As many know, last week the Google gods unleashed vengeance on many sites peddling links for dollars. Some of these sites were major publishers. Sites like Forbes.com saw their PageRank drop from a 7 to a 4.

Of course whenever Google does this type of update, the world of search marketing is turned upside down for a day or two. But after having some time to asses the damage done, I found I was very happy to see the results of some good Google justice. [more...]

We knew Google had something in the works to “out-open” Facebook, and the extent of that plan became much more clear today.

The much rumored Maka-Maka has a name now: OpenSocial.

Facebook gained a lot of popularity last spring when it opened up its service to outside developers, prompting over 5,000 programs to be developed within the network, many of which have been dispersed throughout the Facebook system. iLike, for example, developed an application for Facebook users to play clips of music they like in their profile. 7% of all Facebook users now use iLike.

The openness of Facebook has a lot to do with its rise in popularity over the last year or so. The fact that anybody could use their framework to develop apps was very attractive to users and developers. However, one of the drawbacks is that developers were forced to use the language of Facebook’s platform, FBML.

OpenSocial will allow users to program in javascript and html, which means they will be able to basically tweak the code they already have to work with host. Instead of learning and rewriting their apps in a foreign language, it will be much easier to transfer what they already have through OpenSocial to the host social network.
[more...]

There’s another good article in the New York Times’ technology section today. This time, it’s about Disaboom, a website that caters specifically to the country’s 50 million persons with physical and mental disabilities.

Disaboom is the work of J. Glen House, who himself become a quadriplegic after a skiing accident. His vision was to combine social networking with content helpful to the disabled community, and to bring in sponsors who wished to grow in that community. Howard Lieber, vice president of sales for Disaboom, said, “I don’t think mainstream advertisers realize the magnitude of the marketplace and how underserved it was.”

Disaboom stock went public in May (DSBO.OB) and went online October 1st, hoping to get 1 million unique visitors a month over the first few months and then double that. They also acquired lovebyrd.com, a dating service for disabled persons.
[more...]

After getting outdueled by Microsoft in getting a stake in Facebook, Google is hardly in a mood to roll over and deal with it.

Their new social networking idea is in the works and it goes by codename: Maka-Maka. While this sounds like the name of a remote South Pacific island, it is Google’s answer to the likes of Facebook and MySpace.

What do we know so far? Google is planning to make their social network even more open than Facebook. In early November, they will announce API’s for developers to use to work with their existing social network, Orkut and iGoogle (aka Google Personalized Start Page).

Later, API’s will be developed for other other Google services, like Gmail. There is also talk that some of the lower-ranked social networks, like Friendster (remember Friendster?) will give their user info to developers of Maka-Maka API’s.
[more...]

It’s not exactly the Delorean, but Apple’s new operating system has a time machine of its own.

Mac OS X 10.5, dubbed “Leopard” by the marketing team, features, amongst other things, a backup program called Time Machine.

Time Machine works like this: you install a second hard drive and (or another Leopard Mac on the network) and then Leopard asks if you want to install Time Machine. Then you click it. And then it’s done.

Time Machine will then update an exact replica of your primary hard drive every hour or whenever you ask it to. At the end of the day, Time Machine replaces those hourly backups with a single daily backup. And at the end of the month, it replaces those weekly updates with a monthly backup.
[more...]

The United States Senate approved a bill that would extend the moratorium on taxing the internet for another seven years.

The President is eager to sign the bill. Said Bush Friday, “I urge Congress to keep the Internet tax-free — and to get a bill to my desk that I can sign.”

Led by Senators John Sununu, Mitch McConnell, and Ron Wyden, the Senate had to come up with a compromise bill. Some wanted the extention to be shorter than seven years, while others wanted it to become permanent. [more...]

Don’t be scared, Steve Ballmer isn’t going hit you. He’s more interested in hitting Google.

Microsoft reported their quarterly profits and they were much better than expected. The strong numbers were primarily driven by stronger than expected sales of Vista and Microsoft Office. Apparently, there’s still money in software.

Huge money, in fact. Microsoft reported revenue of $13.76 billion, which represents a 27% increase from a year earlier. This was over a billion dollars more than the industry estimates of where they should be at.

The entertainment division was also strong, no doubt helped by the release of Halo 3.

However, with all of the sunny news on the software and entertainment front, Microsoft is still struggling to gain a foothold in Google’s vast market share of internet services and online advertising.
[more...]

adNav has plans of offer a GPS device free of charge that will pay for itself through advertising revenue.

Not a bad idea, but is there enough money in it to cover the cost of handing out free GPS devices? Word is the initial model will charge modest amount when a user books a hotel or a rental car, but the ultimate idea is to get the hooked up to a bunch of companies that will see business when a user looks to the device for information on a vast range of commercial interests. Looking for a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan? Perhaps an Applebee’s ad comes up, giving directions to the location of the restaurant. Tired after a long drive? Maybe Motel 6 or Super 8 has a deal that will point you to their respecitve locations.
[more...]

This morning’s Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft has won a much publicized battle with Google to get a stake in emerging social networking giant Facebook.

The deal, which will give Microsoft a $240 million stake in the $15 billion company, will also result in expanded advertising duties for Microsoft on Facebook. The two were already teamed up for domestic advertising and now Microsoft will also handle the international end of Facebook’s display ads.

This represents a big victory for Microsoft in the competitive and booming world of online advertising. Google has seen the greatest benefit from the boom and was hoping to go from strength to strength by forging a relationship with Facebook, but Microsoft held on and surely got the edge due to their existing relationship with Facebook.
[more...]

Apple is reporting higher-than-expected earnings on Monday after record sales of its Macintosh computers. Even with optimism very high amongst investors and analysts ahead of the report, Apple managed to exceed expectations and post earnings $350 million higher than the fourth quarter of last year.

Much of the rise is attributed to robust sales of Macs. Apple reports it sold 2.16 million Macs in the fourth quarter, which is 400,000 units higher than their previous record. Though still far behind leading computer manufacturers Dell and HP, Apple is climbing back into the discussion when it comes to computer sales.

Perhaps most intriging is that 50% of the new Mac sales from Apple stores were from first-time Mac buyers, suggesting that they are creating a new group of Mac loyalists who will stick with them.
[more...]