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Entertainment articles

  • FairSearch Asks Congress, DOJ To Challenge Google-ITA Deal

    Whether you agree or disagree with its cause, FairSearch, the organization that exists for the sole purpose of stopping Google’s acquisition of ITA Software, deserves credit for its resolve.  Today, FairSearch addressed letters to every member of Congress, asking them to contact the Department of Justice.

    One small clarification (and another point in FairSearch’s favor) before we go any further: FairSearch actually sent the letters to the Commerce, Judiciary, and Technology staffers for every Congressperson, which showed a sort of respect for the chain of command.  Plus, it increased the odds the letters wouldn’t get lost in a pile of complaints about taxes.

    Anyway, part of the form letter, which a FairSearch representative passed on to WebProNews, stated, "Given Google’s market power in general search and its pattern in other markets, including books, video, display advertising, mobile advertising, shopping, and maps, this deal should be subject to intense scrutiny.  We believe that Google should not be allowed to enter a market in a way that simultaneously undermines the ability of other competitors to provide quality products to consumers and continue to innovate themselves."

    Then the final paragraph concluded, "Currently, the Justice Department is investigating Google’s proposed acquisition of ITA.  For the sake of travel consumers in your state, we encourage you to protect innovation and consumer choice in online travel by calling on the Justice Department to challenge this acquisition."

    It should be interesting to see if any lawmakers – or Googlers, for that matter – respond to FairSearch’s request.

  • Yahoo Aims to Be THE Place for Local Deals

    It’s quite a day for local search. Not only has Google launched a new social recommendation engine to tie into its local results, Yahoo has made a handful of announcements having to do with local and social features. 

    The company is launching local "quick apps" for users to find restaurants they want and "take action on things they discover in a more productive Yahoo! Search," as they put it. Later this week, Yahoo will launch a new version of Yahoo Sketch-a-Search, which lets users for visually "zero in" on a street or neighborhood to find local restaurants. This can be done from any connected device. 

    "Other new apps will enable easy comparisons of local restaurants and let people make reservations through OpenTable right on the Yahoo! Search results page," the company says.

    Yahoo also announced the launch of Local Offers, which is a program the company is partnering with local offer providers on. Yahoo says they’re working to "build one of the largest and most comprehensive repositories of local offers on the Internet."

    Partners include: Groupon, LivingSocial, Gilt City, BloomSpot, BuyWithMe, DealOn, Zozi, CrowdSavings, Lifebooker, FreshGuide, Scoop St, Goldstar, HomeRun, Tippr, Coupons.com, and Valpak. 

    "The local landscape is exploding with new sources of content and advertising, and consumers want these experiences personalized just for them. Yahoo! is taking the complexity out of finding the great local deals that are most relevant to their interests and needs," said Yahoo Local VP Matt Idema. "With more than 180 million unique visitors to Yahoo!s sites in the U.S., we are uniquely positioned to deliver our local-offer partners the massive scale and targeting needed to reach engaged audiences, grow their businesses, and drive foot traffic to local merchants."

    Yahoo Local

    Local Offers is in limited beta in the United States only at this point. 

    Clearly, it’s an exciting time to be a local business. The web is catering to these businesses like never before, and that’s both from mobile and the desktop. 

    Yahoo also announced Twitter and Zynga integrations across its properties. People can connect their Twitter accounts with their Yahoo accounts to see and share Twitter updates on the Yahoo homepage, Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo Mail, and Yahoo Pulse. The Zynga integration will allow people to launch, play, and share games on Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo Games, My Yahoo, Yahoo Toolbar, and Yahoo! Pulse. Yahoo also rolled out a new Yahoo Messenger Beta with new social features.

    "Our job is to connect you with the people, places and things that matter most to you – whether that’s making a restaurant reservation, finding a discounted tee time, or playing popular online games with friends," said Blake Irving, EVP and chief product officer at Yahoo. 

    It’s interesting that both Google and Yahoo have made new announcements that involve both local and social together, yet in very different ways. It’s also interesting that not only are local and social so closely related, but increasingly local and gaming. Look no further than the slew of check-in apps if you don’t know what I mean. 

    Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley recently declared his love for Super Mario Bros. right alongside his vision for turning Foursquare into a much more useful platform for users and local merchants. In fact, a great deal of the conversation at ad:tech New York a couple weeks ago was about location-based services (LBS) and ways that businesses have used them in the past, are using them today, and will use them in the future. Much of this is directly related so some kind of gaming. It’s a fascinating development in the industry. 

    It’s not all fun and games though. Yahoo also reminds us today about trend tracking. The company announced Yahoo Clues Beta, a new tool for looking at search trends.

  • Military Invasion Blamed On Google Maps

    Not long ago, a Nicaraguan military commander caused an international incident by leading his soldiers into Costa Rican territory.  He replaced a Costa Rican flag with a Nicaraguan one, too.  And according to the commander, this all occurred because of an error on Google Maps.

    Apparently maps used by both the Nicaraguan and Costa Rican governments agree on the location of a border near San Juan del Norte.  Unfortunately, the commander consulted Google Maps, which shows a rather different version of the boundary.

    So the commander didn’t mean to invade a neighboring nation – and Nicaragua isn’t trying to hold onto the territory, which lends credence to the story – but an unfortunate incident nonetheless occurred.

    Costa Rica, which doesn’t have a standing army, has asked the Organization of American States to weigh in.  It’s also requested that Google correct its maps.  (Interesting side note: supposedly Bing’s maps are more accurate with regard to the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.)

    GoogleWe expect Google Maps employees may spend the next few weeks checking over borders all over the world with extreme care.  A big hat tip goes to Matt McGee, in any event.

  • Twitter Hires Adam Sharp As D.C. Liaison

    Politicians who don’t use Twitter may soon receive a visit from Adam Sharp.  Sharp announced this afternoon that he’s been hired by Twitter to represent the company in Washington, D.C.

    We first discussed this position when Twitter put up a job posting in early June, and it doesn’t look like the role’s changed much since.  Sharp’s duties should involve promoting Twitter more than shaping government policy to favor it or anything like that.

    Adam SharpSharp, who’s worked for C-SPAN, NBC, and Senator Mary Landrieu, hinted at this today by tweeting, "Leaving @cspan soon to join @Twitter and help government better communicate w/constituents. Excited to @JoinTheFlock!"

    Sharp also wrote, "Look fwd to working w/learning from #gov20 community & others committed to enhancing civic debate by bringing govt, people closer together."

    Still, however hands-off his approach, this development does signal some big changes at Twitter.  It’s joining Facebook and Google in the "tech companies with D.C. staffers" club, and making a special effort to introduce influential people to its site.

    Sharp’s first official day on the job will be November 29th.  Longwinded and/or technophobic politicians, look out.

  • Most Of The Gamers On Facebook Are Women

    Very cool infographic below designed by All Facebook showing statistics related to gaming on Facebook. Sources of the data include Nielsen, InsideFacebook and Games.com. Here are some highlights:
    • 19% of users who play Facebook games say they’re addicted
    • 69% of Gamers are women
    • 56 million people play games everyday
    • 290 million play games monthly
    • Average time spent per month on Facebook: 421

    Comments

  • Rumor: Apple Vying to Acquire Sony

    Sony shares took an upswing as rumors began to swirl that Apple was vying to acquire the company. Reuters reported, from a Barron’s report, that Apple was interested in Adobe, Disney or Sony as their potential targets.

    Would acquiring Sony be a good move for Apple? Your thoughts.

    According to Reuters, Apple currently has $50 billion in cash reserves while Sony has a market cap of $34 billion. So, financially speaking, Sony is a strong possibility for Apple.

    Do you think Apple will acquire Sony? Let us know.

  • Google’s Q3 Lobbying Costs: $1.2 Million

    Anyone interested in keeping track of Google’s lobbying habits can now put a new data point on their graphs.  Consumer Watchdog reported today that the company spent $1.2 million in the third quarter of this year, up from $1.08 million a year ago.

    That represents an 11 percent increase, which is perhaps not too startling.  In fairness to Google, we’ll also note here that plenty of other corporations splurge lots more in an attempt to make friends with Congress (Microsoft spent $1.63 million in the third quarter, for example).

    One other detail: Consumer Watchdog is the group that made the oddball "Eric Schmidt as an ice cream man" and "Google = chicken" videos.

