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New Media News Every Morning

Marchex, Fox Partner to develop Spanish language web sites

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marchex.jpgMarchex, Inc. and Fox’s Latin American Channels division, a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corporation, announced a partnership to jointly develop a set of Spanish-language Web sites owned by Marchex, including cocina.com, fotos.com, futbol.com, deportes.com, mascotas.com, mujer.com, peliculas.com, salud.com, and tarjetas.com. Through the partnership, Fox will provide localized content and community features to the Web sites including: videos, forums, blogs, personal home pages, and photo albums.

“Partnering with Fox, one of the global leaders in creating digital content and online communities, helps us extend our international reach to one of the fastest growing demographics of Internet users,” said Peter Christothoulou, Marchex Chief Strategy Officer. “It is a key step in our ongoing strategy of acquiring Web sites and developing them into high quality destinations which, over time, will continue to build our base of global and local traffic.”

Originally posted on May 22, 2007 @ 5:27 pm

Iran opens first net cafe for women

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iran.jpg Adhering to the strict sex segregation policy of Islamic law together with their president’s initiatives to return to the old values, the first ever female-only Internet café has opened in the city of Karaj west of Tehran, Iran. In this “appropriate atmosphere”, women are provided with free computer lessons and high speed internet connection.

“The atmosphere of most Internet cafes in the city is not appropriate for girls, therefore this Internet cafe has been started up in a complete female atmosphere,” according to semi-official news agency, Mehr News Agency.

Aside from this policy of separating men and women, Iran enforces strict dress codes as well. However, Iranian officials view this as a protective measure, requiring women to wear long, loose-fitting clothes and to cover their hair.

Originally posted on May 22, 2007 @ 8:59 am

Lyro offers 1st Digital Business Card Marketplace

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lyro.jpg Lyro is offering the world’s first open, fully searchable online business card. It allows people to freely promote themselves on the internet by creating, passing, and collecting internet-searchable digital business cards.

To date, there are about 100,000 digital business cards stored in Lyro, a trivial number compared to more than 66 million US professionals and another 130 million worldwide. Nevertheless, the number is a strong indicator of user acceptance given the short existence of the company.

One of the truly novel features of Lyro is control. The internet is saturated with publicly available data on just about everybody, but little if any of this information is manageable at the individual level. Lyro acts as a trusted resource for information that was created and published by the user.

“The one common denominator of Lyro is our endless desire to get other people to find out more about you and connect with you one-on-one,” said founder Lief Larson. “As part of our commitment to our users, we are continuously pushing ourselves to find ways to cut through the digital noise and attract attention on your behalf.”

Originally posted on May 18, 2007 @ 2:21 pm

OpenNet: 25 countries blocking Web sites

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block.jpg Studying 40 countries including Palestinian territories, Internet censorship and surveillance group OpenNet Initiative has concluded that at least 25 countries exert extra effort to block Web sites catered to political, social, and pornographic topics. This is a clear indication of Internet’s increasing importance in shaping culture and trends worldwide.

However, the study did not observe the effectiveness of these blocking efforts. Additionally, it did not cover countries like US, Western Europe, North Korea, and Cuba.

Top Countries Blocking Political Sites
China
Iran
Myanmar,
Syria
Tunisia
Vietnam

Top Countries Blocking Porno, Gay, and Lesbian sites
Iran
Oman
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
Tunisia
United Arab Emirates
Yemen

Conversely, researchers discovered there is no filtering in Russia, Israel, and Palestinian territories notwithstanding the political tension surrounding these countries.

Originally posted on May 18, 2007 @ 10:23 am

New7Wonders becomes a global phenomenon

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new7.jpg

Started in 2001 as inspired by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber to “protect humankind’s heritage across the globe”, New7Wonders Web site is now part of the prestigious top 1 percent of the world’s most popular websites.

It is the first global election site poised to alter world history by choosing the New 7 Wonders of the world based on more than 45 million votes using modern communications technology like Internet and mobile phones. With only 46 days and 10 hours left as of this writing, official results of this exceptional campaign will be announced in Lisbon, Portugal and broadcasted globally on 07.07.07 (July 7, 2007).

“New7Wonders has one of the fastest-growing online communities. People from every country in the world have voted and continue to post photos and videos, submit slogans and spread the word. New7Wonders is a passionate movement that is making waves worldwide,” commented New7Wonders Founder and President, Bernard Weber.

New7Wonders has joined the ranks of other powerful Internet brands and organizations like Coke, Levis, UN, FIFA, Olympics, and BMW.

Originally posted on May 21, 2007 @ 10:03 am