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Author Topic:   Google
NEWSFLASH
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posted October 16, 2007 09:26 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Google Unveils Bid To Halt Video Piracy
Google Inc. unveiled new tactics to help fight video piracy on its popular YouTube Web site and ease the concerns of critical media content providers. The early reviewers applaud the Internet giant for finally moving forward on the piracy issue but say the new system -- which Google developed itself -- still needs further refining. In what may be Google's biggest challenge, it only just Monday began reaching out to entertainment providers for the material it needs to make it effective. Google began offering what it's calling "YouTube Video Identification," which will make it easier for the likes of Viacom Inc. to identify their content and to manage how it is made available on the site. Before Monday, YouTube only had automated means, licensed from a third-party provider, to identify audio material contained in the videos that may infringe copyrights. The latest advance, which Google developed itself, is meant to identify potentially infringing video content. Google said nine media firms, including Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner Inc., participated in a test of the product. Several other media firms, including Viacom, also said they were encouraged by the new effort, but said Google and YouTube have some amount of goodwill to make up to copyright owners. "We're delighted that Google appears to be stepping up to its responsibility and ending the practice of profiting from infringement," said Mike Fricklas, general counsel of Viacom. Several media companies, primarily Viacom and NBC Universal, were growing annoyed at what they said was intentional delays for Google and YouTube to come up with a technology solution to piracy. Patrick Ross, executive director of the Copyright Alliance, a trade group of media companies and other copyright holders, described what YouTube's doing as "a first step." "In this digital age, it's very important that when businesses make money off of other people's content, they make an effort to police that content," he said. Mr. Ross said one concern was whether Google would offer its anti-piracy technology only to content owners who signed licensing deals favorable to YouTube, putting small copyright holders at a disadvantage. Google said this technology is open to anybody, regardless of what their business relationship is with the site. YouTube's announcement Monday may have been designed to pre-empt a planned announcement from several media and technology companies for a set of principles for user-generated content Web sites. The principles, according to people familiar with the matter, included a recognition of the importance of technology to keep pirated material off sites like YouTube. Meanwhile, there's no immediate signs Monday of any let-up in the $1 billion copyright-infringement class-action lawsuit that Viacom filed against YouTube, according to a review of court records. Rather than moving toward a settlement, both sides appear to be steaming ahead with the litigation.

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NEWSFLASH
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posted November 02, 2007 09:43 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Google may have just come out of nowhere and checkmated Facebook in the social networking power struggle.

MySpace and Six Apart will announce that they are joining Google’s OpenSocial initiative. Silicon Alley Insider reported the MySpace rumor earlier today. We’ve confirmed that from an independent source, as well as the fact that Six Apart is joining. Per the update below, Google has also confirmed Bebo is joining.

Google will be making an announcement today. MySpace and Six Apart join Orkut, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo, Friendster, Viadeo and Oracle as announced Google partners. No word on whether MySpace will continue with efforts to complete its own recently announced platform, but the answer is probably yes. They are likely to simply do both (Update: see below).

Suddenly, within just the last couple of days, the entire social networking world has announced that they are ganging up to take on Facebook, and Google is their Quarterback in the big game.

Update (12:30 PST): On a press call with Google now. This was embargoed for 5:30 pm PST but they’ve moved the time up to 12:30 PST (now). Press release will go out later this evening. My notes:

On the call, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said “we’ve been working with MySpace for more than a year in secret on this” (likely corresponding to their advertising deal announced a year ago).

MySpace says their new platform efforts will be entirely focused on OpenSocial.

The press release names Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING as current OpenSocial partners.

We’re seeing a Flixster application on MySpace now through the OpenSocial APIs. Flixster says it took them less than a day to create this. I’ll add screen shots below.

Here’s the big question - Will Facebook now be forced to join OpenSocial? Google says they are talking to “everyone.” This is a major strategic decision for Facebook, and they may have little choice but to join this coalition.

Bebo has also joined OpenSocial.

