Ballmer: Vista A Work In Progress
Microsoft’s CEO admits what thousands of techies have thought of the company for years: they toss stuff into the user community and need a couple of additional releases to make it work.
Botched Debate Draws Complaints By Thousands
In case you thought you were alone, you’re not the only one miffed* at ABC’s Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos after last night’s "debate." Over 16,000 people have commented so far at ABCNews.com’s debate page—and most of it’s not good.
Google Website Optimizer & Urchin 6 Come Out To Play
It sometimes seems like beta tags hang around Google’s products forever. That’s no longer the case, though, at least as far as Google Website Optimizer and Urchin 6 are concerned.
Google Kills Estimates
Google shares spiked by over 18 percent in after hours trading, about the same time the search giant’s earnings report hit. The dramatic rise is attributed to a trouncing of Wall Street estimates.Google reported revenues of $5.19 billion for Q1 2008, or $3.7 billion after traffic-acquisition costs, pulling in a non-GAAP earnings per share of $4.84. Analysts had predicted $3.61 billion in revenues and an EPS of $4.52.
Twitter Account And Googleplex Tour On eBay
It started with Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron putting his Twitter account up for auction on eBay. He had 1,500 followers then and at last check he’s at 1,757.
Global PC Shipments Remain Solid
Global PC shipments grew by 14.6 percent to 69.5 million units in the first quarter of 2008, which beat previous estimates of 13.2 percent according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker.The U.S. market showed signs of the economic slowdown, but growth remained positive at 3.5 percent for the quarter. The other international markets compensated for the U.S. coming in more than 2 points above estimates due to continued strength in developing countries.
Search Engines Increasingly Important To Video Sites
Video sites should thank comedy shows, car magazines, and news anchors for traffic – they’ve been plugged by all of them. Search engines and social networks also belong on that list, though, and new Hitwise data shows that they’re about even in terms of significance.
Lonelygirl15 Creators Grab $5 Million
The minds behind the smash made-for-the-Web series lonelygirl15 and, more recently, KateModern, have formed EQAL (a la "equal"), a web video content production company with Series A backing of $5 million.Spark Capital, which includes names like Conrad Riggs, Ron Conway, Marc Andreesen and George Harik, leads the way in funding.
House Bill Would Ban The Use Of Cell Phones On Planes
A new bill has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would ban the use of mobile voice calls while flying in planes.The new bill co-sponsored by democrat House Representative Pete DeFazio of Oregon, is called the "Hang Up Act" and would still allow text messaging and Web browsing to be used.Currently the FCC does not permit in-flight voice calls and has put the issue on hold since March 2007.
Flickr Gives Developers A Friendly Nudge
There’s a bit of a conceptual gap between code and pretty pictures, so we wouldn’t have guessed that there would be a lot of overlap between the developer and photographer crowds. Still, Flickr’s going to see how many people it can serve with a new developer website and blog.