Facebook users have been known to form groups protesting poverty, world hunger, and disease, even as cynics responded, "All right, let me know when that affects something." Now, some changes may actually occur, as certain users’ responses to poll questions will be shared with crowds at the Davos World Economic Forum.
The President Dips Into the Google Pool
Add another layer onto the Obama administration’s ties to Google. Obama’s Director of Citizen Participation is reportedly going to be Google Product Manager Katie Jacobs Stanton.
Google TV Ads Adapts To DVRs
People take their television seriously; even in very poor neighborhoods, you’ll find all sorts of satellite dishes and cable connections representing folks who don’t want to miss shows. And since more and more people are using DVRs, too, Google TV Ads has started taking the devices into account.
Yahoo Mail Classic Gets Chatty
Yahoo announced that it now offers an SMS chat feature in its classic version of Yahoo Mail, something Gmail has been offering for several months, and Yahoo has been doing in its newer version since 2007. Google has offered SMS in its chat since October, and Chat in general for quite some time. They have also launched voice and video chat recently.
If YouTube Is The New TV, They Should Monetize Like Old TV
The world is waiting to see how Google plans to make money from YouTube. Increasingly innovative in the slap-an-ad-on-it department, Google is a victim of its own success, relying on clicks when YouTube is better as a straight branding vehicle, just like its television predecessor.
Data Portability and the Cloud
We’ve been hearing a lot these days about cloud computing and data portability. It only makes sense that we see some data portability through the cloud as well right? Confused yet? Think services like Facebook Connect combined with Google Apps.
The Building of a Better Digg Commences
Just before the New Year, Digg Founder Kevin Rose put up his list of New Year’s resolutions. Third on that list was: "Build a Better Digg." Less than a month into 2009, the site appears to be on that track.
4 Helpful Firefox Add-Ons for AdSense Publishers
Google has highlighted a few Firefox add-ons that could be of great use to AdSense publishers. These include:
Mobile Internet Growth Driven By Social Networking
Social networking is attracting new users to the mobile Web in Europe. In November, 34 percent of mobile phone owners in Western Europe who visited social networking sites accessed social media exclusive of all other mobile Web content, according to comScore.With 12.1 million users in Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K.), mobile social networking is a rapidly expanding category that grew 152 percent from November 2007 to November 2008.
Google Unveils M-Lab To Monitor ISPs
Get ready for ISPs to become less than pleased with Google. The search giant, together with the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium, and various academic researchers, has introduced something designed to monitor Internet service providers for iffy behavior.