• Facebook Tests 'Want' Button
    It’s a well-trodden rumor, but Facebook is reportedly testing a new “Want” button plugin, which would mirror its popular “Like” button, but appeal more to the company’s ecommerce ambitions. Developer Tom Waddington from Cut Out + Keep apparently discovered that a Want button has been added to the Facebook Javascript SDK as an XFBML tag -- <fb:wants>. “The button is not publicly listed among the other social plugins on Facebook’s developer site,” Inside Facebook notes. 
  • Gmail Is Conquering The U.S.
    In other Google fun-facts, the sprawling corporation said this week that Gmail now has 425 million users. Boosting those numbers, the Web mail service has been adopted by government agencies in 45 states, along with 66 of the top 100 U.S. universities. From its annual I/O developer conference, this week, Google also announced that over 5 million businesses have now “gone Google.” According to Google, this includes a number of large companies, including Roche, KLM and others. 
  • Google: Chrome's Quite The Cash Cow
    Think Chrome is just another one of Google’s geeky side-projects? Think again. As Chrome head Sundar Pichai tells CNet, the Web (and now mobile) browser has become very lucrative for the search giant. Technically speaking, you could say that search is still Google’s moneymaker. But it’s more nuanced that that, as Chrome’s success shows. For one, “Inlike with searches that come in from Safari or Firefox, Chrome searches are more profitable,” CNet notes. “That's because Google doesn't have to share a portion of search revenue through what's called TAC, or traffic acquisition costs.” 
  • Yahoo, Clear Channel Team With iHeartRadio
    Yahoo and Clear Channel have entered into a distribution and cross-promotional deal. Per the multi-year tie-up, Yahoo will use Clear Channel's iHeartRadio platform as its digital radio service, while the station will promote both companies' content. “In addition, the new joint venture will offer exclusive access to various concert series and other music events, including the two-day iHeartRadio Music Festival in September at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas." 
  • Murdoch Splits Business, Stays In Control
    What does Rupert Murdoch have to say about News Corp.’s imminent split? Quite a bit, in fact, and you read it all in Murdoch’s official “internal” memo explaining the strategy. Not surprisingly, Murdoch isn’t giving up his roles as chairman of either the publishing business, or the entertainment business (or CEO of the entertainment business). So far, “No details on the leadership of the publishing business,” AllThingsD notes. “Inside News Corp., people are keeping a close eye on Murdoch’s son Lachlan, who left the family business in 2005, but may well return.” 
  • Google+ Timeline Adds Past "Moments"
    Doing everything it can think of to become part of peoples’ social lives, Google just added a new feature to Google+, which lets users add past statuses, updates, purchases, pictures, and more to their personal Google+ timeline from a variety of social and mobile services. These objects will be displayed in cute little tiles called “moments,” VentureBeat reports. 
  • Google Rolling Out +1 Recommendations
    Adding a new feature to its +1 content recommendation service, Google’s platform preview channel will now show recommendations for other content on your site. Google+ Platform Preview is where Google launches updates for the platform before they’re launched to the general public. “It could mean good things for Webmasters if that’s the case,” suggests WebProNews. “Recommendations for other content could help drive some pageviews.” Google points to an example in the Chrome Web Store, where a user clicking +1 on the Gmail app might see suggestions for apps like Offline Google Mail, Google Calendar and Picassa. The recommendations will always …
  • Meet Link Tech Startup LinkSmart
    After several quiet years, link technology startup LinkSmart is stepping into the spotlight. Founded by former DailyCandy CEO Pete Sheinbaum back in 2009, the company has a plan to use in-text links to help Web publishers optimize traffic and improve reader engagement. The startup has already raised $4.7 million -- from the Foundry Group and Sutter Hill Ventures -- and has forged relationships with some top (yet still unidentified) publishers. “At DailyCandy, Sheinbaum said, he learned how valuable in-text links could be for driving traffic to certain sections of a Web site and keeping users engaged,” GigOm reports. “But, for …
  • Apple's IPhone Strategy Faces Tough Times
    Just how successful is Apple’s iPhone? Since its debut nearly five years ago, the company that Steve Jobs built has shipped about 250 million iPhones worldwide, which has generated roughly $150 billion in cumulative revenues, according to new estimates from Strategy Analytics. “The figures cover the entire family of iPhone devices -- from the first model released in 2007 through to the most recent iPhone 4S,” notes TechCrunch. However, the next five years are expected to be far more challenging for Apple and its phones, according to Strategy Analytics. Why? “For one, smartphone market growth is slowing. Android competitors like …
  • Video Picker Taboola Gets Another $10M
    Video recommendation startup Taboola has raised a $10 million Series C round led by Marker LLC, along with existing investors Evergreen Venture Partners and WGI Group. Taboola provides a platform that publishers can use to recommend videos on their sites. “It frequently appears as a widget that shows a series of three-to-five thumbnails users can click through to watch videos related to whatever they are currently reading or watching,” TechCrunch points out. “Those videos can come from the publisher’s own site, or can include related content from Taboola’s network of content creators.” So far, the startup has signed up an …
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