Digg.com Suffers Under Regime Change
It seems all good things are corrupted or abused eventually. For Digg.com, habitually might be a better choice than eventually. SEOs, thanks to aggressive blackballing by the Digg “bury-brigade,” were perhaps the earliest and most blatantly ostracized group muscled out of the prevailing purist community there—no salesmen allowed. Marketers and PR flaks effectively excommunicated, internal drama is free is to ensue as “powerdiggers” are accused of setting up a Digg.com good ole boy network.
Google Examines Its 2008 Blogging Trends
One of the reasons Google gets so much press coverage is, frankly, that its representatives are so good about discussing corporate developments. And now things have been taken an informative/slightly ridiculous step further with a blog post summing up Google’s blogging habits this year.
Google Clarifies Bounce Rate Confusion
Google clarifies misconceptions about bounce rate, showing its importance and factors influencing it for website owners and digital marketers.
Google Crowd-Sources For Ideas
Google nearly sneaked this one by us. Probably for the best. They wouldn’t want word to get out their actually listening to people—the comments would never cease. In mid-December Google launched the Google Product Ideas blog, focusing initially on ideas for Google Mobile. The initial blog post reads:
Consumer Reports Buys Gawker’s Consumerist
Consumer Reports publisher Consumers Union has acquired Consumerist.com from Nick Denton’s Gawker Media. Consumerist.com will operate independently of Consumer Reports publications, and will reside under a new non-profit entity called Consumer Media LLC.
Coming Soon To Android Market: Priced Apps
Google shouldn’t be surprised if people are unhappy when they’re told they’ll "get" to pay for Android apps; this hardly sounds like an improvement over the price of "free." But priced applications are en route to the Android Market, and the development may have a couple of beneficial effects.
Wikipedia Begging, Needs New Revenue Model
When all is said and done, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales’ legacy is secured. He created one of the best resources of information in history. Keeping that legacy alive, though, may require a new revenue model.
Rumor: Mayer Leaving Google?
This is strictly rumor, but Valleywag is reporting the gossip that one of Google’s more "famous" employees may be on the way out. That would be Vice President of Search Products & User Experience, Marissa Mayer. Owen Thomas at VW writes:Top Googlers, overheard at a holiday party, chattered about Mayer’s departure as a matter of if, not when. And in some ways, it’s surprising she’s stayed as long as she has.
Liberty Media Unloading IAC Shares At Rapid Pace
Liberty Media – and/or its chairman, John Malone – may not have a lot of faith left in Ask.com and other IAC properties. It seems that Liberty Media has selling the company’s stock left and right, unloading 193,100 shares in the last week alone.
Microsoft’s Latest Global Problem
All of the Microsoft haters out there will love this one. When I got up this morning and went to my car to go to the office, I plugged my Zune in to get some tunes on for the drive, and to my dismay, I could not get a single thing to come up on the screen (much less out of the speakers) except the Zune logo. In fact, the device is currently sitting on my desk with the same problem.