Category: Tech news

Google TV is all about blurring the lines between the web and TV — and ads of course. Logitech is playing a key role in this project by providing the oh-so-important remote interface, and the just-detailed Logitech Harmony Link goes way behind anything currently available.

Microsoft has shut down Bing Cashback, according to a blog post. Bing Cashback, which is a program that allows users to save money when they purchase items found using Bing search, will be shut down on July 30, 2010.

The blog post says that Cashback is being shut down due to lack of adoption. Cashback offers will still be available until the end of July and users will have a year to redeem any money they’ve earned through the program.

Microsoft launched Cashback on its old search engine, Live Search, in May 2008, when we called it a “desperate and brilliant move” to trade search revenue for market share. Cashback failed to do much to improve Live Search’s market share, but it did result in a significant increase in advertising revenue.

With the launch of Bing, Microsoft thought that cashback would gain more traction as a rebranded product, even launching a TV commercial and special promotions. But clearly this was not enough to drive traffic to the program.

If you’ve ever tried explaining Google Docs to a long-time Microsoft Office user who isn’t familiar with buzzwords like “cloud computing” and “real-time collaboration”, you probably know that it can be a trying task. Sure, Docs offers a visual tour and an introductory video walkthrough, but sometimes the lightbulb doesn’t really turn on for people until they’ve tried it for themselves. Today, Google has made that a bit easier: it just launched a new site at docs.google.com/demo, which allows users to try full-fledged versions of its word processor, spreadsheet, and drawing tool without a Google account. The site is linked to from the Google Docs homepage with a prominent button that says “Try Google Docs Now”.

Using the site is as simple as it could be. When you first hit docs.google.com/demo, you’ll see a newly generated document instructing you to start typing, along with a notice that the sample document you’re editing is only available for 24 hours. More important, the document comes with a link that allows you to invite other users to collaboratively edit it (again, these invited users won’t need to have a Google account).

Sure, it’s not exactly a huge new feature, but it significantly lowers the barrier to entry to getting people to try out Docs for themselves. And when it comes to getting the attention of the millions of users who are on Office simply because it’s all they know, that’s important.

Via Matt Cutts on Twitter

If Facebook were a publicly traded company, its market value would rival Yahoo’s and be ten times bigger than AOL’s, if demand for its private shares are any indication. Shares of Facebook on private-company stock market SecondMarket are going through the roof right now. This week, Facebook shares traded on SecondMarket passed $50, giving Facebook a total market value of $25 billion, according to sources with access to the market. (SecondMarket itself does not disclose pricing or valuation of the private stocks it trades). In comparison, Yahoo’s market cap on the publicly traded stock market is currently $21 billion, while AOL’s is $2.3 billion.

These aren’t apples-to-apples comparisons because SecondMarket is a private stock market with thinly traded shares where demand often outstrips supply. (By definition, private stock sales trade in an illiquid market). But it is a real market with buyers and sellers, and right now that market is putting a $25 billion value on Facebook. The last time we checked in on how Facebook’s shares were doing on SecondMarket was in January, 2010 when the company was valued at $14 billion (which was up from $11 billion the month before).

Back in August, 2009, DST was buying back common shares at a $6.5 billion valuation, so that’s been an incredible rise in value over the past year. Even Microsoft’s $15 billion valuation (albeit for preferred shares) does not seem so crazy anymore in light of what investors are paying on SecondMarket.

Last week at TechCrunch Disrupt, SecondMarket’s chief strategy officer Jeremy Smith explained how the market works to Beet.TV, and that so far a total of about $100 million worth of Facebook stock has been traded through SecondMarket (watch the video).

DONE! Ventures, a Manhattan Beach, California-based Internet marketing and publishing firm, is slapping NBC Universal with a lawsuit after a domain name sales deal went awry.

DONE! CEO Ben Padnos claims NBC Universal accepted an offer to sell the domain names Women.com and Women.net for $1 million, only to have President & CEO Jeff Zucker overrule and block the transaction after the agreement was reached.

The complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, June 3, alleges breach of contract on those grounds. According to the complaint, which we’ve embedded below, NBC Universal signed an exclusive agreement with domain brokerage firm Sedo.com for the sale of both domain names, each for $600,000, about two weeks ago.

