Gawkwire: Web Hosting and Internet News Resource

D-Day For Facebook App Developers

2009-10-29T06:56:00-04:00

(TechCrunch) Facebook is holding a Developer Garage today at its offices in Palo Alto, and a number of new app policies will be formally announced. Some of the changes, though, are so dramatic that Facebook has briefed the bigger app developers in advance. And those developers are, to say the least, more than a little worried about the effect the changes will have on traffic and usage. One source we’ve spoken with estimates that the changes may drop usage on their apps by 70% or more (more on that below, some developers may use the changes to their advantage).

Like previous changes, Facebook is moving to clean up their user interface and try to get application spam under control. The changes will roll out over the next six months, we’ve heard. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_design/d-day_for_facebook_app_developers.html

Bill Gates casts self as 'impatient optimist'

2009-10-28T07:16:00-04:00

(cnet) Describing both the need for improvements in global health and the technologies that could create those gains, Bill Gates on Tuesday characterized himself as an "impatient optimist."

For those that know him, both terms describe him well.

Bill Gates talks about efforts to fight Malaria as part of a broad global health speech on Tuesday.

In the 15 months since he left full-time work at Microsoft, Gates has focused on his philanthropic efforts--which focus on areas where there is great suffering as well as the means to alleviate that suffering through attention and increased resources. But, too often, change is not coming quickly enough.

"When it comes to global health, Bill and I are optimists--but we're impatient optimists," Melinda Gates said in a statement ahead of a speech on Tuesday. "The world is getting better, but it's not getting better for everyone, and it's not getting better fast enough."

Melinda Gates pointed to a program in South Africa where antiviral treatments are helping those living with HIV, but she said that for every two getting the treatment, there are five others that are missing out.

"That's the kind of thing that makes us impatient optimists," she said. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/bill_gates_casts_self_as_impatient_optimist.html

Twitter costing British economy

2009-10-26T06:19:00-04:00

(TechCrunch) The Telegraph has published an article about some survey which claims social networks such as Twitter are costing British businesses at the very least £1.38 billion (approx. $2.25 billion) a year.

Shocking findings, I daresay!

Morse, the IT services and technology company who commissioned the survey, said the true cost to the economy could actually be substantially higher than the £1.38bn estimate.

How about we settle for a gazillion?

Where does that number come from, you ask? The £1.38bn estimate is based on a survey that showed more than half of office workers use social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook for personal use during the working day, and admit wasting an average of 40 minutes a week each. A veritable productivity hole, adds a Morse consultant who – like so many before him – fails to capture that there’s a difference between being productive and ‘not wasting time’. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/twitter_costing_british_economy.html

Judge Dismisses Craigslist Prostitution Lawsuit

2009-10-23T06:37:00-04:00

(TechCrunch) Thomas Dart, the Illinois sheriff who took Craigslist to court over erotic advertisements that appeared on the popular classifieds site, is unhappy with this week’s decision of a federal judge to toss the lawsuit (full ruling embedded below).

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Dart (pictured) said he was disappointed with the verdict and is now considering an appeal. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/judge_dismisses_craigslist_prostitution_lawsuit.html

Full Circle In Sight As Inventor Of The World Wide Web Signs Up For Twitter

2009-10-23T06:35:00-04:00

(TechCrunch) Sir Timothy John “Tim” Berners-Lee, credited for inventing this little thing called the World Wide Web, has signed up for Twitter in a move that could potentially rip a hole in the time/space continuum.

The British computer scientist, engineer and MIT professor apparently got on Twitter yesterday just before he entered into a conversation with Tim O’Reilly on stage at the Web 2.0 Summit. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/full_circle_in_sight_as_inventor_of_the_world_wide_web_signs_up_.html

Search Is About To Get Realtime, Real Fast.