    GoogleStill, Consumer Watchdog was able to point out, "Disclosure records filed with the Senate Office of Public Records show Google has spent $3.92 million so far this year compared with $4.03 million in all of 2009."

    And John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s Inside Google project, claimed and predicted, "Google has a group of well-connected lobbyists and is willing to spend freely to influence federal lawmakers and regulators.  They appear to be on track to spend a total of $5 million to peddle influence this year."

    In probably-not-related news, President Obama is due to attend a fundraising dinner at Google exec Marissa Mayer’s house tonight.

  • Congressmen Write Zuckerberg Over Privacy Flap

    Any hope that Mark Zuckerberg had of the latest Facebook privacy flap blowing over must be fading fast.  Late yesterday, two members of the House of Representatives wrote an open letter to him complaining about the problem and asking for further details.

    Edward Markey and Joe Barton, who are members of the Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, stated, "Given the number of current users, the rate at which that number grows worldwide, and the age range of Facebook users, combined with the amount and the nature of information these users place in Facebook’s trust, this series of breaches of consumer privacy is a cause for concern."

    Then the pair of lawmakers listed an intimidating 18 questions or requests for Zuckerberg to answer.

    The first few questions mostly aim to determine the nature and extent of the recent privacy slipup.  Next, the letter digs into what Facebook did to prevent the problem, and finally, what the company will do to ensure nothing else happens.

    Markey and Barton didn’t give Zuckerberg any firm ultimatums.  Unfortunately for Facebook’s CEO, they "respectfully request a response" by Wednesday, October 27th, and just so happened to mention pending privacy legislation.

    As always, we’ll see what happens.

  • Social Media: Power to the People?

    The keynote at BlogWorld this morning was an interesting one, looking at how new media has changed the landscape of politics. Mark Penn, former Chief Messaging Architect for President Clinton and Karen Hughes, former Chief Messaging Architect for President Bush discussed the power blogs and social media have had on shifting elections and public perception. 

    Penn discussed a surge in independence and how we are no longer living in a "red and blue" country. We’re seeing the parties themselves dividing and new movements emerging among both Democrats and Republicans. "There’s a wave of discontent," says Penn. 

    To say the least. 

    Penn and Hughes

    Blogging and social media have given the people a voice. As more and more people have turned to new media, more have been able to consume a wider range of content and opinions, respond to it (in a way that others can also see and possibly benefit from), and spread it. Because of these things, there is more power in the hands of the people than ever. Anyone can go online and say anything they want and be heard. 

    That’s a very powerful thing, but as Hughes points out, it’s not without its negatives – primarily, the incredibly quick spreading of false information. "Speed is essential," she says, adding that you have to jump in because things get reported and repeated. 

    On the flip side, however, new media has enabled instant response. It’s essentially reputation management. Brands face this all the time. When it comes to politics, there will always be plenty more people to stand up for the brand (or bash it). But again, that’s the voice of the people.  News consumers have more viewpoints to look at to help them  form their own. 

    Other concerns Hughes voices include anonymity and the dehumanization of people via the technology. 

    One interesting comment from the audience: social media is just enabling the spread of propaganda on both sides. What do you think?

    Another interesting audience comment: "You’re not pundits anymore. We get our news from sources we trust."

  • Google Partners With POLITICO On Technology And Politics

    Google and YouTube are partnering with POLITICO to host an event on Monday at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. to talk about technology’s role in democracy and the political process.

    The Google Blog offers more details.  “With less than six weeks until the midterm elections, we wanted to hear from some of politics’ most creative minds about what innovation and democracy mean in 2010.”


    “As part of the event David Axelrod and Ed Gillespie will answer questions and offer thoughts and predictions about the upcoming elections. Arianna Huffington will then moderate a panel about innovation in media, and will be joined by Becki Donatelli, Stephen Hayes, Nate Silver and Amy Walter. We’ll also demonstrate tools built for citizens and government officials using YouTube and Google Maps, and will be joined by our friends on the politics team at Facebook.”

    Google is also inviting people to submit a question for any of the panel members via youtube.com/citizentube. People will also be able to watch the entire event live on YouTube on Monday from 2:30-5:30 ET and on POLITICO.

