Do you remember two weeks ago, when Microsoft’s Bing announced that they were going to hold a Bing Jingle Contest? The goal was to record a short music video/theme song about the search/decision engine. The prize: a $500 American Express gift cheque. Oh, and Microsoft asked contestants to upload their videos on Google-owned YouTube.
Well, we now have a winner, Bing Goes The Internet. And we have one word for the well-produced Johnathan Mann video: creepy. It’s actually polished – probably because this guy records a song every single day on YouTube, which alone is a weird shtick. The winning video features Mr. Mann dancing around with silhouettes of himself on the Bing homepage. And the accompanying music…creepy as well. Seriously, aren’t jingles supposed to be cheery and light?!
Because an explanation doesn’t do it justice, here’s the video:
The entire contest was a bit weird to us, but you know, most good viral marketing campaigns are a bit odd. And this barely cost Bing anything to do.
But what do you think of the winner? Let us know in the comments.
Yesterday we noticed a strange occurrence on Twitter: hundreds, if not thousands of Twitter accounts were sending out spam links, all at once. Most of these accounts weren’t your usual spam accounts, but regular Twitter users with real accounts, followers, and tweets. Then, the flood suddenly stopped.
We wondered if it was just a strange group of accounts or a one-time attack. Now we’re fairly certain that isn’t the case. Thousands of compromised Twitter accounts are sending out waves of spam throughout the Twitterverse. The tweets are coming hard, hundreds per minute. Here is a sampling of what’s going on:
We aren’t sure as to the exact cause. It seems to come in waves, and then it stops. It could be a compromised 3rd party application. It could be an old phishing scam or even the more recent TwitViewer scam. We have emailed Twitter about the issue.
Regardless, if you believe your account is compromised, immediately change your password! In addition, do not visit any of these websites – they can compromise your account further (or worse).
We will keep you updated as we learn more about the situation.
News Corporation isn’t doing so hot right now. The media conglomerate (and owner of MySpace) has seen huge losses in the last year as newspaper revenues have crumbled and the online ad market has been stung by the recession.
That isn’t fazing Rupert Murdoch, the iconic founder and CEO of News Corp., though. He has a plan though to restore his company’s profits: charge for all online news content. Specifically, his goal is to change the Internet landscape from free to paid content:
“We intend to charge for all our news websites … If we’re successful, we’ll be followed by all media.”
Whoa. That means not only WSJ.com will charge for content (as it already does), but FoxNews.com, NYPost, and maybe even IGN.com. Will Murdoch be successful at transforming Internet news into a pay-per-article landscape, or will the plan fall flat on its face?
I guess you have to make money, but…
According to The Guardian, Murdoch has essentially declared that the free-for-all in online news has ended. Specifically, he states that good journalism isn’t cheap (that’s true) and that, while the web has made distribution cheap, it has not made it free. He also hopes to gain more revenue from major celebrity scoops from his tabloid papers (i.e. the Sun). His bet is that people will indeed pay for news content.
We’re not so sure. While we don’t disagree with the need to find additional revenue streams for newspapers and quality journalism, we think there are plenty of alternative news resources to turn to. Murdoch must see something encouraging at the WSJ, because he wouldn’t be going with this plan if he didn’t think they could replicate that model without losing significant readership.
What do you think? Should News Corp charge for all of its online content? Is it a good idea? Or will the competition swoop in and take Murdoch’s readers? Let us know in the comments.
The Emmy Awards are typically a big night in Hollywood as those in front of the camera and behind-the-scenes are brought together to celebrate the best in show. This year, however, there’s been a slight change that’s being perceived as a very ostentatious slight.
In order to trim down the broadcast and appeal to a more mainstream audience, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has decided to pre-tape eight award presentations. Those being snubbed have yet to be finalized, but writers, directors, and less recognizable names are likely to be pushed behind the curtain during the ceremony, and they’re obviously vehemently opposed to the decision.
Thankfully they’ve found a very powerful web celeb who’s championing their cause on Twitter. The über popular creator and star of The Guild, Felicia Day, has taken to tweeting with the hashtag #emmysfail, using her very own Twitter guild of a 1 million plus to catapult the cause to a top trending topic on Twitter.
Both the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) have made public displays of their dissatisfaction with the decision. The DGA sent a letter to the academy, while the WGA has a protest letter of their own, complete with the names of showrunners and executive producers who oppose the decision.
Now, however, the cause is finding even more momentum in new media channels, with Twitter playing an active role in exposing the issue to a wider audience. #Emmysfail tweets are so ubiquitous that the topic has been trending for most of the day.
This Twitter petition of sorts is certainly not a new phenomenon. The platform is ripe for the community movements and reminds us of the AT&T Twititions that played an instrumental role in getting the carrier to cave and offer the subsidized price of the new iPhone to more 3G owners. We can only hope that today’s Twitter campaign is just as successful.
News Corp., which owns FOX, The New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets, hasn’t been doing so well in the last year. The company’s net income was $5.4 billion in the 2008 fiscal year, but the numbers they released this afternoon for 2009 show the company heading in the complete opposite direction: a loss of about $3.4 billion. Ouch.
So who’s to blame? Falling newspaper ad revenues? The acquisition of The Wall Street Journal? Fox News? HarperCollins? While nearly every segment of the company did poorly, there were a few standouts, specifically Fox Interactive Media, which controls IGN, Photobucket, and most notably, MySpace. In fact, News Corp specifically blames MySpace for a loss of $363 million to the company’s bottom line.
Sound the sirens!
Here’s what News Corp actually said in its filings. I’ve highlighted the gems:
The Other segment reported a fourth quarter adjusted operating loss of $136 million and full year adjusted operating loss of $363 million, a decrease of $79 million and $279 million as compared to the prior year periods, respectively. These declines were primarily due to lower contributions from Fox Interactive Media (FIM) and NDS. The decline in FIM operating results was driven by lower advertising revenues at MySpace and increased costs associated with the launch of MySpace Music. The lower NDS contributions reflect the sale of a portion of the Company's ownership stake on February 5, 2009. As a result of the sale, the Company's portion of NDS operating results subsequent to February 5, 2009 is included within Equity earnings.
And if you’re a numbers person, I’ve included them as well:
Gee, now it’s no surprise why MySpace cut 30% of its staff and hired a new CEO: It’s a sinking ship. MySpace’s new management better find a way to fix the leaks before Rupert Murdoch throws the entire thing overboard.
Yesterday was ESPN’s day in the social media spotlight. The International cable network traditionally sticks to broadcasting sports-related news 24 hours a day, but yesterday one tweet on a change in their social media policy shifted the spotlight from sports to social media.
