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  • Nexus One Sales Of 5-6 Million Units Forecast

    Google’s given its presentation, tech reviewers have had their say, and, after months of buildup, the Nexus One should soon start appearing in the real world.  So how – in a sales sense – will it fare?  According to a Barclays Capital analyst, the Nexus One will be a rather hot item.

    Google Nexus OneIn a note released this morning, Doug Anmuth indicated that Google might sell 5 or 6 million units in 2010, generating incremental revenue of between $2.6 billion and $3.2 billion.  Which would appear to make for a pretty great debut; it should go without saying that tons of companies would kill for those numbers.

    Indeed, to put the data into perspective, John Paczkowski pointed out, "Motorola’s (MOT) 2010 global smartphone shipments are expected to be somewhere around 13 million units."  Also, 6 million Nexus Ones sold in a year works out to about 16,400 finding new homes every day.

    Still, to look at even bigger picture, Barclays predicted in September that at least 7 million iPhones will sell in just the first quarter of 2010.  Plus there’s little hope that Google will make much of a profit off the Nexus One, however many units it sells.

    At least it’ll be an interesting story to watch.  Google’s already gone in an unusual direction by promoting the Nexus One on its typically-spartan homepage.

    Related Articles:

    > Google Unveils Nexus One "Super Phone"

    > AdMob Determines Android Is Growing Faster Than Ever

    > Google Phone Excitement Builds Ahead Of Jan. 5 Event

     

  • Google Talks to People About Online Auto Habits

    Are you familiar with "Google on the Street"? This refers to a series of videos Google has put together in which it goes out and talks to people on the street about various online behaviors, to see how responses stack up against their own Insights for Search findings.

    The videos are periodically posted on Google’s UK Barometer Blog. Topics covered in the past include online shopping, consumer confidence, and travel. The most recent entry paints an interesting picture about how people use the Internet for auto-related services.

    Google on the Street - Cars

    People take on the following topics in the video above (you’ll have to click through to watch it on the blog, because it is not embeddable): 

    – How do consumers use online to help build their consideration list?
    – How do people search online?
    – Do consumers buy cars online or do they need to visit a dealership too?
    – Do people buy parts and book services online?
    – What is their perception of branded websites?
    – What do brands get wrong/right on their websites?
    – What is the role of social media in the decision making process?
    – Do people find online video useful and what do they want to see?
    – Real time research: How do on and offline world’s fit together?

    As long as you’re on the blog, you might be interested in browsing through the past entries in the series by clicking on the " on the street " tag. It’s interesting to see the responses of actual people on different matters, rather than just tables of data.

    Related Articles:

    > Google and Predicting Search Trends

    > Google Shares Proposal for White Spaces Database

    > Average Person Spends 13 Hours a Week Online

  • Google Reader’s Mobile Interface Upgraded

    Google’s announcements relating to mobile didn’t end with the launch of the Nexus One yesterday.  Google Reader received some updates that are intended to work within the world of cell phones (along with one Web interface upgrade), too.

    The list of changes is fairly long, and all together, they do a good job of bringing the mobile version of Google Reader in line with the Web edition.  For starters: Google added support for "liking," tagging, and sorting feeds according to items’ ages.

    Then, as a post on the Official Google Reader Blog explained, "[W]e redesigned the bottom action bar to include a ‘More’ link, revealing additional options (with the most common actions selected by default). . . .  We’ve also updated the main header to be consistent with other Google mobile applications . . . .  And we’ve added an option drop-down in place of the old secondary tool bar, to give you a little more space for your feed items."

    Finally, let’s not forget the one alteration made to the Web interface.  In the "Recommended Sources" section, users will now find people recommendations designed to introduce them to folks who share similar items.  This social component could help increase usage of Google Reader and result in a little more publicity for a lot of blogs.

    Related Articles:

    > Google Unveils Nexus One "Super Phone"

    > Google Makes Google Reader More Personal

    > Google Reader Gets Much-Needed Social Features

  • Google Shares Proposal for White Spaces Database

    Last night, Google announced that it filed a submission to the FCC, asking it to designate Google as one of potentially several administrators of a "white spaces" geolocation database. Back in November of 2008, the FCC approved the use of these White Spaces, or unused airwaves between broadcast TV channels, for public wireless broadband service.

