Still reeling from Google 's recent search algorithm changes, various Web sites and online-based businesses are trying to regain their footing. The Wall Street Journal points to online ergonomic-products retailer Ergo In Demand Inc. in Central Point, Ore., which was forced to reduce its 17-person staff to five after seeing a 40% decline in sales. With the savings, owner Peter Scholom hired a search-engine optimization firm to do an audit of his company's site. "He hopes to learn how to regain the site's previously high Google rankings for search terms like 'keyboard trays' and 'TV mounts,'" WSJ explains. …

Digital innovations and the continued rise of new media platforms has set off a talent grab of late-'90s proportions, reports USA Today. "Tech workers ... are coveted commodities as the high-tech industry undergoes its biggest hiring binge in more than a decade," it writes. "Not since the dot-com bubble of the early 2000s has competition been so fierce." From Silicon Valley to Silicon Alley, employers offering up big contracts, juicy bonuses and every imaginable perk from sporting events to shuttle services. "Many companies are going gangbusters with billboards in the San Francisco Bay Area -- such as Groupon's …

Discount ticket seller ScoreBig has raised $14 million in Series B financing led by U.S. Venture Partners, along with Bain Capital Ventures. "With this latest financing, ScoreBig has raised a total of $22.5 million," TechCrunch notes. Similar to discount designer clothing sellers like Gilt.com, the members-only site offers deep discounts on tickets for sports, concert and theater events nationwide. Founded by CEO Adam Kanner, former National Basketball Association executive and COO and CTO Joel Milne -- formerly founder of SeasonTicket.com -- ScoreBig is designed to help owners of unsold event ticket inventory fill seats and make money off …

What does traffic to the Gawker Network look like two and a half months after its more aggressive redesign ever? "Turns out, according to Gawker's public statistics, things are much, much worse than was originally reported," writes The Atlantic. And that's despite Gawker adding a button to switch the site back to a traditional blog format, which allowed readers to scroll through post headlines and excerpts in reverse-chronological order. "Yes, the redesign cut traffic in half almost instantly, but instead of coming back, even more readers left the site behind." Gawker originally blamed the traffic crash on its …

Fueled by continued innovation and leadership in key sectors, Apple on Wednesday reported its biggest non-holiday quarterly revenue and earnings ever. "Apple's March quarter saw, among other things, the iPhone's debut on Verizon, the launch of the iPad 2 and the new Thunderbolt-equipped MacBook Pro line," writes Digital Daily. "No wonder it was a blowout." "With quarterly revenue growth of 83% and profit growth of 95%, we're firing on all cylinders," Apple CEO Steve Jobs -- now on medical leave -- stated. With its strong earnings, Apple successfully "overcame concerns about the impact of Japan's natural catastrophes on …

Continuing the push for Google's WebM video format, YouTube now says the majority of its most-viewed videos are available in the open-source, royalty-free format -- or about 30% of all videos hosted by the site. "Backed by Google, Mozilla, and Opera, to name a few, WebM is a competitor of the H.264 format, backed by Apple and predominantly used for mobile video because of the lack of Flash support on iOS devices," PCWorld explains. All new videos uploaded to YouTube are now automatically transcoded into Web. Bigger picture, "Google has been pushing for its competing video format this …

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg today is expected to moderate a town hall event with President Barack Obama from the company's Palo Alto headquarters. Regardless of how the talk pans out, though, MecuryNews.com thinks the big winner will likely be Facebook Live -- the company's live streaming video channel, which will "broadcast" the event. Already, Facebook Live has become one of the Web's largest video channels, with a record 1.2 million people watching a session with pop singer Katy Perry. Since launching formally in August, Facebook Live has allowed users to ask questions directly to various guests, including Conan …

During a first-quarter earnings announcement on Tuesday, Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini confirmed that the company would use Google's latest version of its mobile platform designed for tablets. "We've received the Android code -- the Honeycomb version of Android source code -- from Google, and we're actively doing the port on that," Otellini said on a call with reporters and analysts. Additionally, Otellini expect[s] to be able to ramp [Honeycomb-based] machines over the course of this year for a number of customers." Meanwhile, "Otellini also said that Intel chips would be in smartphones, where it has lagged …

News.me, Bit.ly's social news iPad app, is expected to debut any minute. "Our understanding is that News.me is launching tomorrow", The New York Times spokesperson Eileen Murphy, tells MediaMemo. The NYT should know because it reportedly helped develop News.me in its early stages. When it does debut, News.me will offer users curated Twitter streams that highlight "the most popular or interesting news stories" that appear in their own Twitter feeds, and from the feeds of other Twitter users they select. "The notion is that users can read over the shoulder of people they find interesting," as MediaMemo's Peter …

Despite its obvious value to advertisers, tracking consumers' every move -- particularly without their knowledge -- is still seen as a clear invasion of privacy. It should therefore surprise many to learn that Apple iPhones and 3G iPads record and save their owners' geographic history, according to new findings from two security researchers. "Apple has made it possible for almost anybody -- a jealous spouse, a private detective -- with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you've been," Pete Warden, one of the researchers, tells The Guardian. Along with fellow data scientist …