–as “the verbal equivalent of a tweet.”
According to Jajah, an Internet communications provider with tens of millions of users, the service will allow a user to place a call to any other user, so long as the second person follows the first on Twitter and both have Jajah accounts. The service is free to use and is expected to work on any Twitter-enabled device, from PCs to smart phones.
One important element of the service is that users can keep their phone numbers private, yet be able to have voice chats with just about anyone on Twitter. To be sure, since the calls are initiated by one person, the recipient may well not be online, or may choose to ignore the call if they don’t want to talk.
There are currently several applications that allow users to create voice-to-text Twitter posts–known as tweets–but it does not appear that anyone has yet made it possible to initiate voice communications directly between Twitter users.
Coming on the heels of the announcement earlier this week that Facebook users will now be able to communicate with each other via voice–using a third-party application from Vivox–it’s clear that there is a strong interest, among service providers, at least, in taking leading social networks beyond strictly text communications. Whether large numbers of users choose to get on board is unknown at this point, of course. And given that neither the Facebook nor the Twitter voice services are being provided by the social networks themselves means that some users will choose not to get involved for fear of privacy, stability or other concerns.
Still, if these third-party services end up being successful, it would be natural to expect that Facebook and Twitter may decide they need to step up and directly embed such technologies into their offerings. And there is a precedent for such a move. After Vivox began offering Second Life users a third-party voice solution, the virtual world’s publisher, Linden Lab, decided it needed to take advantage of the technology. Today, thanks to a formal partnership, Vivox’s voice service is formally integrated into Second Life.
And while it may be some time before such a thing happens with either Facebook or Twitter, or any other major social network, one would have to think that it’s only a matter of time.
Source :
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10355319-52.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Twitter to raise funding at $1 billion valuation?
Twitter is attempting to raise funding at a $1 billion valuation, according to a TechCrunch post Wednesday.
The blog cited unnamed sources claiming that Twitter CEO Evan Williams announced the valuation in a recent meeting. According to TechCrunch’s sources, Twitter plans to raise about $50 million during the financing round. The company has already raised about $55 million in funding.
Twitter hasn’t immediately responded to requests for comment.
In February, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone announced in a blog post that his company raised approximately $35 million in a Series C round of funding led by Benchmark and Institutional Venture Partners. At the time, it was reported that Twitter’s valuation for the round was about $250 million. Assuming that both reports are true, Twitter is contending that it’s now worth four times as much as it was just seven months ago.
Of course, determining the real value of a company is a subjective practice. And most times, those figures change rapidly as economic factors impact the company’s operation.
Twitter, which has yet to turn a profit, still hasn’t implemented a profit-making business model. That could have a major impact on its valuation, regardless of the figure.
That said, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in an interview with VentureBeat last month that his company will implement a revenue model by the end of the year. He wouldn’t dig too deep into details, but he did say it would incorporate paid accounts for businesses that want to use the platform for marketing and customer relations.
But just how those paid accounts will impact Twitter’s growing user base is up for debate. Will companies go elsewhere to promote their brands? Will they pay Twitter’s fees? All that can impact the company’s real value.
So as Twitter possibly heads into another round of funding, it’s important to remember that valuations are fluid numbers that are easily changed. It’s also important to note that so far, Twitter hasn’t confirmed that $1 billion valuation. So maintain some skepticism, as we do, until we hear from Twitter.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10355207-2.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Posted in Communication, Internet, Twitter |
Tags: $1 billion, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, fund raiser, Twitter |
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Wi-Fi flowers sprouting across U.S.
SAN FRANCISCO–A pair of Los Angeles artists have teamed up with Toyota on an usually functional art project: a set of large, colorful flowers that have been providing free Wi-Fi and power outlets in public places around the country.
Currently on display in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens, the flowers–the creation of a company called Poetic Kinetics and its principals, Patrick Shearn and Cynthia Washburn–are part of a campaign for Toyota’s newest generation Prius.
Brightly colored by day and lit up with LEDs at night, the flowers have been on tour around the country for several weeks. According to John Lisko, the executive communications director for Saatchi & Saatchi, Toyota’s ad agency on the project, the flowers have gone through Boston, New York, Chicago, Seattle and will shortly be departing for Los Angeles.
The Wi-Fi flowers are lit up at night, and provide free Internet connectivity as well as power outlets to plug cell phones or laptops in to.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
Inspired, at least in part, by a set of giant, mobile flowers Shearn built for Burning Man in 2005 and 2006, Toyota commissioned the project to reflect the theme of the new Prius: Harmony between man, nature and machine.
Run on solar power, the flowers pull in an Internet signal via a 3G network, explained Washburn, and then convert it to Wi-Fi which covers a radius of about 200 feet around each flower.
For now, the project is no more than temporary art. But Lisko said that Toyota is “thinking through” the possibility of providing permanent versions, particularly because, he said, the public feedback has been so strongly positive.
Designed for Burning Man 2005 and 2006, these two art cars, a flower and a venus fly trap, were among the most popular pieces at Burning Man.
Source :
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10354821-52.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Posted in Communication, Internet, wi-fi, wireless |
Tags: art, Toyota, Wi-Fi flowers |
No Comments »
Google acquires ReCaptcha as book scanning aid
With the ReCaptcha acquisition, Google can improve security on its sites and make its book scanning project smarter.
(Credit: Google)
Google has acquired ReCaptcha, one of those companies behind the distorted text boxes at the bottom of many Web site sign-in pages.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Google plans to use ReCaptcha’s technology both as a security measure within certain Google sites and to make its massive book-scanning project a little smarter, the company said in a blog post. ReCaptcha is an offshoot of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, and puts a twist on the traditional captcha: a string of letters in squiggly text meant to confuse spam bots and other nonhuman Web pests.
The idea behind a captcha is to confuse a computer, but computers are also confused by some words written in fonts used long ago. ReCaptcha offers two words, one of which is a captcha it already knows, and one of which is a word it doesn’t know. The thinking is that if you get the first word right, you’re likely a human and you’re also probably going to get the second one right.
It can then pool all the answers for the second word and declare with a reasonable amount of certainty that the second word is what most people think it is, thereby updating the vocabulary of participating book scanners. This is of obvious interest to Google, currently bent on scanning as many books as it can find.
Source :
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10354717-265.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Snake Discovered With A Leg
A woman in China has found a snake with a single leg and a clawed foot crawling across her bedroom wall.
“I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound. I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw,” 66 year old Duan Qiongxiu told the Delfi.
Duan was so terrified by the bizarre creature she quickly killed it using the heel of a shoe and then preserved it in a jar of alcohol. The 40cm long reptile is now being studied by scientists at the West Normal University in Nanchang.
http://www.themorningstarr.co.uk/2009/09/14/snake-discovered-with-a-leg/
