• Time Tests Co-Branded Sponsorships
    Time.com is all about co-branded sponsorships with its new and highly experimental "Stay Connected" program, which includes ad placements on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The only social media site Time will be sharing revenue with, however, is YouTube, but it argues that the efforts offer a way for clients to better target highly-connected audiences.
  • Inspiring Yahoo To Be Great Again
    Angel investor Esther Dyson has some advice for Yahoo, which she argues is better positioned to compete that is has been in years. For one, the company should refocus on its roots as a directory company, figuring our how best to filter and structure the Web's excess of information. Yahoo's greatest asset however, is its half-billion registered users, and all of their content and contacts, which can always be better organized and gleaned for new insights.
  • Wikipedia To Color-Code Accuracy
    Here's a feature the entire Web could use: Wikipedia plans to begin color coding every word of its vast encyclopedia based on the reliability of its author and the length of time it has existed on the page. The development is designed to comfort the more than 60 million people who regularly visit the free, open-access encyclopedia, and encourage a wider audience to place faith in its pages. We're a little concerned the site will begin to resemble TV Guide on acid, but there's also a price to pay for reliable information.
  • One Man's Mission To Take Down Google
    The Times takes us inside the mind of Microsoft's Google slayer, Qi Lu -- from humble beginnings in China, living off a $10-a-month teaching salary, to cyber star. Lu was recently appointed president of Microsoft's online services division, and tasked with structuring the complex partnership with his ex-employer Yahoo, which is expected to bring Microsoft closer to its ultimate goal of rivaling Google's search audience.
  • Wal-Mart Takes On Amazon, eBay
    Amazon and eBay have some serious competition now that Wal-Mart is letting outside sellers market products on its Web site. The retailer said Monday that its Web site added nearly 1 million new items on Walmart Marketplace, which is presently categorized by home, baby, apparel, toys and sporting goods/sports memorabilia.
  • Twitter 'Probably' Worth $5 Billion
    Here we go again will the astronomical valuations. This time it's Twitter, which blogger Robert Scoble pegs at "probably" $5 billion to $10 billion. Earlier this year, the micro-blogging service was valued at what was then called a "staggering" $250 million.No, Scoble is not an accredited analyst, and his vision for the Web is arguably (if understandably) quixotic, but his analysis is highly regarded industrywide. Also, the funny thing about so many seemingly exorbitant valuations is how they can look modest in retrospect. Facebook, for instance, was widely thought to have missed the boat after …
  • What's For Lunch At Facebook HQ?
    Quartered black mission figs with delicately rolled Serrano ham. Miniature beef meatballs with pine nuts and sweet yellow peaches. Tender braised rabbit with moscatel, cinnamon, and fresh cherries. Rich chocolate roulade cake shot through with rum. That's just a taste of what they're serving up every day at Facebook's Palo Alto headquarters.
  • Explosives? There's An App For That
    Jam-packed with pioneering design and technology, it's a wonder that anything could stand in the way of iPhone's mobile supremacy. Rumors that the phone can blow your face off, however, might do the trick. Apple, therefore, isn't wasting any time dispelling reports that overheated batteries in the phones can turn them into mobile explosives. Rather, says Apple, the handsets they've seen with broken screens were caused by an "external force."
  • Google Maps Improves The View From The Ground
    Google Maps has made a few changes to its Street View feature, including a new pop-up bubble function. So, for example, if you search for "pizza restaurants near Brooklyn" on Google Maps, and click on a search result, a bubble pops up with various links, including a link to "Street View." Users can also click on the "Street View" link to see the restaurant marked directly in Street View with a 3D marker like the one you would find on the map, while clicking the marker displays more details about the restaurant without leaving Street View.
  • Investors Pool Resources For Skype
    Have any interest in a slightly used peer-to-peer Internet telephony service? It's Oprah's favorite! If not, a new group of venture capital and private equity firms have reportedly joined forces to take Skype off of eBay's hands. Along with a few multi-billion dollar private equity firms, some early Skype investors are apparently involved, including Index Ventures. eBay, which recently announced plans to spin off Scype in 2010 IPO, is said to be looking for at least $2 billion.
« Previous Entries