ShortFormBlogJanuary 23, 2012

“Don’t Be Evil” tool cuts back on Google’s self-promotion: Remember Google’s new social search feature? It features results from your friends — and Google+ accounts — before other results, even if the other social sources are more popular than the Google+ account. The new “Don’t Be Evil” extension “looks at the three places where Google only shows Google+ results and then automatically googles Google to see if Google finds a result more relevant than Google+,” according to Focus On the User. Would you install this? source

Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

It was very touching. I thanked her for her service, wished her well, and she just looked beautiful.
Gabrielle Giffords shooting survivor Pat Maisch • Describing her impression of the resigning Congresswoman at her “Congress On Your Corner” event, which Giffords resumed on Monday, over a year after the shooting that nearly killed her. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords thanked the survivors and heroes from that day. Maisch was the one who wrestled the gun away from the shooter. Although Giffords has made incredible strides in her recovery, the Congresswoman has decided to leave office this week — but not before watching Obama’s State of the Union address tomorrow; she’ll be there in person. source

Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

OHMIGOD OHMIGOD BRIWI IS MODERATING!!!!! Seriously guys, after the Gawker thing, this man can do no wrong. But the people on the other side of the stage? They’ve got a ton of issues ahead of the Florida debate, which we’ll be tagging with #FLDebate tonight. (It’ll be live over here.) So, with that said — last week’s debates, especially Thurdsay’s, were nasty — will tonight’s debate have similar fireworks? Here’s what we’re watching for:

one The Newt factor. Will the South Carolina winner get the nod in Florida too? And what sort of impact will Newt’s release of his Freddie Mac contracts have on the debate?
two Will Mitt keep above water? With a Gallup poll showing him losing his massive lead over Newt and coming off a self-admitted crappy week, can he recover?
threeWill Santorum or Paul break through? Both mostly held their own last week despite weak primary showings, but holding their own isn’t enough right now. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

» A quickly growing tally: With Google’s quickly-growing advertising prowess, the company is constantly looking for new ways to monetize content. And with YouTube, it offers a lot of opportunities to build upon the $5 billion in revenue it makes each year from graphical ads (many of which run alongside YouTube videos). The level of uploads and views is quickly growing, too: A year ago, the company had 48 hours of video uploaded per minute back in May, and the level of overall video views jumped by 25 percent from eight months ago.

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

In the U.S. we were very, very successful coming from the core enterprise business, and in the public opinion this is still where we’re skewed to. We need to be more marketing-driven. We need to be more consumer-oriented because this is where a lot of our growth is coming from. That is essential in the U.S.
Research in Motion’s new CEO, Thorsten Heins • Discussing the difficult issues the company faces as it tries to compete with Apple and Google in a field that they popularized with the BlackBerry: Smartphones. Heins, the former Chief Operating Officer, replaced the company’s two co-CEOs, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, who stepped down over the weekend. It has not exactly been the best year for RIM — to call the company’s tablet, the PlayBook, a flop would be putting it lightly, as its failure cost the company nearly half a billion dollars last year. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg in terms of their problems. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

The guy who guided AP into the aggregation era: You probably don’t know this guy very well, but all the organizations that give you your news know him quite well. Tom Curley, who has led the Associated Press since 2003, plans to retire later this year, after his successor is found. Curley, a former USA Today publisher, faced a not-very-enviable task as AP’s leader: As many of his member publications found it difficult to stay afloat (in some cases, trying to drop AP entirely as a cost-saving measure), Curley took a very hard stance against copyright issues, and once played a role in a protracted fight with Google over access to AP articles. (For years, the Curley-led Associated Press considered Google merely running headlines in search results to be lawsuit-worthy, before eventually backing off.) The AP’s leader will leave a somewhat-difficult legacy in its handling of the blogosphere, too: After previous stunted attempts to show control over its content, the site is moving forward with a new content-licensing initiative called NewsRight. Journalism is a difficult business to keep financially stable, and the AP has had a lot to fight against. But at times, you sometimes wonder if folks like Curley simply didn’t understand the environment. Their issues are certainly not as bad as the music industry’s. But they’re certainly not shining examples of new-media transition. (Photo by Richard Drew/AP) source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jan 2012 23:37