Posts Tagged with ‘AOL’

Yahoo is pulling out all the stops in its quest to either prove it can compete with the big boys like Google or at least convince Microsoft that they are worth more than the initial bid before turning themselves in for their Micro-Borgification.
Their latest move appears to be a release (or possible resurrection) of a long-rumored framework somewhat similar to Google Gears. Right on the heels of their official external launch of Fire Eagle comes Yahoo BrowserPlus, At the present [...]

Rumors started circulating earlier in the week, but today, Microsoft confirmed to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that it purchased Seattle-based Farecast at a rumored purchase price of over $75 million USD. Farecast has also confirmed the sale on their blog.
Farecast is a nifty little application that attempts to help you judge when the best time is to buy your airline tickets. They are also beta testing a version that does the same for hotel rooms. By entering your travel [...]

In a move possibly designed as an end run around Microsoft’s bid, Yahoo execs have decided to do a test placement of Google ads on the Yahoo family of sites, and to join forces with Time Warner / AOL. A partnership between Yahoo and AOL would give the struggling internet company enough clout to fight off a Microsoft bid, especially if the test of Google ads on its site is successful.
Microsoft isn’t taking the news lying down, however. It [...]

… in hating New York State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky.
Brodsky, a Democrat representing a Westchester County District, is sponsoring a bill that would limit the ability of companies to collect information for targeted advertising. Joining Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft in opposing the bill are AOL, Comcast, eBay, EDS, and Facebook.
Jim Halpert, general counsel for the State Privacy and Security Coalition, claims that the bill "is unnecessary, most likely unconstitutional, and would have profound implications for the future of Internet advertising and [...]

Gmail has been both savior and demon for me. As the person who regularly gets the “you are over your email quota” emails on the free email account provided by my ISP, Gmail lets me go months without ever having to think about cleaning out my inbox. Of course, that means I go months without ever weeding through all the emails in there, and whether I hit a storage ceiling or not, it leads to one huge mess.
Gmail has an [...]

Today the makers of the recently launched (yet oddly-named) Chumby internet-connected device have acquired $12.5 million in Series B funding, primarily from JK&B Capital, a new investor for the company. Chumby's other existing venture investors, including Avalon Ventures, Masthead Venture and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, were also involved in the financing, which will be used to “accelerate growth” of the San Diego-based company, as well as to expand the Chumby Network onto other screen-based web devices.
“We are pleased to receive [...]

With News Corp. and NBC offering up such oldies as The A-Team, Kojak, Partridge Family, and S.W.A.T. (among many others) to their online audience at Hulu and other NBC sites, it only seems logical that other television networks would follow suit in offering former fan favorite shows for viewing via the internet.
Today, CBS has become the latest network to join the online old-school bandwagon, as the company's CBS Interactive division has announced that some of their classic televisions shows [...]

It seems clear that the Yahoo board is delusional. There is just no other way to describe it aside from out-of-touch, clueless, or just plain crazy. They turned down the Microsoft offer. Fine, we get it. Big bad Microsoft would cramp your free-wheeling style that has had you, the first big search and portal online, cowering in the shadow of Google . You can't get bought by Google because everyone from the EU to the US to the kindergartners at [...]

Still not sure widgets are a must-have for any Internet company? AOL will announce today that they have acquired Goowy, a company that allows you to create your own widgets (a la Widgetbox) as well as the Goowy Webtop, a suite of online apps that was long ago surpassed by the yourminis platform.
AOL has actually been working with Goowy since 2006, using their widget creation tool for their myAOL feature. Neither AOL nor Goowy have divulged the financial details of [...]