    On Google’s Public Policy Blog, Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel, writes:

    When the FCC voted to open the white spaces to unlicensed use in November 2008, it required that such a database be deployed before consumer electronics companies could start selling PCs, smartphones, e-book readers or other devices that used this spectrum. Before sending or receiving data, these devices will be required to connect to the database to determine what frequencies can and can’t be used in a particular location. Licensed television and wireless microphone signals will be fully protected from harmful interference.

    Why are we offering to do this? We continue to be big believers in the potential for this spectrum to revolutionize wireless broadband, and we think it’s important for us to step forward and offer our assistance to make that vision a reality. Since launching the White Spaces Database Group last February, we’ve been working with other stakeholders to exchange ideas and perspectives on how to best operate a working database, and we believe we’re in a strong position to build and successfully manage one.

    Google proposes to build a database to be publicly accessible and searchable, so anyone could access and review the data. The proposal has been provided in full:

    01-04-10 Google White Spaces Database Proposal

    Google says it anticipates that the FCC will accept comments on various database proposals, and expects the Commission to make a final destination sometime in the spring.
     

    Related Articles:

    > White Spaces Officially Cleared For Wireless Broadband

    > Google Sees White Spaces Filling With Internet

    > Google, Verizon Weigh In On White Space Test

  • Are Google’s Ads So Relevant That People Won’t Block Them?

    A while back, Google launched an extensions gallery for its Chrome web browser. Ad-blocking add-ons are among the most popular for Mozilla’s Firefox, so it stands to reason that they will be for Chrome as well. With Google’s primary source of revenue being its ads, a lot of talk has surfaced about Google letting people block its own ads with its own product.

    Is Google was smart to allow ad-blocking extensions for Chrome? Discuss here.

    A recent article from the New York Times has elevated the discussion, calling the allowance of ad blockers a "test" for Google.

    Google wants people to use Chrome. For that to happen, it has to give people what they want. One point of view would be that the people who are most likely to block ads would just as use another browser that allowed them to do so if Chrome didn’t.

    Google doesn’t think that ad blockers will have much of an impact on advertising anyway. In December, Google Engineering Director Linus Upson participated in a panel discussion about the subject. He, Charles McCathieNevile of Opera, and Mike Shaver of Mozilla discuss it in the following clip:

    Add-on-Con ’09 ads and adblockers (closing keynote) from Robert on Vimeo.

    Upson says it’s "unlikely ad blockers are going to get to the level where they imperil the advertising market, because if advertising is so annoying that a large segment of the population wants to block it, then advertising should get less annoying." He thinks the market will sort it out. The others appear to take similar stances.

    The real question is how many people are really going to make the effort to block ads? As Wladimir Palant, who runs Adblock Plus on Firefox, told the NYT, ad blockers are still used by a "tiny proportion of the Internet population, and these aren’t the kind of people susceptible to ads anyway."

    Based on what Upton had to say in the panel discussion, Google is pretty confident that it can deliver ads people actually want, and that people (for the most part) will not want to block them if they see that relevance.

    What could hurt Google more is if Microsoft or Firefox implemented their own ad blocking capabilities by default. This would lead to average users browsing an ad-less web, because just as most people don’t go out of their way to download ad-blocking add-ons, they are unlikely to go out of their way to allow ads in such a scenario. However, it is pretty unlikely that this will happen, particularly on Microsoft’s end. They of course have their own ads to worry about.

    If ad-blocking from the browser actually did become a big problem for Google, one would have to wonder if the company woulnd’t find some kind of work-around. For example, what would stop them from serving ads directly in the Chrome Browser itself (in a toolbar area for example)? One could envision sponsored link-style ads like those served via Gmail. With Google’s interest-based advertising, relevance would still be at the forefront. But it probably won’t come to that anytime soon (at least not as a solution to the perceived issue).

    Wondering how many people actually use Chrome anyway? Ad-blocking from the browser does after all only matter if people are using that browser. Well, the latest numbers from Net Applications have Chrome’s market share surpassing that of Apple’s Safari browser. It’s worth noting that Google just released Chrome for Mac last month as well.

