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April 26, 2009 - May 2, 2009

Google Analytics Pro Toolset Prefers Firefox To Chrome

Seems many tech savvy people have a preference for Firefox, even Google touts using it as opposed to Chrome when employing their recommendations for analytic pro tools of the trade.

The plugins for Firefox are its attraction, something Chrome has yet to develop.

Last year, employees at Microsoft were found to be using the Mosiac browser. Seems Firefox will be continuing to grab market share, especially with their competitors recommending them.

Posted by Frank Watson on April 30, 2009, 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Microsoft Live Blog Starts SEM Instruction

The people over at the Microsoft Live Search blog have started a series of SEM posts intended to help train people.

The SEM 101 posts are intended "to help folks who suddenly find themselves responsible for promoting their organization's website. I've seen many visitors in the forums who ask basic questions, so I know there is an audience for this line of articles. I personally know many folks in my life outside work (there is such a thing, right?) who manage websites for their businesses but know little-to-nothing of SEM."

I will be keeping an eye on how these posts develop and what level of information is shared. It is always interesting to watch the keeper of the algorithm help people improve there position in the results without tipping their hands to the factors influencing the algorithm.

Posted by Frank Watson on April 30, 2009, 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gmail Labs Keeps Search Inside Mail Interface

Google has developed a search box that will appear on the left-hand navigation to save people having to tab out and opening another search box while using Gmail.

I have had similar situations as the one described in the Gmail blog:

"I used to have a problem. People would ask me questions, over chat or email, and I'd have to leave Gmail to search Google for an answer. Then I'd have to select the answer, copy it, go back to Gmail and paste the answer into the chat window or my reply. Sometimes I'd get distracted and forget to go back to Gmail, and I'd have to go through it all again when I remembered what I'd been doing."

You can add it through the Gmail Labs settings and is very handy, as the picture shows below.

As the image shows you can then choose to drop the result you want into chat or an email.

Thanks Google this one will be very handy.

Posted by Frank Watson on April 30, 2009, 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

First Was By Land, Now It's By Sea - Google's New Data Centers

William Slawski, of SEO by the Sea, appropriately was the one who is reporting that Google is working on developing sea-based data centers that use hydroelectricity harnessed from floating platforms.

The idea is a clever one - very green and very smart. The water can also be used for cooling. The patent filed in 2007 and granted April 28, 2009 details "a system (that) includes a floating platform-mounted computer data center comprising a plurality of computing units, a sea-based electrical generator in electrical connection with the plurality of computing units, and one or more sea-water cooling units for providing cooling to the plurality of computing units."

Such technology could give a new name to "piracy".

Posted by Frank Watson on April 30, 2009, 9:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yahoo! Tops March 2009 Mobile Benchmark Study by Gomez and dotMobi

Gomez and dotMobi have collaborated on mobile benchmarks, and for the mobile search category, Yahoo! snagged first place overall in March 2009.

There were five categories used to measure. Yahoo! tied for first place in two of them: discoverability and readability. Here's the five categories and how they're measured:

Discoverability -- how readily a consumer can find the mobile Web site using different URLs.
Readiness -- how well the mobile Web site renders on popular mobile devices.
Availability -- the percentage of successful transactions or the availability of a Web page.
Response time -- how long each page takes to download and the duration of an entire transaction.
Consistency -- how well the mobile Web site performs on different mobile carriers, in different geographies and time frames.

Here are the results:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 30, 2009, 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Twitter's Retention Numbers Exposes Loyalty Problem

With all the buzz about Twitter lately, Nielsen Online exposes a problem: retention and loyalty. It seems that 60% of Twitter users never return the next month to Tweet. Compared to the retention rates of MySpace and Facebook, Twitter is lagging:

They also did some fancy pants math to show the correlation between retention and Internet reach:

What do you think of the Nielsen data? Is Twitter ultimately in trouble? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 30, 2009, 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Google Enables Public Data Search

If you're a numbers, geography or news junkie, then you'll love a new feature released by Google to its main search engine. It enables searches for public data. Type in population followed by a county and you'll get data for that. Type in unemployment rate followed by a location and, again, you'll get data for that. Those data types are available for almost any U.S state or county. Google hopes to make more public data available for such easy searching in the future.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 30, 2009, 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Microsoft to Bring Tellme to Windows Mobile Phones

Microsoft is bringing Tellme, a voice service it acquired a couple years ago, to Windows Mobile phones. Tellme will enable voice search as well as voice commands for the phones it's used on.