2009-10-22T06:47:00-04:00

(TechCrunch) After months of negotiations and holding both off at bay, Twitter now has agreements with both Bing and Google to give them access to its full feed of public Tweets. Both search engines have been yearning to drink directly from Twitter’s the realtime firehose of micro-messages and all that they carry. A rudimentary version of Bing’s Twitter search is already live, and it will soon add public Facebook updates to its search results as well.

While financial terms of the deals were not disclosed, full access to Twitter’s data stream is very valuable to both search engines. Depending on how much Twitter was able squeeze out of Google and Bing for these licensing deals, they are likely to provide its first major source of revenue. (Imagine, if they have to pay by the Tweet). ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/seo_sem/search_is_about_to_get_realtime_real_fast.html

Review: Apple Magic Mouse

2009-10-22T06:44:00-04:00

Reviewed by: Justin Yu
Edited by: Rich Brown
Reviewed on: 10/21/2009

(cnet) Apple's latest pointer, the Magic Mouse, is included with its new iMac desktops, but you can purchase it separately for $69. Just don't confuse it with the Mighty Mouse, because although they're the same price, the differences end there. The Magic Mouse gets an aerodynamic face-lift and also supports application-sensitive touch gestures. New users should expect to spend awhile adjusting to the narrow shape and "buttonless" design. We suspect that many Mac users will hail the Magic Mouse and its multitouch functionality as the first in the next generation of input devices, but we still prefer the Logitech MX 1100 that gives you a more comfortable, sculpted shape, more customizable buttons, a combination scroll wheel, and a more versatile sensor for only $10 more. ...Go to source http://www.gawkwire.com/reviews/review_apple_magic_mouse.html

Twitter hits 5 billion tweets

2009-10-20T06:48:00-04:00

(cnet) Former Current Media executive Robin Sloan appears to have posted Twitter's 5 billionth tweet, in the form of a reply to another user that otherwise read only "Oh lord."

A third-party app called Gigatweet has been measuring the service's total tweet count for some time now, and last week some onlookers picked up on the fact that it was getting awfully close to five billion. That said, Twitter's engineers have bumped up this number at least once or twice, and who knows how many test tweets were sent out in the company's early days.

But Sloan's tweet, which he has nicknamed "The Pentagigatweet," does get at least some landmark status because it actually has the number 5,000,000,000 in the URL. That's because the number at the end of a tweet's URL is apparently the running count of tweets that have been posted until that point. We've e-mailed Twitter co-founder Biz Stone for more information and will update if and when we hear back. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/twitter_hits_5_billion_tweets.html

Review: Lenovo SL510 Laptop

2009-10-20T06:42:00-04:00

(cnet) Without proceeding any further, I am about to make a guess: you have already decided whether or not you're buying a ThinkPad. The iconic brand, the unending combination of professional respect, solid features, and unabashed blandness, combine to make a product that has surprising appeal across the board, yet remains, literally, a black box. The newest update to the line, the ThinkPad SL510, is part of Lenovo's Windows 7 product launch. Like many companies, Lenovo is taking the 7 launch as an opportunity to tweak and improve some of the features in their existing line, and so it is with the SL510.

The SL510 starts at $529, but that configuration only has a 1.8 GHz Intel Celeron T3000 and no Webcam, Bluetooth, or other bells and whistles. For $1,024 in our build, you get a matte 15.6-inch screen in 16x9, a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and a thick, solid chassis that's lighter than you'd expect. Customizable to the gills for 3G, antiglare, and the always popular fingerprint reader, the SL510 is exactly what it looks like: a large-screened business laptop that runs Windows 7. The good news is that the tweaks are likely to only make you happier if you're a ThinkPad person. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/reviews/review_lenovo_sl510_laptop.html

Google Europe COO Bails, To Head Operations For Rival

2009-10-19T13:00:00-04:00

(TechCrunch) European Directories has announced a big win this morning with the appointment of Ben Legg as Chief Operating Officer.

Legg joins the Dutch/British company from Google, one of its main competitors, where the man served as COO Europe since January this year and as Director of Operations in the two years before that.

