• WSJ: Demand Media Lies, Never Profitable
    Over the past couple of years, Demand Media founder and CEO Richard Rosenblatt has repeatedly told members of the press that the company was profitable. After digging through the company's IPO filing, however, The Wall Street Journal reveals that Demand was "deep in the red," last year. "In fact, Demand Media ... has never been profitable since its inception, according to the filing." In 2009, its loss was $22 million, wider than a $14.2 million loss a year earlier, reports The Journal's Digits blog. In the first six months of this year, meanwhile, the loss was $6.1 million, and …
  • Gartner: Smartphones Nearly 20% Of All Phones Sold
    Smartphone sales rose by a half over the last three months, according to market analysts Gartner. As a result, the Web-friendly devices now make up nearly 20% of all phones sold. "Of the 326 million handsets that Gartner reckons were sold in the last three months, 19 percent fall into the smartphone category, with Symbian's share of that category now down to 41 per cent and Android taking up the slack," The Register notes. "People around the world are snapping up mobile gadgets at a good clip -- sales shot up 13.8 percent …
  • How Yahoo Lost Its Mojo
    Paul Graham -- onetime Yahoo employee and the founder of tech incubator Y Combinator -- wants to know: "What happened to Yahoo?" Specifically, he's referring to the portal's decline over the past decade. His theory? Too much money to invest in half-baked ideas, and the absence of a thriving hacker culture. By the time Graham joined the company in 1998, "The company felt prematurely old," he said. "Most technology companies eventually get taken over by suits and middle managers. At Yahoo it felt as if they'd deliberately accelerated this process. They didn't want to be a bunch of hackers. …
  • Can Google Succeed In Social?
    MIT's Technology Review is asking the billion-dollar question: Can Google execute a competitive social media strategy? Along with recent social gaming acquisitions, "Google already owns several products that encourage online social interaction -- including YouTube, Google Talk, Google Reader, and Blogger," the journal notes. "But it has struggled to deliver a successful dedicated social networking service." Consultant Jared Spool says of Google's social efforts to date: "It was always the technology and the engineering that drove it -- the experience was sort-of layered on afterward." Spool adds that other failed social offerings from Google, such as Lively, its foray …
  • How Do Black People Use Twitter?
    Ever wonder how black people use Twitter? Slate's got you covered. For one, black people are apparently prone to appending hashtags to categorize their messages, which makes it easier to search for posts on a certain topic, and can sometimes lead to worldwide "call-and-response" conversations in which they compete to outdo each other. Appending hashtags to particular topics isn't exclusively a black pastime, but there are a growing number of black-centric memes -- which Slate calls a "blacktag" -- circulating via Twitter. "The prevalence of these tags has long puzzled nonblack observers and sparked lots of sometimes uncomfortable questions …
  • Google TV Deal Gets Good Reception
    Cable TV, meet Google. Further expanding its horizons, the search giant just entered into an ad partnership with DirecTV, which will let it sell ads on some cable networks carried on the top satellite TV provider. Per the deal, Google should be able to sell ads -- including during prime time -- on channels including Fox Business, Bloomberg, Fuel and TV Guide. "The partnership comes as Google continues to look at diversifying the media through which it sells ads," reports The Wall Street Journal. "The Internet search giant sells ads online, but it has also tried …
  • Report: Facebook 'Check-In' Ready For Takeoff
    Facebook is finally ready to launch it geo-location "check-in" feature, sources tell CNet. "It's going to take the form of an application programming interface (API) for third-party companies on the Facebook developer platform, integrating existing 'check-in' start-ups more deeply into the massive social-networking service and in turn permitting location-aware data to become a part of existing platform applications," CNet reports. One source tells CNet that Facebook offered to acquire Foursquare for $120 million, but Foursquare wanted about 25% more, which eventually killed negotiations. According to a Facebook spokesman, "We are working on location features and product integrations, which we'll …
  • Is Facebook Friending AOL?
    Facebook and AOL are quietly discussing a strategic partnership to boost "their online ad businesses," The New York Post has learned. Discussions have been ongoing for several months over a deal, which "would allow Facebook to tap AOL's mojo in selling online ads," The Post reports, citing three separate sources. Apparently, Facebook chief exec Mark Zuckerberg and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong have been leading the talks, mano-a-mano. "Think of Tim Armstrong's former role running ad sales for Google and think of where Facebook needs help," one source tells The Post. Also, for Facebook, "AOL brings a lot of content," …
  • Report: Twitter Tendering Own 'Re-Tweeter'
    Sorry, all you industrious widget makers. Twitter is launching an official Tweet Button for sharing articles on Web sites and counting how many times a URL has been shared, Mashable has learned. The Tweet Button could launch as soon as this Thursday, according to documents obtained by the tech blog. "From what we can tell, the Tweet Button is designed to be the most comprehensive counter of retweets and shares across Twitter's network," Mashable writes. "It is a single line of code that can be added to any Web site. There are three versions of the button (110×20, 55×20, …
  • Gmail Gets New Look, Features
    There's never a dull moment for Google's Gmail team, which just debuted a new interface, along with a major upgrade to the Gmail Contacts application. "The updated Gmail interface now features three separate links for Mail, Contacts and Tasks at the top of the left sidebar, while the 'compose mail' and 'add contact' buttons have moved underneath these links," reports ReadWriteWeb. Meanwhile, "The Gmail Contacts application, which is the focal point of today's update, now offers users the ability to sort contacts by last name and to create custom labels for phone numbers and other fields that turn the …
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