Internet

If you want a quick peek into the future of Internet marketing, go to an Ad:Tech show. I went to the 'Ad:Tech Spring' held in San Francisco last week and the future of the Internet appears very bright. First, let me explain Ad:Tech. For 10 years, ... Ad:Tech has been the place to go for brand advertisers, agencies, online publishers, and, well, nerds, if they wanted to find out about who's doing what in the digital marketing arena. This year approximately 10,000 Internet marketers (or would-be Internet marketers) congregated at SFO's Moscone Center to hear papers like "Marketing with Downloadable ... (view more)

Still not sure that China has become a rising technological giant? Perhaps recent news that the Asian country has officially passed the United States in the number of online users will convince you otherwise. Granted, we've been aware of China's ... massive population for a very long time. The country boasts some 1.3 billion citizens, and although it struggled to establish an economy on par with the United States or Britain during the twentieth century, by the turn of the 21st it had clearly arrived amongst the world's economic (and military) super powers. For a good look at China's export ... (view more)

It's usually Linux users who get most passionate about their operating system, followed by Mac advocates. However, Microsoft's plans to axe the Windows XP seem to have uncovered some serious devotees. A petition started by tech journalist Galen ... Gruman now has more than 100,000 signatures from people urging Microsoft to keep the system available beyond the planned withdrawal. As things stand, XP will continue to be available to buy separately (both in physical and download version) until the end of June. Hardware manufacturers can sell machines with XP until the end of the year. While XP has ... (view more)

The man who hoped to mastermind the transfer of the World Wide Web onto mobile telephones has abandoned his project and revealed that 80% of traffic on his system was pornography. Russell Beattie, who launched 'Mowser' (as in mobile-browser) last ... year, says he now realises there simply isn't any serious demand for a 'mobile-specific web' outside of the Far East. The idea of Mowser was to provide versions of ordinary web pages specifically designed for cell phone displays. Users could simply type in the address of the site they wanted to see and Mowser would automatically 'translate' it into a ... (view more)

The image-hosting site Flickr has launched an online video page that appears to be a natural rival to YouTube. However, most analysts think the move has come too late. It's an extension of the search engine wars: Flickr is owned by Yahoo, while ... Google owns YouTube. Though Yahoo already has a video hosting service, it's only available to media outlets and professionals. The new Flickr service will allow anyone to view videos, but only 'pro' members can upload footage. This will cost $24.95 a year, and even then clips will be limited to 90 seconds. That's in sharp contrast to YouTube, which ... (view more)

After weeks of speculation, MySpace announced on Thursday that it would launch a retail music store. In partnership with the three biggest record labels -- Universal, Warner and Sony BMG -- the social networking site will form a new company called ... MySpace Music. EMI, the smallest of the four music companies, has yet to sign on, but is expected to in the coming months. (Source: informationweek.com ) The new company, while a separate entity, will be fully integrated into the existing online platform providing users with ad-supported audio and video streams, DRM-free downloads, and ringtones. ... (view more)

Amazon has launched a new service allowing customers to buy products via their cell phones. Those who've tested it say the service works smoothly...but is a complete waste of time. The scheme works by allowing customers to text the name of a ... product, the ISBN (for books) or the Universal Product Code (the barcode number for other products) to 262966, which spells out Amazon on keypads. They then receive a text message back with the first two products that match the search and text either 1 or 2 to make their selection, or M for more options. First time users will then need to text the email ... (view more)

Canada seems to be gearing up for a fight between Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Peer-to-Peer file sharing users just as companies in the United States are negotiating common ground. Last year we reported on Bell Canada's practice of torrent ... 'throttling' -- a bandwidth management strategy where users find their file sharing programs suffer significant slow downs or are cut off altogether during peak usage. Despite some minor disapproval, the company has been continuing the practice without serious uproar. However, that was before the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's recent decision ... (view more)

Comcast recently ended hostilities with users of peer-to-peer networks (P2P) last week by agreeing to work with BitTorrent. The agreement, launched hand-in-hand with the one of the inventors of the BitTorrent protocol, is meant to find solutions to ... bandwidth management issues. Comcast and BitTorrent intend to publish their findings so that other P2P's and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can adapt their solutions. Previously, the cable company had restricted heavy usage of P2P networks using a practice known as 'torrent throttling.' Customers would find their file sharing slow or stop ... (view more)

Adobe has launched a free online version of its popular Photoshop image editing software, combining it with an online picture storage service. Photoshop Express includes basic features such as airbrushing, red-eye reduction and re-sizing, along with ... some fancy effects that turn pictures into sketches or distort them for comic effect. Users also get two gigabytes of online storage, and images can be shared via on-line galleries or integrated with social networking sites such as Facebook. It seems the plan is to introduce Photoshop to new users in the hope of them buying an upgrade to Photoshop ... (view more)