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NEWSFLASH
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posted November 12, 2007 01:15 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Google To Offer Original Entertainment Programming

Google has been talking with British entertainment mogul Simon Fuller about creating original content for the Internet that could compete with that offered by major broadcasters, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported today (Monday). Fuller is responsible for creating The Spice Girls and American Idol. Although details remain secret, the newspaper, citing sources close to Fuller, said that the enterprise could "revolutionize the way entertainment and music are distributed." It did not indicate whether the project would be launched as a separate unit of Google or as part of its YouTube division.

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fred
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posted December 08, 2007 08:32 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for fred   Click Here to Email fred     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Google co-founder set for star-studded wedding on Branson's Necker Island

Google co-founder Larry Page is expected to marry his girlfriend this weekend on Sir Richard Branson's Necker Island.


Sources say Page - who is estimated to be worth around $20 billion - will tie the knot with Lucy Southworth on Saturday.

The couple will hold the ceremony on an island enclave owned by Richard Branson, the billionaire owner of Virgin Group, who will act as best man to Larry, the source said.

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More than 600 guests are expected to attend the Caribbean nuptials.

Among those attending are thought to be U2 frontman Bono, Bill and Hillary Clinton and a host of fellow computing and technology billionaires.

They are being flown in on private jets and will stay on the neighbouring island of Virgin Gorda, according to US reports.


An insider said: "They rented all of Virgin Gorda. They took over the island.

"Boats and ferries for hundreds of guests were ordered to ship them from Little Dix Bay to the ceremony."

Page, 34, and girlfriend Southworth, 27, a biomedical informatics doctoral student at Stanford University, have been dating for over a year.

No one except Page's guests is staying at Little Dix Bay Resort on Virgin Gorda "so that Page's wedding could be completely private," said an insider.

Another source said that Page is also providing private planes to fly in guests from around the globe.

"Planes are leaving from all over," said the insider.

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"One plane will leave from New York on Friday." Page and his Google internet search engine co-founder Sergey Brin, who met at Stanford University, were each worth just $4 billion in 2004, before they took the company public.

Shares have rocketed up 510 percent since then.

Last May, the Russian-born Brin married Anne Wojcick in the Bahamas.

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Page and Brin recently bought a pre-owned Qantas Boeing 767 airliner for their business and personal needs.

Page is also an investor in Tesla Motors, which developed the Tesla Roadster, a 250-mile-range battery electric vehicle.

Google spokesman Matt Furman had no comment.

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fred
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posted December 13, 2007 08:44 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for fred   Click Here to Email fred     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Google's Zeitgeist: The Hottest Cultural List Around
By Jim GoldmanSilicon Valley Bureau Chief
cnbc.com
| 13 Dec 2007 | 03:07 AM ET
Talk to Marissa Mayer, Google's 20th employee and the company's first female engineer and she'll tell you "Zeitgeist," by definition, is "the spirit of the times. And it really tries to capture the moral, ethical and the popular cultures of the day."

As Google's vice president of search and user experience, she ought to know. She presides over what might be described as the ultimate popularity contest, the Google Zeitgeist, a comprehensive, cultural cross-section of what's hot, and what's not, based on what people search for through the course of 2007.

This year's list, released today, details some surprising results. Quick, name the most popular presidential candidate based on who users were searching for: Hillary Clinton? Rudy Guiliani? Nope. The outspoken, quirky Ron Paul beat out all other candidates.

Mayer tells me, in our exclusive interview, that, "Ron Paul had a huge up-swell in terms of online interest. He had the largest fundraising day online ever. I think people are wondering who he is and what he stands for and it gives them interest in searching for him." Of course, his results are probably helped by the fact that conventional media tends to dwell only on the front-runners, spurring voters to search for information on their own. And that's where Google comes in.


Some results make sense: Apple's iPhone was the fastest-rising search term, beating out Webkinz, TMZ, Transformers, and YouTube in the top 5. But consider that iPhone didn't exist the year prior and now it does.