Here are examples of how you'll be able to use Tellme:

Send a text by saying "text" to open a text box, then speak the text message and say "send" to send it to anyone in their contact list
Initiate a call simply by saying "call" and then the name of anyone in their contact list
Search the Web with Microsoft Live Search by speaking your request, such as "weather in San Francisco, California," "pizza in Kansas City," "movies" or "Mother's Day gift ideas"

"Because it's so intuitive, we believe there is a real opportunity for voice to materialize as the leading user interface for the phone," said Dariusz Packzuski, senior director of consumer services at Tellme. "By bringing voice access to calling, texting and searching, together we reduce 'menu surfing' on phones and make the benefits of voice more tangible for everyday needs."

Microsoft is hoping this is part of the equation to ultimately beat the iPhone. Part of their push with Tellme is to point out that pushing one button and speaking is easier than typing 20 keystrokes.

What do you think of Tellme being rolled out to Windows Mobile phones?

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 30, 2009, 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jeff Levick Named Head of AOL Global Advertising and Strategy

In a press release this morning, AOL announced that Jeff Levick will join the company as President, Global Advertising and Strategy.

Platform A.jpg In this new and expanded role, Levick will be responsible for Platform-A, AOL's advertising business, as well as developing global revenue strategies. Levick comes to AOL from Google, where he was most recently VP of Industry Development and Marketing, The Americas. He will report directly to AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong.

As a result of this change, Greg Coleman will be leaving Platform-A, where he has served as President since early February 2009.

Levick will officially join AOL in the coming weeks. At Google, he was responsible for business marketing activities for the Americas as well as sales development and strategy for all of the vertical industries covered by Google's Americas sales organization. He joined Google in 2001 and has held various executive management positions in the company's advertising sales organization in both North America and Europe.

Jeff Levick SES Advisory Board.jpg Prior to joining Google, Levick served as a corporate attorney with a specialty in mergers and acquisitions at the international law firm of Katten Muchin Rosenman, and held roles at various online ventures in Chicago. He currently serves on the board of directors of Helium.com, the advisory board of the College of Communications at DePaul University, and as a member of the SES advisory board.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on April 30, 2009, 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Clay Shirky, Author of "Here Comes Everybody", to Keynote at SES San Jose

Okay, I understand that it's hard to think beyond the current quarter. But, looking ahead to August could save you up to $600. Let me explain.

Search Engine Strategies San Jose will be held August 11-14, 2009. It is expected to attract approximately 6,000 marketing executives, managers, professionals, specialists and consultants this year.

Now in its 11th year, SES San Jose 2009 is organized and programmed by the SES Advisory Board and Search Engine Watch. The event, which is the largest search engine marketing conference and expo on the West Coast, will be packed with more than 70 sessions, multiple keynotes and Orion panels, over 150 exhibitors, networking events, parties and more.

And, if you register through May 8, you can save up to $600 with the early bird rate.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Now, it has just been announced that Clay Shirky, author of "Here Comes Everybody," will be one of the keynote speakers at SES San Jose.

Clay Shirky.jpeg Shirky is a writer, educator, and consultant on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. He is an adjunct professor at New York University (NYU) in their graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program, where he teaches courses on the interrelationships of social and technological networks, particularly how they shape culture and vice-versa. He consults to a variety of organizations on network technologies, and is an acknowledged expert on collaboration tools, social networks, peer-to-peer sharing, collaborative filtering, and Open Source development.