European Directories, which provides local search and lead-generation products in eight European markets including The Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland says Legg will assume direct responsibility for three of the company’s country operations. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/google_europe_coo_bails_to_head_operations_for_rival.html

Why Kai-Fu Lee Turned Down Steve Jobs

2009-10-15T07:14:00-04:00

BEIJING, CHINA (TechCrunch) Kai-Fu Lee may have left his post as president of Google China, but he didn’t go very far. While still president he learned that Google was going to give up some of its space at Beijing’s Tsinghua Science Park.

He called the landlord and told him he’d take as much as he’d give him. And now he’s in the next office, hoping a Chinese version of Larry or Sergey walks through his door.

As we reported a few weeks ago, Lee is also taking a few Google China staff members and indirectly some of that Google cash in the form of an investment from YouTube founder Steve Chen, among others.

That elbow room won’t last: Lee’s new venture Innovation Works got 7,000 resumes on his first day of business and has gotten some 40,000 total. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/why_kai-fu_lee_turned_down_steve_jobs.html

Google Experiments With Product Ads In Search Results

2009-10-14T06:35:00-04:00

(TechCrunch) Over the last few weeks Google has apparently started rolling out a new set of advertising formats on its search results page, introducing product listings that include price and other details in the Sponsored Links sidebar. For example, a query for “shoes” is displaying a list of different shoe models, their prices, and retailers directly within the search results, as opposed to the the more general text links we’ve grown accustomed to, which lack such information. Google is also apparently testing these ads with photos alongside the product listings for some queries.

Our tipster says that he’s only seeing the new ads in the developer version of Chrome, but I’m seeing them as well in Safari, though some TechCrunch staff aren’t seeing them in any browser. Google is always switching up ad placement and formats in various bucket tests, some of which are browser-specific, so the inconsistency isn’t surprising. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/seo_sem/google_experiments_with_product_ads_in_search_results.html

Massive Chinese Operation DormRing1 Uncovered

2009-10-09T06:39:00-04:00

(TechCrunch) As long as advertisers pay for clicks, there will be click fraud. And the more people combat it, the more sophisticated the attacks become to get around the defenses that advertisers, search engines, and others put in place. But a recent click fraud ring discovered by click-fraud monitoring service Anchor Intelligence suggests that the practice is evolving to a scale never seen before.

Anchor Intelligence identified a click fraud ring being run out of China which involved 200,000 different IP addresses and racked up more than $3 million worth of fraudulent clicks across 2,000 advertisers in a two-week period. That money was never paid out and the ring has now dissipated (or moved onto another scam), but who knows how long the ring was in operation before Anchor noticed. The operation was called DormRing1 because it was centered in dorms at technical universities in China such as the Shanghai Technology Institute.

“We have seen 200 fraud rings,” says Anchor VP Richard Sim, “and this one by far trumps them all. I think it is indicative of how sophisticated the click fraud is getting. We are seeing the sheer scale and size of these rings growing.” ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/massive_chinese_operation_dormring1_uncovered.html

Netbooks rise, notebooks fall

2009-10-09T06:37:00-04:00

(cnet) Netbooks continue to soar in sales at the expense of the venerable notebook, according to a new report from DisplaySearch.

Revenues for Netbooks, or mini-notebooks, rose to $3 billion in the second quarter of the year, a leap of 264 percent over the second quarter of 2008, according to the new "Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report" released Thursday. With those gains, Netbooks now enjoy an 11.7 percent share of the portable PC market.

Though traditional notebooks still command an 89 percent slice of the market, their second quarter sales fell to $23.2 billion, a 14 percent decline from the second quarter of 2008. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/netbooks_rise_notebooks_fall.html

10 Gmail Tips and Tricks

2009-10-08T11:59:00-04:00

http://www.gawkwire.com/video_tv/10_gmail_tips_and_tricks.html

Anarchy on the Internet

2009-10-02T06:44:00-04:00

http://www.gawkwire.com/video_tv/anarchy_on_the_internet.html