• McCain Camp Winning The Search Wars
  • G1 vs. iPhone
  • Decker's 'Sensible And Straightforward' Yahoogle Defense
    Yahoo, thus far, has been curiously quiet about the search partnership with Google that has drawn so much attention from Washington, the media, and various ad industry groups. Indeed, Google has been all but alone in defending the deal--until now. Maybe Yahoo just does everything slowly, but President Sue Decker finally emerged from her shell over the weekend to make the "sensible and straightforward" and "sorely needed" argument for the Yahoogle deal, as Kara Swisher calls it. Said Decker: "Here's the bottom line: Yahoo will use this agreement to help us become a stronger competitor in all aspects of online …
  • Motorola, Others Ramp Up Android Interest
    Right now for Web developers, there's only one game in town, but Apple's iPhone App Store will soon receive serious competition from Google's Android Market, especially as handset makers ramp up their software development teams, writes TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld. The most significant new announcement comes from Motorola, one of the original partners in the Open Handset Alliance. The handset maker, which already has 50 people on its Android team, is growing that number to 350, according to a source. "That is a huge commitment that shows how big a bet Motorola is making on Android," Schonfeld says. But the source …
  • ComScore: 'The Internet Company Everyone Loves To Hate'
    Fortune's Jesse Hempel calls measurement firm ComScore "the Internet company everyone loves to hate." Earlier this year, ComScore issued a report saying that Google's domestic paid clicks had flattened, causing the Web giant's shares to tumble. The report proved to be "unfounded", however, as Google later announced a 30% rise in profit. As a result, Google shares rose 17% and ComScore shares fell 24%. As Hempel says, "Few people ... wept for ComScore." ComScore and competitor Nielsen Online are supposed to be the Web's measurement authorities. Businesses that want to advertise on the Web buy ComScore data while publishers who …
  • Web Radio's Fate To Be Determined Today
    "Web radio stations live to fight another day," writes Cnet's Greg Sandoval. The House of Representatives last week unanimously passed a bill that was expected to be a close vote, allowing Web radio stations to negotiate lower royalty rates with the music industry than what was mandated by Congress last year. The unanimous nature of vote has kept the National Association of Broadcasters from opposing the bill when it arrives in front of the Senate later today. The so-called Webcaster Settlement Act aims to give Web radio broadcasters the right to negotiate the royalty rates they'll pay the music industry …
  • The Technology Patent Crisis
    Just as the financial markets are collapsing, Read Write Web's Alex Iskold proclaims that we have a technology patent crisis on our hands, calling today's technology intellectual property system "a failure" for being unable to cope with the speed of innovation. "We live in an age of open source ideas," Iskold says, which means that software makers copy, borrow elements from and build on each other's ideas all the time. "At first glance this may seem fine, but there are important consequences that may change the way we innovate," he says, adding: "What happens when a big company copies a …
  • Professional Networks Benefiting From Slowdown
    Few firms benefit with the financial markets in a tailspin, but the Economist points out that professional social networks are actually benefiting from the upheaval. LinkedIn, the market leader with 29 million members, has seen record traffic and growth in the last few weeks, as users update their profiles in case they lose their jobs. Xing, a popular professional social network based in Germany, is seeing similar increases. Both LinkedIn and Xing are profitable enterprises. Their sites cater to the young business professional crowd and allow people to connect, keep track of each other, find jobs, build their business or …
  • Independents Lash Out At MySpace Music
    The Financial Times reports that independent music labels are hitting out at MySpace following the launch of MySpace Music. Most of the content on the revamped site is being supplied by the music industry's big four: EMI, Universal Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music. In an interview with the FT, Charles Caldas, CEO of Merlin, which represents independent labels and 9% of the U.S. digital-recorded music market, expressed disappointment at not being included in the joint venture. "It is incredibly disappointing that MySpace will launch their new service without having finalized a deal with the world's most important independent labels …
  • Google Urges Washington Action On White Spaces
    As we've noted before, Google, Microsoft, Dell, Motorola and others want to use television "white spaces" to provide high-speed wireless service to mobile devices and laptops. These "white spaces" are the unused frequencies between television channels, which are said to be very powerful and can penetrate walls and travel long distances. On Wednesday, Google co-founder Larry Page urged the Federal Communications Commission to give companies unlicensed access to the white spaces prior to November's election. Broadcasters, of course, are opposed to the idea. They think that opening up the TV white spaces for use by mobile devices could interfere with …
« Previous EntriesNext Entries »