Web 2.0

YouTube Deal Suggests Content Counts

It’s well-documented by now that Google has lost money on YouTube since acquiring the popular video site some three years ago. Back in July, Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Reuters that he was pleased with YouTube’s trajectory and believed the site would become profitable in the near future.

Analysts and industry critics were quick to ponder how the search giant could hope to make their acquisition profitable. After all, the cost of streaming so many videos couldn’t possibly be offset by advertising. Or could it? (more…)

PayPal X Makes Online Shopping More Convenient

PayPal announced Wednesday at the PayPal X Innovate 2009 conference in San Francisco, that the company has developed a new global payment platform being dubbed PayPal X.  The new software will provide new APIs, a new developer portal, and some introductory services pricing, designed to help web-developers take advantage of PayPal X to build small businesses by integrating PayPal easily into third-party applications.

Currently, consumers who use PayPal are directed off the current site or application they are on and transferred to PayPal’s actual site.  But the developers want to engage customers directly within third-party applications so users won’t be transferred to PayPal’s site.  Consumers who do not have a PayPal will be able to sign up for PayPal within the third-party application and begin making PayPal payments immediately from the third-party application. (more…)

Social Media & Breaking News

Social media sites have become an important tool for breaking news, many times breaking a story before the mainstream media picks it up.  Sites such as Twitter have also been important communication tools for those affected by the events as they unfold.

Yesterday, news about a shooting in Fort Hood, Texas, shocked the country and almost instantly became a trending topic on Twitter.  The massacre, which killed 12 and left 31 wounded, sparked interest and supporters from around the world — many of whom ended up  leaving comments on the Army’s social media sites.  The Facebook group “Prayers for Fort Hood” was started soon after word spread, and currently it has just more than 20,000 supporters.   The U.S. Army‘s Facebook page was also flooded with support and prayers from people around the world. As one person wrote, “My prayers go out to the family and friends of the fallen heroes. It’s time we remember to pray for all our soldiers regardless of where they are.”  (more…)

New Google Chrome Makes Bookmarking Easier

If you are like many, you have multiple of computers, one at work, a desktop at home, and possibly another personal laptop.  Although you may use each computer for a different purpose, sometimes trying to get an item or a saved bookmark from one computer to another computer can be quite a hassle.   Now with the latest version of the Google Chrome, Google’s beta web browser, you’ll be able to get all your bookmarks from one computer to another, with just a click of a mouse.

On Monday, Google announced and released the latest version of Google Chrome.  Here’s how it works.  First you’ll need to sign up with a Google Account, which is free, and download the browser.  Once you have Google Chrome on all your computers and have signed in, you’ll need to sync all your computers together, which takes just a few seconds by just logging in.  After that when you save a bookmark on one computer, it will automatically appear on your other synced computers along with your other bookmarks. And you are done.  (more…)

Online Retailers Expected To Have Best Holiday Season

Forrester Research came out with a survey Monday, which said that online retailers will see an 8% increase in sales since last year while stationary retailers are expected to show no increase.  And with online advertising through the  use of social media, this is no surprise, since the world is trying to break out of the global economic crisis. 

The National Retail Federation has unfortunately forecasted a 1% decline in overall U.S. holiday sales this year. The Forrester survey which had polled more than 4,000 U.S. online consumers found that 94% of those who have shopped online within the past three months plan to shop online this holiday season. (more…)

Skype Founders vs. eBay Lawsuit May End Soon

eBay is being sued by the founders of the free online phone service, Skype for copyright infringement and claim damages are growing at a rate of at least $75 million a day.  Earlier this year, eBay announced they were looking to sell Skype, after they had purchased it in 2005 from founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom for over $2.6 billion. 

Although the site was sold to eBay, Friis & Zennstrom, who have since started Joltid, still own the source code and the actual rights to the software of Skype.  The two are accusing eBay of sharing the software’s code to third parties, interested in Skype, who have copied and altered it without permission. 

