Archive for Internet
MySpace To Lay Off Two Thirds of Workforce [UPDATE]
June 23rd, 2009 • 2 comments Featured, Internet
Tags: jobs, lay, myspace, networking, off, social
Following an announcement to initially remove 30% of its staff from its payroll, News Corp has announced that it plans to lay off two thirds of MySpace’s international work force.
The major reduction will see Myspace go from 450 to 150 international employees, although MySpace China and MySpace Japan won’t be affected as they are locally owned and part of joint venture respectively. News Corp also plans to shut down at least four of its international offices, and every single office is up for immediate shutdown. Offices that exist in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Sweden and Spain are all under scrutiny for possible shutdown.
Around half of all MySpace’s traffic comes from outside the United States, so there’s no telling what this move will have on MySpace’s popularity, which is already half that of its biggest competitor: Facebook.
Once restructuring is complete, Berlin, London and Sydney will exist as the sole regional hubs for MySpace activities on the international front.
[Original Post: MySpace To Send 30% Of Staff Packing]
Popularity: 6% [?]
MSN Revamp On The Way
June 19th, 2009 • Featured, Internet
Tags: bing, microsoft, msn, portal, revamp
Microsoft is also working on a complete interface overhaul for its MSN portal, amidst serious hype about Bing.
The current MSN design, which is around 10 years old now, is looking to get a complete visual makeover by Microsoft. The new design is being crafted with personalization and social media (especially video) in mind. Microsoft is attempting to re-vitalize their portal, which 37% of internet browsers depend on for information (according to Microsoft).
Microsoft has been working on making MSN seem more ‘fresh’ since 2006, where they hired the retired John Nicol (who worked for MSNBC). Since then, the MSN portal has seen an overhaul in their video content that led to the broadcast of the Beijing Olympics, as well as the introduction of Microsoft’s own take on Youtube, the ‘doomed’ Soapbox. I say doomed because Soapbox, non-surprisingly, was unable to compete effectively with other online video directories and is busy being cut back, maybe even to a point of ultimate shutdown.
Microsoft is also taking a very interesting approach to personalizing MSN. When most people think about personalization of a website, they think about choosing where what gets displayed, whether they want a search box or not and various other annoyances that tend to waste time instead of boost productivity. Microsoft is attempting to address this with each individual user’s information and demographics. This information will be fed through Microsoft’s algorithms and information relative to the user will be displayed in their portal.
This method of a computer deciding where to place content is being used in more ways than one. Instead of the content needing to be updated manually to suit different user’s needs, the algorithms will dynamically update the portal depending on which stories are being clicked by various users minutes before. I’m sure Silverlight will make a prominent appearnace as well.
Variations of the portals are currently being tested in France and Brazil.
[via CNET]
Popularity: 11% [?]
MySpace To Send 30% Of Staff Packing
June 16th, 2009 • Featured, Internet
Tags: economy, facebook, jobs, myspace, networking, news_corp, social
News Corp has announced that their social networking website, MySpace, will lose 30% of its staff in a bid to cut costs in its bid to remain popular with alternatives such as Facebook.
MySpace used to be the number one social networking website in the world, but has lost its spot to Facebook, who recently reached the 200 million member milestone. Although very different in nature, Twitter is also proving to be surrounded by more buzz than MySpace these days. Facing the tough competition, the decision was made to fire 30% of the staff (approx. 400 individuals), leaving 1000 employees behind.
According to the new MySpace chief executive, Owen Van Natta, the move was made to reinstate a culture that resembles one of a fresh new start-up.
“Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered by our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company,”
said Van Natta to Reuters.
Nobody inclined to comment when employees will be told whether they’ll be allowed to keep their jobs or not.
This comes at a time when Facebook has nearly more than three times the number of unique visitors per month when compared to MySpace, and news that Google wishes to renegotiate an advertising deal once the current contract expires next year.
There is serious doubt whether MySpace can turn their network around, which has become synonymous with badly designed profile pages as well as a platform of promotion for new musical artists. Here’s hoping for the best.
