Back in March, Murdok looked at how Facebook was driving more traffic to some websites than even Google was. While, that was certainly not the case for everybody, it was still fascinating to see.
Amazon Launches Web Services Start-Up Challenge
Amazon.com has announced its third annual Amazon Web Services Start-Up Challenge, a contest for entrepreneurs and start-ups.
The winner of the contest will receive $50,000 in cash, $50,000 in Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits, mentoring sessions, and premium gold support for one year. The winner may also receive an investment from Amazon.
All finalists will receive $5,000 in AWS credits and all qualified participants will receive $25 in AWS credits.
Facebook Gives Businesses a Way to Increase Fans
Facebook recently announced the Live Stream Box, which lets webmasters integrate a real-time social viewing experience on their site. A spokesperson for Facebook tells Murdok, "Yesterday, CNN.com, MTV.com and other major networks implemented the technology for Michael Jackson’s Memorial, where about 1 million users posted approximately 800,000 status updates in just a few hours."
Create Events From the Facebook Publisher
Facebook has added a feature, which allows users to add events and invite people to them right from the publisher box. Now creating an event is pretty much as simple as sharing a link.
To add an event, just push the "more" arrow button on the publisher box, and you will find events. Once you fill out the form, it will be posted to you news feed, and you can invite guests from there.
Advertising To Make Its Way Onto Amazon Kindles
Amazon apparently has some big plans for their Kindle e-reader and it involves advertising. That’s right, advertising. After all, what would a good book be without advertising, right?
Best Buy Lists Twitter Followers As Job Qualification
A recruitment ad for a Sr. Manager – Emerging Media Marketing Job at US retailer Best Buy includes an item under the ‘Preferred Qualifications’ heading that applicants have “250 plus followers on Twitter.”
Marissa Mayer Talks Real-Time Search, Twitter
In late May, Larry Page stated at a conference that he believes real-time search is a necessity. He also referenced Twitter. Now, Marissa Mayer’s performed a sort of follow-up on both counts, and this might indicate an official corporate interest.
Smaller Circulation Newspapers Hanging In There
If you work for a smaller paper or you have a favorite local paper that you simply don’t want to see fade into the sunset this is OK news. I can’t honestly say that there is real good news. It’s about the newspaper business after all.
Yahoo Adds Capabilities to YQL
Last year, Yahoo debuted its YQL language, which lets users query, filter, and join data across web data sources or services on the web. YQL or Yahoo Query Language is based on a SQL-like language, and it helps apps run faster with fewer lines of code.
Today, Yahoo announced a new feature for YQL, and that is the Insert/Update/Delete feature. A spokesperson for Yahoo tells Murdok this extends the platform by adding “write" capability to its capabilities, including YQL Open Data Tables and Execute."
Yahoo Settles Lawsuit With NFL
Yahoo and the NFL Players Association have reached a settlement over the use of players’ statistics, images and other information in Yahoo’s fantasy football games.
Yahoo sued the NFLPA last month arguing it should not have to pay additional royalties to use players’ data in its fantasy football games because the information is publicly available.