ESPN publicly responded with an official Twitter statement directed at us on the situation, and they also shared the text of their new social media policy and guidelines. After the initial outreach, they followed up and offered us a chance to discuss the situation, their policies on social media, and their broader strategies in a one-on-one interview with Rob King (@Rfking), ESPN.com’s VP and Editor-in-Chief, who was intimately involved in the policy creation process.
Given that ESPN is a brand name that is so recognizable, we thought it was a remarkable opportunity to get up close and personal with their social media practices. We asked some difficult questions and got some very candid answers. All in all, this proves to be a very interesting case study in how social media is affecting mainstream media, as well as forcing companies to adopt and implement social media policies.
About That Tweet
If Ric Bucher, an ESPN NBA analyst, hadn’t tweeted yesterday that ESPN was, “prohibiting tweeting info unless it serves ESPN,” then it probably would have been a day like any other for ESPN. But the notion that they could set a policy that was so backwards when it comes to relationship building on the web created an uproar of sorts.
We believe the tweet was probably in response to guidelines like, “The first and only priority is to serve ESPN sanctioned efforts, including sports news, information and content,” and, “If ESPN.com opts not to post sports related social media content created by ESPN talent, you are not permitted to report, speculate, discuss or give any opinions on sports related topics or personalities on your personal platforms.”
When asked about the situation, King revealed that he believed that Bucher had misinterpreted the policy, saying, “I’m pretty sure from the initial tweet that he had not had a chance to fully read the policy, and I got the same sense from other responses that followed … Part of the process is about education, how to use these varying forms of social media in ways that are as effective as a fan can hope.”
We then discussed how Bucher’s interpretation of the policy was probably a natural reaction, given that it would be easy to read the new guidelines and fear that every tweet or Facebook post could get you fired. King followed up with, “In certain ways a policy suggests a restriction, or a change … we really tried to phrase them as guidelines, we genuinely believe that this is an evolving process … subject to interpretation … but we wanted this to be about what you can do and not what you can’t.”
I also probed about Bucher’s status at the network, questioning whether or not he would receive disciplinary action. According to King, Bucher and his supervisor spoke about the matter, but it was more from a stand point of education on policies, and that no disciplinary action would be taken.
ESPN and Personal Branding
Many of our commenters took issue with this ESPN policy: “Personal websites and blogs that contain sports content are not permitted.”
It, along with the rest of the guidelines, certainly makes it appear like ESPN is attempting to prohibit their talent from creating and maintaining online personas that enhance their personal brands as sports experts. We asked King to clarify ESPN’s stance on personal branding, and the response was that ESPN views their forward-facing talent as primarily having recognition because of their association with ESPN, and as such there’s always overlap.
King states, “the question of personal branding comes down to the real truth that all of these folks that are doing this as ESPN employees … are establishing these relationships by being ESPN talent … there really isn’t a question of establishing personal brand … whatever is viewed as a personal brand is intricately intertwined with ESPN … we’re in it together, we’re not a bunch of individuals … it’s really about how all of us are connecting with fans.”
Personal branding and ESPN don’t really mix. It’s a sticky gray area that the network doesn’t really embrace. Yes, they want their talent to engage with fans, and they want to integrate social media into their online properties, but they don’t see their talent as independent from the network. If you are in front of the camera, you are ESPN at all times (even on Twitter).
More ESPN Social Media Take-Aways
It’s a learning/educational process: King was adamant that their policies for forward-facing talent (which are more stringent than their employee policies) are still a work in progress, that they’re actively trying to balance their social media savvy with the best interest of ESPN, and they’re doing everything in their power to educate staff, respond to questions, and stay open to change. In fact, he stressed that the policies are, in fact, just guidelines, and that he truly believes social media to be a powerful medium to engage with fans.
Not all ESPN talent should tweet: Probably the strangest moment of the conversation was when King mentioned that there could be the rare occassion that ESPN would discourage an on-air personality from using Twitter to talk about sports. King states, “It’s fair to say that on a rare occasion, it’s possible to conceive, that we would say to someone that this doesn’t work for ESPN.com … if someone is not particularly good at sports content in 140 characters or Facebook format.”
Policies reflect standard broadcast policies: King wanted us to know that they’re simply trying to educate talent that Twitter is no different than being miked during a broadcast or show. Essentially everything said in 140 characters needs to be carefully considered, and just as analysts, reporters, and hosts should not disclose sensitive information on-air, they should also refrain from doing so on Twitter or any other social channel.
Personal tweets are a different animal: In most cases the social media guidelines are restricted to tweets that deal with sports. Sports is ESPN’s bread and butter, so they’re certainly sensitive about how their talent uses Twitter to talk about related subject matters. King did mention, however, that tweets of a personal variety are not discouraged and that even he tweets about his family and other personal stuff.
Gamers tend to be by nature a sociable group. Though great single-player titles will always be around, those first heady days of Pong versus an opponent ensured video gaming’s place in the pantheon of social activities. Thus as social networks started cropping up to cater to niche interests as diverse as wine, books, and travel, it was inevitable that gamers too would get our own virtual clubhouses before too long.
Here’s an overview of five great destinations for gamers to find friends and share their gaming experiences on the web.
gamerDNA
Emerging out of what was formerly GuildCafe, gamerDNA is both a gamer and a data lover’s paradise, offering all manner of personal gameplay tracking and associated recommendations along with statistics to surface the most popular games and even what type of personalities tend to play them. Xbox 360 players can link their accounts up to have their game libraries and gameplay sessions tracked automatically, with the ability to add titles manually for the PS3, Wii and the PC.
Your user profile displays your gameplay calendar, library, and an activity feed of what your friends are playing as well as their activities on the site. Featuring a high level of social media integration, gamerDNA also allows you to add your other digital identities from other social networking sites. You can use a fine-grained set of permission tools to broadcast various daily game-related activities of your choice as well as activities you perform on the site out to your networks on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or FriendFeed.
On top of all that, gamerDNA features a sort of metagame wherein you earn points and achieve rankings based on how much you interact with the site over time. If you’re looking for a social interface to help catalogue your gaming experiences, an easy way to broadcast your gameplay out to your other social services, or simply a good game recommender engine, we recommend giving gamerDNA a try.
Raptr
Similar to gamerDNA, Raptr collates statistics on your game library and gameplay activities and incorporates them into your gamer profile as well as providing game recommendations based on what you already like. Also similarly to gamerDNA, Raptr lets you hook your activity stream into your other social networks in order to broadcast your game-related activities.
Where the two sites differ is in the underlying technology — Raptr works primarily via a downloadable client application installed on your PC or Mac — and in Raptr’s stronger focus on connecting you with live, in progress games with your friends in real-time via presence indicators built in to the client app.
We actually like and use both of these sites liberally, but if you’re primarily a PC gamer who wants help finding a quick Team Fortress 2 match with your available friends online you might find yourself gravitating towards Raptr for the matchmaking functionality. And though otherwise similar in certain functionalities, both sites offer unique takes on recommendation systems and gameplay activity tracking, so feel free to give both a spin and let us know what you think in the comments.