The biggest surprise might be found in the macabre "most searched deaths" category. Sure, Anna Nicole Smith topped that category, followed by Travis Barker, Vince McMahon, Chris Benoit, Fidel Castro, Michael Jackson, Ryan Sheckler, Bob Barker, Criss Angel and Bob Marley. But here's the thing: Only Anna Nicole, Chris Benoit and Bob Marley are actually dead!

There's also a bit of a surprise in the entertainment category. We all know Disney's Hannah Montana is popular, but more popular than the Rolling Stones? "Hannah Montana is actually more popular than Bruce Springsteen and other major rock stars, so that's interesting to see," says Mayer.

She walked me through some graphs and charts and showed me why the Zeitgeist is more than merely interesting. It can be a key tool for businesses, tracking trends in the marketplace: " Xbox has led the way most of the year, but the Wii is really taking off as we come into this holiday season. As we look out to the video console sales, we will ultimately see the Wii will win this holiday season," says Mayer.

Same goes with the big, bruising battle between next-generation DVD formats: "Blu-ray is popular. We had some peaks where they move together, but ultimately, HD DVD is really where there is a lot more interest," she says.


Some of the search items show just how much users rely on Google for so many different parts of their lives. In the "top of mind" category, the most popular question was, "What is love?"

"It is amazing what some people typed in the search box," says Mayer. "Our search quality team always talked about the fact that the one thing 'search' can't tell you is, 'What is love?' That is one of our big search challenges. To produce a search result page that really tells you what love is."

In the "how to" category, "how to kiss" was number 1. And in the "who is" category? "Who is God?" Deep questions and lots of pressure on Mayer and her team not just to supply results, but to, in some way, make them relevant.

The Zeitgeist, of course, focuses on what has already happened, looking back on 2007. But if past can be prologue, some of these trends can portend what will be important in 2008. Mayer won't offer predictions, but "I'm hoping for iPhone 3G," she laughs. That, and "I really hope we will have as much innovation in the 2008 if not more."

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indiedan
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posted December 14, 2007 07:53 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for indiedan   Click Here to Email indiedan     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Google working on ad-based Web encyclopedia
Internet giant's "knol" poses potential challenge to nonprofit Wikipedia
By Michael Liedtke
The Associated Press
updated 3:42 p.m. PT, Fri., Dec. 14, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. is working on a new Internet encyclopedia that will consist of material submitted by people who want to be identified as experts and possibly profit from their knowledge.

The concept, outlined late Thursday in a posting on Google's Web site, poses a potential challenge to the nonprofit Wikipedia, which has drawn upon the collective wisdom of unpaid, anonymous contributors to emerge as a widely used reference tool.

Google is calling its alternative "knol" — the Mountain View-based company's shorthand for a "unit of knowledge."

For now, submissions are by invitation only as Google fine tunes the system, but the Internet search leader said it will eventually publish articles by all comers.

"There are millions of people who possess useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who can benefit from it," Ubi Manber, Google's vice president of engineering, wrote in the company's posting about the new service. "We believe that many do not share that knowledge today simply because it is not easy enough to do that."

Since it was founded on the same knowledge-sharing premise six years ago, Wikipedia has compiled 2.1 million English-language articles as well as millions more in dozens of other languages. The topics cover everything from Albert Einstein's theory of relativity to video games like "Beavis and Butt-head in Virtual Stupidity."

Wikipedia attracted 56.1 million U.S. visitors in October, making it the eighth most popular Web site, according to comScore Media Metrix. Google's properties, which include video-sharing site YouTube, drew 131.6 million U.S. visitors, second only to Yahoo Inc.

In a Friday interview, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales downplayed Google's latest move. "Google does a lot of cool stuff, but a lot of that cool stuff doesn't work out so great," he said.

Google's flops include a service that used to hire researchers to track down hard-to-find answers for befuddled Web surfers. The feature never took off in its 4-year existence, prompting Google to pull the plug last year.

