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Google’s Earnings Miss Expectations

Matthew Schwartz — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:37:40 +0000

Google is hardly immune from a lousy economy. Its shares fell 9% by midday Friday after the company’s second-quarter earnings missed analysts’ expectations. Google’s shares fell $48.81, or 9.2%, to $484.63, the first time in three months its shares fell below $500. But no need to take up a collection for Google just yet. The search-engine giant is currently locked in a battle with Microsoft over Yahoo’s ad business.

My Liver Sounds Like Schoenberg

Michael Cervieri — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:50:48 +0000

Harvard Medical School fellow Gil Alterovitz is developing a computer application that translates protein and gene expressions into music. Healthy genes give you harmonic chords. Disease gives you discord. The application works by mapping and measuring the network of physiological signals generated by our bodies. “There are lots of correlations between physiological variables,” Alterovitz tells MIT’s Technology Review. “If heart rate is higher, other variables will move together in response, and you can simplify that redundancy and information.”

It’s About the Stupid, Stupid

Michael Cervieri — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:07:45 +0000

First the Atlantic runs a cover story on whether the Google makes us stupid. Now University of Chicago sociologist James Evans writes in the journal Science that the Internet is bad for researchers. Evans analyzed 34 million citations from articles posted online between 1998 and 2005 and concludes that fewer and fewer sources are being referenced. The reason? Researchers aren’t wading through reams of books but instead just clicking top-ranked search results. (Hat tip: Wired)

The NPR API that Sort of Lets You Do Some Things

Michael Cervieri — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:30:40 +0000

NPR announces that it’s making a public API available to access “over 250,000 stories that are grouped into more than 5,000 different aggregations” dating back to 1995. All good stuff, we think. The devil’s in the details though. A quick read through the terms of service lets it be known that the API’s for personal or 501(c)(3) use only, and that a vague “limited amount” clause is in affect. Kind of reminds of the Associated Press. (Hat tip: Mashable)

Yahoo Loves Flex

Will Amazon out Netflix Netflix?

Michael Cervieri — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:17:20 +0000

In the bigger’s better department, Amazon’s come out with a video on demand service holding upwards of 40,000 movies and television shows. If size matters, Amazon beats Netflix’s 10,000 video offerings via Roku hands down. Original story via the New York Times, and a good break down from NewTeeVee.

Turn on Your TV, Watch Cats do Somersaults

Matthew Schwartz — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:42:33 +0000

Another indication that the term “regular TV” is fast becoming an oxymoron: a partnership between YouTube and TiVo allowing TiVo subscribers to stream YouTube videos onto their television sets through their broadband-enabled TiVo boxes. It’s TiVo’s first deal for streaming online content, though the company has partnerships with 60 Web sites that provide content to TiVo, according to THR.com. YouTube, which is owned by Google, garnered 68 million unique users in May who streamed 3.8 billion videos, per Nielsen//NetRatings.

‘Wall Street Journal’ cuts 50 editorial positons as part of restructuring

Matthew Schwartz — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:05:00 +0000

A bit of Yin-yang amid the massive changes at The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper is cutting 50 editorial positions to restructure editing across print, online and mobile, according to a memo distributed Wednesday by Editor in Chief Robert Thomson. The Journal’s South Brunswick, N.J. bureau is bearing the brunt of the cuts. As part of the restructuring the Journal will be adding 95 journalists, both in print and online. “An ambitious expansion” of the Journal’s Web and international operations is in the pipeline, the memo said.

Newspapers Need to Turn the Page on their Web Sites

Matthew Schwartz — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:44:46 +0000

A new study by the Readership Institute at Northwestern University shows that newspaper Web sites aren’t getting as much traffic as expected. The study, which took the pulse of 3,072 adults in 100 markets, found that 62% of respondents have never visited their local newspaper’s Web site and just 14% said they had visited between the last seven to 30 days. What’s more, respondents said they were more engaged with print than with the Web site. Ratings for four experiences, including “ad usefulness,” were significantly higher for the newspaper than the Web site.

Twitter Acquires Search-Engine Site Summize

Matthew Schwartz — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:38:29 +0000

Twitter is growing up fast. It has acquired Summize, a search engine created specifically to index posts on the social-networking site. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Silicon Alley Insider pegged the price at $15 million. The company said Summize will be integrated under the Twitter brand.

AT&T Warns that Yahoo-Google Deal could Drive up Prices on Search Ads

Matthew Schwartz — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:15:43 +0000

AT&T is expressing its opposition to a Yahoo-Google ad deal. Matthew Crowley, CMO of AT&T’s yellowpages.com subsidiary told a Senate antitrust panel Tuesday that Yahoo’s deal to start replacing some of its own search ads with those supplied by Google could drive up prices for online advertising. Yahoo’s is AT&T’s partner for Web services, reaching 14 million broadband customers and 70 million wireless customers, Crowley said. Meanwhile, Brad Smith, Microsoft’s senior VP-general counsel, warned that the deal could give Google about 90% of the search-engine ad business. Google and Yahoo officials said the 90% figure anticipates an actual merger between the two companies, when Yahoo still expects to sell most of its own search ads.

ScribeMedia.Org » briefsNews

Google’s Earnings Miss Expectations

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