WeGame
WeGame is a social network with a unique focus on sharing in-game video footage and screenshots. Instead of requiring the use of third-party video capture applications such as Fraps, WeGame provides its own proprietary video capture tool that integrates your video uploads directly with the site.
Users can rate individual videos, with the most popular vids bubbling to the top on the main page, and share videos they like on popular social sharing sites such as digg, reddit, StumbleUpon, Facebook and Twitter. A unique “Challenges” section of the site offers users the ability to post requests for videos or screenshots on a specific theme, such as “biggest boss” or “coolest vehicle in a game.” Other users compete to win the challenge by posting the best video or screencap on that theme, providing a cool metagame on top of the larger media sharing activity on the site.
UGAME
UGAME.net is a space for gamers that offers a number of traditional social networking features including personal blogs, galleries, forums, and user profiles along with sections for creating teams (or guilds) as well as groups of like-minded fans of particular genres, franchises, or niche topics to hold discussions in a cohesive format. With a number of ways to search and browse the site for things to see and do, UGAME is another worthy contender in the growing pantheon of active social networks for gamers.
Rupture
As with some of the other members of this list, Rupture integrates with your gaming identities and adds gameplay activity to your profile’s activity feed. What sets Rupture apart is its Challenges section, which is user-generated as with WeGame but focuses on creating actual gameplay challenges and inviting other users to meet them. It’s essentially a user-generated Achievements feature, a unique and interesting spin on the concept of adding new goals and heights to reach within your game collection that the designers themselves did not include. By meeting challenges you can then earn points and gain levels on the metagame within the site itself.
There are many more social sites specifically for gamers out there as well as new ones cropping up all the time; if we’ve omitted your favorite, or you know of another site we should check out, let us know in the comments.
We struck a nerve with a lot of people this morning with our article Stats Confirm It: Teens Don’t Tweet. In it, we explained how a recent Nielsen report shows that only 16 percent of Twitter users are under 25. The response was overwhelming – especially from teenagers who currently use Twitter.
While the entire debate is a healthy one, there’s been a lack of focus on the most important question of all: Why aren’t teens using Twitter? The answer to this question is essential to not only understanding why Generation Y has not embraced microblogging, but to the very future of the medium. Let’s take a look at the statistics and the thoughts of my fellow under 25-ers to understand just why there’s a shortage of teen tweeters:
The Stats
If you read our Teens Don’t Tweet article, you’ll come across two key stats: that 84% of Twitter users are over 24 years old, and that 90% of TweetDeck users are over that age as well. There are some other stats we didn’t touch on though, including that, according to Nielsen, Twitter.com’s reach to this key age group is 6.6%, while it’s nearly double (12.1%) for adults.
You can probably attribute this to the network effect: since more adults are using Twitter, more adults feel the need to try it. Since less teens are on the social media website, less teens feel inclined. This is a snowball effect that will only get larger if the trend continues.
There are other statistical studies that show this trend is prevalent as well. In an April comScore study, the website measurement agency found that Twitter’s middle-aged demographic was the driver of its hyper growth. Here’s what comScore specifically said:
What [Reuters reporter Alexei Oreskovic] discovered was that 18-24 year olds, the traditional social media early adopters, are actually 12 percent less likely than average to visit Twitter (Index of 88). It is the 25-54 year old crowd that is actually driving this trend. More specifically, 45-54 year olds are 36 percent more likely than average to visit Twitter, making them the highest indexing age group, followed by 25-34 year olds, who are 30 percent more likely.
Even as far back as January, people were picking up on this trend. And if we look at the Quantcast numbers, we see the same picture:
So what’s going on?
Twitter’s different than Facebook or MySpace because Twitter is not about your friends. As I highlighted in my analysis of Twitter’s new homepage, Twitter is quickly becoming the epicenter of world events. Yes, you can update your status, but you can do that just as easily on Facebook. What you can’t do on other social media sites is learn about the #IranElection crisis in real-time.
But does this really interest teenagers? Teenagers are notorious for being terrible at social engagement, voting, and keeping up with the news. While I don’t want to typecast an entire age demographic, I can say this with confidence: Teens, more than any other age group, care about their friends. It’s the continuation of real-life friendship (and the creation of online ones) that has driven the tremendous growth of MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, etc. It’s about the social graph. That’s why more than 50 percent of Facebook users are under 25, even while older users are joining quickly. We even highlighted these points in When Do You Use Twitter Versus Facebook?
But Twitter is far less about the social graph than it is about the overall conversation surrounding an item. Retweets are about sharing items and @replies are about allowing the public to be part of a conversation you’re having with someone. If you just follow your friends on Twitter, you will barely be using it. A lot of the value comes from following interesting people and celebrities.
Here’s the other problem that I’ve heard consistently: teenagers have nothing to say on Twitter. Twitter is a huge promotional tool – for businesses, for bloggers, for self-described experts – but teenagers aren’t as concerned with these things as a whole. Only the most ambitious teenagers start businesses, and most are worried about school, not about becoming recognized as an expert in his or her space. If they want to update friends on their cereal or their lives, Facebook’s far more effective.
So what’s going to happen with teens and Twitter?
From the stats, here’s what we know:
- Only about 16% of Twitter’s users are under 25. Compare that to well over half for both Facebook and MySpace
- The under 25 demographic is 12% less likely to visit Twitter than the average
- Adults are 2x more likely to try Twitter than teenagers
This will change. While teenagers don’t make up a large part of Twitter, they are still 16% of the userbase. As they talk about Twitter, their friends will start to join and the teenage pick-up rate will increase. Celebrity usage of Twitter will only help, but it’s really about friends adopting Twitter.
Still, Twitter in its current form will be dominated by the over 25 crowd. Twitter offers something that adults crave more than teenagers: an audience. Facebook doesn’t fulfill this need as well as Twitter does, but the offset is that teenagers turn to Facebook to communicate with their friends.
There are two primary ways Twitter can bring young users in and fix the demographic skew:
- Grow so large that it’s impossible for teens to ignore – aka the peer pressure effect. “Wait, you didn’t hear about Paula Abdul? Oh, I guess that’s because you aren’t on Twitter.”
- Add features or a culture that provides new value for teenagers who primarily want to talk with friends.
Twitter needs to find better ways to communicate its benefits to a younger population while keeping up its stellar growth. Combine that with features – or 3rd party apps – that focus on friendship circles, and Twitter will soon see teenagers adopting Twitter in droves.
So why do you think teens aren’t tweeting? Are you a teen on Twitter? Why do you tweet? Let us know in the comments!
Facebook's Open Stream API is what makes it possible for applications like TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop to provide streaming updates of status updates from friends, as well as let you publish status updates to Facebook from such apps.
