Roundup: Swine Flu in the World of Warcraft, SMS sex ed and more

May 3, 2009 | Camille Ricketts | Comments | |

Recession boosts entrepreneurship — A recent study shows more people have founded new businesses in the months since the downturn began than in the months preceding it.

Swine flu hits World of Warcraft – Researchers are using the game to study how pandemics spread in environments where all individuals have free will.

Online ad revenue takes a dive — Online ad spending totaled $7.9 billion in the first quarter, a 2 percent drop from last year at this time and a 7 percent drop from fourth quarter. TechCrunch has the details.

SolarWinds seeks IPO — The software company is looking to raise $139 million through a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The WSJ has more (subscription).

Motion-sensing for the Xbox? — Rumor has it Microsoft is working on a gaming system that detects full-body motion.

Facebook shows up in Seesmic Desktop — The new version of Seesmic Desktop integrates Facebook status and Twitter updates.

Ryan Tate takes reins from Owen Thomas – The former Gawker night editor will take over for Thomas as editor of Valleywag later this month. All Things D has the story.

Hackers crack private info banks – Lexis Nexis and Investigative Professionals have both reported security breaches affecting up to 40,000 of their customers.

Dialing up sex education — Several new services allow experts to respond to teens’ sex questions sent via text message. The New York Times has more.

NPR uncovers secrets of Google’s book-scanning machine — The report delves into the search engine’s patented infrared camera used to scan thousands of texts. NPR has more.

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About the Author, Camille Ricketts

Camille is the lead writer for GreenBeat. She came to VentureBeat from Google where she worked on its traditional platforms team, particularly in TV. Before that, she was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in New York and London. Follow her on Twitter at @camillericketts, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

With GreenBeat 2009, VentureBeat's all-star conference on all things Smart Grid, coming up in November, Camille will be expanding coverage of this exciting space. Stay up to date by following @greenbeat2009 on Twitter or by becoming a fan of the event on Facebook here.

  • Googles "3D" book scanning technology - why didn't I think of that!
  • kasa
    "SolarWinds seeks IPO" .. owo, an software tool company going IPO even in such trying time ... take that you VC types, who keep saying they won't fund any tool companies. Funny they don't even realize all software are really just tools :-)
  • I can't imagine how swine flu hits world of warcraft? But still, it's a great thing that even scientific research was held through virtual world. It's also great to know that games could really be helpful in terms of studying pandemics.