Thursday, September 8, 2011
Google announced that it has acquired Zagat, the world's leader in restaurant reviews.
Marissa Mayer, VP, Local, Maps and Location Services announced via a post on their official blog about the acquirement news.
She wrote,
Zagat via an announcement
"ZAGAT GOT GOOGLED - This may be the most important announcement in our 32 years of business: We have been acquired by another great company, Google. "
Zagat was founded back in 1979, and, according to the company, now includes ratings and reviews submitted by 350,000 ‘surveyors’ around the world.
Its a great news for all the Google lovers.
Share the information with your friends and do post comments.
Cheers,
Team
[via Google Official]
Thursday, September 8, 2011 Comments
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Jason Goldman co-founder of twitter are joining as investors and partners with tony stubblebine to release a new product "Lift"
Their company The Obvious Corporation revealed this information on their website as "Unlocking Potential"
They said "Tony Stubblebine and Jon Crosby have created an interesting new application for unlocking human potential through positive reinforcement. We love this software for what it does, and because we’ve tried it and it works. Our plan is to build something extraordinary together. The Obvious Corporation will assist the talented Lift team with strategy, design, funding, recruiting—in general, we’ll be helpful wherever possible. In exchange, Obvious will own some equity in Lift."
Stubblebine said "In 2001, I was working in St. Louis with an awesome team of web developers. One of those developers, Jon Crosby, ended up coming out to the Bay Area and working for some great companies: Songbird, EngineYard, and Path. We’ve kept up our friendship and have been looking for a chance to start a company together. Today, 10 years after our first job together, we’re joining forces to co-found Lift."
You can go on the beta link here Lift.
After signing up, you will receive an email as:
Hey there, thanks for signing up for the Lift Beta!
We're not ready to let people in yet, but when we are, we'll make sure you get an early invite.
What is Lift? We're interested in ways new technology can help unlock human potential, especially through the use of positive reinforcement. That's all we can tell you right now.
So, since we don't have a ton to tell you about Lift the product, here's a little bit about Lift the company:
We're a small San Francisco-based startup. There are three of us full time, Tony Stubblebine (me), Jon Crosby, and Connor Montgomery. We also have some part-time support from the folks at Obvious. If you want to get in touch with us, I'm probably the best person to reach: tony@lift.do
Look forward to connecting with you again soon!
Tony Stubblebine
CEO/Co-founder
http://lift.do
With the popularity and interest developing day by day in Social Networking no one wants to stay behind.
It seems we will soon get to see another social networking platform, but will it be able to attract users?
Answer is may be, only if it provides something new, interesting and user friendly.
What are your views on "Lift"
Do post comments.
Cheers,
Team
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 Comments
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Skype, one of the most popular online phone client, has agreed to acquire GroupMe, a provider of mobile group messaging services that helps users stay in touch and make decisions.
Skype’s CEO Tony Bates announced it on the blog via a post and said "I'm delighted to announce we're acquiring GroupMe, a provider of mobile group messaging services that helps users stay in touch and make decisions.This acquisition is another step towards our vision to provide a global multi-modal and multi-platform communications experience. It complements our existing leadership in voice and video communications by providing best in class mobile text-based communications and innovative features around group messaging that enable users to connect, share locations and photos and make plans with their closest ties."
The GroupMe is one of the popular group messaging service that works across mobile devices and platforms. GroupMe is the easiest way to start conversations and keep in touch with your real life network. It's totally free, and it works on every phone. It will make a perfect addition to Skype with its voice, video and text products.
GroupMe sends more than 100 million texts per month and has a few million users.
Jared Hecht, GroupMe's Co-Founder also pointed out that their goal is to continue developing tools that make it easier for people to communicate, share, and stay in touch with their close and important ties.
This acquisition of GroupMe from Skype will lead to benefit both the companies as Skype will get to integrate group messaging and from GroupMe's point of view it help the company to increase its hold as the competition is increasing day by day from Google+, Facebook's messages and also from Apple.
How do you see this move from both the companies?
Please do leave a comment for ur to share your views.
Cheers,
Team
Sunday, August 21, 2011 Comments
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Google+ has started rolling out "Verified name" tag/badge for the user profiles, verifying them as genuine.
To make ensure the real name policy of Google+ is followed and taken seriously by the users, Google+ makes an statement via issuing the badge. This effort will also help Google+ to reduce the number of spams on the network.
