February 2008
A Guide To Google's New Experimental Search...
Now, finally, Google has unveiled some opt-in experimental search features that allow users to find and reorganize more kinds of search results. The days of being limited to simple lists of ten blue links may soon be behind us. A tour of Google’s new Experimental Search. Verdict: awesome
"The Tipping Point" Under Fire
These pivotal individuals, according to Gladwell, determine which trends will wither on the vine and which will “tip,” becoming mass phenomena. But Watts, a pioneer in the mathematical modeling of social networks, has tested the “tipping point” hypothesis, both empirically and in computer simulations. As it turns out, according to Watts, it’s just not true. Tipped...
Study: Human Brain Has Limited "RAM" Memory
Most of the problem-solving we do in order to get through a day involves the use of what’s referred to as “working memory.” It acts a bit like RAM; we store information we need for the task at hand temporarily, but don’t necessarily commit it to permanent memory. A recent study has probed the qualities of visual working memory and has come to the conclusion that we have a...
Green Gets More Cash Than The Net
Twenty-four percent of respondents to the survey said the green tech, or clean tech, area will receive the most capital over the next two years, followed by biotech and pharmaceuticals, attracting 15 percent of respondents. Thirteen percent picked Internet services, and 11 percent said mobile technology. Green-tech investing to outpace Internet in 2008
Gartner Looks Into Microsoft's Future
Firm’s predictions should have Microsoft worried. It sees Apple’s market share doubling, open source rising, and laptops being left at home. Gartner’s predictions leave plenty for Microsoft to worry about
So Many Music Sites, So Little Time
No single strategy for listening to music online has come to dominate the market, as record labels, managers, artists, fans, Apple’s music offering, Internet radio and recommendation companies all jockey for position. But one thing is clear above all the din: Fans will not be denied their music — and most want it free. 38 free/cheap music sites — Welcome to the fray, Qbox!
An Ad Recession
The New York Times saw a shocking fall-off in advertising spending in December and says the weakness has continued into January. This follows comments by Yahoo that economic weakness hurt spending in some verticals in Q4. We believe this is the start of the advertising recession we have expected since last summer, and at the NYT, anyway, the speed of the fall-off was shocking (down 12% year over...
“Two of our cables are affected; everyone will go onto a third cable. But that...”
– Mohammed Taymur, Egypt’s Telecommunications Ministry spokesman. Two cables beneath the Mediterranean Sea have been damaged, which may seem quaint and old world, but the result is a major slow-down in Egyptian cyberspace. Connecting to the Internet may take minutes, surfing is a disaster....
Another "Future" List From Down Under
So what futuristic dreams are really, truly ready to transform our daily sojourn from the bathroom mirror and back again? Here are a few developments that are either open for business or so close around the corner we can just about smell them coming. Welcome to the future
January 2008
Do You Have 'Facebook Fatigue'?
Whisper it, but numbers from web analytics outfit comScore have confirmed what the chatter in bars and cafes has been saying for months - people are, just, well, bored of social networks. The average length of time users spend on all of the top three sites is on the slide. Bebo, MySpace and Facebook all took double-digit percentage hits in the last months of 2007. December could perhaps be...
Google Stumbles With MySpace
People involved in that deal said that Google never assumed that it would earn its $900 million back from that deal, but it appears to be losing even more than it had expected. Sergey Brin, the company’s co-president, was direct about some of the company’s ideas failing, but he said it would keep trying to figure out what to do with the vast number of pages on which it can place ads. Google’s Loss...
Fox's Fortunes Fall With GOP's
Fox News soared eight years ago by hitching its star to Republicans in general and George W. Bush in particular; now that the president’s in decline and its one-sided approach is no mystery, the channel has hit the skids. Democrats’ refusal to debate on Fox damaged its reputation—and the station’s been embarrassingly unable to get candidate access, Salon’s Eric Boehlert writes. The...
How Disruptive Innovations Emerge From The Edge
Edges define and describe the borders of companies, markets, industries, geographies, intellectual disciplines, and generations. They are the places where unmet customer needs find unexpected solutions, where disruptive innovations and blue oceans get birthed, and where edge capabilities transform the core competencies of the corporation. Embrace the Edge — or Perish
Be Like Mike
Deliver A Presentation Like Steve Jobs In Pictures: 10 Great Steve Jobs Moments
How To Sleuth New Gadgets At The FCC
Long the well of gadget blog content, the FCC website is chock-full of unannounced gear ripe for the plucking. Finding these gadgets is a simple process, but for many, knowing where to begin is a difficult task. We’ve decided to throw together this how-to guide so you can find your own treasure chest of undiscovered gadgets…just like the pros! How To Discover Secret Gadgets Through the...