Shirky has spoken and written extensively on the Internet since 1996, with regular columns in Business 2.0, FEED, OpenP2P.com and his own shirky.com blogsite. He has appeared in The New York Times, Time, The Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, and others. In his new book, "Here Comes Everybody", he explores how organizations and industries are being upended by open networks, collaboration, and user appropriation of content production and dissemination.

In a press release issued this morning, Matt McGowan, Vice President and Publisher for Incisive Media's Interactive Marketing Group, which includes Search Engine Strategies, Search Engine Watch and the ClickZ Network, said, "More than 60 percent of the content at SES San Jose 2009 will be focused on topics that search engine marketing (SEM), pay per click (PPC) advertising, and search engine optimization (SEO) professionals, specialists and consultants need to know. That's what makes SES San Jose a must-attend event year after year."

McGowan added, "As more and more businesses move ever greater amounts of their traditional marketing budgets into search engine marketing, we've also seen growing interest from marketing executives and managers in sessions that tackle a broader set of business issues. That's why we're delighted to have Clay Shirky as a keynote speaker at our conference in San Jose, which is home to the largest concentration of successful internet and high-tech companies in the world."

So, if you plan to attend the largest search engine marketing conference and expo on the West Coast, then register through May 8. If you do, you can save up to $600 with the early bird rate.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on April 30, 2009, 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another DOJ Antitrust Investigation for Google, This Time for Book Search Settlement

Months after Google pulled out of a search ad deal with Yahoo! due to a Department of Justice antitrust investigation, the search engine is facing a similar battle - this time with its Book Search settlement.

You may remember that Google reached an agreement with Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) last October. The deal would resolve a long-standing class-action lawsuit brought by the group. A court still needs to approve the deal, and a hearing is scheduled for October 7, 2009 (rescheduled from June 11).

Critics fear that the agreement would give Google an exclusive license to profit from millions of books, including orphan books where the authors cannot be contacted or whose rights are unknown.

However, on Google's site set up to address questions and inquiries regarding the settlement (Googlebooksettlement.com), Google says its rights are non-exclusive.

An inquiry doesn't mean that the DOJ will nix the settlement. But the DOJ does share some of the aforementioned concerns of critics, despite Google's assurance that the deal is non-exclusive.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 29, 2009, 5:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hulu Surpasses Yahoo Sites in Online Video Race for March 2009

Looks like the momentum created by an ad campaign that began during the Superbowl continues to bring a boost to Hulu. The online video joint effort by NBC and Fox landed in the top 3 video sites in March 2009, something comScore says is a first. Hulu pushed Yahoo! sites to position number 4. Google, with its ownership of YouTube, and Fox Interactive, with its ownership of MySpace, still dominated the top two spots respectively:

More juicy data nuggets from the March 2009 online video space include:

77.8 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
The average online video viewer watched 327 minutes of video, or nearly 5.5 hours.
99.7 million viewers watched 5.9 billion videos on YouTube.com (59.1 videos per viewer).
47.4 million viewers watched 349 million videos on MySpace.com (7.4 videos per viewer).
Hulu accounted for 2.6 percent of videos viewed, but 4.9 percent of all minutes spent watching online video.
The duration of the average online video was 3.4 minutes.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 29, 2009, 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Zillow Release iPhone Real Estate Search App

Zillow has released an iPhone app for real estate searching on-the-go. All of the same data available on Zillow is available on the app. Zillow uses Microsoft virtual earth for its mapping.

"Researching homes and house-hunting is inherently a mobile experience," said Rich Barton, Zillow co-founder and CEO. "The GPS-enabled iPhone untethers our Zillow users from their computers and puts the power of our database of 88 million homes in their hands when they need it most - while they are looking at homes."

Here are screenshots of the app:

(Listing for my dream house here in Raleigh.)

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 29, 2009, 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Microsoft Offers Vine, Social Media For Important Personal Info

Microsoft announced the beta launch of Vine - a social media platform for personal information sharing. As the site states: "The Microsoft Vine Beta connects you to the people and places you care about most, when it matters."