  • More Voters Expect Political Candidates To Use Twitter

    Three out-of-five Americans who consider themselves somewhat politically active are members of a social network, and 70 percent indicated they expect to vote in November, according to a new survey by HCD Research conducted on behalf of the E-Voter Institute.

    Four out-of-five potential voters expect candidates to have a website, half expect candidates to participate in social networks and provide webcasts of events, and 41% expect candidates to use Twitter.

    Candidates'-Internet-Use

    The survey found two-thirds of voters want to see the candidates’ television ads on the official website of the candidate, and 54 percent expect campaign video on other sites such as YouTube.

    "There are few differences between Republicans, Democrats and Independents when it comes to their expectations of Internet use by candidates," said Rich Berke, vice president, HCD Research.  

    "More telling are differences in the levels of computer skills among the various voter sets."

    The survey also found that traditional methods such as television ads, direct mail and phone banks are effective for attracting the attention of voters, they are not very effective for keeping their attention. In contrast, websites, social networks and emails are more useful for keeping the attention of voters over time.

    In addition, 40 percent of voters reported that the official candidate website is an effective way for keeping their attention, while 46 percent said that television or cable ads are effective for keeping them interested.

    “In addition to more sophisticated websites, in 2010 we are seeing the emergence of Twitter, mobile text messaging and social media usage across all age groups," said Karen Jagoda, president, E-Voter Institute.  

    "In light of our evolving mobile culture, these are convenient and effective methods for engaging voters in campaign initiatives. The value of these vehicles must be recognized by candidates and advocates in order to maximize the use of their campaign resources."

     

     

  • Nintendo DSi XL Receives New Colors

    Nintendo DSi XL Receives New Colors

    The Nintendo DSi XL handheld gaming console, is set to have a technicolour makeover this autumn, as three bright new colours – yellow, green & blue make their way to stores across Europe on 8th October 2010 for all to enjoy!.

    Since it’s European debut in March 2010, as part of the Nintendo DS range, the Nintendo DSi XL has sold over 3.6 million pieces of hardware globally, taking the total number of Nintendo DS range of consoles to over 132 million systems. In addition to the stylish wine red and dark brown consoles still available in stores, players will be given a wider choice of colours to choose from as yellow, green and blue join the offerings!

    The latest iterations of the Nintendo DSi XL will offer the same functionality as the wine red and dark brown consoles; featuring the same glossy sheen on top, matt finish on the underside that provides extra grip, bigger screens and wider viewing angle. It will still continue to be pre-loaded with two Nintendo DSiWare software: A Little Bit of…Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: Arts Edition and Dictionary 6 in 1 with Camera Function, as well as the Nintendo DSi Browser, which enables you to easily access the internet wherever a wireless Internet connection is available

    The yellow, green and blue consoles will arrive just in time for players to enjoy some enjoyable new software on offer this season.  Join the supreme puzzle master Professor Layton and his young apprentice Luke, in their brand new engaging adventure ‘Professor Layton and the Lost Future’ when this launches for the Nintendo DS family across Europe on 22nd October. Players can attempt to solve more than 165 brand new brain teasers, riddles and logic puzzles guaranteed to challenge and delight both newcomers and fans of the Professor Layton games.

    Players with a Nintendo DSi XL will be able to experience the adventure with added comfort on a 93 percent bigger touch screen than the Nintendo DS Lite and with the larger pen like stylus which comes with the Nintendo DSi XL, and now in your chosen new colour!

    So get ready to be presented with a colourful choice this autumn, when the new Nintendo DSi XL in yellow, green and blue launch across Europe on 8th October 2010. It’s a bright future ahead of colours for Nintendo!

    Comments

  • Yahoo Launches Political Site For November Elections

    Yahoo News has launched “Ask America,” a new interactive and social website focused on the November 2010 elections.

    The site asks Americans to share their opinions on issues playing a role in the midterm elections, including the economy, immigration, national security, energy and environment, culture and media, the courts, and the state of the union.

    Ask America will be updated regularly with content that includes issues, polls, and related news articles by Yahoo News staff of journalists and partners, including the Associated Press, Reuters, Time, Politico, and the Huffington Post.  Yahoo News editors will also analyze topics, trends, and stories that people are searching for on Yahoo Search, and then post related articles.

