Roundup: Amazon takes over reader social networking, IE8 to subtract ads, bad signs from China and more
Amazon buys social network for book lovers — Shelfari, a small social network for bibliophiles, has been acquired by Amazon.com, according to John Cook at the Seattle PI. Amazon also has a stake in Shelfari’s main competitor, LibraryThing.
Internet Explorer to subtract some ads — A feature called InPrivate Blocking will stop tracking pixels that help advertisers see where you have been on the web, while another privacy feature will prevent information like cookies and browsing history from… Continue Reading
Driverside revs up with first funding, steering toward mass market
Driverside, a consumer-focused website that aspires to be the one-stop destination for information on cars, has raised its first funding. The investment is for less than $5 million from Catamount Ventures.
Along with RepairPal, another recently-launched competitor, Driverside is aiming for a big win. Realizing that there are few websites that address car ownership — as opposed to buying or selling a vehicle — both sites are making content plays. They aim to supersede the only… Continue Reading
RepairPal turns the key on car site, setting stage for DriverSide rivalry
Coincidence, or just intense competition? Two auto-related sites, RepairPal and DriverSide, have launched within a week of each other, and they do something very similar.
They aim to add a type of information to the Internet that so far hasn’t made it on to any website, or even the public domain: Solid, reliable estimates of the worth of your vehicle, as well as how much it will cost to keep it repaired and running.
DriverSide, based in… Continue Reading