Bigmouthmedia Search Engine News: /americas/

Google introduces Chrome for Android

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:01:00 GMT

Google has introduced two of its most successful products to one another - Chrome and Android - releasing its Chrome Browser App for Android users.

Available in the Android Market for smartphones fitted with Ice Cream Sandwich, the new Chrome app is 'focused on speed and simplicity' and features many of the same features as the desktop version.

"Today, we're introducing Chrome for Android Beta, which brings many of the things you've come to love about Chrome to your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone or tablet," Chrome and Apps Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai wrote on the Google blog.

"Like the desktop version, Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign in and sync so you can take your personalised web browsing experience with you wherever you go, across devices."

The new mobile Chrome features 'reimagined tabs' designed specifically to fit on a mobile browser, and makes use of gesture-based controls to move across tabs.

"You can flip or swipe between an unlimited number of tabs using intuitive gestures, as if you're holding a deck of cards in the palm of your hands, each one a new window to the web," Pichai said.

Users can also sync their mobile and desktop bookmarks, making it easy to access sites across different devices. Syncing also extends to autocomplete suggestions - for example, a site visited or searched regularly at home will also appear as an autocomplete suggestion on the mobile browser.

This, according to Pichai, allows users to 'bring your personalised Chrome experience with you'.
"When searching, your top search results are loaded in the background as you type so pages appear instantly," he said. "And of course, both search and navigation can all be done quickly from the Chrome omnibox."

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Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock steps down

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:12:00 GMT

The changes keep coming at Yahoo, as Chairman Roy Bostock steps down; triggering a board overhaul at the beleaguered internet company.

Yahoo Board Chairman Roy Bostock announced on Tuesday that he and three other directors - Vyomesh Joshi, Gary Wilson and Arthur Kern - will not stand for re-election this year to the company's board of directors.

The move comes just one month after Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang stepped down from the company to pursue interests outside of Yahoo. At the time, Mr Bostock announced the company was continuing to undergo a strategic review - striking the tinder of takeover rumours.

Two private equity firms - Silver Lake and TPG Capital - made tentative offers on the company that shareholders rejected as too low. Microsoft offered $44.6 billion for Yahoo in 2008; however Mr Bostock reportedly helped Mr Yang reject that offer. Yahoo is now worth $19.75 billion.

As of late, Bostock and the board of directors have been slammed by investors for mistakes made in managing the company, including losing ground to competitors like Google and failing to take advantage of Microsoft's lucrative offer.

However, in a letter to shareholders released by Yahoo after the stock market closed on Tuesday, Bostock stated the company had "pursued a wide range of discussions with potential partners...although at this time there have not been any proposals which have been deemed by the Committee to be attractive to our shareholders."

Bostock also mentioned that the company was actively trying to sell its Asian assets.

He said: "We are also in active discussions with our partners in Asia regarding the possibility of restructuring our holdings in Alibaba Group and Yahoo! Japan. The complexity and unique nature of these transactions is significant."

Following the spate of departures, the majority of Yahoo's directors will be brand new this year, with the entirety of the board having joined since 2010.

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Apple warns appayola-using app-makers

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:37:00 GMT

App Store competition can be tough, but Apple has warned the consequences of trying to game the system are tougher.

Apple is reminding app-makers that using appayola services - paying to artificially inflate an app's chart ranking - will lead to them being stripped of their ability to release apps in the App Store.

In a post on Apple's Developer website, the company said: "Once you build a great app, you want everyone to know about it. However, when you promote your app, you should avoid using services that advertise or guarantee top placement in App Store charts.

"Even if you are not personally engaged in manipulating App Store chart rankings or user reviews, employing services that do so on your behalf may result in the loss of your Apple Developer Program membership."

The reminder appears to have come in response to a recent conversation on the forum for the mobile games site Touch Arcade. In the forum posting, an independent developer claimed to have been contacted by an ad network charging $5,000 (£3,200) for a guaranteed spot in the App Store's Top 25 placement listing for free apps.

The developer also alleged that the company claimed to use a bot farm to automatically download apps and drive up their rankings, as well as implicating eight free apps currently in the Top 25 listing as using the unnamed bot farm's services.

Making the Top 25 is a coveted position in the App Store, and the potential revenue rewards for download popularity are certainly alluring. However, analysts are quick to point out that long-term business models cannot be built on the artificial use of bot farms.

For example, a really bad game in the App Store may just make it into the Top 25 by using appayola firms, but once "real human" users start playing, the rankings can sink very quickly.

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Deleted photos live on in Facebook servers

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:24:00 GMT

Old Facebook photos may still be accessible for months - or even years - after being deleted, living on in the depths of the social network's servers.