    As Doug Caverly  mentioned, "Chrome’s only been around for about 16 months, after all, and Safari’s had something like six years to make friends."

    Google’s Chrome OS is set to make things interesting later this year, as well. Chrome use is growing and will continue to do. Ad campaigns from Google may ease that growth along.

    Google made a bold move when it opened up its extensions gallery, allowing for ad-blocking extensions. Could this turn out to be a huge mistake on the company’s part or is Google’s confidence completely justified? Only time will tell for certain, but Google has long stood behind the promise of trying to deliver the best user experience. If users want to block ads, Google is going to let them. Share your thoughts here.


    Related Articles:

    > Chrome Cruises By Safari

    > Chrome Ad Campaign Nets Positive Results

    > Google Pushes Chrome With Newspaper Ads

  • Google Increases Lead In Online Video

    There may come a point at which Google’s popularity maxes out, but we haven’t reached it yet.  A new report from comScore concerning online video sites indicates that the search giant’s properties attracted considerably more eyeballs in November than the previous month.

    Google LogoIn October, comScore counted 126.3 million unique viewers in connection with Google’s sites.  In November, this number increased to 129.0 million.  Meanwhile, Google’s share of videos viewed rose from 37.7 percent to 39.4 percent.

    This didn’t bode well for second-place Hulu in one respect, as the site’s share slipped from 3.1 percent to 3.0 percent.  Still, Hulu drew in about 1.3 million more unique visitors on a month-over-month basis, and comScore stated, "The average Hulu viewer watched 21.1 videos during the month, representing another all-time high for the property."

    As for the rest of the videos viewed rankings, Viacom Digital came in third place, a significant move up from its former position in fifth.  Microsoft placed fourth, and Yahoo followed it in fifth.  Then came Fox Interactive Media, the Turner Network, the Tremor Media Video Network, CBS Interactive, and AOL.

    Finally, here’s a bit of news about the overall state of things: in November, comScore saw the number of videos viewed online from the U.S. go beyond 30 billion for the first time ever.

    Related Articles:

    > Hulu CEO Shares 2009 Stats

    > Hulu Falls Short In Comparison To Blockbusters

    > YouTube Now Has A URL Shortener

  • Google’s One-Minute Guide to Search-Based Keywords

    Google has put together a one-minute guide to using its Search-based Keyword tool. The tool was launched just over a year ago in beta. It lets paid search advertisers see what keywords they may be missing out on based on searches on their site.

    "Millions of people use Google each day to find products and services by searching on various keywords," says Dan Friedman of Google’s Inside AdWords Crew. "This means that by including all keywords that are relevant to your product or service in your campaigns, you can ensure you can ensure that you will reach a greater set of potential customers. To help you do this, you can use the Search-based Keyword Tool to quickly identify relevant keywords which aren’t yet included in your AdWords campaigns."

    The guide follows:

    Earlier this year, Google made some improvements to the search-based keyword tool. The company not only expanded the reach to Australia, Canada, China, Japan, and New Zealand in addition to the US and the UK, but users can also now select the currency they’d like to see suggested bids in on the setting page.

    Google also added some customization features to the tool this year that could lead to more targeted results for users. These include language/country-specific results and ad/search share filters.

    Related Articles:

    > Google Improves Search-Based Keyword Tool

    > Google Launches Search-Based Keyword Tool

    > Internal AdWords Tool Raises Rumors About Rankings

  • Across-the-Board Growth Expected In Internet Industry

    The U.S. online advertising industry will shake off the recession’s effects and have an excellent time of it in 2010, according to one expert.  J.P. Morgan’s Imran Khan has predicted that just about every aspect of the sphere should experience significant growth this year.

    Let’s start with the subject of display advertising.  Ground was lost during 2009; in a document titled "2010 Internet Industry Outlook," Khan put the change at a negative 5.2 percent.  But he expects that $8.3 billion will be spent on display ads in 2010, which will work out to a year-over-year increase of 10.5 percent.  Not bad.

    Then an even more dramatic uptick will occur with respect to search advertising, if Khan’s forecast is correct: spending should jump from $14.6 billion in 2009 to $16.6 billion, an increase of 13.2 percent.  This spells good news for Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft (along with their shareholders).

