WebProNews

Murdoch On Blocking Search Engines: "I Think We Will"

There's a chance that the content produced by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and a number of other important organizations will soon become impossible to find using Google.  Rupert Murdoch indicated in a recent interview that News Corp. may block search engines. News Corp. is the world's second largest media group.  It owns enough stuff that even hitting the highlights would take far too much time.  (Wikipedia has an 861-word entry titled "List of assets owned by News Corporation" if you're feeling adventurous.)

Tagged.com Reaches Settlement With NY AG

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Monday that his office has stopped social networking site Tagged.com from misappropriating the contacts lists and identities of its members and from sending out millions of deceptive and unsolicited emails. Through an agreement with Cuomo's office, Tagged will pay $500,000 in penalties to the state and take measures regarding the access and use of its members' personal information.

MySpace Losing $1 Million Per Month On Empty Offices

Don't be shocked if ads for 420,000 square feet of office space start popping up all over MySpace.  It seems that the social networking company no longer intends to use a particular facility, but until it can unload the space, has gotten stuck paying over $1 million per month.

Mozilla Celebrates The Fifth Birthday Of Firefox

Mozilla is celebrating the fifth birthday of its Firefox browser today. Mozilla says in the first four days of launch, more than 1 million people had downloaded Firefox 1.0 Now that number is at 330 million users globally, accounting for almost a quarter of all Internet users. Currently Firefox is available in more than 70 languages and offers users more than 7,000 add-ons to customize their browsing experience.

EA Acquires Playfish For (Maybe) $400 Million

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."

Bing Partners With JiWire To Offer Users Free WiFi

Microsoft has plans to announce an advertising campaign with JiWire that will focus on enticing users to try out its search engine Bing in exchange for free WiFi where available. The campaign is being supported by JiWire's mobile advertising network, which reaches about 20 million unique users monthly. The Bing campaign will run across WiFi hotpsots in airports and hotels nationwide.

"Time Spent Online" Report Puts Microsoft Way Ahead

Despite all the gains other companies (Google, Facebook) have made, it's still Microsoft's world, according to new statistics from comScore.  comScore found that, in terms of time spent on sites, the Redmond-based corporation continues to maintain a huge lead over its competitors.

20 Goals for Business Social Media Use

I probably don't have to tell you that many businesses are still struggling with the concept of using social media. Many simply can't find a good reason to use it at all, and many more find themselves using it but struggling to validate that use. They can't find the ROI. They feel that too much time is being wasted. Basically, they're just using social networks because they feel like they're supposed to. They just want to keep up.

Google Seeking Not To Cross The Creepy Line

Google CEO Eric Schmidt while appearing on Fox Business made some interesting comments about Google's emergence as a huge Microsoft-like business power. I thought most interesting was Schmidt's statement about Google becoming like Microsoft, "Hopefully, we won't repeat the mistakes that Microsot made ten years ago that ultimately led to all these things that happened with them". Schmidt elaborated:

Google Maps Adds NYC Subway Layer

Last night on "30 Rock," Alec Baldwin's character got lost within New York's subway system, and due to being covered in bedbugs, received no help from his fellow passengers.  But if the same thing happened to him (or a non-fictional person) today, Google Maps could have come to the rescue.