    Yahoo-Ask-America

    Ask America users will be able to:

    *Select which issues interest them on a national and state level via an array of colored tiles arranged in a wheel-like pattern. The person can spin the issue wheel to select various tiles from the list, thus engaging with polls and other people on each issue.

    *Leave comments supporting their choice or arguing against others’.

    *Take opinion polls related to each issue, and see how other users feel about the issues.

    *Share their comments and information about issues on various social networks.

     

     

  • SocialDeck Announces Acquisition by Google

    Google continues its pattern of social gaming-related acquisitions with the acquisition of SocialDeck. Inside Social Games has discovered a letter posted to SocialDeck’s website, announcing the acquisition. The letter says:

    Big news! We’re super excited to announce that someone found ou social games as fun as you have – in this case, that "someone" is Google. SocialDeck has been acquired and we’ve joined the Google team.

    We started this company with the goal of connecting friends through social games on all kinds of exciting new mobile devices. We’ve been amazed and humbled by all of the stories and experiences ou customers (you!) have shared with us.

    Thank you for all your support and for being a part of SocialDeck’s success so far…

    Financial details of the acquisition are unknown at this time.

    SocialDeck - Gets acquired by Google

    Google has been putting a great deal of emphasis on social gaming lately. The company recently acquired Slide and Jambool, and has reportedly invested in Zynga (makers of Farmville and Mafia Wars).

    Google’s interest in social games will not only impact its Chrome Web Store (for web apps), but Android (which will fuel mobile advertising and Google TV), and possibly the rumored "Google Me" social media project that Google is supposed to be working on. It remains to be seen just how much of an impact these game-related acquisitions will have.

  • Zynga Buys Social Game Company Conduit Labs

    Zynga, makers of popular social games Farmville and Mafia Wars, announced that it has acquired Conduit Labs, another social games company based out of Boston.

    Zynga will turn the Conduit Labs office into simply "Zynga Boston", where the company will focus on new product development. The company currently has locations in San Francisco, Austin, Baltimore, Bangalore, Beijing and Los Angeles.

    Conduit Labs CEO Nabeel Hyatt will become head of the new Boston studio, and the Conduit Labs team will be immediately integrated into Zynga’s workforce.

    "Boston is an epicenter for technology and has a strong talent market, making it an ideal location for us to expand operations," said Mike Verdu, SVP of games at Zynga. "As one of the most prominent social game companies in Boston, the Conduit team shares a similar culture and drive with Zynga, and together we anticipate great successes from our new studio."

    Conduit Labs - Acquired by Zynga

    "Today’s acquisition, along with the recently announced joint venture with SoftBank for the launch of Zynga Japan, continues to extend the company’s footprint worldwide, creating more opportunities for Zynga to connect the world through games," says Zynga.

    It’s worth noting that Google is said to have recently invested in Zynga. Terms of the Conduit Labs acquisition have not been disclosed.

  • Microsoft Looks to Xbox to Help Drive Windows Phone 7 Success

    Microsoft announced its first wave of games for Windows Phone 7. These will be available at launch or shortly after, the company said.

    Microsoft revealed the first 50 titles, some of which gamers will recognize, and others that are completely new. The company also said the games will be "closely linked" with Xbox Live.

    "We’re really approaching this as we would a console, so we have to deliver the breadth of games and the quality people expect from Xbox,” said Kevin Unangst, senior director of PC and mobile gaming. "To have this quantity and quality of games committed this far ahead of launch, with even more to come, is a statement of support that says Windows Phone 7 will be a big success."

    "Consumers clearly look to gaming as an expected experience on their mobile phone now, and we’re going to take that expectation and that delivery up to a different level," he said.

    Xbox Live users will be able to connect in different ways from their phones. They can update their avatar or keep track of their gamescore, for example. Several familiar Xbox titles will offer companion experiences on Windows Phone 7. Halo: Waypoint will be available on the phone, and there will be other games that offer variations on the console versions.

    Xbox Comes to Windows Phone 7

    The company believes getting gaming right is crucial to Windows Phone 7’s success. "Depending on how you measure it, games are one of the biggest application categories in the smartphone space," said Greg Sullivan, senior product manager with the Mobile Communications Marketing Group. "That’s one reason we’re so excited about the Game hub broadly and the Xbox LIVE integration in particular."

