Archive for the ‘Web Apps’ Category
It seems like UberMedia is entering a fight with the dragon and they are going to take on Twitter head-on in the microblogging space. Recently UberMedia has been acquired a lot of Twitter and microblogging applications, with the overall aim of creating their own microblogging platform. UberMedia now sends over 10 percent of Twitter’s daily activity. While both services have been co-operating to better both of their financial situations, UberMedia thinks it would make more sense to try vertically integrate a new microblogging platform into their already very popular services.
At the start of 2010, UberMedia was accused by Twitter of violating some of its terms of service and a results was suspended. Twitter was basically upset that UberMedia called one of their products UberTwitter, thus they changed the name of the product to UberSocial. However, ties between the companies havent geen on good terms since. Thus, UberMedia will be creating their own microblogging service and a Twitter competitor. It will be very interesting to see if the product gains anywhere near as much traction as Twitter.
It is now official, the YouTube founders have started a new company called AVOS and they have acquired Delicious from Yahoo. AVOS plan on continuing the service that the users have love and they will be making delicious even more of the vital social media destination.
Yahoo will continue to run the service for the next few months and then the move to AVOS servers will happen. Chad Hurley and Steve Chen (YouTube founders) are building an exciting new company and we look forward to watching the Delicious service continue to develop!
Facebook will be launching their new group buying program tonight. Facebook Deals will be launching in 5 US cities tonight and then will be launching in Europe in about three months time. There have already been a lot of comparison between Facebook Deals, Groupon and LivingSocial, but its expected that unlike the other services Facebook Deals wont charge retailers a percentage of the revenues.
Groupon and LivingSocial are controlling this market simply because of their technology and user base. Now, Facebook with the worlds largest user base is going to enter this very competitive and lucrative markets. Groupon and LivingSocial better look out!
p.s. Google has just launched their own group buying service. This space is getting overcrowded now.
(via RWW)
TheWarp has the exclusive on YouTube getting ready to launch their own movies on-demand service. The service will allow users to stream key Hollywood movies.
The key Hollywood studios have been searching for a competitor to iTunes that they can push and it seems as though YouTube is that key competitor.
It is expected that the new movies on-demand service could launch as soon as this week, but I would expect it in a few weeks time. Studios that have already signed include Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers and Universal. So far only Paramount, Fox and Disney havent joined the service, but Im sure after a while they will follow (except Disney, who has Steve Jobs as the major shareholder).
You can check out the full details over at TheWarp.
Talkie has just launched a combination between social gaming and philanthropy, making environmental activism as easy as logging on to Facebook. Talkie is launching Ecotopia, a “green” game that rewards real-world eco-friendly actions with in-game points. Features include:
- Tackling global issues – Through its association with well-known non-profit organization Conservation International, Ecotopia addresses environmental activism head-on, with missions designed to teach players about conservation and sustainable living, through dynamic gameplay.
- “Social proofing” – By performing real-world acts of sustainability and uploading photos or video for Facebook friends to view and verify, players can earn substantial in-game rewards.
- Well-known gameplay model with a twist – Ecotopia’s city-building gameplay model allows fans of all skill levels to play with ease, but unlike other games, Ecotopia also challenges players to overcome obstacles in a heroes-versus-villains backstory.
The social news site that couldn’t, Mixx, has just been acquired by UberMedia (well according to their website). Mixx is a leading social news site that had over 1.1 million unique users per month. It seems as though UberMedia has taken down the site and are giving it a well overdue overhaul.
It seems like UberMedia is gearing up their portfolio with some great brands, Mixx, Popurls, UberMarket and possibly TweetDeck.
However, this now just leaves Reddit as the major and only real player in the social news market.
ICQ (the old school instant messenger client) has just launched their new version, ICQ 7.5.
The new features at a glance:
- Audio and Video: Improved live video chat including full screen mode support. The revamped service includes the use of GIPS technology, LSVX codec and advanced techniques to handle jitter, packet loss, CPU and bandwidth constraints.
- Moods: More than 80 available Moods in a gallery available to personalize your own ICQ and express your mood.
- Privacy symbols: for better management of your contact list, users can use the new privacy icons symbols.
- Online Games: Users can now access the popular Online Games Center by clicking on the online games button located at the new strip at the bottom of the ICQ contact list or directly from the message window. The ICQ Online Games Center offers a wide selection of free games for hours of fun.
Download the new ICQ 7.5 for free: http://www.icq.com/download/icq/
For those who actually care about the royal wedding (doesnt seem like anyone here in the UK cares, they are just happy its a public holiday!) you will now be able to watch it live on YouTube from anywhere in the world.
The Royal Household has just announced that footage of the entire ceremony will be live-streamed on their official YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel.
The live stream will begin at 10:00a BST (9:00a GMT, 2:00a PT, 5:00a ET) on Friday, April 29, and will follow the wedding procession, marriage ceremony at Westminster Abbey and balcony kiss. Alongside the live stream, The Royal Channel will also feature live blog commentary of the event to give timely updates and insights as the day unfolds. For those of you in different time zones, the footage will be reshown in its entirety directly following the event and will be available in full on the site to view afterwards.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Twitter are in advanced talks to acquired TweetDeck. It was announced back in February that TweetDeck was acquired by UberMedia for $30 million, but now we arent so sure!
Now it seems like Twitter and UberMedia are fighting over TweetDeck for an acquisition price of around $50 million.
TweetDeck has long been the major Twitter client of choice, so its no surprised that Twitter are very eager to acquire the startup. Twitter is missing their own native desktop PC client, so an acquisition of TweetDeck or Seesmic makes a lot of sense.
Yahoo has announced that they will be killing off Yahoo Buzz. Yahoo Buzz was a Digg like service where users submit stories, social news! It now seems as if there is only one player in this market and thats Reddit!
Yahoo! Buzz will be discontinued as of April 21, 2011. As of this date, you will be unable to access the Yahoo! Buzz site. This was a hard decision. However this will help us focus on our core strengths and new innovations. We appreciate your patronage. The Yahoo! Buzz Team.
Buzz was a solid community, but it didnt really have a strong design or strong community, so it was never going to be a leader in the social news market.
