Google Books Gets First Non-US eBook Partner
Interread, the British company that owns CoolerBooks.com, has announced a partnership with Google in which it will include over a million public domain books from Google Books in its online library. This makes CoolerBooks the first ebookstore outside the US to partner with Google Books.
Why You May Have Gone a Couple Hours Without Gmail
If you use Gmail, know someone who use Gmail, use Facebook or Twitter, or read blogs or online news, you probably know that Gmail had some problems yesterday. The service experienced a widespread outage, which lasted for about 100 minutes according to Google.
Security Issues Holding Back Social Media’s Potential
Social Media’s rise in popularity has created some very real problems for the Internet and its users. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter have seemingly opened the floodgates to security troubles, and over the past few weeks, this has been accentuated by a number of issues and studies.
Google And SpotMixer Launch TV Ad Contest
Google has partnered with self-service video creation company SpotMixer to offer small and medium sized businesses a chance to win $25,000 worth of free national TV advertising for the "TV for All" video contest on YouTube.
The TV for All contest launches today and runs through October 5. Winners will be announced on October 30. The contest is open to any business with 300 or fewer employees.
Facebook Testing New Type of Ad
Facebook is now testing a new kind of engagement ad. Justin Smith of Inside Facebook found an ad for Chik-fil-A, which requires the user to fill out a form in order to get a free sample.
Smith says the new format is "the most integrated leadgen-style home page ad unit we’ve seen Facebook launch."
Google Wave To Splash Down This Fall
There’s fresh word this afternoon about when (and to whom) Google Wave will become available. Schools and businesses that use Google Apps appear to be first in a line that should start moving this fall.
eBay Finds Buyer For Skype
The New York Times is reporting that eBay has a deal to sell Skype thus ending a rather tragic acquisition saga that began in 2005 when eBay ‘won’ in their fight with Google and Yahoo to buy the Internet phone service.
MySpace And Facebook Top Social Networking Sites For Display Ads
Social networking sites in the U.S. accounted for more than 20 percent of all display ads viewed online in July, with MySpace and Facebook combining to serve more than 80 percent of ads, according to a new report from comScore.
"Over the past few years, social networking has become one of the most popular online activities, accounting for a significant portion of the time Internet users spend online and the pages they consume," said Jeff Hackett, comScore senior vice president.
US Ad Spending Saw 15% Decline in Early ’09
A report from Nielsen indicates that ad spending in the United States fell 15.4% in the first half of the year, compared to the first half of last year. Preliminary estimates show that US ad expenditures fell over $10.3 billion to a total of $56.9 billion.
"While some of the larger categories have cut back spending, we see others that continue to raise the ante on their media investments," said Annie Touliatos, VP for Nielsen’s advertising information services.
Google Adds “Real-Time” Suggestions to Google News
Google has added its Google Suggest feature to Google News in its English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish versions. Now when you go to search for something on Google News, Google will attempt to guess what you may be searching for.