According to a New York Times article, the founders have shown interested and have tried raising money to purchase the service back.  However, eBay has since made a deal to sell 65% of Skype to Silver Lake, a private equity firm in Canada, while holding onto the remaining 35%. 

eBay said in a statemtent that Friis & Zennstrom’s “allegations and claims are without merit and are founded on fundamental legal and factual errors.”

Om Malik, reporter for Gigaom.com reported Sunday that the case may be coming to an end according to inside sources.  “The ongoing legal scuffle between Skype, a division of eBay, and its founders, Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, may soon see a resolution, according to someone familiar with the situation. The parties are in discussions to resolve the various issues. The talks are described to be at a sensitive stage and can break down without any conclusion. If the founders and the company can come to an agreement, Skype will be able continue to use JoltID’s technology to power Skype and not disrupt the service that is currently used by hundreds of millions consumers.”

New Google Check Out Feature Debuts

Google Checkout has rolled out a new “Promotional Checkout” option, which will allow online US merchants to offer checkout promotions at anytime.  Effective as of late last week, users can sign into their into Checkout accounts, click on the ‘Tools’ tab where they’ll be able to use the Promotions link to create a promotion while checking out.  Google states the entire process takes less than a minute. 

Sellers will be able to choose a specific date and time, that they’d like the offer to run, and choose from a wide selection of discounts they want to offer potential buyers.  When it’s time for the promotion to go live, Google will immediately change the standard checkout icon, to display the discount amount, along with a cart minimum. 

(more…)

The Internet Is Officallly Over The Hill

It seems crazy to think of the world without the Internet.  It is very much a huge part of our lives.  For example, when we lose our Internet connections at home, we feel frustrated and lost as if there is nothing left to do or live for and feel so disconnected from the rest of the world.  Prior to October 29, 1969 there was no such thing.  Communicating meant writing a letter and putting on a stamp to ship it off.  Wanting to know more about a certain topic meant opening up a book called the Encyclopedia.  Earlier that year on July 20, Niel Armstrong was the first person ever to step foot on the moon, and the world felt so advanced.  Fast foward 40 years later, and astronauts now Twitter to everyone back on Earth.   

The Internet has come a long way since 1969.  It was Leonard Kleinrock, a UCLA computer science professor who wanted to send a message from the school’s host computer to another computer at the near by Stanford Reserach Institute.  During the process of trying to start up a remote time-sharing system, Kleinrock started to type “login,” and got the first two letters in before the system crashed, however the message “lo” was sent, which was the true birth of the Internet. (more…)

Microsoft’s Bing.com Teams Up With Twitter

Qi Lu, Microsoft’s Online Services President, announced at the Web 2.0 Summit today, that Microsoft’s new engine, Bing, has stuck a non-exclusive deal with Twitter.  The deal is an important one because it will be the first search engine to bring in real-time updates.  It is also important because there have been reports that Google, Bing’s biggest competitor, has been in talks with the social networking site, and hasn’t been able to come up with a contract.  Many Internet users are saying that this is a “big-blow” for Google.

Twitter updates have been available for search on Bing for quite awhile now, but today will be the first time, Bing users will be able search keywords and watch real-time tweets from Bing’s website.  Lu also said that this will open up many opportunities for future business deals among business’s world wide.    (more…)

Twitter’s Growth Slowing But Not For Long

Evan Williams, one of the co-founders of Twitter, was one of highlighted opening sessions at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Fransisco, Tuesday.  And Williams, revealed that he believes Twitter’s future will be bright with some of the new changes coming to the site.  

John Battelle, from Federated Media Publishing, hosted the chat and tried to get Williams to spill Twitter’s marketing revenue model to see if the site would eventually turn into a revenue-churning business.  Although Williams wouldn’t really answer the question, he did go onto say, “It’s not like we are spending our days looking under couch cushions for the elusive revenue model. Obviously, we are thinking about it.” (more…)