Google+ could make Twitter the next Myspace
There are numerous comparisons between Google’s new Google+ social offering and Facebook, but most of them miss the mark. Google knows the social train has left the station and there is a very slim chance of catching up with Facebook’s 750 million active users. However, Twitter’s position as a broadcast platform for 21 million active publishers is a much more achievable goal for Google to reach.
There are two different types of social networks, private … Continue Reading
Why Microsoft’s Office 365 will clobber Google Apps
Yes, Microsoft is a slow, lumbering giant. It has been working on cloud for years, with numerous iterations, that took so long cloud proponent Ray Ozzie got fed up and left. Microsoft had to work through cannibalizing reseller arrangements, reconciling how to reach consumers versus businesses and a host of other issues. With Office 365, Microsoft has finally delivered an end-to-end cloud platform for businesses that encompass not only its desktop Office software, but also its … Continue Reading
Total Immersion’s augmented reality makes loyal fans out of tweens
This article is part of a series of posts where we write about DEMO alumni and news of their progress. Total Immersion launched at DEMO in 2004 and returned to launch a separate product in 2007. Check out their 2007 video here and more at DEMO.
Crowdsourcing has taken a turn for the tweens with MyFlipbook, a Facebook application from augmented reality company Total Immersion. The app was launched this week by Hollywood Records in … Continue Reading
Kleiner’s Bing Gordon: gamers should make $3 an hour while playing
Online gamers should on average generate $3 of value per hour, regardless of the game they are playing — and game designers should aim for that target, according to Bing Gordon, partner with venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
That’s the sweet spot for creating a level of satisfaction for gamers when they play an online game, Gordon said. For example, the amount of gold a player earns in online game World of … Continue Reading
Is Google+ planning to add games and questions?
While most people are still waiting to experience the plethora of new features available on Google+, there are portions of the new social service that no one has access to yet. An examination of Google+’s code reveals references to both Google Games and Google Questions, reports Engadget.
Social games were noticeably absent from the list of things available on Google+, the search giant’s long-awaited response to Facebook. Google likely wants to mimic the success that … Continue Reading
Following Google’s lead, Microsoft powers down Hohm
Microsoft on Thursday said it will turn the lights off on Hohm, an electricity-monitoring tool intended to help people find ways to reduce power consumption. Hohm will go dark on May 31, 2012.
“The feedback from customers and partners has remained encouraging throughout Microsoft Hohm’s beta period,” the company wrote in a blog post. “However, due to the slow overall market adoption of the service, we are instead focusing our efforts on products and solutions … Continue Reading
RIM exec begs CEOs to shape up, but RIM doesn’t seem to care
In a passionate open letter this morning, a high-level Research in Motion executive offered up some suggestions on how co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis could reshape the company and avoid certain doom. But instead of assuring the executive that things will get better (or even responding to his actual points), all RIM had to offer up in response was a hilariously defensive blog post.
If you were worried about RIM’s prospects before, the company’s … Continue Reading
Carriers get over their “not invented here” syndrome
This post is sponsored by The Telecom Council.
Although some VCs and entrepreneurs would rather go to market over or around the telcos, operators are still at the center of the telecom ecosystem. Because operators build the network, deploy the devices, collect subscriptions and bring scale to any communications service, they are optimal partners or channels for many communications services and tools. Luckily for innovators at large, and entrepreneurs in particular, the age of telcos … Continue Reading
Nintendo ignores fans’ pleas to bring Xenoblade stateside
After a fan campaign asked Nintendo to release North American versions of Wii Japanese RPGs Xenoblade, The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower, the company on Thursday said it has heard the pleas but has no plans to localize the games.
All three titles are published by Nintendo in Japan, so the company has full control over where the games will be released. Two of the titles—Xenoblade and The Last Story—will be … Continue Reading
ViralHeat a Match.com for businesses and consumers?
I’m Dell and I want you to buy my laptop. The only problem is, I have no clue who you are. Radian6 has been telling me you are out there, my Bit.ly links show that you are clicking, but how do I get in touch?
Enter social analytics SaaS company, ViralHeat, which has just raised $4.25M in first round funding to fulfill those enterprise love connections. With its new service, Human Intent, ViralHeat is moving … Continue Reading
Nokia continues trimming the fat: messaging biz goes to Synchronica
For a mere $25 million in cash, mobile messaging service provider Synchronica has conditionally agreed to acquire Nokia’s email and instant messaging services. This is a bargain deal, because it means Synchronica will acquire six million users across ten North American carriers, including giants AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint. Synchronica’s market will now extend to approximately 1.8 billion end-users worldwide.