First revealed in 2009 by Ars Technica, the firm recently queried Facebook again after discovering backup copies - that could potentially be accessed by users - still existed some three years later.

"Users who might have had second thoughts about posting a photo could certainly remove the image from Facebook's main user interface, but as long as someone had a direct link to the JPEG file in question, the photo would remain accessible for an indefinite amount of time," the company said in a blog post.

According to Facebook, a poorly-functioning legacy system is the culprit, but a new system is on its way to ensure deleted photos can no longer be accessed.

"We are in the process of migrating these photos to the newer system to ensure proper deletion, but until this migration is complete, CDN URLs from deleted photos stored on this legacy system may still be accessible," Facebook spokesman Frederic Wolens told CNET.

Under the new system, Facebook photos that have been removed from the social networking site will be deleted - permanently - within 45 days, and according to Facebook, only a very small percentage of photos are still accessible on the company's old servers.

"The process is nearly complete and there is only a very small percentage of user photos (fewer than 3 per cent) still on the old system awaiting migration," Wolens said.

"We expect this process to be completed within the next month or two, at which point we will verify the migration is complete and we will disable all the old content."

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Study finds Twitter hard to resist

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:49:00 GMT

A new study is suggesting that Twitter users may not be able to help themselves, as it's revealed the microblogging site just might be more addictive than cigarettes.

The University of Chicago Business School study - measuring how well people can resist desires - also claimed that some individuals may be more likely to give into cravings for social media than those of sleeping and sex.

"Modern life is a welter of assorted desired marked by frequent conflict and resistance, the latter with uneven success," experiment leader Wilhelm Hofmann said.

The study monitored participants aged 18 to 85, who were signalled seven times a day over a 14 hour period. They were asked to report whether they were experiencing any desires, what type of desires they were experiencing, the strength of the desire and whether it was in conflict with any other desires they might also be having.

Researchers discovered that as time wore on, participants found their willpower weakened - the most frequent instances of 'self-control failure' were recorded with media.

Dr Hofmann said: "Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not 'cost much' to engage in these activities, even though one wants to resist.

"With cigarettes and alcohol there are more costs - long-term as well as monetary - and the opportunity may not always be the right one," he continued.

"So even though giving in to media desires is certainly less consequential, the frequent use may still 'steal' a lot of people's time."

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Facebook finally files IPO

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:13:00 GMT

It pays to have friends, especially as Facebook finally files its long awaited IPO.

Reports have been swirling for months over Facebook's looming IPO and it's finally happened. The company filed initial public offering papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday evening.

In the filing, Facebook, which has more than 845 million users across the globe, indicated it was seeking to raise $5 billion - making it the biggest IPO by a web company since Google in 2004 and could place the company's value as high as $75 billion (£45bn) to $100 billion (£63.5bn).

CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg owns a 28.4 per cent stake, but will retain control of the company under a share structure that gives him 56.9 per cent of the equity voting rights.

According to the filing: "Mr Zuckerberg has the ability to control the outcome of matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors and any merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets."

Zuckerberg was paid a base salary of $500,000 in 2011 and his total compensation came to $1.48 million (£935,583). As his shares in the company could potentially be worth $28 billion (£17 billion) following the IPO, he will take home a salary of just $1 a year starting in 2013 - following in the footsteps of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

Yet, despite all the cold hard cash Zuckerberg and Co are raking in, Facebook would have you believe it's not really about the money.

In a letter to investors included in the filing, Zuckerberg wrote: "Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission - to make the world more open and connected."

He added: "Facebook aspires to build the services that give people the power to share and help them once again transform many of our core institutions and industries. We don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services."

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Pinterest catches up to social networks with referral traffic

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:12:00 GMT

Pinterest is the fastest growing referral site on the net, eclipsing the likes of YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+, according to new stats released by Shareaholic.

"According to our findings based on aggregated data from more than 200,000 publishers that reach more than 260 million unique monthly visitors each month, Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google Plus, Linkedin and YouTube combined," head of marketing Janet Aronica wrote on the Shareaholic blog.

The virtual pinboard lets users gather and organise things they find on the web, sharing them with other users on the site.

Users can add photos to their own pinboards, as well as browse other users and discover new things based on interests including clothing, food and interior design.

"Pinterest grew from 2.5 per cent of referral traffic in December to 3.6 per cent of the referrals in January. That's impressive growth from just owning 0.17 per cent of the traffic back in July," Aronica said.

In just six months, the invite-only site has jumped ahead of Google+, MySpace, Reddit YouTube and LinkedIn - coming up against traffic driving titans like Facebook and StumbleUpon.