The announcement resulted in News Corp’s shares dropping by 4.2% to $9.41
UPDATE 1:
MySpace has announced their plans to lay off two thirds of their international workforce.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Disney Joins Hulu.com
May 1st, 2009 • 1 comment Featured, Internet
Tags: disney, hulu, sharing, Video, walt, website
Walt Disney Co. has purchased a 30% stake in the popular video-distribution website Hulu.com, becoming the third of the four major U.S broadcasters to do so.
The deal will mean that TV shows such as “Lost”, “Greys Anatomy” among others to the Hulu service. Hulu now has ABC (Disney), Fox, and NBC in on the deal, with only CBS missing from the service. An inside source has reported that Disney will have a 30% stake in Hulu (which translates into 3 seats on the 12-seat board), which is equal to that of the other two networks.
Financial details have not been disclosed, as the agreement (which took months to negotiate) included a confidentiality agreement.
Don’t count CBS out of the deal however – Hulu and CBS are still busy negotiating a deal.
“We’d love to have them be a part of Hulu … ultimately it’s their decision,”
said Jason Kilar, Hulu Chief Executive, regarding CBS.
Hulu was founded in 2007 by NBC Universal and News Corp. and has grown so rapidly that it is now ranked as one of the top 3 video website in the U.S, with over 380 million views in March. Youtube still remains top dog, but Hulu is closing the gap.
Popularity: 40% [?]
Google Launches “What’s Popular”, A Digg-like Clone
April 28th, 2009 • 1 comment Featured, Internet
Tags: digg, google, igoogle, reddit, web
Google has released a iGoogle plug-in called “What’s Popular” that presents iGoogle users with a service similar to aggregation websites such as Digg or Reddit.
Google aggregates data from Youtube, Google’s Reader and combines them with links that have been submitted by users, resulting in a gadget that displays the (seemingly) best of the web. Users are able to rate the website with either an upwards or downwards arrow – allowing the cream to rise to the top.
Unfortunately a commenting feature is nowhere in sight. Not yet anyway.
Popularity: 30% [?]
World’s Highest Internet Cafe Opens On Everest
April 22nd, 2009 • Featured, Internet, World
Tags: cafe, climber, cyber, everest, Internet, mountain
A cybercafe aimed at tourists has set-up shop near the Everest base camp in northeastern Nepal, providing the world’s highest internet access.
The cybercafe is 5,180m above sea-level and has turned into quite the hit for tourists and climbers, who wish to make contact with their families before setting out to conquer Mt. Everest – the highest mountain in the world (8,848m).
The Sherpa International Cafe is just about an hour’s walk from the Everest base camp, situated in Gorakse.
Apparently two more of these cafe’s are on the way, according to Chhetan Sherpa – the owner.
Looks like high-altitude connectivity is quite the lucrative business with every climber wanting to bare the good-luck wishes from friends and family.
Popularity: 23% [?]
Amazon Video On Demand Goes HD
April 22nd, 2009 • Featured, Internet
Tags: amazon, hd, movies, streaming, tv, Video
Amazon’s Video on Demand service has finally started offering videos in high-definition.
Pricing will be in-line to that of Amazon’s competition for HD films / tv episodes. HD film rentals will cost you anything from $3.99 to $4.99 and standard definition TV episodes are available for purchase at a price of $2.99 per episode. There has been no word when HD TV episodes will be available.
Owners of a PC, Mac TiVO HD/Series DVRs, Roku Digital Video Player, Panasonic VieraCast TVs and the Sony Bravio Internet Video Link will be able to choose from the 500+ HD films after an initial software update (Windows and Mac users will only need to visit Amazon’s website)
Popularity: 14% [?]
Brooklyn Teen Claims Responsibility for 2nd Twitter Worm
April 13th, 2009 • Featured, Internet
Tags: hack, mikeyy, stalkdaily, teen, teenager, twitter, worm
A second twitter worm began circulating Twitter on Sunday, with responsibility being claimed by a teenager.