Google's Move To TV
Google’s New York office gave a presentation last night that included two new ways for television broadcasters and print publishers to potentially make money — and two new ways for Google to get a more granular window into how people consume content offline. Google’s next steps in television and print advertising
Washington Post Launches 'The Root'
The Washington Post launched a new online magazine Monday aimed at a black audience, featuring commentary from leading black writers, along with information on genealogy. Called “The Root,” the website is the brain child of Post Chairman Donald Graham and Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Gates, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American...
First Look: Zagat To Go →
Now in its fifth version, Zagat To Go, compatible with the PDA and platform in-crowd, gives locomotive users access to Zagat’s sprawling database of cleverly amalgamated dining reviews and ratings for the best spots in town for food, service, and decor.
192.com Offers "Super Zoom" of London →
DEMO: A Roundup Of Companies Launching →
VentureBeat.com profiles 16 new start ups from 78 presenting at the DEMO conference.
Google Rolls Out New Experimental Search Features
From The Official Google Blog: There have been a lot of recent improvements to web search, but the appearance of results themselves has been pretty constant — 10 or so web pages in a vertical list. Frequently this is exactly the right format, but for some searches you need more options and more control. That’s why we’ve created our experimental search page to let you try out some...
Exercise May Hold Off Aging, Study Says
People who are physically active in their free time may be biologically younger than couch potatoes, a new British study suggests. “A sedentary lifestyle increases the propensity to aging-related diseases and premature death. Inactivity may diminish life expectancy not only by predisposing to aging-related diseases, but also because it may influence the aging process itself,” study...
Medical Marijuana Vending Machines Open In L.A. →
Moli, A New Social Network For SMBs
Moli, a new social network, will emerge from beta this week with its launch as a finished service after 100,000 users tested it since its prerelease last summer. Rather than take on the likes of MySpace and Facebook directly, Moli hopes to gain new converts to social networks with features designed for small- to medium-size businesses (SMBs), entrepreneurs as well as mainstream users concerned...
To the Tune of $7.16 Billion
Charges Are Sought Against French Trader Jerome Kerviel, the former Société Générale employee at the center of the biggest trading fraud in history, has confessed to police that he hid his activities from superiors, and he gambled in the markets because he wanted to be a star trader, the Paris prosecutor said Monday. Timeline of Societe Generale Fraud SocGen under pressure as rogue trader released...
Is Cellulosic Ethanol The New Gasoline?
In less than a year, cellulosic ethanol startup ZeaChem has raced through preliminary pilot testing in a tiny Silicon Valley pilot plant, and now plans to build a larger facility in Oregon. Experts consider cellulosic ethanol one of the most promising technologies for helping to reduce global warming, but the technology is still unproven, and there’s a race on to be first to commercial production....
Have An Interview - Get Paid
NotchUp may seem like just another job site, but the Los Altos Hills company brings a novel twist to the familiar formula – companies have to pay applicants to come in for an interview. Say what? According to the NotchUp’s Web site, the goal is to give companies a chance to go after those top-notch employees who aren’t actively looking for a job. Founders Jim Ambras and Rob Ellis, both formerly of...
Coming Soon: Creator Created Games
One of the biggest trends in the games industry is the push to let gamers be creative. And no game better epitomises the exciting move towards user-generated fun than PlayStation 3’s LittleBigPlanet, due out in September. The game lets friends work together to create unique platform-based obstacle courses and is so refreshingly original and fun that it could be the “killer app”...
The Pirate Bay Breaks 10 Million Users
The Pirate Bay is no stranger to making history, and today is no different. In an achievement that conjures an achievement from the annals of file-sharing history, The Pirate Bay has broken an impressive milestone. Today, The Pirate Bay asserts itself as the self-proclaimed “World’s Largest Tracker” by topping over 10 million peers, while managing over 1 million torrents. The...
Finally....Free P2P Music On Qtrax
After years of fighting peer-to-peer file-sharing companies, the major record labels have decided that if they can’t beat them, they might as well join them — in one case, anyway. At the Midem conference in Cannes, France, Qtrax announced deals with all the major music labels and publishers to offer the first free and legal ad-supported P2P service to include major label music. ...
A Index Of Global Innovation Confidence
Jonathan Levie, author of the study and a senior lecturer at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, noted that the nations most confident about innovation tended to be fast-growing economies with young populations. Innovation confidence, he said, doesn’t closely track consumer confidence, as one might expect. So it is a separate sentiment. Tracking the World’s Appetite For Innovation
MPAA Overstated Students' Role In Losses Due To...
The Motion Picture Association of America overstated the impact college students’ illegal downloads have on the movie industry’s bottom line, according to several media reports. The MPAA has said that college students account for more than 40% of the movie industry’s losses due to piracy. This week, the Associated Press reported that the association’s math was wrong. The...
Does The American Economy Still Matter?
Time.com: YES! Why the US Economy Still Matters Downwardly volatile global markets know one thing: decoupling the US and the rest of the world isn’t reality yet. Slate.com: NO! The Good News About the Recession. Maybe it will finally teach Americans how to compete globally.