DONE! Ventures says it made a $1 million offer on May 21, and that NBC Universal accepted this offer on May 24. Three days after the agreement was reached, Sedo informed DONE! that Zucker personally overruled the transaction and the domains were no longer for sale.

DONE! is now asking the Court to enforce “specific performance”, requiring NBC Universal to transfer ownership of the domains. The company says it is currently developing an online content network for which the domain name Women.com is critical, as the target audience will consist of “modern, powerful, intelligent women”.

As far as we know, GE-owned NBC Universal has never used the Women.com and Women.net domain names for any active websites, even though the company owns and operates iVillage, a media outlet specifically targeting women.

We asked NBC Universal for comment and are awaiting their response.

Update: the official response is … no comment.

Complaint FINAL_v2

At Google I/O a few weeks ago, Google teased the audience with a glimpse of a web-based iTunes competitor that would be a new section of the Android Market. Details were sparse during that time, but we may have found the name of the service through a new logo that is hosted on Google’s domain: Google Music. You can tweak that url to see more product logos, including Android and Docs.

While the name is unsurprising, the idea behind Google Music, if that is what it in fact it will be called, is pretty compelling. You would go to the Market on the web, find a song you like, click the download button, and just like with apps, the song would start to download over the air onto your Android devices. Google also announced the acquisition of Simplify Media. Using Simplify’s technology, Google will offer a desktop app that will give you access to all DRM-free media on Android devices remotely.

This new market wouldn’t be Google’s first foray into music. Last fall, Google announced Music Onebox, new kind of Google search result that lets you instantly stream songs directly from Google’s results page; and Google Discover Music, a search engine to find songs on the web.

Google Music had better launch soon. Apple is rumored to be prepping a cloud-based version of iTunes this summer, which could steal the thunder from whatever Google has in store for its music market.

Thanks Logan R. for the tip.

“History will be made across the nation as anxious customers get their hands on America’s first 3G/4G wireless phone, HTC EVO 4G, packed with industry-leading features.”

A little over the top right there, but anyway: you can now purchase the HTC EVO 4G at Sprint.com, Sprint retail stores, at RadioShack, Best Buy and Walmart. The device sells for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new line activation or upgrade.

[Amsterdam] SoGeo, provider of a context aware platform for mobile and Web, this morning announced that it has secured €1 million (roughly $1.2 million) in funding from investor group BlueBubbleLab.

SoGeo is in the midst of building a location-aware information sharing platform and API with social and community features, including a suite of mobile and web apps that interface with it.

SoGeo is targeting businesses interested in the platform, essentially a set of technologies that collects, analyzes and stores location data, photos and videos, user accounts and attention data, to engage with their customers.

At least 18 years old? Own a Windows PC? Have 60 minutes to spare?

Google wants you to test usability of its Blogger service on your own computer, and is prepared to give you $75 in American Express gift checks if you participate in a screen sharing session and a phone call with some of their people. Also, you must allow them to record audio or video of said session.

We think you can keep your clothes on, but have been unable to confirm.

On the sign-up page, Google explains that you can register to participate in a usability study and provide feedback on “something that’s currently in development”. It’s unclear what those new developments entail, and participants are required to accept the company’s Usability Non-Disclosure Agreement.

Google only says the study will “help the Blogger team better understand your needs in order to incorporate them into future product enhancements”. It’s anyone’s guess what those are, but considering the fact that they’re specifically asking for users who have computers running Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000, we daresay it concerns a desktop client of some sort.

In an an email newsletter yesterday Jason Calacanis, bizarrely referring to himself as Serpico (played by Al Pacino in the 1973 movie) talks about an interaction he had with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the Wall Street Journal’s D Conference earlier this week.

Calacanis has long been over the top critical of Facebook, even recently referring to Zuckerberg as “an amoral, Asperger’s-like entrepreneur” and says “Zuckerberg is clearly the worst thing that’s happened to our industry since, well, spam.”

