Windows has released the much anticipated Windows Phone 7. This release will be a direct competitor of Google Android. The roll-out of phone models supporting Windows Phone 7 is expected to dilute the sales of Android phones and iPhones in the months to come. The price for a Windows Phone 7 phone will be in the $550 dollar range (without contract).
http://www.techsurf.com/2010/10/15/windows-phone-7-compete-with-google-android/
Sponsored search listings remain Google’s top earner, but the profit levels have been boosted by some seemingly inspirational purchases and a foray into new and emerging markets. Video and mobile advertising along with the Android smartphone operating system have helped push profit levels up.
This update means that a box will be added to Bing search results showing relevant Web links that have been “liked” by your Facebook friends. In addition to this, when you search for a name, Bing will crawl your social network to show people you might know. This partnership would be another innovative step in an effort to try an out-do Google.
Norwalk, CT – (AP Newswire) – In an epic battle of Wahlstrom heavyweights, Colleen Dufresne and Mike Nyberg went blow for blow in a grueling two day playoff match after tying in the first round of play at the hallowed 2010 Wahlstrom Putt-Putt challenge.
Each easily navigated the extremely difficult course in the first round where Susan Tweedy lost by a narrow margin. Tweedy in a dangerous gamble decided to have two bowls of Wheatie’s for breakfast to make sure she had enough energy and stamina to make it through the treacherous course. Unfortunately this gamble didn’t pay off as Tweedy was unable to control her adrenaline and powered the ball past each hole resulting in a couple of costly three putts. Afterwards she was reported to say that she was just going to stick to Raisin Bran from now on, figuring two scoops would be better than two bowls.
In the playoff Dufresne, the fiery youngster and Nyberg, the wily veteran, pulled off magical putts hole after hole after hole, each answering the others challenges. Suly Colindres, tournament coordinator, was forced to end the playoff on the first day after 7 holes for fear that the players might suffer from dehydration and exhaustion. When the playoff commenced on the second day, Dufresne and Nyberg decided to forego the suggested playoff format and make up their own holes, again went at it like the fierce competitors they are, narrowly missing hole in ones and sinking incredibly long putts. Ultimately, wisdom and experience prevailed over feistiness and exuberance as Nyberg pulled out a victory on the deciding hole.
Afterwards, Nyberg told fans and reporters “She (Dufresne) pulled out all the stops today, she left everything out there on the course. It’s too bad we had to run into each other in the first round! If that was the finals, we would have had the whole building out there cheering us on.” Rumors have arisen that Nyberg has retained Tweedy and Dufresne as “consultants” for the remainder of the tournament. This threesome could be quite a formidable force.
YouTube has been testing live video steams on its site, which can be comparable to live TV. The company has tried this in the past on several occasions, but they are now trying to ramp the effort up in a simple way so that accepted users can post/host their own live “web show”. This enhancement is in the early stages, but in the months ahead it can be something that can have the ability to drastically re-shape the YouTube landscape and the way we search and view videos online.
Get ready – the new version of Twitter is rolling out. The enhancement to Twitter’s interface is designed to give a fresh new look that brings sophistication and further intuitiveness. The enhancements include: A new two-panel view with tweets running down the left side, and with a dashboard on the right side where users can see recent activity from followers and the people they follow, trending topics, and the list of people they might want to follow. The roll-out is scheduled to complete within a few weeks.
Within the next month or so Yahoo will be enhancing the way their search results appear. The goal for Yahoo is to show more visual-oriented results, specifically on music, movies and news topics. Instead of simply identifying what is trending on Yahoo, the engine will enhance this by showing a visual slideshow of what is trending.
It appears via comScore that users now spend more time on Facebook than Google. It is estimated that US web users, in total, for the month of August 2010, spent 41.1 million minutes on Facebook, and 39.8 million minutes on all of Google’s web properties (Google.com, Youtube.com, etc). With the growing rate of Facebook users within the US and also internationally, it is likely that the Facebook userbase will hit one billion, which will result in further time spent on Facebook than Google (unless Google can strike back). At Wahlstrom we are currently leveraging the power and innovation of Facebook for some of our clients.
The chairman of the New York Times is hinting that the newspaper will no longer be a physical newspaper in the years to come. However, this doesn’t mean that the New York Times would go out of business – it just means that they will have to find new and relevant ways to reach news readers, and digital seems to be a big direction for that.
Excerpt from article: “As newspaper circulation continues to fall, so do newspaper revenues. All told, losses amount to 27.2% of ad revenue lost year-over-year between 2008 and 2009. More and more consumers are using the web to stay updated about current events; in fact, in a poll earlier this year, only 21.7% of Mashable readers said they got their news from a newspaper.”
This localized Groupon-type service will provide small businesses with the opportunity to garner additional awareness, attract new clients, promote new services, generate immediate revenue, and more. Special deals/discounts/promotions will be offered through this service on a very granular level. Most competing services (Livingsocial.com) target cities or metro areas, whereas Weforia’s goal is to drill down further. For example, as the article indicates: If you receive a special for 50% off any ice cream cone, it may sound tempting, however if the business is 20 miles away the chance of you driving that far for an ice cream cone are slim. Weforia will try to market these “ice cream cone-type” specials to users that are within close proximity.
http://www.nodalbits.com/bits/weforia-yellowbook-group-deals-yp-gamechanger/