Wen-Ai Yu from Google informed users about the update in a post on Google+. She said "We’re starting to roll out verification badges on profiles so you can be sure the person you’re adding to a circle is who they claim to be."
She also said "For now, we’re focused on verifying public figures, celebrities, and people who have been added to a large number of Circles, but we’re working on expanding this to more folks."
She also posted a video to show users how the "Verification Badges" look like.
Watch the video here:
Google has been suspending account of users whom profile name does not goes with the policy. Many of the celebs were issued the "verified name" tag.
Still were are not sure how Google+ is issuing the tag.
Many of the blogs posted pointing out that many of the celebs and public figures like Mark Zuckerberg, Kevin Rose and Tom Anderson were not issues the tag.
Why so? Mark has one of most number of followers(around 469014) on Google+, still not badge for him?
There are lot of questions to be answered about the policy. Are you satisfied with this roll-out from Google+?
Please share your views with us.
Cheers,
Team
Saturday, August 20, 2011 Comments
Friday, August 19, 2011
You must be thinking that Facebook or Twitter drives most traffic than anyone. YOU ARE WRONG. StumbleUpon drives more than 50% of social media traffic in US.
StumbleUpon founder and CEO Garrett Camp tweeted "StumbleUpon now drives over 50% of all social referral traffic to US websites! "
The Tweet show the STATS for Top 7 Social Media sites from March 09 to August 11.
You can see more details about Stats here..
StumbleUpon is a discovery engine that finds and recommends web content to its users. Its features allow users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos that are personalized to their tastes and interests using peer-sourcing and social-networking principles.
It seems that StumbleUpon is achieving what it truly deserves. It provides one of the best ways to Social Media. Now becoming one of the powerful sources in the area.
Does StumbleUpon Provides Relevant content?
TheWebCrunch feels it provides for sure. It provides one of the best content of pages to users.
What do you think about this? Do you use StumbleUpon?
Please share your views with us.
Cheers,
Team
Friday, August 19, 2011 Comments
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Facebook Today has started the update to their left side navigation bar which improves user experience with enhanced bookmarks and notifications for Pages, Groups and Apps.
The Updates were announced last week officially on Facebook developer blog Making Apps on Facebook more engaging and social by Bruce Rogers.
The new version of the navigation is divided into four groups: Favorites, Pages, Groups and Apps. Favorites includes direct links to popular Facebook features such as News Feed or Events. The Pages and Groups sections each list the two most popular Pages and Groups you use, along with a notifications number to the right-hand side. Game Requests and App Requests look almost identical to the previous version of the navigation menu.
Improvements on Homepage Bookmark
Update provides the number and order of bookmarks in the groups and apps section dynamic for each user. Update also added the ability to add bookmarks to a “Favorites” section which appears at the top of all bookmarks to make it even easier for users to get back to the apps and games that they love.
Quality Distribution
Bruce Says "Our goal with News Feed is to surface the most relevant stories to users from their friends, including high quality content from apps. We’ve begun rolling out a new ranking system that better surfaces app stories to the people who will most likely to engage with it, including those who don’t already use the app. Apps that post stream content which results in high user engagement will see more impressions for their stories. Conversely apps whose content is frequently hidden or marked as spam will see lower impressions. You should focus on publishing higher quality content and track user interaction in the Insights Dashboard to optimize for this system."
This update has restructured Facebook navigation menu. Do you like it?
Please share your comments with us.
To get started with new APIs and Fluid Canvas, refer to the documentation on our Developer Site. Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback in the comments below.
Cheers,
Team
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 Comments
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Microsoft introduced Windows 8 Blog, promises to release Tech details. A Twitter account is also on air to keep partners and customers better updated with the development and progress of its next operating system. 
Windows President Steven Sinofsky made the first post on the “Building Windows 8” blog today, sharing some new information about Windows 8 and outlining the purpose of these new outlets to end-users, developers and information professionals.
Microsoft's "Building Windows 8" blog didn't reveal any new details of the operating system, but it did emphasize Microsoft's willingness to publicly work with its customer base and developers before the OS ships.
Blog link : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/
"We've certainly learned lessons over the years about the perils of talking about features before we have a solid understanding of our ability to execute," Sinofsky wrote. "Our intent with this pre-release blog is to make sure that we have a reasonable degree of confidence in what we talk about, before we talk about it."
