Matt Marshall over at Venture Beat has a post up about Friendster with a “returning from the dead” kind of vibe: Matt points out that the site — which is kind of the poster boy for early social-networking success, followed by equally rapid failure — has had what he calls a “massive” 40-per-cent jump in page views in May, to 9 billion (Facebook gets about 11 billion a month).
YouTube France Coming June 19th?
Google will hold a Press Day in Paris on June 19th. Marissa Mayer and CEO Eric Schmidt will be there, among others, and we can expect they’ll bring some product or feature announcements with them (Tony Ruscoe will go to Paris to cover this for us, and I’ll be blogging from Germany). One of those new services, as rumor has it, will be the launch of European versions of YouTube, like YouTube France*.
The Coming Content Wars
A few days ago, a report showed that Internet advertising was up 35% last year, hitting almost $17 billion. It’s been almost a year since we reported, “Web Advertising Spending Too Low,” and it looks like advertisers are starting to close the gap.
Microhoo Not Coming to Fruition
Om Malik and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that the much talked about Microsoft/Yahoo rumors won’t come to fruition and that the talks are off.
Google: The British Are Coming For GMail!
The company that recently won the rights to the GMail trademark in the UK has taken its case Stateside. And if Independent International Investment Research (IIIR) is successful claiming its stake to GMail in the US as well, your @gmail.com address could change to @googlemail.com instead.
Free Microsoft Analytics Coming
Search Engine Guide writes that Microsoft has confirmed code name: “Gatineau”, a free website analytics package that will roll out later this year.
Office 2007 Mac Converters Coming Soon
Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit announced Tuesday that their timetable has them releasing file converters to read Office 2007 file formats in older Mac versions of Office sometime this Spring, probably late March/early April.
Office Live Coming Nov. 15 (With Increased Storage)
Microsoft has announced the final release of Office Live will be on November 15, bringing a great set of web services to small businesses at low (or no) cost.
TV & Movies Coming Soon to Xbox
Microsoft has announced plans to offer up video content to Xbox users in standard and high definition formats beginning November 22, the one-year anniversary of the Xbox 360 launch. This move makes the Xbox 360 the first gaming console to offer television and movie content as a direct download to users.
Gmail: Coming to a Mobile Device Near You
Today, Google announced the launch of a new mobile client for its increasingly popular Gmail service. The client is designed to give users the same look and feel that they experience in using Gmail for the web, but with the portability and ease of use that mobile technology offers.