Google Expands Reach of Arabic Google News
Google launched four new Arabic versions of Google News for Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. According to Google, there are over 40 million Arabic-speaking Internet users, so you might say these versions of Google News are long overdue.
The Government Could Potentially Take Control Of Twitter
You know how I love a good conspiracy theory, so try this one on for size.
Facebook Hogging The Internet
Facebook has a lot going for it lately.
Digg Elaborates on New Search
Update: Digg shared some more details about how its search feature (relaunched earlier this year) works. Sammy on the company blog says:
" We’re using Apache SOLR/Lucene which helped us scale horizontally and solved many of our relevancy issues as well as enabling discovery of new content through facets. Beyond site search, the rich set of features has allowed us build a platform that enables other features such as Related By Source and Related By Keywords."
Appeals Court Upholds Online Gambling Ban
The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia upheld the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006, rejecting that the law was vague and violated individual privacy rights.
The law was challenged by the Washington, DC-based trade association Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (IMEGA), on behalf of the Internet gambling industry.
Do You Use Bing as a Verb?
Cedric Chambaz, a Marketing Manager at Microsoft, wrote an interesting post on the Microsoft Advertising Blog about the use of Bing as a verb, and more generally, whether it’s a good idea or not for any brand to want to be used generically for its industry.
Digital Lifestyles on the Rise for Americans
Forrester Research conducted a survey, which shows that Americans of all ages are continuing to adopt a digital lifestyle. They surveyed nearly 48,000 people, and the survey includes 1,400 data points and data on 378 US brands. Forrester says this is the largest ongoing survey in the world to explore consumer attitudes, ownership, and use of technology.
US Open Doesn’t Get Twitter!
It’s always humorous when old stodgy sports organizations make a new rule that implicates Twitter as a problem. They usually get it wrong and what happened with the USTA is no exception. The USTA which is the group which runs the US Open Tennis Championship decided that tweets from players during breaks in matches are now banned because they are potentially unfair to gamblers betting on the tennis match!
NFL Looking To Tighten Up Social Media Rules
While it’s probably not fair to attach the “No Fun League” tag to the NFL in this instance it certainly makes for a better headline, so there. The league, which earlier this year linked itself to the US Marine Corps and others by limiting social media use by its ‘employees’ has expanded those terms before the start of the regular season.
Privacy Groups Call For Limits On Behavioral Ads
A coalition of ten consumer and privacy advocacy groups is calling on Congress to limit the ability of companies to offer online behavioral advertising and tracking of Internet users.