So it’s not surprising that he got in Mark’s face again in person. According to Jason, he first asked Mark to play poker with him, and then made comments to Mark as they both watched Steve Jobs on stage:

Steve said the folks at Apple were really concerned that some kid might get attacked–or worse–because someone tracked them with their technology. That could never happen right? Oh wait, Facebook is under assault for just this type of issue in Australia. Details:

http://yhoo.it/cHU4Zi

While the audience cheered Steve’s position, I turned to Zuckerberg behind me and said: “I hope you’re taking notes.”

Zuck laughed, and Sheryl Sandberg–the adult brought in to keep Facebook and Zuckerberg out of trouble–shot me an aggressive stare from over his shoulder.

Ouch!!!

Then, out of site from Zuckberg, she winked and smiled at me.

Well played Sandberg, well played. In one complicated glance she admonished me for busting on the Golden Child, and then sent me the clear message that she appreciated that I’ve been educating the kid.

…. at least that’s how I read it.

So that’s a pretty serious allegation – that Sheryl Sandberg, the COO and clear no. 2 at Facebook, secretly enjoys seeing Mark criticized over Facebook’s privacy missteps.

Is it true? I asked Sandberg flat out via email. Her response: “absurd.” Plus a few other off the record comments that suggested it was really absurd.

Why the repeated Serpico references (really – he says “I am Serpico.”)? He’s getting pressure from “influential people,” he says, to fall into line and support Facebook. But he’s not going to stand for it:

Walking around the D conference I felt like Serpico. It feels like I crossed the Blue Line, where technology executives don’t get into big public fights that are bad for business. There are a lot of folks who are getting rich selling Facebook shares on SecondMarket today, and there are many more people–including friends of mine–who have a large percentage of their net worth in Facebook shares.

The sad part about the situation is that the person who sent me the email demands has massive influence over the industry, the people I work with. He could buy and sell me many times over. In short, this
power broker could make my life and career in technology miserable.

In fact, he could probably get me fired… and he let me know that in so many words.

The thing is, though, that this is good for business. Jason is the master at creating controversy. And controversy is fun, up to a point. But trying to disrupt a management team by suggesting that there’s strife when there really isn’t is crossing a line.

I’ve written recently that media and blogging attacks on Facebook are getting out of hand.

We love to tear apart the people and companies that are trying to do big things. And nothing is bigger in tech right now than what Facebook is trying to accomplish – a restructuring of the Internet around a social architecture. It may be time for us all to step back and realize that we’re witnessing the creation of a massive company, one that touches the lives of half a billion people a month, on the fly.

We’re seeing sausage being made, never a pleasant experience, by a company that is inventing the sausage as they go.

This month’s Wired UK magazine has pulled out the stops and put Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley on the cover. In spades. Crowley is pictured wearing a crown and is dubbed “The New King of Social Media”. The subhead is “Why Google, Yahoo and Facebook want to unlock his world.”

That’s a pretty big accolade and, indeed, Crowley has written a long explanation about how the cover story and shoot came about. He says “not to nerd out, but this is the stuff that Little Denny College dreamed big about back in 1997 (for real)… so I’m pretty happy with it :)”

As you can see, the photographer made him wear some makeup “but I think my luscious lips and forearms are photoshopped,” says Crowley.

Not everyone is happy with Wired’s angle, but more of that parade-raining later. Meantime, here’s Crowley’s take:

Looks like Foursquare is experiencing the questionable honor of getting the attention of the Chinese government. Authorities appear to have blocked the service, at least in mainland China, according to many a tweet from Chinese location sharers.

While this obviously can’t easily be confirmed, it appears as though the block is a result of Foursquare users checking in to another kind of square: Tian’anmen Square, the infamous plaza in China’s capital of Beijing (Peking).

The Chinese government is likely keeping a tight lock on which Internet services it allows its citizens to use today because of the sensitivity of the date.

Background: the protests of 1989 at Tian’anmen Square, which resulted in the massacre of Chinese protesters, occurred on the night of June 3 and the early morning of June 4.

It remains to be seen if Foursquare will remain blocked for the foreseeable future or if this is just a temporary ban.

(Thanks to CL for the heads up)

When it comes to slideshow presentations, few do them as well as Netflix. Last year, they released one that was sent around internally about their culture. If you read it, you probably wished you worked for Netflix afterwards. And now they’ve released one about the future of their business — it’s also fascinating.

