Mobile is playing a key role in Google’s renewal of its deal with AOL. Google, which provides AOL’s Web sites with search results, renewed its five-year deal with the firm and expanded it to include AOL sites for cell phones and other mobile devices. In addition, Google will put AOL’s video content on its YouTube site.
As part of the deal, AOL will share revenue with Google from any ads that appear next to the search results. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong called the deal a “home run” and said it was an important part of the firm’s turnaround efforts. AOL, which split from Time Warner last year, has been trying to stay relevant by growing its online ad business.
Armstrong added that before deciding to stick with Google, AOL talked with five or six other search providers.
This is the second mobile move AOL has made this week. On Wednesday AOL acquired mobile applications developer Rally Up. AOL called the move part of a new “mobile-first” strategy. The Rally Up application combines private microblogging with location, enabling users to share text and photos–FacePlant, presently under review in Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store, will offer information on which contacts are able to chat via the iPhone 4’s new FaceTime video application.
For more:
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)
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Mobile users are flocking to Twitter at record rates. In a blog post yesterday the company said Twitter mobile users have increased 62 percent since mid-April. In addition, 16 percent of all new users to Twitter start on mobile.
Twitter credits the jump in mobile users to the launch of its Twitter-branded mobile client for the iPhone. Twitter said the branded client is bringing in more active users and is helping the company attract and retain active users. In fact, 46 percent of active users make mobile part of their Twitter experience. Twitter plans to take its branded client to other platforms. This week, it launched a Twitter-branded mobile client for Research in Motion BlackBerry devices and for Android devices.
Just last month independent research firm comScore reported nearly 93 million users worldwide accessed Twitter in June 2010, a year-over-year increase of 109 percent. In addition, the firm found close to 25 million North American users accessed Twitter in June. The service enjoys a higher maturity level in North America than in other global regions, posting year-over-year growth of 22 percent. comScore notes that 8.3 percent of U.S. smartphone users (about 4.2 million consumers in all) now access Twitter.com via mobile device each month, outpacing the U.K. (5.8 percent of smartphone users), Germany (3.1 percent) and France (2.1 percent).
For more:
- see this blog post
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Voice application firm Vlingo has integrated with foursquare to enable Android 2.0 device users to connect through the social networking service by simply speaking to their phone. For example, users can launch foursquare, check in at certain locations and locate friends using Vlingo’s voice app.
Vlingo executives said that by integrating with foursquare users have more flexibility in how they connect with people. Vlingo is available for Android 2.0 devices and above. U.S. users can download Vlingo from the Android market for free.
This isn’t the first time Vlingo has teamed with a social networking service. The company’s service also lets consumers update Facebook and Twitter by speaking to their phone. Users can also update all three services: Facebook, Twitter and foursquare by saying “social update” and speaking the update. Vlingo plans to eventually expand this capability beyond Android to other platforms.
Vlingo’s voice interface technology enables users to instantly access mobile services and content including text and email, call contacts, search tools and social networking updates all by speaking directly into their devices. Founded in 2006 and backed by Charles River Ventures, Sigma Partners, Yahoo and AT&T, Vlingo now boasts more than 4 million users worldwide, spanning platforms including iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian.
For more:
- see this press release
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The latest Firefox beta is a very impressive piece of work, in large part because of its new Panorama feature. It’s clearly become the top browser of all. Here’s why Chrome, Internet Explorer, and all the rest have a lot of catching up to do.
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Some ancient source code given away freely by Sun in 1984 turned out to have a non-Free-software licence all these years, upsetting the licensing purity of glibc and everything built with it.
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The Plone community has raised the bar in the Content Management System market with today’s release of Plone 4, a faster, more user-friendly and more refined version of a product which has set the pace for CMS innovation for nearly a decade.
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