    The games could help drive holiday sales for Windows Phone 7, and that’s exactly what Microsoft hopes will happen. Games are one of the company’s strong suits, and the Xbox connection could give the platform a much-needed push in the smartphone market right out of the box – possibly the search market as well.

  • Google Buys Game Company Slide

    Update: Right on schedule, Google has now formally announced its acquisition of Slide. On the company’s oficial blog, David Glazer says:

    For Google, the web is about people, and we’re working to develop open, transparent and interesting (and fun!) ways to allow our users to take full advantage of how technology can bring them closer to friends and family and provide useful information just for them.

    Slide has already created compelling social experiences for tens of millions of people across many platforms, and we’ve already built strong social elements into products like Gmail, Docs, Blogger, Picasa and YouTube. As the Slide team joins Google, we’ll be investing even more to make Google services socially aware and expand these capabilities for our users across the web.

    Original Article: TechCrunch is reporting that Google has agreed to acquire game company Slide, which makes games like SuperPoke Pets, SPP Ranch, Top Fish, SuperPocus Academy of Magic, FunSpace, Top Friends, and SuperPoke. The price? A reported $182 million.

    The publication says the deal isn’t supposed to be announced until Friday, so I’m guessing we’ll have more details then.

    Google buying a game company is not exactly a surprise. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google was in talks with three more game companies – Playdom, EA’s Playfish, and Zynga.

    Slide - Acquired by Google?

    There has been a lot made of Google’s plans to take on Facebook in the social media space (beyond the company’s existing products), and games have been expected to be at least one part of the strategy. An acquisition like this would appear to confirm this, as Slide’s games are already present on Facebook.

    It will be interesting to see just how far Google is going to take this gaming initiative – how many acquisitions in this space the company will make.

    TechCrunch reported earlier that Google’s Vic Gundotra has taken the lead in Google’s social media strategy. I suspect that Android and Google TV will play heavily into the company’s plans – they are certainly a couple of weapons that Facebook doesn’t have.

  • Group Accused of Politically Gaming Digg

    Group Accused of Politically Gaming Digg

    Digg is looking into accusations that a conservative group has been gaming the site to bury content it deems too liberal.

    oleoleolson at AlterNet writes, "A group of influential conservative members of the behemoth social media site Digg.com have just been caught red-handed in a widespread campaign of censorship, having multiple accounts, upvote padding, and deliberately trying to ban progressives. An undercover investigation has exposed this effort, which has been in action for more than one year."

    Digg Founder Kevin Rose tweeted that he is looking into the matter:

    focused on launching digg v4, but we’re looking into this.. RT @jeremyisweary: Massive Censorship Of Digg Uncovered http://bit.ly/cES8YdFri Aug 06 00:44:28 via Tweetie for MacKevin Rose
    kevinrose

    The report alleges that the group banded together on a Yahoo Group called Digg Patriots, which has since been removed.

    Meanwhile, as Rose mentioned in the tweet, Digg is working on getting its big redesign out.  I imagine we’ll be hearing more about the alleged gaming of the site before long.

  • Lawmakers Question Yahoo, AOL And MySpace Over Online Tracking

    U.S. representatives Ed Markey (D-Mass) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) sent a letter today to 15 companies identified in a recent Wall Street Journal investigation as installing consumer-tracking technologies to target users visiting these sites.

    Ed-Markey "We are troubled by the findings in this report, which suggest that the price of consumers’ unfettered use of the Internet increasingly is surrender of their personal information, preferences and intimate details to websites, data monitoring companies, marketers and other information gathering firms that seek to track them online and develop digital dossiers for a range of purposes, including marketing," the lawmakers wrote.

    "As Congress prepares to consider comprehensive privacy legislation, we request responses to the questions that follow to better understand your companies’ practices in this area."

    The representatives, who co-chair the House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, asked for information on the companies’ tracking and targeting of consumers on the Internet, which is activated when users visit the websites.

    Some of the questions Reps. Markey and Barton asked include:

    What information about consumers does your company collect, either through your own website or through business relationships with third parties?

    If your company tracks or targets visitors, how does it notify visitors to your company’s site of this practice?  If it does not provide notification, why not?