While it may be in beta as an emergency Twitter like app, the potential for this could eventually become a challenge to Facebook as well as Twitter. It has the potential to set up, through its interface, as a tracking and mapping networking tool that combines elements of both of those programs.

Posted by Frank Watson on April 29, 2009, 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

AOL Ad Revenues Drop 20% in Q1 2009

Time Warner, parent company of AOL, has reported their first quarter earnings for 2009 and the news isn't great for AOL. Ad revenues have dropped 20% or $109 million. The losses largely contributed to the 7% decline parent company Time Warner experienced overall.

The losses added to Time Warner's desire to rid itself of AOL.

"With our separation of Time Warner Cable, Time Warner has become a more content-focused company. We're also working to determine the right ownership structure for AOL," said Time Warner Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes. "With our powerful brands, industry-leading scale, track record of innovation, heightened focus on efficiency and strong balance sheet, I'm confident that we'll continue to make progress toward our key long-term goals - to be the world's leading content company and improve returns to our stockholders."

After shopping itself to potential buyers, Time Warner appears to be posed to spin off the struggling internet company. Time Warner has notified Google of its intent to purchase their 5% stock in AOL.

AOL recently hired Tim Armstrong, former Google Senior Vice President, as CEO.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 29, 2009, 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo Fires Them On The Road, Hundreds Get Axe Today

Looks like no one can hide from the Yahoo axe today. Last week it was going to be 700, today the number is 600 - but people are being aggressively laid off - apparently even employees on the road are getting notification of termination, according to Silicon Alley Insider.

Morale must be low over at Yahoo right now, especially after CEO Carol Bartz stated, ""You have three people telling project engineers what to do, and nobody's fucking doing anything," during an analyst earnings call last week, CNN Money reported.

Stock prices have risen about 4% today - similar to the reaction to the layoff announcement last week. Sad if layoff notifications are the only time the stock gets spikes.

Posted by Frank Watson on April 29, 2009, 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

IAC Acquires Restaurant Recommendation Guide Urbanspoon

IAC, parent company of Ask.com, has acquired Urbanspoon. The restaurant recommendation is a website as well as one of the more popular iPhone apps. Urbanspoon will remain an independent brand, but its content will be integrated with other IAC properties such as Citysearch and InsiderPages.

"With a dedicated and comprehensive focus on restaurants, Urbanspoon is a pioneer in the online and mobile space with a truly unique, innovative and consumer-friendly product," said Jay Herratti, CEO of Citysearch. "Aggregating content from across the web and blending it with distinctive features including a polling system to rank restaurants, Urbanspoon is expanding the realm of what's possible for consumers when it comes to finding local content on the web."

You may remember Urbanspoon from some of the earlier iPhone commercials demonstrating apps once the App Store was open. It looks like a slot machine, except you get to choose which items you want (though you can shake for a random recommendation.)

"With millions of downloads of their iPhone app, Urbanspoon has demonstrated that they can successfully distill mash-up web content and deliver it through mobile for foodies and local restaurant seekers alike," said Dinesh Moorjani, SVP of Mobile for IAC.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 29, 2009, 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google Starts Small Business Network to Influence Government

Google has started an initiative called the "Small Business Network" which is designed to influence legislation regarding business. One of the first actions is to attempt to have a say on the $7 billion from the recent stimulus bill that is set aside for broadband.

Another important issue for the network will be promoting an open internet. This is something Google has been promoting for awhile, with its involvement in last year's spectrum auction, their support for freeing up white space tv spectrum, and their participation in the Internet for Everyone Initiative.

Of course, Google already has an ear with the President. Google CEO Eric Schmidt was recently appointed to President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 29, 2009, 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Updates AdSense Program Policies Page

Google has made some clarifications to its AdSense Program Policies. Straight from the horses mouth (aka the Inside AdSense blog), here they are:

Google brand violations: This policy has always existed in our Terms and Conditions, but we've now brought it directly to the 'Ad Placement' section of the program policies page so that it's easier to find. According to this policy, we don't allow ads or search boxes to be placed on pages which misuse Google logos, trademarks, or other brand features in the page content or URL, and which could mislead users into thinking the page is associated with Google.

