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New Media News Every Morning

Google Does What Twitter Couldn’t (Relevant Real Time Search)

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If there was one feature I wish Twitter would improve, it would be its live search feature (aka real time search). While the service works really well in tracking live discussions, its relevancy fades the further back in time one searches.

Fortunately it looks as if the boys and girls at Google are once again resolving this issue by relaunching their live search feature under a new location.

What makes this service truly remarkable is the ability to track events in the past, as well as receive email alerts regarding virtually every topic under the Sun (a tool that might be useful for businesses and marketers).

Unfortunately Google has yet to implement live search upon the iPhone, something their rival Bing! has done (albeit only for US users).

While live search is a feature that will probably not interest too many people outside of the geekosphere (as many people are fine with static news), it could give Google leverage over Facebook (the latter who could potentially launch a social search engine of their own in the not so distant  future).

Originally posted on August 26, 2010 @ 4:48 pm

DirectTV Hearts Google TV Ads

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After announcing their Google TV initiative, it looks like the search engine giant has struck a deal with DirectTV that may help boost Google’s revenue beyond its digital domain.

Today, we’re announcing a strategic partnership with DIRECTV through which Google TV Ads will offer inventory on a broad selection of television networks available on DIRECTV.

DIRECTV’s national satellite inventory on Bloomberg Television, Centric, Chiller, Current TV, Fit TV, Fox Business, Fuel, G4, Ovation, Sleuth and TV Guide will be available through the Google TV Ads platform across all dayparts, including primetime. DIRECTV is the largest satellite provider in the U.S. and the second largest television distributor by household reach. This partnership, combined with our existing relationship with DISH Network, means that you’ll be able to reach up to 30 million satellite households with Google TV Ads.  (Inside Adwords)

This move should help diversify Google’s revenue stream which mostly relies upon its search engine in order to pay the bills.

It should also help keep the search engine fiscally afloat in the chance that digital advertisers begin to flock towards Facebook due to the social networks enormous growth.

It will be interesting to see if cable companies follow their satellite brethren and court Google TV ads as well (although many may refrain due to Google’s entrance into the world of fiber).

Originally posted on August 11, 2010 @ 1:18 pm

It’s beginning to look a lot like context

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Standing out during the holiday season has never been more challenging. These practical strategies from Fyllo will have you celebrating holiday success.

Originally posted on October 9, 2023 @ 5:41 am

Google Unveils Skype Killer Via Gmail

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In their quest to challenge Skype for the VoIP crown, the search engine giant is rolling out Google Voice to Gmail lovers (provided they live within a few countries).

Starting today, you can call any phone right from Gmail.

Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year and calls to other countries will be billed at our very low rates. We worked hard to make these rates really cheap (seecomparison table) with calls to the U.K., France, Germany, China, Japan—and many more countries—for as little as $0.02 per minute.

Dialing a phone number works just like a normal phone. Just click “Call phone” at the top of your chat list and dial a number or enter a contact’s name. (Official Gmail Blog)

If you do not see the feature yet in your account, you can either wait 72 hours or activate it early by calling a number within your Gmail account (your results may vary).

Thus far, Google seems to be aiming at reducing Skype’s dominance in the world of VoIP by using its deep pockets to draw away Skypers (who have mocked Google’s attempts in the past).

Unfortunately for Google Voice, Skype current advantage lies with its video calling feature, not to mention the fact that the latter is available upon the iPhone thanks to iRage from Steve Jobs.

Originally posted on August 25, 2010 @ 1:28 pm

HTC’s Windows 7 Phone May Have The Greatest Speaker Ever

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In their quest to take on Android and the iPhone, Microsoft is preparing to release a slew of Windows 7 phones later on this year.

While Samsung is rumored to come out with an “iPhone clone,” it looks like HTC went the creative route and instead outfitted the speaker.

In case you needed any more evidence that AT&T is going all-in with Windows Phone 7, take a gander at this little beast, a phone known only as the HTC T8788 at this point (rest assured, you’ll get a snappy, memorable, trademarkable name by the time it’s on shelves). Though it’s a landscape slider, it doesn’t slide to reveal what you’d normally expect — a keyboard, that is. Instead, you get a speaker, an unusual (though not unprecedented) concept that should make this a decent media device… and the kickstand around back should help with that, too. (via Engadget)

There is still no word on when HTC will release this phone to the masses, although thus far it looks like the company is making the same mistake as the Blackberry Torch by launching upon AT&T (the iPhone’s exclusive US carrier).

Carrier choice aside, the phone does look impressive, and hopefully we will receive some more tech specs in the future (either from HTC or Microsoft).

(via BGR, Image Credit: Engadget)

Originally posted on August 24, 2010 @ 4:48 pm