Google’s music search gets exclusive songs
Updated
Just in case Lala and MySpace’s partnership with Google isn’t doing enough to boost the music services, the company is announcing that quite a few musicians and record labels are offering exclusive content through Google’s new music search to promote the new feature.
Under the partnership,… Continue Reading
Share button madness: Real-time search startup Topsy launches one of its own
Real-time search startup Topsy launched its own variation on the retweet button today to compete with Tweetmeme’s leading version.
It’s important because the retweet button was one of the distinguishing features that allowed Tweetmeme to break out from the pack of real-time search startups that launched… Continue Reading
Omidyar Network puts $2.4 million into government transparency abroad
Omidyar Network, the philanthropic fund created by eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar, just invested $2.4 million in Global Integrity, a non-profit firm that researches corruption and transparency in developing countries.
Global Integrity has academics, journalists and local contacts on the ground in about 100 countries feeding information… Continue Reading
¡Fue muy rápido! Twitter is now in Spanish
That was fast. About a month after Twitter launched a crowdsourced translations program to tap its burgeoning user base for help, the site’s now available in Spanish, according to co-founder Biz Stone.
The microblogging network has some prominent Twitter users including the Spanish government, basketball player… Continue Reading
Loopt aims for that mobile, social and real-time sweet spot with Pulse
Mobile social network Loopt is getting into the real-time game with Pulse, which will bring recommendations for things to do to depending on where you are and what’s popular at the moment.
It pulls in data from content partners like Zagat, Daily Candy and Thrillist along… Continue Reading
Ribbit challenges Google Voice with Ribbit Mobile
Over the past year, Ribbit, a web-based service that provides a new way to manage calls, messages and phones, has had a flurry of activity, including their acquisition by British Telecom and most recently, their integration of several gadgets with Google Wave allowing voice calls,… Continue Reading
Offers controversy stirs reactions across social networking industry
A relatively obscure part of the social networking business has come into the limelight. It’s about special ads known as “offers” that are used to monetize free social games. These offers are like the ads that promise you a discount on your Amazon.com purchases if… Continue Reading
EmSense, the company that reads your brain’s reactions to ads, gets boost
EmSense — the San Francisco company that has created a device to read your mind to assess how you react to TV commercials and other media — has raised $9 million more in a third round of funding.
The company says it is trying to improve… Continue Reading
Pixetell’s multimedia emails get more customizable
Pixetell is a service that tries to liven up boring, text-based emails by letting you send links to multimedia presentations (incorporating screen recording, voice, documents, and more) to someone’s inbox. It’s like a richer form of email, or an asynchronous web meeting, where people don’t… Continue Reading
Rival eBook reader maker sues Barnes & Noble for allegedly copying eBook reader design
Spring Design has filed a lawsuit against Barnes & Noble, alleging that the bookstore chain copied the features of an electronic book reader that is about to hit the market.
Cupertino, Calif.-based Spring Design said it showed off its Alex eBook reader (right) to B&N under… Continue Reading
Cinema Now movies-on-demand service to be built into Best Buy’s web-connected gadgets
CinemaNow has had moderate success with its movies-on-demand service, which lets users download movies over the web. But it’s announcing a real coup today with the nation’s biggest electronics retailer that could make the digital downloading of movies into a mass market phenomenon.
Best Buy is… Continue Reading
Smart.fm launches a new site and iPhone app to help you learn anything
An ambitious educational site called Smart.fm has made inroads in Japan, and starting today it’s setting its sights on the United States, with a revamped website and a new iPhone application.
Smart.fm’s strong point has been teaching languages, but theoretically you could use its technology to… Continue Reading
Show off those Twitter curation skills with the Lists widget
In a very natural extension of the Lists feature Twitter finally rolled out last week, the company added a widget which lets you embed tweets from an entire list.
Why might this be useful? If you’re a business owner, you might want to show off public… Continue Reading
Vidly’s mobile video app finally gets go-ahead from Apple — two months later
Talk about a long wait.
It took Vidly two months and 17 days (or 6,739,238 seconds by their count) to make it into Apple’s app store.
The San Francisco-based startup, which used to be called TwitVid.io and is backed by angel investors including Ron Conway, released its… Continue Reading
Marvell’s new chips will bring cost of eBooks to under $100
The eBook readers from Amazon.com and Sony have been clunky. They turn pages slowly and don’t have many bells and whistles beyond wireless communications and black-and-white displays. Over time, that’s going to change as chip makers and others apply their talents to new electronic book… Continue Reading
PBWorks speeds up collaboration with real-time tools
Collaboration using PBWorks‘ technology is about to become more fast-paced — the San Mateo, Calif., company plans to add real-time communication and editing to its tools on Nov. 17.
Though it now includes features like document management, the heart of PBWorks platform (as suggested by its… Continue Reading
Video of day two of the Virtual Goods Summit: updates on Asia, Facebook, and the iPhone
Here’s the video we shot on Friday at the Virtual Goods Summit, where we heard how Asia’s virtual goods market is seven times bigger than the U.S., that Facebook developers are worried about its new rules curbing game notifications, and that iPhone developers are excited… Continue Reading
Xobni launches an enterprise version of its improved email inbox
Xobni, the company that improves Microsoft’s email application Outlook by showing you more data about your contacts, is aiming for bigger and bigger customers — it just announced an enterprise version, which includes new features like integration with Salesforce.com’s sales application and Microsoft’s SharePoint collaboration… Continue Reading
Flurry says books surpass game releases on iPhone in September and October
Games have been the No. 1 app on Apple’s iPhone for a while. That was true every month from August 2008 to August 2009. But in September and October, books surpassed games as the No. 1 category of new apps released, according to analytics firm… Continue Reading
Why virtual economies defy the rules of your old college textbooks
Scarcity — it’s the first concept drilled into any beginning economics major. And economics is about the production, distribution and consumption of scarce resources.
But in virtual economies, one could give a farmer unlimited grain and cows. So given that very key difference, if you’re the creator… Continue Reading