Deceptive implementations: We've clarified this policy a bit in the 'Encouraging Clicks' section of the program policies - ads may not be formatted in a way that makes them indistinguishable from other content on the page where they appear.

Ad placement in emails and email programs: This updated policy clarifies that Google ads , search boxes, and search results may not be placed in emails, as well as alongside emails.

Other Google products' policies: With this new policy, publishers aren't permitted to place ads, search boxes, or search results on, within, or alongside other Google products in a way that violates the policies of that other product or service. For instance, this would include placing ads on sites which allow users to download YouTube videos, which isn't permitted by the YouTube Terms of Service.

What do you think of the changes? Let us know in the comments section below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 29, 2009, 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Eric Schmidt and Craig Mundie Named to President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer have been named to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). The council is comprised of scientists and engineers who will advise President and Vice President on policy involving science, technology, and innovation.

"This council represents leaders from many scientific disciplines who will bring a diversity of experience and views," said President Obama. "I will charge PCAST with advising me about national strategies to nurture and sustain a culture of scientific innovation."

Schmidt and Mundie join the following members named to PCAST:

John Holdren, serving as co-chair of PCAST, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy
Eric Lander, serving as a co-chair of PCAST, Director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Professor of Biology at MIT, Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School and member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Harold Varmus, serving as co-chair of PCAST, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Rosina Bierbaum, Dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan
Christine Cassel, President and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine
Christopher Chyba, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences and International Affairs at Princeton University and a member of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control of the National Academy of Sciences
S. James Gates Jr., John S. Toll Professor of Physics and Director of the Center for String and Particle Theory at the University of Maryland
Shirley Ann Jackson, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and former Chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (1995-1999)
Richard Levin, President of Yale University
Chad Mirkin, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, and Medicine at Northwestern University, and Director of Northwestern's International Institute of Nanotechnology
Mario Molina, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, as well as Director of the Mario Molina Center for Energy and Environment in Mexico City
Ernest J. Moniz, Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, Director of the Energy Initiative, and Director of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment at MIT
William Press, Professor of Computer Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin
Maxine Savitz, vice-president of the National Academy of Engineering, retired general manager of Technology Partnerships at Honeywell, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Conservation in the US Department of Energy
Barbara Schaal is Professor of Biology at Washington University in St Louis and Vice President of the National Academy of Sciences
Daniel Schrag, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University and Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
David E. Shaw, chief scientist of D. E. Shaw Research, LLC, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves on the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Academies
Ahmed Zewail, Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Caltech and Director of the Physical Biology Center

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 28, 2009, 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Launches New Information Site for Advertisers

"Google for Advertisers" is a brand new site from the search engine giant, and as the title suggests, it's all about information for advertisers. Specifically, there are four primary things advertisers can do and learn on the site, per the Inside AdWords blog:

Read up on our various media platforms. Get descriptions of Google's ad platforms and all of the supporting tools.

Take a ride on 'The Marketing Cycle.' Learn how Google's solutions can be applied across the stages of an advertising campaign, including strategy, creative, media deployment, measurement and optimization.

Stick it to a marketing objective. Google created a fictional marketing example (Pet Stick) to demonstrate how their tools work to solve specific goals.

Build your personal 'toolkit.' When browsing the site, save Google tools that interest you by adding them to an online toolkit. It makes it easy to go back to them and share them with your colleagues.

What do you think about the new Google for Advertisers? Leave a comment below and let us know.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 28, 2009, 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Live Search Adds Traffic Service to 411 Offerings

Live Search launched phone-based search offerings in October of 2007. Since then, with updates, the service offers business search, driving directions, sports, stock quotes, weather, movie times, gas prices, and travel information.

