Roundup: Tech salary raises in ‘08, Supreme Court knocks down anti-porn law, and more layoffs
Here’s the latest action, depressing as half of it is:
Apple will make an appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2010 (at least in spirit) — The company has already said it will stop attending the Macworld event, so rumors that it will go to… Continue Reading
YouTube still hunting for money with affiliate ad expansion
Google is expanding its YouTube eCommerce Program beyond the U.S. and the U.K. to allow viewers in Germany, Spain and the Netherlands to “click-to-buy” products (such as songs or DVDs) related to the videos they watch on YouTube.
This is an effort to boost YouTube’s affiliate… Continue Reading
Move over, Celine Dion: Custom themes for your iGoogle homepage!
So maybe Google’s trying to cheer everyone up after it had a tough week with the confirmation of Google layoffs and the discontinuation or “indefinite hiatus” of six of its products. Here’s a bright and shiny new offering, according to the official Google blog: You… Continue Reading
SimplyBox lets users organize info, images snagged from the web
Web app SimplyBox has jumped on the bandwagon of companies looking to change the way internet users save and share information they find on the web. Once downloaded, the service lets users take screenshots of content on any web site and put them in categorized… Continue Reading
Roundup: Obama’s potential Blackberry replacement, internet does not equal “To Catch a Predator” episodes, plus layoffs
Here’s the latest action:
Alternatives to Obama’s favorite Blackberry — One option for the email-addicted President-elect is an NSA-approved secure PDA, the Sectera Edge, which costs $3,350 — but hey, you can drop it four feet onto concrete repeatedly without worry (it’s waterproof and dustproof!), according to… Continue Reading
Huffington Post, in need of laughs, buys comedy site 236.com
23/6, a political comedy site that boasts “the sluttiest news team on the internet,” will soon have a new home — it’s just been bought by progressive news site Huffington Post, which took $25 million in funding last month. The standalone site launched in November… Continue Reading
Luxury sample sale sites Gilt Groupe and RueLaLa pick up traffic
Luxury spending may be down, but that doesn’t mean fashionistas aren’t clamoring for deals. Sample sales, which have been around for years, are often a way for designers to get rid of overstocked pieces and clothes that didn’t sell well in stores — at a… Continue Reading
Evolution of Dance 2: Shaking the moneymaker on YouTube
Evolution of Dance, a toe-tapping journey through the history of dancing styles, is one of the most popular YouTube videos of all time, second only to Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” music video. But how do you make money off your 109 million video views?
Judson Laipply, the… Continue Reading
The U.S. Congress: The new stars of YouTube?
Move over, C-SPAN. The 111th Congress opens today with a virtual bang — YouTube is launching channels for The Senate and the House of Representatives to make it easier for average viewers to connect with their Senators and Representatives (we know you’ve been procrastinating on… Continue Reading
Yodle lands $10M for local web advertising
Yodle, a company that helps small businesses buy online ads to market themselves locally, has raised $10 million in third-round funding to continue product development and expand sales nationally. An alternative to Yellow Pages, the New York-based company aims to turn click-throughs into direct-response phone… Continue Reading
MySpace and Wall Street Journal contest to make World Economic Forum in Davos “a place for friends”?
MySpace has joined forces with the Wall Street Journal for “MySpace Journal,” a competition to send one lucky MySpace user to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The winner will be a “special correspondent” on behalf of the entire MySpace community and get to… Continue Reading
Burger King: Will sacrifice Facebook friends for free Whopper
It looks like Burger King has been reading into the prediction that cutting down on Facebook friends is going to be trendy in 2009. The fast food chain has developed Whopper Sacrifice, a Facebook application that rewards you for doing just that — delete 10… Continue Reading
Comedy site JibJab raises $7.5 million, no joke
JibJab, the site that spawned original comedy videos and customizable animated greeting cards, has raised $7.5 million in a third round of funding, according to TechCrunch.
The site is known for its parodies and original funny shorts, many of them skewering politicians and the government, like… Continue Reading
Cisco study: U.S. wins TV and mobile-watching world olympics
Cisco Systems has released results from its new Visual Networking Index survey looking at video consumption habits around the world, and some of them may surprise you. Among other things, it gauged people’s attitudes toward online, mobile and television viewing of video content in the… Continue Reading
A hard day’s night: Norwegian Beatles podcast yanked
The rumors are true, the Beatles have fled Norway. NRK, the Norwegian public broadcasting company, had to pull all 212 episodes of its podcast “Our Daily Beatles” last night. The free podcasts, which we discovered on Monday, included anecdotes behind the songs and offered the… Continue Reading
Vain model Googles herself, sues over “skanky” findings
The internet is serious business. Just ask Canadian ex-model Liskula Cohen, who’s suing Google to unmask the individual or individuals behind the blog Skanks in New York, a site hosted by Google’s Blogger publishing service. The blog didn’t release Cohen’s social security number, credit card… Continue Reading
Video ad service SpotMixer lands $9M, gets in with Google
One True Media, an online video creation and editing company, has raised $9 million in a second round of funding to market SpotMixer, a video ad service it offers to small businesses.
Small businesses can use SpotMixer to make and distribute their own professional-looking videos by… Continue Reading
From Russia, with love: Livejournal lays off a dozen
Livejournal, one of the earliest blogging services, is letting go of 12 employees, a little under 20 percent of its staff. Yahoo product manager Matthew Berardo, who was hired as Livejournal’s general manager in the U.S., was also laid off.
The company, known for the quirky-interest… Continue Reading
Facebook: The new battleground for popstars? Lily Allen takes on Katy Perry
British singer/songwriter Lily Allen has revived a feud with U.S. pop star Katy Perry (of “I Kissed a Girl” song fame), threatening to post Perry’s phone number on Facebook should Perry make any more disparaging comments about her. Isn’t that the sort of drama that… Continue Reading
YouTube still rules online video, U.S. viewing time leaps 40 percent
The number of videos viewed by Americans increased by 34 percent over the past year with 12.7 billion videos viewed in November 2008 versus 9.5 billion the previous November, according to the latest report from comScore Video Metrix. That means Americans spent a whopping 40… Continue Reading