    Finally, it’s possible that anything and everything with ties to mobile advertising will make money this year.  Khan thinks that spending on mobile ads will shoot up 45.0 percent, hitting $3.8 billion following 2009’s $2.6 billion.

    Let’s all cross our fingers and hope that these predictions prove true (or better yet, conservative).

    Related Articles:

    > Are Google’s Ads So Relevant That People Won’t Block Them?

    > More Media/Ad Trend Predictions For 2010

    > Google Seeking Not To Cross The Creepy Line

  • Top 15 Things You Loved to Talk About in 2009

    Just as we did at the end of 2008, we have gone back through our entire archive for the year 2009 and picked out the articles that received the most conversation from our readers. As we approach the new year, we thought it would be fun to go back and reflect on some of the things that got people talking in the one that’s wrapping up.

    Note: Please keep in mind that some of the articles are a bit outdated now as new developments have occurred throughout the year.

    eBay

    1. eBay Wants its Sellers Back

    This article received the most commentary by far from WebProNews readers out of every article we produced this year.

    2. Top 10 Frustrations for eBay Sellers

    Another article on a related subject was also discussed frequently.

    3. Does DMOZ Still Have a Place in Search?

    Indicating that DMOZ is still definitely a topic worthy of discussion, DMOZ’s value was debated thoroughly in the comments on this article.

    4. Do You Respect DMOZ After 11 Years?

    DMOZ was also a hot topic after the company had its 11th birthday. It was quite interesting to find out what people thought after 11 years of the directory’s existence.

    5. eBay Competitor Bonanzle Continues Big-Time Growth

    As was made clear in a number of eBay articles we ran, a lot of users of that site were not very happy. Competitors took advantage. This was a look at the success of one competitor in particular.

    6. House Says Bloggers Don’t Count As Journalists

    The bloggers vs. journalists debate is always a hot one. Of course when the government gets involved with that debate, some heavy commentary will ensue.

    7. Apple Fans Respond To The "Droid Does" Advertising Campaign

    Apple fans love to talk. So do Apple haters. That point was very clear in the comments we received on this article.

    8. Netbooks: Moving in Right Next Door to Useless

    Mike ruffled some feathers with his criticism of the Netbook phenomenon. Although he certainly had plenty who agreed with his views.

    9. Can eBay Win Back Sellers with a Shift in Focus?

    eBay sparked some interest yet again when it announced its focus on the "secondary market".

    10. eBay Unleashes Changes Galore for Sellers

    Any time eBay makes changes that affect sellers, you can pretty much guarantee that people are going to talk.

    11. Is MySpace Toast?

    MySpace’s future is discussed as Facebook takes over as the dominant social network.

    12. Google: Page Speed May Become a Ranking Factor in 2010

    Google’s Matt Cutts dropped a hint that page speed may be considered as a ranking factor by the search engine soon. Some think this is a great idea, others think it’s horrible.

    13. The AP’s Desperate Attempt To Outlaw Search Engine Links

    A discussion about the Associated Press and fair use of content.

    14. Murdoch On Blocking Search Engines: "I Think We Will"

    News Corp. CEO Murdoch said some interesting things about how it plans to distribute its content in the future. This is still a hot topic.

    15. Shocker: Facebookers Not Happy With Redesign

    I’m sure you recall the big Facebook redesign. A lot of people are still bitter about it.

    Looking back at some of these articles, it’s hard to believe they’ve all come from just this year. It’s amazing how much has happened in search, e-commerce, and social media. The rate at which everything changes and evolves is really quite astounding. I guess that can be attributed to the real-time nature in which we consume information now, and the sheer amount of content that is poured onto the web every minute of every day.

    To get an idea of what I mean, just go to any of our tag pages and look back through our coverage of any given topic. Go to the Google tag, for example, and look at the enormous amount of things Google has been a part of this year alone.

    Share your thoughts about 2009 here…

  • PandaLabs Detects 25 Million New Malware Strains

    The past year set a new record for malware creation with 25 million new strains, according to a new report by PandaLabs.

    The latest surge of activity included new examples of banker Trojans, which accounted for 66 percent of all new samples, as well as a number of fake antivirus programs.