Windows 8 builds have been leaked online for a few months now. Windows 8 build 7850, the first leaked Windows 8 build, hit the Internet in April 2011. It was quickly followed by Windows 8 build 7955 a few weeks later. Windows Server 8 build 7959 then leaked in May 2011.
The next major event for Windows is the BUILD conference in September where more information will be provided to develpers.
As Windows 8’s reported 2012 release date approaches, the company will doubtlessly pour hundreds of millions of dollars into its marketing efforts. This new blog is just the beginning.
Now many questions needed to be answered:
1. Windows 8 Microsoft riskiest product ever, will it be a success story?
2. Did you see how many new features will appear in Windows 8? Some are rumors, others have been confirmed.The failure of Windows Vista Microsoft has made the struggle to achieve better OS, Windows 7 and came. Now with Windows 8, Microsoft will return to the top or not.
3. Will users get attracted to Windows 8?
4. How will it change things for OS world?
These are some questions needed to be answered?
What do you feel, share your views with us.
Cheers,
Team
Tuesday, August 16, 2011 Comments
Monday, August 15, 2011
Combination will Supercharge Android, Enhance Competition, and Offer Wonderful User Experiences.
In a recent update, Google Inc. today announced that they have reached a agreement with Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. under which Google will acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. for about $12.5 billion or $40.00 per share in cash.
According to Google, the move will help Google to create awesome user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers everywhere.
A few years ago, Motorola bet its future in the mobile devices market by going full Android, launching the “Droid” – initially on the Verizon network – on November 6, 2009. The “Droid X” and “Droid 2″ followed in 2010.
In a blog post, Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page writes that "Google has acquired Motorola not only because of its strength in Android smartphones and devices, but also for being a market leader in the home devices and video solutions business. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.”
Quotes from Android partners
“We welcome today’s news, which demonstrates Google’s deep commitment to defending Android, its partners, and the ecosystem.”
– J.K. Shin
President, Samsung, Mobile Communications Division
“I welcome Google‘s commitment to defending Android and its partners.”
– Bert Nordberg
President & CEO, Sony Ericsson
“We welcome the news of today‘s acquisition, which demonstrates that Google is deeply committed to defending Android, its partners, and the entire ecosystem.”
– Peter Chou
CEO, HTC Corp.
“We welcome Google‘s commitment to defending Android and its partners.”
– Jong-Seok Park, Ph.D
President & CEO, LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company
Please Share your views will this move from Google will be a success??
Cheers,
Team
Monday, August 15, 2011 Comments
Friday, August 12, 2011
To take the Google+ user experience to a new level and match up with the Facebook, Google launched games in Google+ project today. To make users spend more time on the new social network and make playing games online as fun as conversations, several games are launched and available now to play on Google Plus
Some of the launch games include Rovio’s Angry Birds, PopCap’s Bejeweled Blitz, and Zynga’s Poker. It’s a tiny collection compared to what’s offered on Facebook, which has made a booming business by offering social games that players can click away at while remaining within the social network’s walls.
According to Google engineering director David Glazer, the initial batch of games was intentionally kept small so as to "get the kinks out of our APIs". Glazer said Google would be adding more developers and features "in small steps" ahead of a public release.
The release comes just a few weeks after a Google+ help page cropped up detailing a “Games Stream.” Before that, snippets of site code were discovered that mentioned game invites, along with a Google Games logo that was being hosted behind the scenes. In addition, a Google job posting sought a product manager for a “brand-new business” called “Games at Google.”
When you’re ready to play, the Games page is waiting—click the games button at the top of your stream. You can see the latest game updates from your circles, browse the invites you’ve received and check out games that people you know have played recently. The Games page is also where your game accomplishments will appear. So you can comfortably share your latest high score—your circles will only see the updates when they’re interested in playing games too.
If you’re not interested in games, it’s easy to ignore them. Your stream will remain focused on conversations with the people you care about.
Google has posted a promotional video of the new gaming portion of Google+. It demos how games show up on the service and how users can post information from those games to their circles.
You can watch the video here:
And If you are a developer interested in building games for Google+ project, visit the Google+ developer blog to know more details.
Please share your comments with us.
Cheers,
Team
Friday, August 12, 2011 Comments
Notorious hacker collective Anonymous on Tuesday threatened to “kill” Facebook on Nov. 5, according to a YouTube video spotlighted on official channels used by the group.
“Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed,” the group wrote in a transcript of its YouTube video. “If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill facebook [sic] for the sake of your own privacy.”
Anonymous claims it is doing Facebook users a service because the company is “selling information to government agencies.” It also asserts that Facebook’s privacy controls are a joke and that users cannot actually delete their accounts.
“Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your ‘privacy’ settings, and deleting your account is impossible, even if you ‘delete’ your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time,” the group wrote. “Changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more ‘private’ is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family.”
Nov. 5 is Guy Fawkes Day, which commemorates when Fawkes and others placed explosives under the British House of Lords in 1605. The likeness of Guy Fawkes is used commonly used by Anonymous as a symbol and hackers from the group wore Fawkes masks at the Defcon hacker conference last week (as pictured above). The Fawkes mask and story was popularized in the ten-issue comic series V for Vendetta and the movie based upon it.
The @YourAnonNews Twitter account appeared to confirm that the video was issued by Anonymous, with a tweet on Tuesday night stating: “Remember remember the fifth of November the FaceBook treason and plot…”
The threat to destroy Facebook comes only a day after the group successfully hacked and defaced the Syrian Ministry of Defense’s website. Anonymous has gained much exposure in the last year with attacks on PayPal, Visa, Amazon, Bank of America, and various world governments. The group was blamed for the massive attack on Sony’s PlayStation Network, but it denied involvement.
Even though Anonymous has had success in hacking some major websites in the past, it’s questionable that it would be successful against Facebook. When you consider that the hacking group has given Facebook several months to prepare for an attack, it’s extremely unlikely Facebook would be brought down. But when you’re talking about a group of hackers with an aim to sow discord, you can never be certain.
Check out the video to see the message from the anonymous group:
Latest update as on 15.8.2011:
@OP_Facebook tweeted this clarification about "Operation Facebook":
"ok im making one thing clear here, We Cant Take Facebook Down...Yet. This is an awareness campaign and spreading the word is good enough."
So, what do you think??
what was the earlier message all about? Is this their new trick??
Doesn't seem so, as they fight for users, not against users.
Share your views..
Cheers,
Team
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Most discussed and hot news is how much effect does low US and European economies will have on Indian market especially IT sector.
The US accounts for almost 60% of the sector's revenues, and Europe another 20%.
Though the present problem with the US economy is around sovereign debt concerns, the worry is that going ahead this will affect US private sector growth, and therefore their IT spends and therefore the Indian IT sector could be in for difficult times.
Siddharth Pai, MD of global sourcing advisory services firm, said "if the US government cuts public spending to control its deficit, then private sector growth could be impacted. This is because public spending cuts could lead to lower investments and job creation, thus slowing down overall private sector growth."
Srishti Anand, IT analyst at Angel Broking, said "IT companies are export oriented and are hugely dependent on the US markets. Therefore negative news emerging from that region can lead to fall in stock prices'.
In the 2007-09 global financial crisis, the Indian IT sector was severely impacted. While revenue growth rates for top tier companies like TCS and Infosys fell to single digits, gross hiring numbers were also hit. Mid-tier IT companies were impacted to a greater extent as clients preferred to work with larger and more trusted names.
T K Kurien, CEO of Wipro's IT business, said that it is too early to make an assessment. But he said the industry is far more prepared for any change in the macroeconomic environment now than it was in 2008.
Some days back Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said "On the international front the situation is not that positive. The international global recovery is fragile. Even the United States growth rate is faltering".
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee assured the global investing community that the Indian government will push economic reforms forward even as strong fundamentals will ensure flow of capital to growth areas.
“The recent developments in the US and the Eurozone have injected certain uncertainty in global markets. These developments could have some impact on India,” the finance minister said in a statement.
“But as India’s growth story is intact and its fundamentals strong, we are in a better position than many other nations to manage the challenge,” he said, after a key index of Indian equities had seen a dip of nearly 550 points or 3.15 percent intra-day.
“I would like to repeat that our economic fundamentals are sound. We would also focus on encouraging greater domestic consumption and give impetus to the drivers of domestic growth,” he said.
With the bold statements from the government, DO you think IT sector of India can sail through in the current situation.
Feel free to post comments and express your views.
Cheers,
Team
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 Comments
