It could be said that the Google Books case is becoming the new Microsoft-Yahoo deal, having created all sorts of controversy and dragged on and on. And on some more, as it turns out, since the involved parties are pushing a target date back again.
Not long ago, Eric Schmidt estimated that Google would start making monthly acquisitions. Today, it's almost looking like the dial got bumped up to hourly, since following this morning's confirmed acquisition of AdMob, a report has indicated that Google's bought Gizmo5, too.
CoTweet, a company that helps businesses use Twitter, released some details about a new service today, and in doing so, demonstrated that there's a real demand for such things. The CoTweet Enterprise Innovators Program already has at least six major customers despite costing $1,500 per month.
Social network games - and by extension, social networks themselves - received a strong endorsement this morning as a major acquisition was announced. Electronic Arts has bought Playfish, a maker of said games, for at least $300 million.
Barry Cottle, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA Interactive, explained in a statement, "Social gaming, with its emphasis on friends and community, is seeing tremendous growth and this is the right time to invest to strengthen our participation in this space."
On September 15th, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook "now serves 300 million people across the world." It seems the site's growth hadn't exactly come to a stop, either, as about a month and a half later, stats indicate the number of users has risen to at least 325 million.
Google's music service in China hasn't achieved much so far; no one should look for Google's next quarterly financial report to say it's brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue or toppled Baidu. But neither has it failed, and one person who's close to the service recently indicated that it's picking up steam.
It looks like some lawyers representing cosmetics giant Mary Kay have removed their figurative war paint. In early July, Mary Kay sued Yahoo, alleging trademark infringement, but not long ago, Yahoo was able to settle the case.
Sorry, Twitter fans (and animal lovers), but you'd better brace yourselves for another round of (hopefully Photoshopped) pics featuring birds in cats' mouths and squashed against glass doors. New stats from Hitwise make it look like Twitter isn't doing so well.
Google has branched out (or more accurately, built up) yet again. Simon Hampton, Director of European Policy and Public Affairs, announced today that the search giant's established a Googleplex in Brussels, Belgium.
Hampton explained on the European Public Policy Blog, "Until now, our small policy team in Brussels worked from temporary abodes. From now on, you can find us at Chausse d'Etterbeek 180 1040 Bruxelles, right in the heart of the European quarter."
Big libraries are neat - the idea of having so much information (and entertainment) available in one place is just inherently attractive. The trouble is, big libraries can also be overwhelming, and so Google Books has tried to make its own virtual library a little more accessible by creating a list of available magazines.
iEntry 10th Anniversary
RSS
Newsletter
Advertising