    During 2009, spam was also highly active, accounting for 92 percent of all email traffic. The tactics used to dupe potential victims into opening these spam emails have focused on exploiting current events and dramatic news stories.

    In terms of malware distribution channels, social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Digg, as well as SEO attacks that directed users to malware-laden websites, were favored by cybercriminals in 2009.

    Infected-Countries

    Countries generating the most malware included Taiwan, followed by Russia, Poland, Turkey, Columbia, Argentina and Spain. Countries with the fewest infections include Portugal and Sweden.

    PandaLabs predicts the amount of malware in circulation will continue to grow during 2010. Windows 7 will attract the interest of hackers when it comes to designing new malware and attacks on Apple computers will increase.

     

    Related Articles: 

    > Stealth Phishing Attack Looks Like Internal Email

    > Symantec Urges Windows Users to Patch Systems

    > Beware Holiday Emails

     

  • Hitwise: Facebook Beat Google On New Year’s Day

    As Facebook employees went back to work this week, they may have been smiling more (or at least less frowning less) than most other people returning from vacation.  Their site performed admirably over the holidays, actually attracting record-breaking amounts of traffic.

    On Tuesday, we documented the fact that Facebook received more traffic than Google on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  That made it the most visited U.S. site for the first time ever.

    This afternoon, Hitwise’s Bill Tancer provided some more data.  He wrote, "Facebook was able, albeit by a slighter margin, to recapture the #1 position on Friday, New Year’s Day."  Tancer also created the graph you see below.

    Obviously, it doesn’t look like Facebook’s destined to attract more individuals than Google on a permanent basis.  Still, the social network’s done quite well over the last couple of weeks, closing the gap that somehow opened up during the first half of December.

    This repeat occurrence of Facebook beating Google on a holiday also creates the question of how often it’ll do so in the future.  Will a switcheroo occur on Valentine’s Day?  St. Patrick’s Day?  No Housework Day?  We’ll see.

    Related Articles:

    > Misleading Ad: Twitter is Hiring

    > Twitter Adds New Exec Talent

    > Twitter Obtains Lead Lawyer From Google

  • Yahoo Sale Of Zimbra To VMware Rumored

    Yahoo Sale Of Zimbra To VMware Rumored

    At the moment, the Zimbra homepage bears a "BUY ZIMBRA" button and a stamp reading "a Yahoo division."  But according to a new report, a sale of Zimbra (and not just a Zimbra product) may soon take place, making "a VMware division" a more accurate statement.

    Kara Swisher wrote earlier today, "Yahoo is close to selling its Zimbra unit to VMware, according to several sources close to the situation. . . .  Sources said the deal will be announced soon, but the price for the open-source email unit was still unclear."

    Yahoo bought Zimbra for $350 million towards the end of 2007, so it’ll be interesting to see whether the price has gone up or down since then.  No overly nasty rumors appear to be in circulation now, at least, considering that Yahoo’s stock rose by 1.91 percent today.  (For reference: the Dow and Nasdaq went up 1.50 percent and 1.73 percent, respectively, so this isn’t amazing.)

    Anyway, a development along these lines wasn’t unexpected.  Yahoo’s been unloading properties for a while thanks to Carol Bartz’s get-back-to-basics directive, and in October, Zimbra’s former president and CTO also left the company.

    Related Articles:

    > Yahoo Zimbra Desktop Now Synching

    > Yahoo May Dispose Of Zimbra

    > Yahoo Undergoes Another Exec Shuffle

  • Flixster Buys Film Rating Site

    Flixster Buys Film Rating Site

    Movie social networking site, Flixster, said today it has acquired movie review site Rotten Tomatoes from IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corp.

    News Corp will receive a minority equity stake in Flixster as part of the deal, financial terms were not disclosed.

    Both Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes will continue to be available to Internet users as individual properties. The combination of Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes reaches a global audience of 30 million monthly visitors across a number of platforms, including their websites, social networks and via apps for mobile devices.

    "Rotten Tomatoes has built a fantastically well-known brand that moviegoers trust when making their decisions," said Steve Polsky, Flixster president and COO.
    Steve-Polsky
    "Combined with Flixster’s social networking and word-of-mouth, we’re creating the leading movie destination on the Internet."

