Crenk

Mac users rejoice, the new version of Evernote has just been released. Version 1.1.4 can be updated from the “Check for Updates” command from the Evenote menu.

For a break down of what this version brings to you, read the release notes.

Evernote is an effective way of making sure you never forget your ideas. With the ability to catch your ideas no matter where they are, a napkin, online, a street sign, a window posting, capture it all with Evernote. Evernote also links across your laptop, your desktop and your mobile so you are never far from the inspiration you seek.

You can read a full review of Evernote here.

Chacha is a mobile service that is trying to enter the competitive market of mobile search. Mobile search is currently thought of as an online product, so Google or Yahoo search for example, but mobile search can also mean that you get the answers without having to go online. How does that work? Well in the case of Chacha all you have to do is send them a text message with a question and they response seconds later with the answer.

Simply text your question to 242242™ (spells ‘ChaCha’) or call 1-800-2ChaCha™ (800-224-2242) from your mobile phone to ask any question and you will receive the answer as a text message. If you have a web browser on your phone, just click on the short website link that’s also included with your answer to see a reference website with more information. Since ChaCha uses human guides, you can easily reply with follow-on questions as if you are exchanging messages with a friend.

Since Twitter is a growing phenomenon and they have just about to gain some more funding for the service, we thought we would provide you with a list of some of the best Twitter applications out there in the market today. The applications has been broken down into desktop, mobile and web. Make sure you test them out and let us know which is your favourite.

Web Applications

• Twistori
• Twitterfeed
• Terraminds
• Mobypicture
• Summize

Mobile Applications

• Twitter Answers
• Hahlo
• Cetwit
• Twittai
• Twapper

Desktop Applications

• Twhirl
• Snitter
• Twitteriffic
• Twitteroo
• Tweetr

According to Allen over at CenterNetworks, AOL is announcing that their Platform-A advertising network has just signed an exclusive agreement with Verizon. Under the agreement AOL will manage the mobile and online advertising for Verizon exclusively, but there is no real indication wether is agreement was provided on a total amount of impressions.

LiveWire Mobile has acquire another mobile music service provider Groove Mobile for $14.5 million.

Groove Mobile powers the mobile music stores of such wireless operators as Sprint in the U.S., as well as Bell Mobility in Canada and 3 UK. LiveWire Mobile is a division of NMS Communications, which provides mobile personalization and content services to various carrier partners. According to the press release announcing the acquisition, Groove Mobile made $7.4 million in revenue last year operating the mobile music services for 12 wireless operators. That is not many download sales at all!

The acquisition allows LiveWire mobile to offer full song downloads along with ringtones and videos. However it also provides some insight into the state of the mobile music industry, still and industry that is currently underutilised and not on the rise.

Display Advertising Opportunity

Currently, Yahoo is a long way behind in several market, but they seem to have a great opportunity improve in this area. In the first slide attached to the previous article it states that the top 2 players control more than 90% of the search market, whereas in the display advertising market, the top 10 players only control less than 25% of the market. Hmmm. This being said there is a great opportunity for Yahoo to control this market as there are no real dominant players.

Additionally, I can see Yahoo taking a keen focus on the markets with very high CPM rates, such as classifieds, search and online video. The online video acquisition not too long ago of the Maven networks has now been justified.

Currently, Yahoo also has a strong presence in classified sections, in terms of jobs and autos, but there are more targets they could approach in this area. Craigslist comes to mind. The site is still currently owned by Craig Newmark with a 25% stake owned by eBay. This could be a potential target for Yahoo to quickly expand their growth in this area.

The second area which currently has a strong CPM is search. Yahoo is currently second in the search race, but are really a long way behind in search marketshare itself and more importantly being able to provide unique search sales services. This was supposed to come from the Panama service, but it has never really been upto standard. With the Panama system Yahoo estimate they can reduce the gap between the industry leading RPS and their own by 30% in the US in the first 9 months of 2007. I simply just cant see this happening.

CapEx and Investing:

Yahoo plan on investing aggressively and spending $2.6 billion cumulatively from 2008-2010. The are focused on Display Advertising, Grid expansion, relevance and experimentation. Hence, you will see Yahoo purchase some strong display advertising network in 2008-2010, my bet is a ValueClick purchase. Valueclick is one of the larger ad networks still left independent and they have a strong focus on display advertising.

Innovation inside Yahoo:

Im very interested to see how Yahoo Buzz progresses. It has been reported about a lot in the last few days about how much traffic the site is pushing and im keep to see this expanded, but not expanded too much. Quality rather than quantity.

Revenue Increase: Are They Realistic?

Yahoo is projecting revenues after traffic acquisition costs (TAC)—i.e., what it shares with other Websites that run Yahoo ads—to grow from $5.1 billion in 2007 to $8.8 billion in 2010. Yahoo also argued to its board that it could exceed Wall Street expectations and accelerate revenue-growth to 25 percent in 2009 and 2010 and increase its operating cash flow from $1.9 billion this year to $3.7 billion in 2010.

Are these figures realistic?? We can only wait and see!

Today, Yahoo filed a presentation which was detailed just before the Microsoft unsolicited bid. This three year financial plan was shown given by management to its board of directors back in December 2007. As you can see from the projections, Yahoo has project their revenue after traffic acquisition costs, which is what it shares with other Websites that run Yahoo ads—to grow from $5.1 billion in 2007 to $8.8 billion in 2010.

These slides come curtosy of Techcrunch. We will have our own analysis of these slides coming in the next few days, so stay tuned.

Direct-to-consumer mobile content service Thumbplay scored $18 million in Series E financing from rookside Capital Partners, the public equity affiliate of Bain Capital, and Cross Creek Capital, a private equity affiliate of Wasatch Advisors.

Thumbplay is behind the mobile content sales for Internet portals like AOL and MSN, as well as offering a branded service to consumers that allow fans to buy content outside of the carrier content menu. The funding will be used to accelerate growth, expand its direct-to-consumer product offerings and to expand internationally.

Google has just announced a new deal with Nokia to see the worlds best search engine on Nokia mobile phones. The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is where the announcement was made and it will provide access to Google search on Nokia devices via Nokia Search. (Nokia Search is an application that combines web search services like Google with the ability to search for applications and files on your device.)

Thus, the roll-out will begin with Nokia N96 and N78, 6210 Navigator, and 6220 classic, Google search will be available on Nokia devices in more than 100 countries, serving mobile users in 42 different languages.

This is another win for Google Search over its main competitors, Ask, Live and Yahoo. Is there really anyone that can compete with Google in their strongest area?

The news of the day must be that Google has acquired Jaiku. Jaiku is a microblogging site similar to Pownce and Twitter. It is a bit of a surprise that Google has opted to purchase Jaiku (which hails from Finland) instead of Twitter (the market leader) or Pownce (the new kid on the block with the best user interface).

Have a look at what everyone else has been saying about the deal:

• Jaiku
• Techcrunch
• CenterNetworks
• Mashable
• Rev2
  

Twitter has not long got Series A Funding, so it would have been rare for them to be purchased. Pownce on the other hand seems to be on the downhill slide. Since their highly publicised launch Pownce has never lived up to expectations and with the recent news about Kevin Rose potentially moving Pownce features over to Digg, it has just never recovered. If you look at Alexa data on Pownce you will notice it wont be too long until it dies a death, on the quick slide down. Its seems that Jaiku was an important match with Google because it has more of a presence in activity streams and mobile presence and those are the markets Google is trying to gain more market share. It that last week Google also launched Adsense for mobile, so this will be a nice addition to boost the start of that new service.