Today, Facebook is extending the Open Stream API to Facebook Pages, meaning that you'll be able to get updates from the Pages you're a fan of inside of desktop apps, and, if you're a Page owner, publish updates directly from them, in the same way you publish a status update to your personal profile today.
Additionally, much like how Twitter tells you where an update comes from (i.e. – "via TweetDeck" or "via Tweetie"), the Facebook stream will now tell you the same thing, providing additional exposure for third-party Facebook apps.
While the technical details are available on Facebook's developer blog, the practical implications of this are fairly significant for companies that are managing a brand across both Twitter and Facebook. It means that you'll soon be able to one-click publish to both platforms (assuming popular clients add the functionality), as well as reach users who prefer to keep up with Facebook from a third-party app.
Meanwhile, for application developers, it could mean a new race to win over Facebook Page owners. With some Pages now having millions of fans, a "via [app name]" link in user's activity streams could be worth a lot in terms of marketing.
We recently launched The Twitter Guide Book, a one-stop shop for getting up to speed with everything Twitter, from managing your Twitter stream to promoting a business. Now, we’ve packaged up all of our best Twitter resources in a downloadable presentation so you can flip through all of the content in one place, and print and share it with your friends and colleagues.
Presented by Adobe Acrobat 9, sponsor of this year's SlideShare "World's Best Presentation Contest", the Twitter Guide Book includes a special audio introduction from Mashable Founder and CEO Pete Cashmore, as well as five chapters:
1. Twitter 101: The Basics 2. Building Your Twitter Community 3. Managing Your Twitter Stream 4. Sharing on Twitter 5. Twitter for Business
From August 3 to September 14, SlideShare is hosting its second annual "World's Best Presentation Contest“. Until early September, users of the world's largest presentation sharing site will be able to use in-browser embedded sharing and view PDF portfolios with Adobe's sponsorship. By providing SlideShare users with the opportunity to use cutting edge creation and sharing tools, these creative and business professionals can combine and distribute multimedia presentations in a way that’s never been done before.
Glide OS 3.0, by TransMedia, is a popular mobile and web operating system that comes complete with applications and automatic file and application compatibility across devices.
Their newest app, Glide Engage, is a mobile and web microblogging and collaboration tool that launches today and supports 1,400 character posts (not 140), file and media sharing, and distribution options to simultaneously post on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.
With Glide Engage, users can can consume media, bookmark links, send files, share photos and videos, and post updates of up to 1,400 characters in length. Shared files are synchronized in typical Glide style, and users can share, view, and edit pretty much any file or media type.
It’s not exactly a Twitter competitor, but it does support a follower model — engaged are people who follow you, engaging are people you follow — with a stream of activity, so users can follow each other to keep up with the shared updates of other users. There’s also a way to send private messages, using the Glide Engage Inbox, but with the larger character allowance, it’s more akin to your Facebook or email inbox then your Twitter DM Inbox.
Glide Engage also supports public or private discussion groups that come complete with a contact manager, group inbox/outbox, and file management. There’s also the added ability to tap into other Glide applications like email, groups, meeting, and presenter, to create professional workspaces, or real-time collaboration hubs for online meetings.
Glide Engage does have a few obstacles working against it though. It’s certainly not a mainstream product for a mainstream user that isn’t already a Glide user. The interface, design, and robust nature of the application make it difficult to engage with if you’re unfamiliar with the product. But, as is, it does bring a remarkable amount of desktop and social media functionality to your mobile device, further merging the gap between mobile and desktop web experiences.
As you may have seen elsewhere, a shooting last night at a Pittsburgh, PA fitness center killed three people and injured ten. Another chilling aspect of the story, however, is the Internet presence that the suspected shooter, George Sodini, left behind.
A blog entry posted to his personal site a day before the shooting, in hindsight, predicted exactly what would happen, though its vague wording makes it difficult to imagine a scenario in which law enforcement would've been able to intervene before it was too late.
Although the site has been taken offline, CNN details entries that go as far back as last year that begin to expose Sodini's plot. Sodini's post from yesterday also lives on, captured here by Mahalo:
In addition to the now infamous blog, Sodini had a LinkedIn profile, indicating he was a computer programmer in the Pittsburgh area.
Like other recent tragedies that overlap with social media (for example, the shocking suicide captured live on Justin.tv last year), there will likely be an investigation into whether or not all of these online pieces could've been put together to prevent the tragedy in Pittsburgh.
Occasionally, such stories have been averted – for example, Demi Moore retweeting one woman's intention to commit suicide leading to authorities intervening in time to save her. Unfortunately, however, Sodini's self-hosted blog on a distant corner of the Internet likely would never have been discovered leading up to last night, unless Sodini himself sought attention for it. Sadly, that appears to never have happened.
As a Twitter and BlackBerry fanatic, I've been reviewing most of the new Twitter clients for BlackBerry that come out. While TwitterBerry, perhaps because of its obvious name, has long been ubiquitous with Twitter and BlackBerry, UberTwitter, my personal favorite, has actually risen to become the most popular client for the device.
According to TwitStat, UberTwitter now accounts for 1.26 percent of Twitter users, beating out TwitterBerry's 0.87 percent penetration. The private beta SocialScope sits at 0.35 percent, while the recently released TweetCaster doesn't yet register.
Why the surge in popularity for UberTwitter? Aside from simply having perhaps the best feature set and interface, it also has its own mapping and photo services. When you tweet with UberTwitter, you can optionally attach a location (myloc.me), and integration with your device's camera lets you quickly upload a picture (mypict.me). Your followers then click these links, which show them not just the content but expose them to the UberTwitter brand.
In turn, UberTwitter's getting a lot of exposure for its app, especially with celebrity users like Miley Cyrus and Lindsay Lohan giving it a try in recent days. It's a bit different approach than other Twitter clients, some of which are selling "default" placement to third-party applications for functions like photos and URL shortening. But for now, doing these functions in-house seems to be paying off for UberTwitter, at least in terms of users.
The Pirate Bay's future remains far from certain following its acquisition by Global Gaming Factory (GGF). For one, there is speculation that GGF doesn't even have the resources to complete the deal to buy the popular file sharing service. Beyond that, ongoing lawsuits continue to threaten the company's existence.
But one intriguing possibility regarding the future of The Pirate Bay is that it becomes a publicly traded company in the US on the NASDAQ. According to TorrentFreak, who spoke with GGF's CEO EO Hans Pandeya, this option is very much in play as the company looks to transition to a legal service that makes legitimate deals with copyright holders.
Pandeya tells the site that "We are looking into the possibility to get the operation listed on the NASDAQ Small Cap Index. The Pirate Bay is a strong brand in the US and most parties who have showed interest in the project are based there." This is true – The Pirate Bay gets millions of visitors each month from the US, and at least in tech circles, is a well-known name.
