Articles of the Day
Microsoft Partners With Social Networks To Improve Data Portability — Adapting to an increasingly open and wall-less Web, Microsoft on Tuesday agreed to let users of its Windows Live platform share their contact lists with five of the top social networks: Facebook, Bebo, LinkedIn, Tagged and Hi5. The partner sites have each agreed to use the Windows Live Contacts application programming interface (API) so members can import Windows Live contacts–most commonly in the form of Hotmail address books–to their sites. Part of its recently outlined data-portability strategy, Microsoft has launched an Invite2Messenger service for users of those social networks to invite their community of “friends” to join Windows Live Messenger.
Alternative Media Spending To Hit $161 Billion In 2012 — Spending on so-called alternative media, including social networks, digital out-of-home networks and mobile content, will increase 20.2% to $88 billion in 2008, according to a new study. In its first report focusing on alternative media, PQ Media Research further forecasts that the fast-growing sector will hit nearly $161 billion by 2012, accounting for 26.6% of the total U.S. advertising and marketing spending. From 2002 to 2007, alternative media grew at an annual rate of 21.7% to $73.4 billion, making up 16.1% of overall ad and marketing dollars. The biggest alternative sub-categories as of last year were event sponsorships and marketing, search and lead generation, e-direct marketing, online classifieds and displays, and local pay TV.
OpenSocial adds Yahoo! and goes non-profit — Yahoo! will join the OpenSocial application platform championed by Google. The search giant is also partnering with Google and MySpace to create a non-profit support body, the OpenSocial Foundation. Its role, they say, will be to support the OpenSocial project by creating and managing forums to discuss applications and development techniques. It will run as a non-profit body, with assets to be declared and assigned by Jul 1. Heralded by Google as the next step towards true cross-platform interaction, OpenSocial is a set of specifications that lets developers create and run applications across any participating social network. A range of social networks have joined its platform, including MySpace, hi5 and Friendster, and Google claims that more than 200m users currently use applications that are part of OpenSocial. Facebook, however, is notably absent from the project.
authorSTREAM Launches Tool to Let Users Share PowerPoint Presentations on YouTube, Blogs and Web Sites for Free — authorSTREAM, a place to share and discover presentations created with Microsoft PowerPoint™ software, enhanced its service by adding features that allow users to post presentations to any video-sharing platform, such as YouTube, and view on Apple® iPod® as well as other handheld devices. “Business professionals, students, educators, trainers and other people create billions of presentations in PowerPoint format each year and then struggle to find an easy way to share their important content with others,” said Harman Singh, chief executive officer, authorGEN Technologies, the company behind authorSTREAM. “We’re giving millions of PowerPoint users a solution. They no longer have to send files, only post them to authorSTREAM.com to inspire, educate and persuade any audience, anywhere on the Web. There’s no easier way to share presentations.”
Microsoft Is Also Interested In Making Applications For Apple’s iPhone — Earlier this month, Apple said it was licensing Microsoft’s ActiveSync so that the iPhone can seamlessly work with Microsoft Exchange. The same day, Apple announced the iPhone and iPod Touch SDK, which would enable third-party developers to build applications for the popular device. Although in a less obvious way, that too, represents an opportunity for Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT). Fortune reported today that the technology giant is eagerly looking for applications to make money off the iPhone. “It’s really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone,” said Tom Gibbons, corporate VP of Microsoft’s Specialized Devices and Applications Group. Gibbons said it was too early to say what applications they may build, however, Microsoft is in a great position. Its Mac business unit, based in Mountain View, Calif., is one of the largest groups of Mac developers outside of Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). In addition, other Microsoft divisions may also be interested, such as Microsoft’s voice recognition unit TellMe.
[Rumor] Online ad network Federated Media to raise USD30m — Online ad network Federated Media (FM) is close to raising USD30m in a round that would value it at USD200m, a “well-placed source” tells VentureBeat - one of FM’s customers. Rumours about the Californian company have circulated for months, with reports in Jan suggesting that it appointed investment bank Savvian to “assess investor interest”. TechCrunch said the company was rumoured to have turned down a USD100m buyout offer, while CNet reported that it was looking to raise between USD20m and USD30m.