While Google tinkers with its encyclopedia, Wales already is poised to invade Google's turf with a Wikia search engine scheduled to debut later this month. The search engine will be operated by Wikia Inc., Wales' for-profit venture.

The Googlepedia, as some observers are already calling the new offering, will differ from Wikipedia by identifying who wrote each article and striving to reward the authors by giving them a chance to make money from Google's lucrative advertising network.

Critics say Wikipedia's cloak of anonymity has made its articles more vulnerable to mischief and other abuses that have led to inaccuracies.

Citizendium, an Internet encyclopedia launched earlier this year, also insists on identifying the writers of its articles. But, unlike Google, Citizendium relies on a collaborative editing process to verify the accuracy of its articles.

"Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content," Manber wrote. "All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors."

Google is hoping to keep the contributors honest by allowing visitors to rate the entries and leave comments.

That won't be enough, predicted Larry Sanger, Citizendium's editor-in-chief who also helped start Wikipedia.

"Knol is apt to produce precisely the same sort of uneven content, with many of the same abuses, that Wikipedia has," Sanger wrote in a posting on Citizendium's site. "Without actual editors, the same sort of problems about misleading and damaging information are apt to plague knol."

Google, which is expected to earn more than $4 billion this year, also wants to make money off its encyclopedia. Although the resource will be available for free just like Google's search engine, the company wants to place ads related to the topics covered on each page.

The advertising is an option being left up to the person submitting an article. Google is trying to persuade the writers to participate by guaranteeing they will receive a "substantial" share of the revenue.

The profit incentive could turn Google's encyclopedia into a magnet for articles about highly commercial subjects instead of more academic topics, Wales predicted. "You may see an awful lot of articles about Viagra."

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fred
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posted January 23, 2008 11:05 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for fred   Click Here to Email fred     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Google (GOOG) depressed by scary Apple forecast
Posted Jan 23rd 2008 1:33PM by Brent Archer
Filed under: Major movement, Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), Options, Technology

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) stock is trading lower this morning after Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) forecast a second-quarter profit well below analysts' expectations. AAPL is now expecting a second-quarter profit of 94 cents per share, below Wall Street's expectation of $1.09 per share. The forecast worried investors, who sent AAPL's stock price way down. Along with AAPL, other tech stocks were down on fears that consumer spending will continue to decrease as the economy weakens. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on GOOG.

After hitting a one-year low of $437.00 in March, the stock hit a one-year high of $747.24 in November. This morning, GOOG opened at $560.57. So far today the stock has hit a low of $555.56 and a high of $568.00. As of 11:05, GOOG is trading at $558.14, down $26.21 (-4.5%). The chart for GOOG looks bearish and steady, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a February bear-call credit spread above the $670 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. This particular trade will make a 5.3% return in just 4 weeks as long as GOOG is below $670 at February expiration. Google would have to rise by more than 21% before we would start to lose money.

GOOG has been above $670 as recently as late December, but has shown resistance around $650 recently. This trade could be risky if the company's earnings (due out 1/31) are a positive surprise or if Apple was just sandbagging, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by resistance GOOG might find just above $650 where it paused for a while earlier this month on its downward plunge.

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fred
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posted January 23, 2008 03:14 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for fred   Click Here to Email fred     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
http://valleywag.com/348126/larry-and-sergey-lost-10-billion-in-less-than-a-month

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fred
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posted January 31, 2008 09:26 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for fred   Click Here to Email fred     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Google's earnings today... GO GOOGLE!
http://www.cnbc.com/id/22917663

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fred
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posted February 01, 2008 05:33 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for fred   Click Here to Email fred     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Social network sites slow Google
By Richard Waters in San Francisco

Published: January 31 2008 23:14 | Last updated: January 31 2008 23:14

Google on Thursday blamed the difficulty of making money from placing adverts on social networking sites for holding back its growth in the latest quarter, contributing to a 9 per cent slump in its shares in after-hours trading.