Now they're adding another topic to the list: Traffic. To access the service, dial 1-800-CALL-411 and ask for Traffic. Users can save their start and end points to access quick traffic info in the future by saying, for example, "Home to Work."

The information provided includes traffic incidents, slowdowns and an estimated drive time. The Traffic 411 service is powered by INRIX

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 28, 2009, 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Emanuel Rosen, Author of "The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited", to Give Keynote at SES Toronto

I'm looking forward to interviewing Emanuel Rosen, the author of "The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited", who will give a keynote presentation at SES Toronto 2009. I also look forward to reading his book.

Emanuel Rosen.jpg Rosen is the author of the national bestseller "The Anatomy of Buzz" (Doubleday, 2000) and "The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited" (Doubleday, 2009) has more good stories.

Prior to writing these books, he was VP Marketing at Niles Software, where he was responsible for launching and marketing the company's flagship product EndNote, which spread to a large extent by word of mouth. It was during this time that he became interested in buzz and especially in how it can be accelerated.

Rosen started his career as a copywriter in Israel. For his work in advertising, he won the Bronze Lion from the Cannes International Advertising Festival, as well as several national awards including two gold medals. He holds an MBA from the University of San Francisco and lives in Menlo Park, California. The Anatomy of Buzz "has managed to generate quite a bit of buzz itself" as BusinessWeek Online noted. The book hit The Wall Street Journal's business best-seller list and is now available in 12 languages.

This year, SES Toronto 2009 will be held at the Sheraton Centre Toronto June 8-10, 2009. The largest search engine marketing conference in Canada is organized and programmed in cooperation with the SES Advisory Board, Search Engine Watch and Andrew Goodman, the founder and president of Toronto-based Page Zero Media.

According to Goodman, "This year, SES Toronto is being held at the Sheraton Centre on Queen Street West. As always it promises to be the digital marketing event of the year in Canada. With the help of the Incisive Media team, great speakers, and sponsors, we're teeing up another great program to help companies forge through these choppy economic waters with the ultimate in targeted, accountable marketing. And as always, the networking, rooftop tanning, and cultural opportunities are just icing on the cake."

For more information about SES Toronto 2009, go to rates and registration details. Register through May 22 to save $150 CAD with the advance rate. To follow news about SES Toronto 2009 on Twitter, go to http://twitter.com/SES_Toronto.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on April 28, 2009, 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Android 1.5 SDK Officially Released

A couple of weeks ago, Google let developers get an early-look release of the new Android 1.5 SDK in order to start prepping their apps for the updated platform. Today, Android 1.5 is officially released.

Click here to see the release notes.

The Android team also said that HTC, the manufacturer of the Android powered G1, has made new system images available to upgrade dev phones to Android 1.5.

Hmm, perhaps some of you developers out there will be creating a new Android app with Facebook's new Open Stream API?

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 27, 2009, 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Facebook Launches Open Stream API

In the ongoing chess match for social media dominance, Facebook just made a move that is akin to saying "Check." Today, they launched Facebook Open Stream API.

This means developers can create apps based on the live feeds that users see when they log into Facebook. Users, however, can maintain the privacy controls that they want.

If you're familiar with the many desktop and mobile clients for Twitter, then you know what's coming - desktop and mobile apps for Facebook.

In fact, many are saying Facebook did this to compete directly with Twitter. What say you, oh dear SEW readers? Leave thy comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 27, 2009, 1:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Former Adobe Exec Heads to Yahoo!

Former Adobe exec Bryan Lamkin has been tapped by Yahoo! to become SVP of Applications Products, according to Kara Swisher. Lamkin replaces Scott Dietzen, who came to Yahoo! via the Zimbra acquisition in 2007. Dietzen is being promoted to VP.

Lamkin spent 14 years at Adobe leading product strategy, marketing and product development for products such as Photoshop, Flash and Illustrator. He then became executive-in-residence at two venture capitalist firms: New Enterprise Associates and Sutter Hill Ventures.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 27, 2009, 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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