As I like to do when a post involves some ‘creative thinking’ I am warning you on this one. TechCrunch is ‘reporting’ the Wall Street Journal’s possible attempt at creating a social community (WSJ Connnect) that could compete with the LinkedIn set. I realize that outside of the Microsoft-Yahoo nuptials there has been little to discuss in the online marketing space as of late.
Gmail Takes Care of Common User Annoyance
MySpace may be launching a new email service, but Google never stops adding new features to Gmail, even since the service has finally left "beta" status. The most recent addition to Gmail is the ability to send mail from different addresses without the inclusion of "on behalf of" in the From line.
MySpace Mail Arrives
Last week, rumor had it that MySpace was about to launch their long-awaited MySpace email service. It didn’t happen last week, but it’s starting to happen now. The company is rolling it out. It could be several weeks until you have access to MySpace Mail, but trust that it is on the way if you don’t already have it.
State Websites Failing To Provide Details On Stimulus
While some states have created solid websites to provide information about their portion of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), most are failing to effectively educate taxpayers about the impact of economic stimulus spending, according to a report from Good Jobs First, an economic development research group.
AT&T Talks New Yellow Pages
Sometimes it can be easy to forget that people use other sites besides Google, Yahoo, and Bing to find local results. There are plenty of people using YellowPages.com, and why not? Google may have the most untouchable brand on the Internet right now, but the Yellow Pages brand has been around much longer.
There are still plenty of people using the print version of the Yellow Pages, but the AT&T’s YellowPages.com extended network still gets over 40 million unique visitors a month according to the company. Not too shabby.
Google Gives Sony 1 Million More Books
Sony has announced that its eBook store now offers access to more than 1 million free public domain books from Google.
The selections include biographies, historical texts, romance novels and hundreds of other genres. The titles have been digitized by Google as part of its Google Book project. The titles are available on Sony’s eBook reader.
Google Releases Apps Directory Sync Enhancements
Google has released a couple of enhancements to Google Apps Directory Sync, which is a tool that helps businesses sync the user and directory info in their LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) systems with Google Apps.
Google Apps Directory Sync now helps sync employee contact info as well as non-employee info listed in the central LDAP directory. This means customers, partners, vendors, etc. can easily be looked up.
Advocacy Group Calls For Scrutiny Of Microsoft-Yahoo Deal
Advocacy organization Consumer Watchdog is urging the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department to look closely at the proposed Microsoft-Yahoo search deal to ensure there are no antitrust violations and that user privacy is guaranteed.
Under the proposed deal Yahoo would use Microsoft’s Bing to sell ads that appear with search results. Google currently has 65 percent of the U.S. search market. Microsoft and Yahoo have 28 percent. Conventional wisdom is that the combination of the two smaller search businesses would offer stronger competition to Google.
Businesses Increasingly Looking to iPhone Apps
iPhoneAppQuotes, which puts businesses together with iPhone developers, has released some interesting findings. The company has noticed a shift in app development trends.
"Business apps are proving to be the most popular category of apps as entrepreneurs and small businesses realize the marketing and additional revenue stream potential the iPhone creates," says Founder Gregg Weiss.
Some of iPhoneAppsQuotes’ findings include:
Mobile Market Improves In 2Q
The global mobile phone market saw another quarter of year-over-year decline in the second quarter of 2009, shipping a total of 269.6 million units, down 10.8 percent from 302.2 million units in 2Q08, according to IDC.
The second quarter results are an improvement from the 17.2 percent decrease in the first quarter, but challenges from the economic crisis remain a factor to watch.