However, if such a deal comes to fruition, it's mostly a suckers bet. For starters, the NASDAQ Small Cap Index is for companies that don't qualify to be listed on the NASDAQ National Market (i.e. – it's a minor leagues for companies of sorts). You'd also be betting that The Pirate Bay can successfully defend lawsuits, reach deals with copyright holders, and ultimately find a legal and lucrative business model.
All of that successfully coming together sans a major infusion of cash seems unlikely, but hey, owning a few shares of TPB might be kind of fun, even if just for short-term novelty.
But we’d like to help in a more direct way, too. Mashable's job boards are a place for socially-savvy companies to find people like you. This week and every week, Mashable features its coveted job board listings for a variety of positions in the web, social media space, and beyond. Have a look at what's good and new on our job boards:
ADF seeks a full-time Social Media Director responsible for developing and executing plans in social networking, video sharing, web communities and on other social media sites. Responsibilities include developing and executing quality web content and messaging that will drive appropriate traffic to specific ADF websites. You must love being personally/professionally active in social platforms and blogging and be an early adopter who is always the first to discover the latest on-line buzz.
ADF is seeking a full-time and highly professional Sr. Web Specialist responsible for developing and executing creative concepts for all online marketing communication initiatives and the construction of all emails and landing page. The Sr. Web Specialist is responsible for increasing the quality, quantity and turnaround time of all ADF online marketing communications. As a result, there will be an increase in team capacity – allowing ADF to respond to a greater number of requests and opportunities for growth. Other responsibilities include managing and updating all content on the ADF websites.
WOM Services Strategy Manager at IMRE, LLC in Sparks Glencoe, MD.
The ideal candidate will be obsessed with social media, be a tactical expert in developing multimedia, forum, blog, microblog and social networking plans and capable of developing logical metrics to track results. Must be a strong leader with 5 to 6 years of professional experience in social media, digital marketing and social PR and 3 to 4 years of experience managing teams. We need a strategic thinker who is not afraid to blaze new trails for our clients.
Social Media Marketing Professional at M80 in Los Angeles, CA.
M80 is seeking a smart, talented and experienced online marketing professional to fill a role in our Social Media Marketing department. This individual plays a significant role in the strategic development and stewardship of social media programs and will implement various online campaign strategies for key clients. They will assist with the implementation, monitoring, reporting and analysis for these clients and be responsible for the overall success of client campaigns, blogs and social media profiles.
Senior Account Director, Social Media at M80 in New York, NY.
The Senior Account Director is responsible for leading, strategizing and executing all social media efforts for our global Pharma client and their OTC brands. This position requires a highly motivated, self-starter with a creative, strategic and tactical vision of the Social Media landscape.
Project Manager, Campaign Operations at United Way in Chicago, IL.
This position will enhance the Operation Team's ability to market and support electronic campaign pledging strategies, provide internal reporting and systems support, and lead the efforts to manage work across the organization.
Web Experience Manager at United Way in Chicago, IL.
The Manager, Web Experience is the chief steward of the online customer experience, which spans across electronic communications, websites and social network presence and initiatives. This individual will play a critical role at United Way of Metropolitan Chicago, overseeing our interactive engagement strategy and ensuring quality web content consistent with the brand positioning of the United Way of Illinois and United Way. The ideal candidate thrives working on the cutting edge where communications, community impact strategies, and technology come together.
Freelance Video/Flash Web Developer at MS&L Digital in Ann Arbor, MI.
Progressive digital office, located in the heart of modern downtown Ann Arbor, looking to add a Freelance (30-40 hrs/wk) Designer, with video and flash experience, to its creative and dynamic environment. The ideal candidate is someone with the right mix of a designer's eye and technical skills. The candidate will have a deep understanding of creative tools, and a business understanding of the value that their jaw-dropping, eye-popping work will bring to our client projects.
Freelance Web Developer at MS&L Digital in Ann Arbor, MI.
Progressive digital office, located in the heart of modern downtown Ann Arbor , looking to add an experienced Freelance Programmer/Web Developer (30-40 hrs/wk) to its creative and dynamic environment. This web developer is sought to help build, maintain, and extend Plone, Zope and Python based portals. Also, to help build new Ruby on Rails web sites, and to help maintain legacy PHP sites.
Senior Manager, Social Media Marketing at Fanscape in Los Angeles, CA.
The ideal candidate should have some previous management experience and pride themselves on being highly organized, self-motivated and strategic. Additionally this person should have extensive experience communicating in well known social media, social networking, and UGC outlets, along with niche web communities and blogs. Knowledge of popular culture, entertainment trends, and current technology is a must. Additional responsibilities will include campaign reporting, as well as presentation of success metrics, failures, and innovations learned from executed social media campaigns, and across the industry landscape as a whole.
Senior Web Developer for Set Top Box applications at Synacor in Buffalo, NY.
We are seeking a Senior Web Developer for Set Top Box Applications who will be responsible for the design and development of applications capable of integrating consumer hardware (set top boxes) with the web (TV electronic programming guides, DVR, etc.). Working in conjunction with the Product Development team, the Engineer is responsible for leading related projects.
You should have a comprehensive understanding of the social media sphere, a strong personal social media presence, experience with strategic campaign execution/project management, innovative and creative approach to the industry, the ability to thrive in a fast paced environment with multiple client industries, previous experience in social media/marketing/PR, and more.
Front End Web Developer at Loopt in Mountain View, CA.
Are you constantly dreaming up fun web projects and trying out the latest trends in web technologies? Do you enjoy pushing the limits of JavaScript and manipulating the DOM to your will? Have you developed a love/hate relationship with various scripting languages and web MVC frameworks? Loopt is seeking creative and motivated client-side web developers to rapidly define and implement fun new features for Loopt’s web experience.
PHP Developer and Social Networking Guru at Giantnerd in Boulder, CO.
Ideal candidate is extremely hard working, extraordinarily talented, entrepreneurial, THINKS OUTSIDE THE BOX, has great problem solving skills excellent intuition for user interface, and is extremely passionate about open source applications, web 2.0, mobile applications, social networking and social commerce.
You will design, build and support mobile client application on a variety of mobile platforms; develop new mobile products and features for existing products using Java, port Loopt J2ME mobile client to a wide variety of handsets, work closely with QA to ensure quality of the J2ME client, and work with UI designers to deliver the best possible user experience.
The Huffington Post is developing its socially networked, participatory news environment and seeks a forward thinking editor to spearhead this initiative. The Social Networking Editor will be responsible for redesigning and managing interactive tools both on The Huffington Post and third-party social networking communities like Facebook that will deepen the viewers' experience and their ability to participate in reporting news in an effort to build conversations within their online communities. The Social Network Editor will also be responsible for developing and managing a dynamic comment moderation system that utilizes full and part-time staff alongside user-generated oversight.
