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Twitter About to Get Mo’ Money

posted on September 24, 2009

Twitter iconThe Wall Street Journal is reporting that Twitter is on the edge of raising another $100 million in VC from around seven investors. Just last week the scuttlebutt was that this round was going to be in the range of $50 million but hey, what’s an extra $50 million amongst friends, right?

The Journal reports

Twitter, the messaging web site that has become an Internet sensation, is nearing a deal to close as much as $100 million of new funding from as many as seven investors, according to people familiar with the deal.

The investor group includes mutual fund giant T. Rowe Price and private-equity firm Insight Venture Partners, which are new investors to Twitter. The $100 million investment is about twice as much as Twitter was reportedly expected to haul in this latest round of fund-raising.

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Yipee! Microsoft Enters the Social Media Monitoring Space

posted on September 24, 2009

Microsoft is building a social media monitoring tool called Looking Glass.

Now, at this point, you’re probably thinking that I’m panicking. After all, isn’t that what my own company, Trackur, does? Aren’t I scared stiff that Microsoft will hurt my business?

Nope. In fact, when I spoke to Microsoft executives in 2008, I asked them why they didn’t already have a tool like this? If I can build Trackur, shame on Microsoft for not having its own offering.

Am I insane? Possibly, but for different reasons. Let’s explore this announcement.

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A Mega Acquisition & a Paid Subscription Model Coming from Google?

posted on September 24, 2009

Whenever you listen to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, you have to either;

a) pay attention to what he doesn’t say, or

b) read between the lines of what he does say

Let’s break down a couple of interesting statements the search chief told Reuters.

First up, what are Google’s plans for future acquisitions?

“My estimate would be one-a-month acquisitions and these are largely in lieu of hiring,” he said. “There may be larger acquisitions, but they really are unpredictable.”

Translation?

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Aspiring Doctors May Have Knowledge but Aren’t Always Smart

posted on September 24, 2009

DoctorSocial media has become the newest and possibly best way to expose just how stupid people can be. Last week we talked about the rocket scientist burglar who left Facebook’s equivalent of breadcrumbs to his front door. Hey, he is 19 years old and probably not the sharpest knife in the drawer anyway so maybe it’s not that unusual (actually it is but for this post we’ll say it). Well, let’s jump to the other end of the spectrum and find out just how stupid aspiring doctors can be when it comes to social media.

Yup, that’s right, doctors. Those people who need to go to school forever so they can carry huge loans into the workplace and then hopefully help us regular human beings stay healthy. According to an article by the BBC there appears social media shows no discrimination when it comes to exposing stupidity

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Old Phones Still Need New Ads

posted on September 24, 2009

Old Cell PhoneAll of the talk these days is about smart phones. The iPhone, BlackBerry and Android’s of the world often get the bulk of the media attention but there’s more to the mobile market. AT&T is seeing that as it is now enabling non smart phone users who use ‘older’ phones to see some of the same local advertising that the smart phone people do. Personally, I am not sure if this is a blessing or a curse for those legacy phone users but that’s not for me to decide.

ClickZ reports on some information passed along at the Mobile Ad Summit in New York as Matt Crowley, CMO, AT&T Interactive talked about this approach

AT&T Interactive has completed development of a WAP application that will open up ad opportunities for search listings seen by non-smartphone users at Yellowpages.com.

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Push Gmail Comes for Mobiles with Google Sync

posted on September 23, 2009

Back in February, Google premiered Google Sync, which coordinated participating phones (all those with the SyncML standar) with Google Calendar, Contacts and Gmail.

However, in the first iteration of the product, the Gmail sync left a little to be desired. Rather than popping up with new messages, you had to manually check your email from your mobile. (The horror! The horror!) But that stone age interface has finally passed—Google has unveiled push Gmail for Google Sync now.

Are you a visual learner? Good news: Google drew you a cartoon.
sync comic
We can all finally breathe easier. Sync actually works with your phone’s native email app, so it doesn’t require a new email app to download.

You can also pick and choose which Google apps you sync with—Calendar, Contacts and Gmail, any two of the above, or all three.

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Google Chroming Out Internet Explorer

posted on September 23, 2009

The browser wars just got ugly. Google Chrome was unveiled just over a year ago (really? wow…). Sony is using them as their default browser and Chrome is coming to the Mac. And now it’s coming to Internet Explorer.

google angel haloBack in January, we noted that Google was telling Internet Explorer/Gmail users to download Chrome for a faster email experience. And now they’ve launched Google Chrome Frame, which operates within IE but gives users the Chrome experience. Well, officially, it’s “an open source plug-in that brings HTML5 and other open web technologies to Internet Explorer.”

Mostly GCF is for developers, to allow their users to access Chrome’s faster JavaScript engine and other capabilities. But somehow I imagine they wouldn’t object to some regular IE users to giving Chrome a test run this way.