Shoestring marketing for start-ups
(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Scott Olson is president of MindLink Marketing. He contributed this column to VentureBeat.)
In a startup, there is no more precious commodity than capital. It’s hard to come by and easily burned – and marketing budgets can quickly become one of the… Continue Reading
Google maps fun places with Street View “trike”
With Google Maps, you can use a feature called “Street View” to take a virtual drive across town, or pretty much anywhere there are public streets.
But until now some of the funnest places haven’t been accessible by car, and so Google’s Street View car hasn’t… Continue Reading
Google Earth deepens crowdsourcing with Building Maker
Building a comprehensive 3-D model of the world is definitely not going to be a top-down task. So Google Earth is taking a page from the company’s crowdsourced success with Map Maker and is asking people to help create 3-D versions of buildings around the… Continue Reading
From CTIA: The rise of open mobile (and congratulations Android team)
[Richard Wong, a venture capitalist with Accel Partners, submitted this piece to VentureBeat.]
Mobile has never been hotter with the iPhone, Android, the explosion in mobile advertising, and the rise of mobile apps, but, you’d never know it walking around the mobile conference called CTIA, held… Continue Reading
Google launches AdSense for mobile phones — reveals “high-end” strategy
Google has just released AdSense for high-end mobile phones.
It’s a way for advertisers to places ads beside content that is browsed on smartphones, a move that further highlights the search engine giant’s strategy for mobile: It wants to target high-end mobile users.
It’s also significant in… Continue Reading
Google races Facebook to simplify its Friend Connect platform
Call it feature envy. Google is simplifying the process for developers to use Friend Connect on their sites, just two days after Facebook essentially did the same for its competing Facebook Connect identity platform.
Instead of uploading files to activate Friend Connect, a developer can now… Continue Reading
Google’s new search update “Caffeine” changes both look and feel
Google has unveiled a new architecture for the company’s web search, which it says will improve speed, accuracy and comprehensiveness.
The project, called Caffeine, has been worked on secretly by a large number of employees for several months, the company said in a blog post yesterday… Continue Reading
Microsoft, Yahoo may finally embrace with search, advertising deal
Update: Such a deal has just been announced.
Yahoo and Microsoft are close to a search and advertising deal that would finally bring them together in a fight against Google’s dominance, according to the Wall Street Journal. Yahoo would use Microsoft’s Bing search engine for its… Continue Reading
Google sells AOL stake after writing down more than $700 million
Google sold its 5 percent stake in AOL to Time Warner Inc. for $283 million, down from the $1 billion it paid in 2005. This puts AOL’s overall value at about $5.7 billion, less than 30 percent of the company’s $20 billion valuation based on what… Continue Reading
Google finally adds Latitude to iPhone, but as a toothless web app
Commence geostalking on the iPhone.
Google added Latitude to Apple’s smartphone today, but it’s on the web instead of in the app store. Latitude, which came out in February, is a social layer over maps that shows your location in real-time. Google said it chose the… Continue Reading
Google adds layers to its mobile maps; multiple search capabilities
Google Maps’ mobile phone experience is becoming a richer experience with the addition of layers that you see public transit, Wikipedia entries or your friends’ location on Latitude. For example when coming to a new town, you can turn on a Wikipedia layer that lets… Continue Reading
MeetMe iPhone app solves pesky problem of finding a meeting point
Finding an appropriate and convenient place to meet a business partner, friend or stranger can get pretty time-consuming. Ann Arbor-based iPhone application publisher Basara is trying to solve that problem with Meetme. It’s a fairly simple solution: the app combines Google Maps with Yelp recommendations… Continue Reading
MobileBeat2009: Learn about Chrome OS from the horse’s mouth
In case you haven’t heard yet, Google has just surprised the business world by announcing a new operating system called Chrome OS, designed to kill what Google thinks is an outmoded but dominant operating system: Windows.
Google’s Chrome OS is bound to spark significant debate at… Continue Reading
Android netbooks on their way, likely by 2010
[Update: Since posting this story, we've had a lot of inquiries from readers, with questions ranging from whether Android is ready for laptops and full-scale PCs, why Android can't rely fully on Linux, and so on. See our follow-up Android FAQ post.]
The image above shows… Continue Reading
LightPole’s software mobilizes web sites and adds geo-context
Putting “geo-context” into information is a hot topic these days on the mobile web.
The phrase means making data more useful by putting geographic context behind it, like listing all of the wireless Internet hot spots nearest you on a map on the phone. Adding geo-context… Continue Reading
Latest action: ThinkGreen, MingleNow shuts, Freewebs relaunches, more
Here’s the latest action:
1) Bizarre claim made by academic: France shipping nuclear waste to U.S.
2) Google up against new rivals, which can see what you surf
3) MingleNow is leaving the party
4) Solar’s scaling challenges may have an answer
5) Incandescent lighting heading for the door
6) Gaming… Continue Reading
Google releases useful “my location” feature for cellphones
Google today released a revised version of its maps for mobile phones, including a new “my location” feature that uses cell tower ID information to provide users with their approximate location.
This is a very significant release, for a few reasons: Location information makes search faster… Continue Reading
Confirmed: MySpace joins Google’s OpenSocial movement
updated
MySpace, the large social networking company, has joined the anti-Facebook coalition led by Google, we’ve confirmed.
Meanwhile, SixApart, the blogging software company, has confirmed with VentureBeat that it is joining the ever-growing coalition.
The grouping, called OpenSocial (see our coverage here), is setting open standards for sharing… Continue Reading
Google-led gang to take on Facebook — Google’s OpenSocial to launch
Updated
A host of Silicon Valley companies led by Google are ganging together to take on Facebook — the social networking company that is the toast of the town right now.
A group of Facebook’s cross-town rival, including Google, LinkedIn, Hi5, Friendster, Plaxo and Ning, are apparently… Continue Reading
Google’s sneak attack? Adsense for Facebook
Is Google-the-Goliath sneaking into the Facebook building — via the basement?
Google is actively recruiting third-party developers with applications on Facebook to run Adsense ads within applications pages, VentureBeat has learned.
These aren’t just any old Adsense ads, according to our sources — developers have been inserting… Continue Reading