Account Strategist at Logic Marketing in Chattanooga, TN.
Logic Marketing is looking for an Account Strategist to join our quickly expanding team. We are interested in hiring focused, detail-oriented individual to design and deploy integrated marketing programs based on clients' business objectives and brand strategies. This person will answer directly to the Director of Interactive Marketing.
Are you a versatile Web editor who can craft a snappy headline or update stories using a content management system? We are looking for an experienced Web editor who can be a jack-of-all-trades for a fast-paced, space-related NASA Web site.
Quality Assurance Engineer at Brickfish in San Diego, CA.
Quality Assurance Engineer is responsible for software testing processes and procedures of an Internet based system by confirming software functionality conforms to specifications. Ensures products and applications are bug free and stable. Candidates must be intelligent, self-motivated, hard working, willing to learn new things, and responsible.
Senior Database Administrator at Brickfish in San Diego, CA.
The Senior Database Administrator is responsible for overseeing multiple database environments, ensuring uptime in those environments, assisting in architectural decisions for new development and optimization, doing periodic data imports, and being a reliable team player in a fast paced environment.
Content Associate at Modern Feed in Los Angeles, CA.
We are looking for Internet junkies to fill entry-level Content Associate positions. As an ideal candidate, you are passionate about media and the future of online video. You live life online and know how to find legal versions of mainstream and obscure media. You have an interest in discovering the online video content that has yet to become common knowledge and have an enthusiasm for joining a start-up environment.
Social Media Coordinator at Houston Press in Houston, TX.
Houston Press is seeking a Social Media Coordinator. Candidates should be active users of Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and other social networking sites. In this exciting newly created role, the Social Media Coordinator will be responsible for promoting the Houston Press brand, creating awareness for events, and growing our email database through the use of various social media platforms. Beyond social networking, the Social Media Coordinator should be passionate, learn quickly, and have a clear understanding of Marketing.
Associate Creative Director at Ketchum in New York City.
The ACD is responsible for leading the Ketchum Digital creative teams in the development of visual design, user experience, brand identity, and content development for print, Web, video and other multimedia solutions. Reporting to the Director, Operations and Creative Development and working to support the Creative Director. The ACD guides creative development and execution of content solutions from concept to completion. Where appropriate, an Associate Creative Director may be the sole creative lead on an assignment.
Candidate must have the ability and experience to develop and execute comprehensive project plans that include meeting delivery and budget milestones, requirements documentation, messaging/strategy, content development, information architecture, design, software development and quality assurance processes.
Vanns.com is searching for a Community Manager to act as an Advocate and Brand Champion on behalf of Vann's in a multitude of online communities. The successful candidate will represent, listen to, respond to, and participate with the people that interact with the Vann's brand within these communities.
As an Interaction Designer, you will be responsible for Web site and application designs adhering to a user-centered design approach. Our client's interaction designers translate business, user requirements, and Web strategies into functional, engaging, and usable online experiences using techniques such as wireframing, prototyping and storyboarding. As part of creating an online experience, interaction designers collaborate with strategists, graphic designers, and copywriters.
Online Content Producer at Team San Jose in San Jose, CA.
You’ll need to have mastery of social networking tools- such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, et al, an understanding of web usability and information architecture, be proficient with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator (and Flash too), an understanding of video production and integration with web content, and a deep understanding of fundamental design discipline and principles.
Digital Marketing Manager at Red Bull USA in Santa Monica, CA.
You’ll collect, edit, and publish content on RedBullUSA.com and manage outbound messaging programs that deliver broader (# of subscribers/fans) and deeper (frequency of engagement) connections with Red Bull consumers and potential Red Bull consumers.
Social Media Consultant at a PR Agency at CCI in New York City.
The most necessary requirement of this position – is an ability to create in-depth Social Media proposals with an eye towards driving a PR campaign, then helping those proposals to be executed – either through your own technical expertise, or by appropriately functioning as a Project Manager. Examples of your writing and previous proposals are required.
Mashable has a variety of web 2.0, application development, business development, and social networking job opportunities available. Check them out at Mashable's Job Board.
Got a job posting to share with our readers? Post a job to Mashable today ($50 for a 30 day listing) and get it highlighted every week on Mashable.com (in addition to exposure all day every day in the Mashable marketplace).
Already noted for its speed, Google Chrome has released a new beta today promising another 30 percent performance improvement. There are also a few new features that let you add significant customization to the look and feel of the browser.
One of my favorite features of Chrome, the quick links to your 9 most visited sites when you open a new tab, is now customizable, letting you move any site you'd like quick access to into one of the slots.
Meanwhile, the so-called Omnibox (the address bar in other browsers) has become a bit easier to understand, with a series of icons "helping you distinguish between suggested sites, searches, bookmarks, and sites from your browsing history."
As for the performance improvements, the Chrome team explains how they did it on their blog:
“Beyond the improvements in JavaScript execution in this latest beta, there are a host of other improvements that should help Google Chrome make the most of your network connection. For example, when you open a new web page while other web pages are still loading, Google Chrome is now smarter about prioritizing the requests for the new page — for instance, fetching text, images, and video for your new page — ahead of the requests from the older pages. Loading pages on this beta release should also be faster than ever with DNS caching, more efficient DOM bindings, and using V8 for proxy auto-config.”
Finally, similar to other Google products like Gmail, Chrome now has its own themes, so you can change the appearance of your browser to something like “star gazing” or “candy”. To install a theme, you simply go to Chrome's Themes Gallery, but you'll need to download the new beta for it to work.
Last week, we brought you a list of the top 15 resources for foodies across the social web. But food lovers have really taken to the web in recent years, and a mere fifteen resources barely scratches the surface of what’s out there. There are literally thousands of social web resources for foodies, from food blogs and image sharing communities to full blown social networks and recipe sharing sites.
So here are fifteen more social media sites and applications to help you get informed about food, find other foodies, find recipes, and perhaps most importantly, find the best ingredients. As always, please share your favorite resources that aren’t on this list in the comments below.
Get Informed: Food News and Info
1. The Foodie BlogRoll – The Foodie BlogRoll is a directory of over 4700 foodie blogs, making it perhaps the most comprehensive food blogger directory on the web. The site also operates a blogroll widget that is embedded on a large number of food blogs across the web and has already seen over 87 million views this year.
2. Alltop Food News – Alltop describes itself as a magazine rack for the web. The site is an automated aggregator bringing together feeds from top blogs and news sources in over 600 topic areas. Their Food News category offers links to posts from an exceptionally large collection of top foodie blogs on the web.
3. Digg Food & Drink – Digg certainly isn’t a great place to find recipes or have intelligent discussions about cooking with other foodies, but it is a great place to get the latest news about the food industry. Just be forewarned that not all of it is appetizing — like the recent front page story about a central Florida man who claimed to have found the remains of a dead rodent in his can of Pepsi. Yuck!