The search company also reported an unexpectedly sharp slowdown in the number of “clicks” people make on its online adverts, contributing to the nervousness on Wall Street about underlying demand for its core advertising services.

The latest share price decline left Google’s shares down 25 per cent for the first month of the year and mirrored similar declines in other internet stocks in recent days as investors have grown concerned about the effects of growing competition and changing consumer behaviour on the internet.

“We have found that social networks are not monetising as well as we were expecting,” said George Reyes, chief financial officer, as Google reported its earnings for the final quarter of last year.

Since Google has guaranteed to make minimum payments to a number of social networks that carry its advertising, principally MySpace, the slow growth of the business had left the company out of pocket and contributed to falling profit margins in the quarter, he added.

Sergey Brin, co-founder, said a number of initiatives in the final months of last year to boost social networking advertising had failed, but that he remained confident that Google would find ways to build a successful business around the growing traffic on these sites.

Other Google executives said that the difficulties arose from creating an appropriate “look and feel” for adverts, so that they matched the content on social networks.

At the same time, Google reported a 30 per cent increase in “paid clicks” in the final quarter of last year, a marked slowdown from the 45 per cent growth of a year before.

Google’s revenues, excluding the traffic acquisition costs it pays to other websites that carry its adverts, rose by 52 per cent in the latest quarter to $3.39bn, slower than the 55 per cent growth analysts had expected. Net income rose 17 per cent to $1.2bn, or $3.79 a share, or $4.43 a share excluding stock option expenses, roughly in line with Wall Street estimates.

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fred
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posted February 03, 2008 08:37 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for fred   Click Here to Email fred     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Yahoo may consider Google alliance, source says By Eric Auchard
Sun Feb 3, 6:33 PM ET


Yahoo Inc would consider a business alliance with Google Inc as one way to rebuff a $44.6 billion takeover proposal by Microsoft, a source familiar with Yahoo's strategy said on Sunday.

Yahoo management is considering revisiting talks it held with Google several months ago on an alliance as an alternative to Microsoft's bid, which, at $31 a share, Yahoo management believes undervalues the company, the source said.

A second source close to Yahoo said it had received a procession of preliminary contacts by media, technology, telephone and financial companies. But the source said they were unaware whether any alternative bid was in the offing.

Few natural bidders exist beside Google that could engage in a bidding war, and Google would be unlikely to win approval from antitrust regulators, some Wall Street analysts said on Friday.

Yahoo's efforts to find an alternative bidder could simply be a measure to pressure Microsoft to boost its bid, which valued Yahoo at $44.6 billion when first announced on Friday.

Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay wrote in a research note that "the Microsoft bid of $31 is very astute" because it puts pressure on Yahoo management to take actions that could unlock the underlying value of Yahoo assets, which he estimates are worth upward of $39-$45 a share.

Separately, Google Inc fired back on Sunday at Microsoft Corp's bid to acquire Yahoo Inc, accusing Microsoft of seeking to extend its computer software monopoly deeper into the Internet realm.

David Drummond, a Google senior vice president and its chief legal officer, said in a blog post that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo could undermine competition on the Web and called on policy makers to challenge the combination.

Microsoft responded to Google's arguments by saying that a merger with Yahoo would create a "compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising" to market leader Google.

"The alternative scenarios only lead to less competition on the Internet," Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said in a statement.

Drummond argued that Microsoft's power stems from decades- old monopolies in Windows -- the software operating system used to control most personal computers -- and Internet Explorer, which is the dominant browser consumers used to view the Web.

Microsoft's proposed merger with Yahoo would combine the No. 1 and No. 2 suppliers of Web-based e-mail, instant messaging (IM) and portals, which act as starting points for hundreds of millions of users seeking information on the Web.

The Google executive argued in an official blog post that Microsoft could be looking to favor Microsoft and Yahoo services by pushing customers to other Web services they own instead of letting customers elect to use rival services.

"Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' email, IM, and Web-based services?" Drummond said in a blog at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/.