The news comes a week after Nokia finalized a deal to outsource its Symbian OS … Continue Reading
200 million Tweets flow through the Twittersphere daily
Micro-blogging service Twitter said its users now send short messages called tweets more than 200 million times every day.
Whether the messages convey bits of conversations, the latest news or something from one of the site’s thousands of novelty accounts, the steady stream of tweets has turned into a firehose of updates. The site has more than 300 million registered users who fire off quick messages in 140 characters or less. The company was valued … Continue Reading
Apple’s App Store hits milestone with 100,000 iPad apps
The iPad reached a new milestone today as the App Store now carries more than 100,000 apps tailored specifically for Apple’s tablet.
The first Apple iPad was released to much fanfare in April 2010 and the brouhaha continued with the launch of the more powerful iPad 2 in March. The iPad asserted its dominance over other consumer tablets in good part through the number of high-quality applications its platform provides.
It only took 16 months … Continue Reading
Andreessen-Horowitz adds former PayPal exec Jeff Jordan
Jeff Jordan, former chairman and CEO of OpenTable, has joined Andreessen-Horowitz as the firm’s fifth partner.
Jordan formerly led online auction site eBay to its acquisitions of PayPal and Half.com as the company’s general manager. He then led PayPal as President before going on to OpenTable, a site that lets people reserve tables at restaurants through a slick web interface. It looks like Jordan has some experience making big-time deals based on his history with … Continue Reading
Founder Kevin Rose is so totally over Digg
It looks like Kevin Rose isn’t taking his departure from news aggregator Digg so badly.
Rose said on Twitter Thursday that he doesn’t even use aggregators like Digg as part of his online reading habits. Which is peculiar, given that he founded one of the first and most popular news aggregation sites in the world.
“My tech news reading behaviors have changed,” he said on his Twitter account. “I click @techmeme browse their tweets, then … Continue Reading
Google+ first impressions: My big three takeaways
I’ve been testing out Google+ for the past couple of days. I admit that I had my doubts after Google’s prior failures with Buzz, Wave, and Lively. With Google+, though, I’m pleasantly surprised that I can see myself using it in the future. It will be interesting to see how it complements or replaces my other social networking activities. Here are my big three takeaways on Google+.
Circles. I believe Circles allows for the complexities … Continue Reading
Amazon drops Calif. affiliates to protest e-commerce law
Amazon on Thursday said it had dropped the California members of its marketing affiliates program in response to the state’s new law to charge sales taxes on online goods. Amazon competitor Overstock also intends to drop its California affiliates.
Amazon is by far the largest online retailer with more than $34 billion in annual sales. Until now, Amazon and other digital retailers have had a significant advantage over local stores because it doesn’t have to … Continue Reading
Once dead Hellgate: London online game returns as free-to-play
Hellgate: London, an online game developed by former members of Blizzard Entertainment that was shut down in 2009, has returned from the dead and is now free-to-play.
T3Fun will now operate the game now that the original studio is defunct. Many members of the team behind Diablo, a smash-hit online game, left Blizzard Entertainment to found Flagship Studios and begin work on Hellgate: London. The game originally came out in 2007, but the development studio … Continue Reading
Online payments company Braintree raises $34M from Accel
Online and mobile payments company Braintree banked $34 million today in a funding round from Accel Partners. The Chicago-based company got started in 2007 and now claims a $3 billion run rate in transaction volume. This marks Braintree’s first institutional round of funding.
The company works with more than 2,000 merchants, including daily deals site LivingSocial, vacation rental site Airbnb, online restaurant reservation site OpenTable and mobile reservation company GoMobo.
Braintree was founded by CEO … Continue Reading
First Solar snags nearly $4 billion in loan guarantees
Thin-film solar panel manufacturer First Solar has secured nearly $4 billion in conditional loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy for three solar panel projects.
The Department of Energy has awarded First Solar a $680 million conditional loan guarantee for its Antelope Valley Solar Ranch 1 project. The government has also awarded the company partial loan guarantees for First Solar’s Topaz Solar and Desert Sunlight projects. First Solar is shooting for $1.93 billion and … Continue Reading