    Together the companies will have a database of more than 250,000 movies, 2.3 billion user reviews, 500,000 critic reviews, and more than 20,000 trailers and videos.

    The deal follows a series of moves by IGN Entertainment to refocus its efforts on building out its suite of game-related and men’s-lifestyle offerings.

    "Joining Rotten Tomatoes with Flixster creates a company that can dominate the online movie category," said Roy Bahat, president of IGN Entertainment, who will join Flixster’s board of directors as an observer.

    "This also enables IGN to focus on serving the male 18-to-34 audience – especially videogamers – and the advertisers looking to reach them."
     

    Related Articles:

    >Netflix Opens Application Gallery

    >MySpace May Be After Flixster

    >The Year In Online Video

  • Ping.fm Acquired by Seesmic

    Seesmic announced today that it has acquired Ping.fm. This is a service that has half a million active users posting daily from various devices by sending email, text messages, and chat.

    "Ping.fm is compatible with every single Internet device in the world, which why it has become so successful among thousands of users," says Seesmic. "Try using chat to update Twitter, and you’ll find it direct and seamless as you can post updates from gtalk, aim or skype through Ping.fm. It’s so simple and amazing, and it’s always on."

    Social Networks that Ping.fm supports:

    Ping.fm Supported Social Networks

    "Thanks to its powerful and simple API, more than a hundred applications already use Ping.fm to update all the main social networks and Seesmic commits to maintaining and improving the Ping.fm platform," says Seesmic. "Not only has Twhirl supported Ping.fm for about a year, but we are also preparing to open Seesmic apps with our own plug-in architecture so we understand and care about the developer community."

    A list of apps that support Ping.fm can be found here.

    Seesmic says that Seesmic applications on Blackberry, Android, Web, Windows and OSX via Air will all have advanced Ping.fm integration "very shortly," and will instantly support 50 social networks. Users will be able to update not only with the apps they are used to, but also with Ping.fm’s email, sms and chat gateways, the company says. 

    Seesmic applications have been downloaded over three and a half million times. Financial details about the acquisition have not been made public.

    Related Articles:

    > Seesmic’s Acquisition of Twhirl

    > Seesmic Befriends (And Buys) Twitter Client Twhirl

    > Update Your Status Across Dozens of Social Media Sites

  • Some Facebook Users Get New Design

    Some Facebook Users Get New Design

    Update: Some Facebook users are reportedly now seeing a new Facebook design that looks like the screenshots here. The design is similiar to the one below, with some slight differences.

    Original Article: Reports and screenshots have surfaced indicating possible further design changes to the Facebook home page. These changes would include an altered header with drop-down menus for things like chat, messages, and notifications (Via SAI).

    There would also be greater emphasis placed on the search box. It would be moved further to the left, and more into the center of the page. Such emphasis on search would make sense, as Facebook has greater real-time search functionality these days than what it once had (particularly since its acquisition of FriendFeed).

    Facebook Design tweaks

    Screenshot from French publication PCInpact.com (they have several more).

    Let’s not get too carried away though. These changes are only tests at this point, and may or may not ever see the light of day for Facebook users at the mainstream level.

    A Facebook spokesperson tells WebProNews, "We are continually experimenting with new designs on the site that are meant to simplify and improve the user experience. These are just a couple of the many changes we’re testing."

    Whenever Facebook makes design changes, there is usually some amount of backlash from users. That doesn’t stop them from continuing to make tweaks, however. In the end, users are likely to get used to or accept the changes either way. I don’t think the world is ready to abandon Facebook for the next big thing just yet.

    Do you like what Facebook has been doing with its design so far? Share your thoughts.


    Related Articles:

    > Facebook Makes Some Changes

    > Facebook Redesign Emerges

    > Facebook Responds To Users Complaints

  • Chrome Cruises By Safari

    Last month, Google acknowledged Apple’s importance by releasing a beta version of Chrome for Mac.  New statistics show that Google sort of put Apple to shame, too, however, as Chrome passed Safari in terms of market share.

