Techcrunch: Nokia to buy Dopplr

Nokia is supposed to be buying Dopplr, the travel planner web service. I think it fits well into Nokia's strategy and idea of connecting people.

The price is rumored to be around 15-22 million US dollars.

TechCrunch http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/23/nokia-to-acqure-uk-startup-dopplr/

Facebook breaks 300m user milestone and Q2 was profitable!

Mark Zuckerberg posted in Facebook blog that "Facebook now serves 300 million people across the world" and most importantly "Earlier this year, we said we expected to be cash flow positive sometime in 2010, and I'm pleased to share that we achieved this milestone last quarter."

This is huge news, since it's been widely speculated that bigger services, such as Youtube and Facebook, are finding it difficult to make profit from ads only with such huge user base hogging resources.

Congratulations Facebook!

Online advertising in decline

Online display advertising has been steadily growing for years now, but this is the first time in ages that year-over-year results show that 2009/H1 measured ad spending has actually declined 1% from 2008/H1 spendige.

The depression is showing, but it's small dent compared to what the other advertising channels are facing with (average decline of 15,4%).

You can read more details in the Advertising Age's article Internet Ad Spending Declined in First Half of '09.

Nokia releases mini laptop with WIFI, 3G and 12 hours battery life

Update 7.1.2014: This was posted 2009 August, but it is still receiving clicks, so I assume it's because people want to read about Nokia's new tablet 2520, with 4G connection and battery life of 5 hours.



Read all about it at Nokia site, Nokia Booklet 3G.

Google reveals Google Chrome OS

I know this is like 4 days old news, but here it is, if you didn't hear it elsewhere: Google is finally releasing operating system based on Linux. I do say finally, as it's been in the waiting for quite some time.

If some lines have started to blur earlier...




They certainly are getting even more blurrier in the future. Google FTW!

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

Prepare to be Binged

AdAge in a recent article publishes information that Microsoft is branding a new search engine Bing. Upcoming campaign budjet is estimated to be around 80-100 million dollars, and JWT as the agency who's doing the work.

As an interesting side note, Microsoft's own search front end statistics show that 42% of searches require refinement, and 25% of clicks are the back button. I wonder if Google has similar figures?

http://www.bing.com/

Marketing to marketers?

Pete Blackshaw wrote an interesting article in Advertising Age about "Is the Future of Marketing About Marketing to Marketers?".

Quote:

I've discovered the ultimate marketing channel to the consumer, and it is "we."

Look no further than last week's Skittles brouhaha. Or the Super Bowl advertising buzz that I tracked for Nielsen. Or the Motrin Moms controversy many months earlier. Upward of half of the overall buzz came from the folks with marketing industry pedigree or credentials -- and the percentage conspicuously peaked even higher in the early waves of buzz. Put another way, marketers are complicit in pushing the snowball into a "buzzball."

Bold for emphasis is mine, but there's food for thought. Read rest of the article in here: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=135174.

Real time locations with Google Maps.. err Latitude

Google is mashing up new information on top of Google Maps, latest in this line is friend placement in real time. It picks up your place if you use the mobile version of Google Latitude or your personal computer.

Google Latitude www.google.com/latitude

The Monty Python Channel on YouTube

Monty Python on YouTube. Officially. Really. And spam. Of course. :)