Posts Tagged ‘Google’

Google buys Episodic

Posted by Amita Kalra on April 4th, 2010

Google is certainly keeping its promise to buy one small company each month. It’s fifth acquisition for the year is video service Episodic, a San Francisco-based start-up founded by Noam Lovinsky and Matias Cudich.  Since January 2010, Google has bought Microsoft Word online component DocVerse, photo-editing site Picnik, email app maker reMail, and social search company Aardvark.

Episodic describes itself as a “comprehensive platform for broadcasting live and on-demand video to the web or any web-enabled device.” It is an online video hosting service and publishing suite, and features the capability to publish live streams and on-demand content. Users also have control over advertisements and ad breaks in their videos, as well as an in-depth analytics tool that gives them real-time information on viewers’ experiences. Episodic also allows users to make money off of their video channels by inserting advertisements or charging viewers for content (via credit card). These options are available for both live streams and on-demand video. Not only this, Episodic is also optimized for viewing on mobile devices, including the iPhone.

Terms of the deal were not released. The company said new sign-ups of its service are being suspended during the transition but that existing customers won’t be affected.

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Google Vs China – The Battle Is On

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 25th, 2010

In a business plan that continues to become more complicated by the minute, Google’s Chinese blunder is one that consistently continues to backfire. As Chinese partners close doors on the internet giant it is apparent that censorship in the Chinese domain is one that Google will not be able to avoid.

On Thursday, a public-relations director for Sina Corp., a popular Chinese Internet portal that carries a Google search bar, said it is considering finding a new search partner. This came just a day after Tianya.cn, which runs a leading online forum, said it plans to discontinue cooperation with Google on some projects. On Wednesday, TOM Group Ltd., a media company controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-Shing, said it had removed Google’s search bar from its Chinese portal.

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Google Vs. China

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 20th, 2010

Even as talks between Google and the Chinese government reach a virtual stalemate, Google intends to retain substantial business presence in the region.

If speculation is to be given any weight at all, the US internet group will be announcing the closure of its flagship local search engine; google.cn; as early as monday – just as it had threatened earlier, in case the government does not allow uncensored search results.

A state-owned Chinese newspaper, quoting an unnamed Google employee, reported yesterday that the company could announce the closure of google.cn on Monday. A person familiar with the situation said last week that Google had drawn up plans for the closure of the Chinese search engine and hoped to manage an orderly exit from the country. Google.cn is a joint venture between the company and a domestic partner since the government does not allow foreigners to hold content in the internet content business. Google’s workforce is employed by a wholly US based company, however.

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Google’s new TV Initiative

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 18th, 2010

In a quest to move it’s technology from the computer screen to the TV screen, and consequently from the office to the living room, Google has now partnered with Sony Corp and Intel Corp clearly aiming at grabbing the eyeballs just about everywhere they go.

This includes software to help users navigate among Web based offerings on television sets, and also, serve as a platform for other developers to create new programs. Technology could be included with future TVs, Blu-ray players or set-top boxes. Google is clearly looking to get its foot in the door in the market so it can reap the money to be earned form more advertising viewers.

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Google Buzz And Privacy Violation

Posted by Amita Kalra on February 13th, 2010

Last Wednesday, Google added the much-buzzed-about Google Buzz, to its Gmail web-based email service. This social networking feature comes pre-populated with friends, added on the basis of which Gmail contacts users emailed most often.

In a nutshell, it offers its 176 million users the space to share updates, videos, photos and other content – providing them the functionality of Facebook and Twitter, with the organicity of Gmail. However, in the past few days, Google also faced the flak, for having made Gmail contacts public through Google profiles.

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Yahoo! Moment for Bartz as Q4 09 Revenue Rises

Posted by Prabhjot Singh on January 27th, 2010

Continuing the trend of positive Q4 results from Dupont and Google earlier in the week, Yahoo! (YHOO) today announced their financial figures for Q4 and the year 2009. Much to the joy of the investors and the relief of CEO Carol Bartz the numbers beat expectations by quite a good margin and restored a positive outlook for the new year.

The Sunnyvale, California based internet company reversed the direction of its revenue earnings from its southward trip for the past year and a half by posting a quarter to quarter gain of 10 percent or 1.73bn. The impressive results could not however prevent the drop in revenue for the same period of 2008. The revenue dropped 4 percent compared to Q4 08. The resulting profit of $153m will mean earnings of 15 cents per share beating the Wall Street analysts projection of 11cents per share. Looking at the operational side Yahoo! posted a $119m income for Q4 2009 compared to a loss of  $278m for the same period of 2008. The numbers for the year 2009 also seemed promising as the annual net profit rose 43 percent to 598 million dollars while annual revenue fell 10 percent to 6.46 billion dollars.

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Technology Firms Lead Bull Run

Posted by Prabhjot Singh on October 15th, 2009

It was another good day for the markets. With Google, IBM and Goldman Sachs all declaring better than expected results for the third quarter. Results for Citi Group and AMD were not as impressive as the other three but were encouraging to say the least. The good news pushed the Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) up by 47 points for its highest close of 2009. Nasdaq and S&P 500 were up by 0.05 and 2.14 percent respectively.

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