Michael “Mikeyy” Mooney, has taken credit for the creation of a second variation of a worm that hit micro-blogging service Twitter, less than a full day after the first StalkDaily worm infected multiple Twitter accounts. Luckily Twitter managed to plug the security holes that were being exploited by both variants of the StalkDaily worm fairly rapidly.
Michale Mooney, a 17-year-old from Brooklyn, claimed responsibility after an interview with CNET. He says he created the worm out of boredom.
“I thought about it later and basically did it because I was bored”
Luckily Twitter stated that no personal information had been revealed as a result of the worm, which fits directly in with “Mikeyy”’s persona, who claimed that his worms aren’t harmful in nature. This is his latest creation stemming from around 3 years experience coding various worms to exploit security flaws. It might also be his last worm, according to the interview:
“I’m done with Twitter. I’ve been getting too much attention lately.”
Michale Mooney hopes to become a security analyst one day – which I think would fit the bill perfectly.
The first varient of the StalkDaily worm took control of user’s accounts and posted tweets promotion the website Stalkdaily.com. Once the user visited the website, their account became infected and started promoting Stalkdaily.com
“I didn’t think it would spread as far or as fast as it did.”
The second variant, referred to as the “Mikeyy” worm by some, acted in the same way, except it posted tweets asking Twitter to fix the security hole and stating how “Mikeyy” was claiming responsibility for the worm.
He hasn’t been contacted by Twitter authorities yet.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Twitter Hit by StalkDaily Worm, Recovers
April 12th, 2009 • Featured, Internet
Tags: infection, stalkdaily, twitter, worm
A worm appears to have infected Twitter on Saturday.
Twitter employees have been urging users not to visit StalkDaily.com, or to link to the website in any form to prevent further accounts becoming infected. DO NOT visit the website if you don’t want your Twitter account hi-jacked. It also appears that simply by viewing an infected user’s account could cause your own to become infected as well, thanks to the worm modifying your “About Me” section.
Infected users are currently busy spamming links to Stalkdaily.com all over the place – so be wary.
That was the story, at least before Twitter plugged the hole and fixed the problem a few hours after the attack.
Earlier today we were informed of a malicious site that was spreading links to StalkDaily.com on Twitter without user consent via a cross-site scripting vulnerability. We’ve taken steps to remove the offending updates, and to close the holes that allowed this “worm” to spread.
No passwords, phone numbers, or other sensitive information were compromised as part of this attack.
The Twitter Spam account also states that if you’re unable to log-in to your account, simply do a password reset.
UPDATE:
It seems that a variation in the worm has been made, but Twitter seems to have it under control this time.
We’re aware of the variation this morning and it should be under control shortly. Thanks for all your messages!
Popularity: 8% [?]
Facebook Reaches 200 million Members
April 8th, 2009 • Featured, Internet
Tags: facebook, members, milestone, million, users, zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, announced today in a blog post that Facebook should see its 200 millionth member join the social network.
Facebook has come an incredibly long way from the small start-up aimed at college students to becoming the most popular social network in the world, overtaking Myspace.com in April 2008.
“We will welcome our 200 millionth active user to Facebook some time today”
said Mark Zuckerberg in a blog post today,
“Growing rapidly to 200 million users is a really good start, but we’ve always known that in order for Facebook to help people represent everything that is happening in their world”
To commemorate the 200 million user milestone, Facebook set-up a page titled “Facebook for Good“. Facebook for Good is a joint effort, combining 16 charities with the everlasting reach of Facebook in order to help change the world by purchasing unique “gifts” for friends on the network.
Despite being incredibly successful on the popularity-front, Facebook has yet to successfully monetise its network, although the Facebook for Good venture has re-introduced a credit system (think micro-transactions) that may well turn into a steady flow of cash.
But currently, I think its safe to say that Facebook needs to start turning something with serious potential, coverage and attraction into a product that generates large streams of revenue annually.
Popularity: 9% [?]
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