The 40-slide presentation is great because it gives direct insight into Netflix’s view of its competition, and why they think they’ll succeed in the end. Long story short, they’re transforming the company from a DVD-by-mail service to a streaming video service. Anyone who has followed the company over the past year or so will know this, but it’s pretty interesting to read about just how much they’ve thought the transition through.

For example, they know there’s a demand for new release DVDs, but they’re giving up that market to competitors so that they can focus on building the biggest back catalog of movies available for streaming. They know that DVD-by-mail will continue to grow for a few more years (they think 2014), but after that, it will decline just as rapidly as it grew as streaming takes over.

Netflix doesn’t want to be the end-all source for all video content, they just want to focus on the catalog streaming ability, and exist as a supplemental service to other video services such as pay-per-view. The key to this is to make the service ubiquitous (which is why they’re focused on signing device deals) and cheap (they’re targeting around $10 per user). Once DVD-by-mail starts going away, most of their costs will be related to paying the studios to get access to their back catalog films.

So what are Netflix’s biggest concerns going forward? Hulu and piracy. Hulu, with it’s forthcoming subscription model “could be significant competitive threat for us,” notes one slide. Piracy could also be a major problem as it may become just as bad for video as it was for music, another slide notes. I’d argue that Netflix isn’t helping that by giving up on new release rentals, but it’s hard to argue with their logic about carving out a very specific, catalog-based streaming niche for themselves.

Find the full presentation below:

Under fire for its App Store not being more open, recently, Apple’s response has been that there is a portion of its devices that is totally open: the web. If developers don’t like some of the App Store’s restrictions, they should make a web app, Apple reasons. No shortage of critics think this response is disingenuous since it’s in Apple’s best interest for people to make native apps for their devices, not web apps that can be used anywhere. But a new site launched by Apple today looks to disprove that.

Apple’s new HTML5 page on its site is a showcase for what you can do with the technology. There are seven impressive examples of things you can do using only HTML5: Video, Typography, Gallery, Transitions, Audio, 360, and VR. “Standards aren’t add-ons to the web. They are the web,” Apple writes.

But what’s a bit odd is that you can only view the examples using Apple’s Safari web browser. Other HTML5-compliant browsers — like Google Chrome — are blocked. If you try to load the examples, Apple pops up a message that you need to download Safari to view the demo. “This demo was designed with the latest web standards supported by Safari,” the message reads.

This site serves another purpose for Apple too. While it shows some commitment to the web (alongside its commitment to WebKit, the render engine which Apple helped make into the dominant force it is today — as Apple likes to remind everyone), it also shows a commitment to web standards. In fact, the page is actually called ”HTML5 and web standards.” Why? Undoubtedly because Adobe Flash is not a web standard. The first demo on the page shows the cool things you can do with HTML5 video.

All of these demos point to a “Safari Demos” page on the Apple Developer site — a page which can’t be found yet. It’s likely Apple is going to say more about this at its WWDC event starting on Monday.

[via Daring Fireball]

There are over 150 million clicks on Bit.ly links each day. The amount of data running through the service is massive, and continuing to grow at an incredible pace. But we’ve known that for a while. Just as impressive may be what Bit.ly is doing with its premium service, Bit.ly Pro.

Today, the service is announcing some of the huge names across the web have signed up to use Bit.ly Pro. Yahoo, MySpace, The Huffington Post, Politico, Pepsi, NPR, Scribd, Toys”R”Us, CSPAN, Dailymotion, IMDB, the New York Times, Bravo, Mozilla and Amazon have all joined in recent months. We started using the service shortly after it launched in December — those tcrn.ch you see all run through Bit.ly Pro.

There are now over 12,500 publishers and brands using the Pro version of the service, Bit.ly says — that’s more than double the number they released just two months ago. All told, there are over 1.7 billion monthly uniques for these Bit.ly Pro users.

Overall, Bit.ly hit 4.7 billion decodes (their term for clicks) in May. That’s nearly double what it was just this past February. The service is now the 76th most visited site on the web, according to DoubleClick.

Bit.ly is also announcing a new partnership today with Webtrends. Later this Summer, Webtrends will start incorporating Bit.ly data into its analytics packages.