Twitter the Most Dangerous Network?
Crowd Science revealed some interesting findings from a survey on Twitter use today. It would appear that Twitter is the most used social network by drivers. I’m not sure if that’s the kind of endorsement Twitter wants (the most dangerous network), but its short-form texting-like format caters to the mobile user.
Sun Losing $100 Million a Month as Oracle Waits
Sun Microsystems is losing about $100 million a month according to Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, the company that’s set to acquire Sun. Oracle is waiting to get clearance from European regulators before the deal can go through and Oracle can step in and try to put an end to this loss.
Newspaper Publishers Divided Over Paid Content
So the big guys like Rupert Murdoch and Barry Diller have already told us that paid content for newspapers is the wave of the future.
Facebook and Nielsen Look for What Makes Consumers Tick
Last week Facebook announced that it had surpassed 300 million users, and now the company has announced a strategic partnership with the Nielsen Company. This partnership is aimed at helping marketers better use the web for developing and marketing new products.
The Yahoo Profile Becomes the Social Media Profile
Yahoo is highlighting some new features for its profile pages.The layout of the tabs at the top has changed, and a new one has been added that allows the user to access their account info. In addition, users can mouse over any of the tabs and easily see the options within each one. In other words, you don’t have to leave your profile to find your settings. If you want to use "profile settings," it is still there, but it’s been moved down beside the profile photo.
Apple May Have Some Explaining to Do Over Google Voice
There was a lot of hoopla made regarding Apple’s banning of Google Voice from its App Store. Fingers were pointed, names were (probably) called. Today Google announced that the FCC has made its letter (pdf) available to the public. The letter reveals what Google claims to be the explanation it got from Apple about why it would not accept its Google Voice app (as well as Google Latitude).
Google Gives Webmasters Another Duplicate Content Eliminator
Google has added a new way for webmasters to tell it which parameters in URLS, they wish to be ignored. They have added a new feature to Google Webmaster Tools called simply, "Parameter Handling." Google provides the following explanation with the feature:
Does Google Penalize Paid Links in Javascript?
You may recall back at SMX Seattle earlier this year, Google’s Matt Cutts talked at length about paid links. He touched upon the topic of Google being able to read javascript after giving out advice for so long to use javascript as a way to keep Google from reading paid links.
Internet Payday Lender Fined $1 Million By FTC
Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have announced a settlement has been reached against an international Internet payday lending operation that failed to disclose key loan terms and used illegal debt collection tactics against consumers.
The operation will pay $1 million to settle the State of Nevada and FTC charges for its misleading tactics.
Conversions 11% Higher When Customers See Security
McAfee released results from a study of 163 million online shoppers, and found that the majority of them are "digital window shoppers." In other words, they start shopping on a site, leave for a period of time, then return later to complete the sale.
According to McAfee’s findings, conversions were 11% higher for digital window shoppers who were shown a security cue, and the longer it took a customer to complete a sale, the more responsive they were to security cues.