In making its case for the deal during a conference call on Friday, Microsoft executives said Google -- not Microsoft -- was the one company antitrust regulators were likely to bar from buying Yahoo, based on Google's dominance in Web search.

Microsoft executives cited industry data showing Google has a 75 percent share of worldwide Web search revenue. Collectively, Yahoo and Microsoft attract around 20 percent of Web searches, Internet measurement firms show.

"Today, Google is the dominant search engine and advertising company on the Web," Smith said in replying to Google on Sunday. "Google has amassed about 75 percent of paid search revenues worldwide and its share continues to grow."

A person familiar with Google's thinking said the company believes Microsoft is using the same playbook it did in the 1990s to switch Windows users away from Web browser pioneer Netscape Communications to its own Internet Explorer.

"It is the same old story," the source said.

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NEWSFLASH
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posted April 02, 2008 05:08 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
http://www.webupon.com/Search-Engines/Five-Things-You-Didnt-Know-Google-Could-Do.103236

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fred
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posted April 17, 2008 05:09 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for fred   Click Here to Email fred     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
go Google go... up $76 bucks after hours trading.

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HollywoodProducer
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posted May 12, 2008 05:28 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for HollywoodProducer   Click Here to Email HollywoodProducer     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Google Joins Effort To Make More Web Sites More Sociable
The effort to make it easier for Web surfers to connect with their friends is attracting a crowd. Following similar moves by the two biggest online hangouts, Internet search leader Google introducing tools that are supposed to make any Web site more sociable. The service, expected to be available on a limited basis Monday evening, provides a framework that will enable people to interact with their friends and use favorite applications they have accumulated on social networks like Facebook and Plaxo even when they aren't visiting those sites. Google's initiative, called "Friend Connect," follows pledges by MySpace and Facebook last week to allow their users to transport their personal profiles and applications to other Web sites. News Corp.'s MySpace and privately held Facebook - the Internet's two largest social hubs - announced their plans for wider accessibility late last week. News Corp. is also the parent company of Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of this newswire. "Social is in the air," said David Glazer, a director of engineering for Google. Only about two dozen Web sites initially will have access to Google's Friend Connect code to start. The trial run includes a site devoted to musician Ingrid Michaelson and another site providing recipes for guacamole. The coding is expected to become widely available during the next few months. Without providing specifics, MySpace and Facebook have said it will be several more weeks before their users can transplant their personal information to other Web sites. Google hopes its latest social tools will encourage people to spend even more time online, giving the company more opportunities to show the advertising that generates most of its profits. (dow jones)

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indiedan
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posted June 24, 2008 08:43 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for indiedan   Click Here to Email indiedan     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Google to offer audience measures for advertisers
Google will offer advertisers a free media planning tool to help them locate target audiences on the Web, a company spokesman said on Monday, posing a challenge to existing Web measurement firms. The leader in Web search and related advertising is making available Web measurement tools to advertisers and their agencies, based on the belief the more data ad customers have about their audiences, the more they are likely to spend. The spokesman said audience measurement features are an outgrowth of Google's efforts to provide better media planning tools. He declined to provide further details on the plans, which will be announced in a company blog post on Tuesday. The company was confirming details first reported by the Wall Street Journal about Google's plans to compete with established providers of Web audience measurement tools such as comScore and Nielsen Media. ComScore shares fell $1.69, or 6.1 percent, to $26 in extended trading following news of Google's planned media measurement service. Nielsen Media is a unit of Nielsen Co, which is owned by a collection of top private equity firms. These Web measurement firms have roots in conventional media or retail audience tracking technologies. They have relied on selective surveys or customer panels to estimate Internet behavior. Their statistical approaches have faced criticism among advertisers and publishers over how comprehensive their data is. By contrast, Google's audience measurements would come from a fuller set of data collected directly from Web servers. Web publishers would have access to the media planning tool, but are not the intended customer, the Google spokesman said. (Reuters)

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