    Does your company target individuals based on their health or financial status?  Are there any user search or usage habits that your company will not use for targeting purposes or tracking?  If yes, what are they?

    Letters were sent to:  Dictionary.com; MSN.com; Comcast.net; AOL.com; Merriam-Webster.com; Photobucket.com; Answers.com; Careerbuilder.com; MSNBC.com; Live.com; Myspace.com; Yahoo.com; Verizonwireless.com; Yp.com; About.com
     

  • Americans Spending More Time On Facebook And Twitter

    Americans spend nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and blogs, up 15.8 percent from a year ago (43% increase) according to new research from Nielsen.

    The report called "What Americans Do Online," found that Americans spend a third of their online time (36%) communicating across social networks, blogs, email and instant messaging.

    Online games surpassed email to become the second most heavily used activity behind social networks, accounting for 10 percent of all U.S. Internet time. Email decreased from 11.5 percent of time to 8.3 percent.

    Nielsen-Social-Networking

    Among the most heavily used categories, videos/movies was the only other to experience a significant growth in share of U.S. activity online. June 2010 was a major milestone for US online video as the number of videos streamed passed the 10 billion mark. The average American consumer streaming online video spent 3 hours 15 minutes doing so during the month.

    Social networking has not yet pushed email and instant messaging into obscurity yet. Both saw double-digit declines in share of time, email remains the third heaviest activity online (8.3% share of time) while instant messaging is fifth, accounting for four percent of Americans time online.

    "Despite the almost unlimited nature of what you can do on the web, 40 percent of US online time is spent on just three activities – social networking, playing games and emailing leaving a whole lot of other sectors fighting for a declining share of the online pie," said Nielsen analyst Dave Martin.

    The way consumers spend their online time on their mobile phones is slightly different than their Internet use on computers.  There is a double-digit (28%) increase in the use of social networks,  but email activity via mobile devices continues to increase from 37.4 percent to 41.6 percent of U.S. mobile Internet time.

    Portals remain as the second heaviest activity on mobile Internet (11.6 percent share of time), despite their double digit decline and social networking’s rise to account for 10.5 percent share means the gap is much smaller than a year ago (14.3 percent vs. 8.3 percent).

    Other mobile Internet activities seeing significant growth include music and video/movies, both seeing 20 percent plus increases in share of activity year over year. As these destinations gain share, it’s at the cost of other content consumption – both news/current events and sports destinations saw more than a 20 percent drop in share of US mobile Internet time.

    "Although we see similar characteristics amongst pc and mobile internet use, the way their activity is allocated is still pretty contrasting, added Martin. 

    "While convergence will continue, the unique characteristics of computers and mobiles, both in their features and when and where they are used mean that mobile Internet behavior mirroring its PC counterpart is still some way off."

     

     

  • Playdom (Fresh off Disney Acquisition News) Launches World Series of Poker Facebook App

    Playdom has been in the news a lot over the week as Disney announced its agreement to acquire the social gaming company. Today, Playdom announced a partnership with Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment to launch the Official World Series of Poker game on Facebook and other social networks.

    World Series of Poker app on Facebook"We are very excited to bring the thrill and excitement of the World Series of Poker to the social
    gaming space with Playdom," says WSOP VP Craig Abrahams. "We will immediately start to work on enhancing the game, bringing unique WSOP promotions and sweepstakes into the offering and ensuring that the battle for WSOP virtual championship bracelets can become a
    Facebook-friendly endeavor."

    "There is only one brand in poker that stands out and that is the World Series of Poker," said Sean
    Phinney, VP of Business Development for Playdom. "We think big brands will win on social networks and we are excited to start working together to create a unique and fun social gaming experience."

    The app is also available on MySpace, with other social networks following soon.

    Playdom currently boasts over 46 million active monthly users across its network of games. Disney is paying $563.2 Million plus an earn-out of up to $200 Million.

    In other online poker news, the New York Times reports that the House Financial Services Committee approved a bill that would effectively legalize online poker and other nonsports betting, overturning a 2006 federal ban. The publicatno also reports,  "Two of the biggest European operators of Internet betting sites, PartyGaming and Bwin Interactive Entertainment, said Thursday that they planned to merge, forming the world’s largest publicly traded online gambling company."

    I would imagine that we’ll be seeing a lot more happening with this industry.