In contrast, Twitter accounts for 3.61 per cent of referral traffic while Google accounts for 3.62. Unsurprisingly, Facebook is the top traffic driver at 26.4 per cent, followed by StumbleUpon with 5.07 per cent.

Though still leagues away from the top traffic driver, Pinterest received 4000 per cent more visitors than six months prior - earning it the title of 'Number 10 social networking-site' - and if growth continues, Pinterest will soon be one of the top three traffic drivers on the net.

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Sony names gaming chief Kazuo Hirai CEO

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:48:00 GMT

Sony has tapped Kazuo Hirai to replace chief executive Howard Stringer when he steps down from on 1 April.

Mr Hirai has long been considered the heir-apparent for the CEO position - as a savvy gaming executive; he has been credited with turning things around at the company's unprofitable PlayStation business and was promoted to head of consumer products last March.

He takes the helm just as Sony is predicting its fourth year of net losses for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2012. The company is likely to announce its third quarter results tomorrow and provide more information on the company's management shake-up.

Sony was once the darling of the technology industry, having given birth to the game-changing Walkman music player, but has struggled to compete in the digital era - falling behind the likes of Apple, Samsung and LG.

Additionally, conditions in Japan for the Tokyo-based company haven't helped matters. The global recession coupled with the earthquake and tsunami have stymied any meaningful comebacks for the company recently.

However, in an initiative started by Mr Stringer and likely to be accelerated under Mr Hirai's leadership, Sony aims to connect all of its electronic products to an emerging network offering music, games, movies and other services to increase consumer engagement.

"As challenging as times are for Sony now, were it not for the strong leadership of Sir Howard Stringer these past seven years, we would have been in a much more difficult position," Mr Hirai said in a statement.

"The path we must take is clear: to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses."

Mr Stringer will remain executive chairman until June and then become chairman of the board.

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Angry Birds boss doesn't see Piracy as a bad thing

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:36:00 GMT

Rovio boss Mikel Hed has said he doesn't necessarily see piracy as a bad thing when it comes to Angry Birds.

Speaking at the Midem conference in Cannes, the Angry Birds maker explained the company sees efforts to pursue pirates in the court system as 'futile' - so long as pirated products are not harmful to the brand or ripping off fans.

"We could learn a lot from the music industry, and the rather terrible ways the music industry has tried to combat piracy.

"We have some issues with piracy, not only in apps, but also especially in the consumer products," he said. "There is tons of merchandise out there, especially in Asia, which is not officially licensed products."

Hed also explained he believes there is a lesson to be learned from the music industry - namely, approaching customers as fans, rather than users.

"We took something from the music industry, which was to stop treating the customers as users, and start treating them as fans. We do that today: we talk about how many fans we have," he said.

"If we lose our fan base, our business is done, but it we can grow that fan base, our business will grow."

Hed also took the opportunity to discuss new avenues for the popular mobile game, saying the company hasn't ruled out working with musicians in the future.

Rather than just a game, Rovio sees Angry Birds as its own channel - where users are spending as much time in the app as they are with their favourite TV shows.

"Already our apps are becoming channels, and we can use that channel to cross-promote - to sell further content," he said.

"The content itself has transformed into the channel, and the traditional distribution channels are no longer the kingmakers."

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Apple overtakes HP as biggest PC-maker

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:01:00 GMT

The late great Steve Jobs may have declared it the "post-PC era," but Apple just became the biggest maker of personal computers in the world.

Apple pulled ahead of Hewlett Packard in the fourth quarter of last year to become the largest vendor of personal computers, due in large part to the extraordinary demand for its iPad.

According to a report by market research firm Canalys, Apple shipped more than 15 million iPads and 5 million Mac computers in the quarter ending 31 December 2011 - representing 17 per cent of the total 120 million client PCs shipped globally in Q4.

The client PC market - including desktops, netbooks, notebooks and pads - grew 16 per cent year-on-year; however, take away pads from the equation and the PC market declined by 0.4 per cent.

Of the other top five PC vendors, only Lenovo managed to increase its market share - growing by just two points in comparison to Apple's six-point gain. Acer, Dell and HP all lost market share.

Now the second largest PC vendor, HP was the hardest hit as the company struggles to keep up with competitors following the end of its Touchpad.

"Currently, HP is pursuing a Windows strategy for its pad portfolio, producing enterprise-focused products, such as the recently launched Slate 2, until the launch of Windows 8," said Canalys Analyst Tim Coulling in the company's official press release.

"However, questions remain over Microsoft's entry into the consumer pad space. While early demonstrations of the Windows 8 operating system seem promising, Microsoft must focus its efforts on creating an intuitive user experience that is far less resource intensive."

This is all continuing good Q4 news for the Cupertino-based company, after smashing Wall Street projections and announcing its highest quarterly profit on record.

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