4. Food Essentials – Though it still has a ways to go before it can claim to be totally comprehensive, Food Essentials is a must-visit resource for anyone concerned with what’s actually in their food. The site lists nutrition information, gluten content, ingredients, and potential allergens for a wide range of food products.
Find Fellow Foodies
5. BakeSpace – BakeSpace is one of the biggest foodie-centric social networks on the web, with discussion boards, blogs, recipe swapping, and other standard social networking features. One of their neatest offerings, though, is the BakeSpace Mentors Program, which connects members interested in teaching a specific culinary skill to those who are eager to learn.
6. Foodbuzz – With nearly 30,000 members, Foodbuzz combines it all — recipe sharing, restaurant reviews, forums, blogs, photos, and more. Taking a cue from Facebook, Foodbuzz also offers fan pages for brands such as Stonyfield Farms, Newman’s Own, and King Arthur Flour, among others.
7. FoodCandy – FoodCandy isn’t the largest social network for foodies, but it is a very tight-knit community. The site offers blogs, photos, videos, events, and discussion forums.
8. Eats.com – Eats.com is a huge restaurant rating and review site, but it’s also an active social network. On the site you can find eaters in your area who share similar tastes in food and find out where your friends are eating. One feature that is rather unique to the site is that users can rate specific dishes from restaurants with menus attached.
9. Book of Cooks – Are you a good cook who wants to earn some extra cash? Or maybe you’re a terrible cook but love good food and crave a home cooked meal. Either way, Book of Cooks has you covered. This innovative site is a marketplace for home cooks and personal chefs who will prepare a meal for you in your home.
Get Your Ingredients
10. Eat Well Guide – Eat Well Guide offers local listings for all sorts of sustainable, organic food producers and merchants. From farmers, CSAs, ranches, and farmers markets to wineries, butchers, orchards and restaurants, the web site is an amazing resource for finding fresh, locally grown food in the US and Canada.
11. Regional Best – Regional Best is an online marketplace for high-quality, locally produced artisan foods from small, independent producers.
Drool Over Food (Then Cook It)
12. foodgawker – The art of food porn (which is completely safe for work) is photographing food in such a way that just looking at the photo makes your mouth water. One of the best places to find great food porn is food gawker.
13. TasteSpotting – The great thing about food porn sites like TasteSpotting is that in addition to making your tummy rumble, they also link to the recipes behind the food photos on the original food blogs, making them also a great way to find new things to cook.
14. Dropfood – Dropfood isn’t as large as foodgawker or TasteSpotting, but the food it showcases is no less mouthwatering. If you’re looking for a site to make you hungry for your next meal, this is a good one.
15. Photograzing – I’ve been inspired to cook many a meal after drooling over the food porn featured at the Photograzing site, which is part of the Serious Eats food blog.
Simple blogging site Tumblr will reveal its July stats later today, along with a claim that it is “taking over the world”.
The site served 255 million pageviews in July, according to directly measured stats by third party analytics firm Quantcast. In August, Tumblr expects to serve 330 million page impressions, and is purchasing 5 new servers to cope with the demand.
Other Tumblr stats are equally impressive:
- 50 million visitors in the last 30 days - 650,000 posts per day (which equals 6 new posts per second) - 5,000 new users every day - 1.5 reblogged posts per second
A direct comparison to rival Posterous is not possible as the latter chooses to hide its traffic, but Compete.com has Tumblr at 2.6 million unique US visitors in June versus Posterous at 650,000.
Tumblr will additionally launch a new feature today: Tumblupon (a play on popular social discovery service StumbleUpon) is a web toolbar that allows users to discover interesting Tumblr posts based on their “likes”. Much the same as Facebook, Tumblr users hit a “heart” next to items they enjoy – this data is now used to power the recommendations in Tumblupon.
Google is in a buying mood again: the company announced this morning that it is set to acquire On2 Technologies, a company that develops video compression technology. The stock-for-stock transaction is valued at $106.5 million.
What’s not yet clear is what synergies Google sees here: the obvious link would be YouTube, Google’s mammoth video sharing service that dominates the space.
CLIFTON PARK, NY and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (August 5, 2009) – On2 Technologies, Inc. (NYSE Amex: ONT) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) jointly announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire On2, a leading developer of video compression technology. Under the terms of the agreement, each outstanding share of On2 common stock will be converted into $0.60 worth of Google class A common stock in a stock-for-stock transaction. The transaction is valued at approximately $106.5 million.
“Today video is an essential part of the web experience, and we believe high-quality video compression technology should be a part of the web platform,” said Sundar Pichai, Vice President, Product Management, Google. “We are committed to innovation in video quality on the web, and we believe that On2’s team and technology will help us further that goal.”
“We’re thrilled that On2 is joining one of the world’s most innovative companies,” said Matt Frost, interim CEO of On2. “After intensive review of On2 products, Google confirmed our long-held beliefs as to the quality of our video technologies. This transaction is a testament to the hard work of every On2 employee and the strongest possible endorsement of our products and people. On2 will continue to improve, support and sell our products throughout the transition. We believe that Google shares our ambitions and know that our products and expertise, combined with Google’s globally recognized brand, ingenuity and resources, will create an incredible team.”
The number of shares of Google class A common stock to be received by On2 stockholders will be determined by dividing $0.60 per share by the volume weighted average trading price of a share of Google class A common stock based on the sales price of every share of Google class A common stock traded during the twenty trading-day period ending on and including the second trading day prior to the date of the meeting of On2’s stockholders to consider and vote on the merger agreement.
$0.60 per share represents a premium of approximately 57% over the closing price of On2’s common stock on the last trading day immediately prior to the announcement of the transaction, and a premium of approximately 62% over the average closing price of On2’s common stock for the six month period immediately prior to the announcement of the transaction.
The transaction, which is subject to On2 stockholder approval, regulatory clearances and other closing conditions, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Potter Anderson & Corroon served as legal counsel to Google, and Credit Suisse provided M&A advisory services to Google. Covington Associates, LLC served as financial advisor to On2 and its board of directors and Duff & Phelps, LLC served as an independent financial advisor to On2’s board of directors, and each of them provided an opinion as to the fairness, from a financial point of view, to the public stockholders of On2 of the exchange ratio in the proposed transaction. Hogan & Hartson LLP and Richards, Layton & Finger served as legal counsel to On2.
About On2 Technologies, Inc. On2 (NYSE Amex: ONT) creates advanced video compression technologies that power the video in today’s leading desktop and mobile applications and devices. On2 customers include Adobe, Skype, Nokia, Infineon, Sun Microsystems, Mediatek, Sony, Brightcove, and Move Networks. On2 Technologies is headquartered in Clifton Park, NY USA. For more information, visit www.on2.com or www.on2.cn.