    The stats come courtesy of Net Applications, and according to the organization, Internet Explorer remained very much on top of the Web browser pile in December with a market share of 62.69 percent.  Unsurprisingly, Firefox placed second, with a share of 24.61 percent.

    Then came the changeup.  Chrome was fourth in November, but with a market share of 4.63 percent, secured third place during December.  And Safari’s market share of 4.46 percent was only enough for fourth place during the same month.

    Assuming the two browsers don’t reverse course in January, this is a significant development.  Chrome’s only been around for about 16 months, after all, and Safari’s had something like six years to make friends.

    Count on Google maintaining or increasing its promotion of Chrome since the current approach has worked so well.  It’s possible that Apple will try to fight back and upgrade Safari in response to Chrome for Mac, too.

    Related Articles:

    > Going Home For The Holidays?  Google Wants To Tag Along

    > Chrome Ad Campaign Nets Positive Results

    > Google Puts Universal Search In Suggestions, Launches Quick Scroll

  • Twitter Starts the Year with Some New Faces

    Just as many of us get back to work after the holidays, Twitter has some new people starting work with the company altogether. Twitter reportedly has ten new people (most starting today), and some of them have interesting backgrounds, which could have interesting implications for the company’s future.

    The one new hiring that is drawing the most attention is that of Bakari Brock, who has worked as a lawyer for Google and YouTube, holding the title of Corporate Counsel with both. Silicon Valley blogger Louis Gray, who discovered the new additions to Twitter’s staff, notes that Brock was heavily quoted by the media in late 2008 when YouTube was introducing e-commerce capabilities.

    Bakari Brock

    Other new additions to Twitter, discovered via Twitter’s Team List, include people with backgrounds with Bebo, Apple, Qik, Ning, TiVo, Cloudera, Ask, VMware, and 23andMe. One of them has also worked at Google in the past.

    "Twitter’s pedigree is getting increasingly rich at the expense of Google and other Silicon Valley tech titans," says Gray.

    He points out that these are not the only new additions to Twitter. On Decemeber 23, Twitter announced its acquisition of Mixer Labs, the creators of GeoAPI.

    Twitter is poised to have a  very big year as the company will likely start concentrating more on its own monetization and geo-location capabilities. With new hires with experience at companies like Qik and TiVo, you have to wonder if Twitter has some new video-related ideas in mind as well.
     

    Related Articles:

    > Twitter Takes SMS Tweeting To Australia

    > Twitter Gets Hacked By "Iranian Cyber Army"

    > Most Influential Twitter Users Named

  • Google Loses Domain Name Dispute

    Google Loses Domain Name Dispute

    Google’s empire hasn’t exactly crumbled, and to be honest, the average person will probably never even realize what’s happened.  But what’s happened is this: for just the second time in its history, Google’s lost a domain name dispute.

    Google submitted a complaint about a site called Groovle to the National Arbitration Forum (which ICANN lets decide domain name disputes) on November 6th of this year.  The search giant argued that Groovle is "nearly identical or confusingly similar" to its own name.

    Complicating matters is the fact that Groovle markets itself as "your groovy custom search homepage," while noting on every page, "Groovle.com is not owned, operated, or sponsored, or endorsed by Google."

    Anyway, a bit of back and forth ensued.  Then the National Arbitration Forum sided with Groovle, and in a document released today, it explained the decision.

    "Respondent argues that the disputed domain name is not a misspelling of Complainant’s mark; Respondent asserts that the disputed domain name contains the significant letters ‘r’ and ‘v’ which serve to distinguish the sound, appearance, meaning, and connotation of ‘groovle’ from Complainant’s GOOGLE mark.  Furthermore, Respondent contends that its alterations clearly transform the predominant word of the <groovle.com> domain name to ‘groove’ or ‘groovy,’ not GOOGLE. . . .  The Panel agrees . . ."

    This is a blow for Google in a symbolic sense, at least – it’s participated in 65 disputes – even if the development has no measurable effect.

    Related Articles:

    > Consumer Groups Ask FTC To Block Google AdMob Deal

    > IBM CEO Dismisses Idea Of All-Powerful Google

    > ICANN Becomes More Independent

  • Unplugging From Social Media and Getting Social (And Original)

    (more…)