About Google Inc. Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.
Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This document includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the expected timing of the acquisition, Google’s and On2’s ability to close the acquisition, Google’s ability to integrate On2’s technology and employees, and the expected benefits of the acquisition, including that the acquisition will further Google’s goal to enhance the web experience with video. These statements are based on the current expectations or beliefs of managements of Google Inc. and On2 Technologies, Inc., and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the statements herein due to (1) changes in economic, business, competitive, technological and/or regulatory factors, (2) failure to receive the required stockholder and regulatory approval for the acquisition, (3) failure to compete successfully in this highly competitive and rapidly changing marketplace, (4) failure to retain key employees, and (5) other factors affecting the operation of the respective businesses of Google and On2. More detailed information about these and other factors that may affect current expectations may be found in filings by Google or On2, as applicable, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including their respective most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Google and On2 are under no obligation to, and expressly disclaim any such obligation to, update or alter their respective forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Additional Information and Where to Find It Google plans to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the ‘SEC’) a Registration Statement on Form S-4 in connection with the transaction, which will include a Proxy Statement of On2 that also constitutes a Prospectus of Google. On2 will mail the Proxy Statement/Prospectus to its stockholders in connection with the transaction. The Registration Statement and the Proxy Statement/Prospectus will contain important information about Google, On2, the transaction and related matters. Investors and security holders are urged to read the Registration Statement and the Proxy Statement/Prospectus carefully when they are available. Investors and security holders will be able to obtain free copies of the Registration Statement and the Proxy Statement/Prospectus and other documents filed with the SEC by Google and On2 through the web site maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov and by contacting Google Investor Relations at +1-650-253-7663 or On2 Investor Relations at +1-518-881-4299. In addition, investors and security holders will be able to obtain free copies of the documents filed with the SEC on Google’s website at investor.google.com and on On2’s website at www.on2.com.
Participants in the Solicitation Google, On2 and their respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies in respect of the proposed transaction. Information regarding Google’s executive officers and directors is included in Google’s definitive proxy statement, which was filed with the SEC on March 24, 2009, and information regarding On2’s executive officers and directors is included in On2’s definitive proxy statement, which was filed with the SEC on April 7, 2009. The Proxy Statement / Prospectus for the proposed transaction will provide more information about participants in the solicitation of proxies from On2 stockholders, which participants may have interests different from On2 stockholders generally. You can obtain free copies of these documents from Google or On2 using the contact information above.
Apple’s App Store is quickly getting a reputation for bizarre rejections: famous examples include the Nine Inch Nails application and an eBook reader that allowed users to search for the Kama Sutra. (Both situations were later resolved.)
Today comes news of what might be the strangest App Store rejection yet: a dictionary was rejected twice because it contained swear words. The iPhone App for online dictionary Ninjawords was rejected, claims DaringFireball, for containing the words “sh*t” and “f**k” – you could only find those entries by searching for the exact words though, meaning it’s no more likely to cause offence than the dictionaries available in bookstores. The app’s developer explains:
We were rejected for objectionable content. They provided screenshots of the words 'sh*t' and 'f**k' showing up in our dictionary's search results. What's interesting is that we spent a good deal of time making it so that you must type vulgar words in their entirety, and only then will we show you suggestions in the search results. For instance, if you type 'fuc', you will not see 'f**k' as a suggestion. This is in contrast to all other dictionaries we're aware of on the App Store (including Dictionary.com's application), which will show you 'f**k' in the search results for 'fuc', 'motherf**ker' for 'mother', etc.
After app developer Matchstick Software added filters to remove these words, Apple rejected it a second time for containing the word “c*nt”. Ninjawords is now in the App Store [iTunes link], but carries a 17+ rating despite the fact that its swear words have been removed. Other dictionaries in the App Store do allow you to search for and find swear words, the developers point out.
The incident will further incense those who question the consistency of Apple’s App Store rejection policies. Even the FCC is weighing into the controversy, with letters sent last week to Apple, AT&T and Google over the rejection of the Google Voice app.
If you’re under 25 and use Twitter, you’re not the source of the site’s tremendous growth. While we recently questioned the findings of a largely anecdotal report from Morgan Stanley written by a 15 year old, Nielsen has now produced figures that confirm the trend: young people don’t Tweet.
More precisely, Nielsen has compiled data from its NetRatings panel of 250,000 US Internet users and discovered that there are fewer young people on Twitter than on the Internet as a whole: one quarter of US Internet users are under 25, Nielsen says, but only 16% of Twitter users lie in that age range. While Nielsen is only measuring people who visit Twitter.com (not desktop and mobile clients), the analytics firm additionally claims that over 90% of TweetDeck users are over 25, making it unlikely that there are masses of uncounted young people on third-party Twitter apps.
Perhaps the more interesting questions:why are teens Twitter shy? And what does this mean for Twitter’s future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Do you remember two weeks ago, when Microsoft’s Bing announced that they were going to hold a 
Yesterday we noticed a strange occurrence on Twitter: hundreds, if not thousands of Twitter accounts were sending out spam links, all at once. Most of these accounts weren’t your usual spam accounts, but regular Twitter users with real accounts, followers, and tweets. Then, the flood suddenly stopped. 
News Corporation isn’t 
The Emmy Awards are typically a big night in Hollywood as those in front of the camera and behind-the-scenes are brought together to celebrate the best in show. This year, however, there’s been a slight change that’s being perceived as a very ostentatious slight.
News Corp., which owns FOX, The New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets, hasn’t been doing so well in the last year. The company’s net income was $5.4 billion in the 2008 fiscal year, but the numbers 
Yesterday was ESPN’s day in the social media spotlight. The International cable network traditionally sticks to broadcasting sports-related news 24 hours a day, but yesterday 
Gamers tend to be by nature a sociable group. Though great single-player titles will always be around, those first heady days of Pong versus an opponent ensured video gaming’s place in the pantheon of social activities. Thus as social networks started cropping up to cater to niche interests as diverse as 
We struck a nerve with a lot of people this morning with our article 
Twitter’s different than 
Facebook's 
As you may have seen elsewhere, a shooting last night at a Pittsburgh, PA fitness center killed three people and injured ten. Another chilling aspect of the story, however, is the Internet presence that the suspected shooter, George Sodini, left behind. 
As a Twitter and BlackBerry fanatic, I've been reviewing most of the new Twitter clients for BlackBerry that come out. While TwitterBerry, perhaps because of its obvious name, has long been ubiquitous with Twitter and BlackBerry, 
The Pirate Bay's future remains far from certain following its 
Already 
Last week, we brought you a list of the 
Simple blogging site 
Google is in a buying mood again: the company announced this morning that it is set to acquire 
Apple’s App Store is quickly getting a reputation for bizarre rejections: famous examples include the 
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment