http://www.webremix.info/ Webremix : all the web new, remixed webremix.info http://techcrunch.com/?p=164138 CauseWorld, a mobile app that lets users check in to retail shops for credits that can be donated to charity, is clearly on a roll. The app first launched in December as “the first mobile application that let’s you do good deeds simply for walking into a store.” CauseWorld app users earn “karma points” when they walk into stores and check in with their cell phone. No purchase is required at any store, and karma points can be redeemed nine predefined good causes. Big brands like Kraft Foods and Citi (both are on board) then turn the karmas into real dollar donations to those causes. Food for poor families, water in Sudan, trees in the Amazon, etc. are examples of the causes. The company has now donated about half of the original $500,000 donated by Kraft and Citi for the test period. And these brands seem to be happy. CauseWorld has been downloaded more than 300,000 times, probably putting it on par with location based check in networks like FourSquare. Last week Proctor and Gamble said it will give users karma points for scanning the bar codes of 27 products, like toothpaste or face cream. And now Citi will announce that it is expanding it's support of CauseWorld. It's total contribution is now at $700,000. Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:58:48 GMT http://techcrunch.com/?p=164138 2010-03-09T07:58:48Z http://abcnews.go.com/Business/TheBigMoney/big-brands-struggle-diffuse-recall-crisis/story?id=10003569 It's harder than ever for brands to diffuse that bad publicity surrounding recalls because news of recalls spread so quickly through Twitter and blogs. Twitter - Social Networking - Online Communities - United States - Personality Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:08:25 GMT http://abcnews.go.com/Business/TheBigMoney/big-brands-struggle-diffuse-recall-crisis/story?id=10003569 2010-03-05T23:08:25Z http://feeds.hollywood.com/~r/hollywoodcom_recent_news/~3/SC6UYkjqAEU/6830572 Disgraced golfer TIGER WOODS has reportedly declined a $75 million (£46.88 million) offer to endorse Irish gambling company PaddyPower.com. The married sportsman has been dropped as the spokesmodel of several big brands, including energy drinks firm Gatorade, since news of his numerous affairs hit the headlines last year (09). Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:18:45 GMT http://feeds.hollywood.com/~r/hollywoodcom_recent_news/~3/SC6UYkjqAEU/6830572 2010-03-05T15:18:45Z http://news.scotsman.com/uk/Big-brands-urged--to.6098164.jp COMPANIES behind some of the best-known brands are being urged to do more to prevent littering following a survey of rubbish picked up across Britain. Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://news.scotsman.com/uk/Big-brands-urged--to.6098164.jp 2010-02-24T00:00:00Z http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2010/020310-micro-express.html Laptop buyers may not be as familiar with boutique vendors like Micro Express as they are with big brands like Dell or HP, but smaller vendors can sometimes be more agile in getting hot new products to market. Case in point: The Micro Express KHL9070 is the first portable to hit our labs carrying Intel's latest Core i7 620M chip paired with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphics. It isn't the most powerful desktop replacement laptop we've seen, but it isn't the most expensive one, either--in this model, Micro Express brings you the latest Intel CPU line and DirectX 11 graphics for $1299 (as of February 2, 2010). Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:00:00 GMT http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2010/020310-micro-express.html 2010-02-03T16:00:00Z http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/services/education/Big-brands-are-back-at-college-fests/articleshow/5529491.cms The whistles and shouts are back on the campuses of the country’s premier technological institutes, the Indian Institutes of Technology. Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:16:39 GMT http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/services/education/Big-brands-are-back-at-college-fests/articleshow/5529491.cms 2010-02-02T21:16:39Z http://www.circleid.com/posts/why_icann_traveling_without_innovation_in_domain_space/ I just returned from a music conference in Cannes, where I met with government art councils/country delegates from across the globe to discuss .music. I am pleased to say that all the government agencies/representatives I had the pleasure to talk to saw a value in .music and creating a global brand that would help them expose their national culture and music internationally. Some remembered me from years past and asked me when .music is finally launching, what the reason for all the delay was, and why the overarching issues have not been addressed yet. My guess was as good as theirs and so were my questions to ICANN. While I was giving my .music presentation at ICANN Studenkreis in Barcelona, Spain last week, it dawned upon me. There was not one single ICANN staff member sitting in the room taking notes on any of the presentations given by TLD applicants. I was convinced that it would be beneficial to ICANN staff to observe our presentations and perhaps receive useful feedback from TLD applicants that could be used to better draft the Expressions of Interest recommendation. What better way than to watch applicants talk about the TLD they are applying for, discuss the Expressions of Interest in new gTLDs (EOI) and provide useful feedback. In light of recent developments, I decided to raise my concerns and provide my feedback and opinion about issues that plague ICANN and the process revolving how we can innovate the domain space, promote competition as well as give consumers/communities choices. My concerns include: Competition and Monopolies ICANN bylaws state that it is mandatory for ICANN to introduce policies that promote competition and are beneficial to public interest. All the delays in the gTLD process have served the monopolies of companies such as VeriSign (.com, .net) pretty well. Our .music initiative is a relevant case study that has NOT been used by ICANN to illustrate to any doubters that there is economic demand. No economic studies and academic papers need to be written since we have real results submitted by users that reflect considerable demand. We have broken the world record held by the "Free Tibet" movement which received 1.25 million signatures. ICANN can point towards our initiative that has received over 1.3 million signatures from the at-large music and Internet community for launching .music. We have also amassed 2 million friends/followers across social media such as Myspace and Twitter. Are all of these milestones unimportant? We believe we have showcased that there is a viral effort by the music community that is screaming for attention that has not been recognized yet. There is a clear demand for .music and further delays are resulting in lost opportunity and the continuance of the monopoly of VeriSign and ".com." ICANN's protection of VeriSign's ".com" domain and the preservation of monopolies is treading on anti-trust or anti-competitive waters. I have not seen VeriSign (.com, .net) or Afilias (.org, .info) support new TLDs or make a push to end all the delays. ICANN is working in the best interests of the current monopolies that dominate the domain industry. Furthermore, there is an unfair first-mover advantage for the newly introduced Fast Track Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) ccTLDs which faced the same overarching issues that new gTLDs face. Why were these IDN ccTLDs voted in without addressing these issues? There will be ZERO competition to IDN ccTLDs and as a result no IDN alternatives for non-Latin domains. Further delays in the gTLD process will ensure that an IDN ccTLD monopoly will exist in the IDN space. Timelines Timelines have been given by ICANN to launch new gTLDs many times and every time there has been a postponement which has cost me and other applicants a lot of money and time. As a newcomer to the ICANN process I find these delays and broken promises damaging to myself, the music community that we represent and other initiatives. How come it seems like we are all singing the Jamiroquai song that is called "traveling without moving"? I hope ICANN keeps its promise and that the Board votes on EOIs in February. Community Definition If one follows the definition of community in the latest DAG, even current gTLDs that serve communities such as .cat would fail. The .music initiative has gathered 1.3 million signatures from the music and Internet community and has amassed over 2 million followers/friends across social media such as Myspace and Twitter and based on the ICANN community definition, it does not matter. The .music initiative created a multiple-stakeholder community governance model to accurately represent and guarantee fairness and transparency within the music community. Any other definition of community is flawed, impractical and unrealistic. The .music serves ALL global cultures irrespective whether they represent commercial or non-commercial constituents. The .music gTLD must be legitimate and be in the public interest and not be controlled by a major corporation or coalition of commercial groups who want to benefit themselves. I suggest ICANN staff address this important issue and use some common sense as opposed to a mathematical point-system to address an initiative such as .music and how to serve the at-large music community. The .music gTLD is of great global and cultural significance since music is universal and represents world culture not just commercial interests. Definitions of community in the dictionaries are plentiful and can be interpreted in many ways. The way that the current DAG defines community is troublesome and attention needs to be given to bringing together a definition that is in the global public interest. I have proposed "multiple-stakeholder group" community as a more realistic, practical definition that can serve communities such as music that has multiple stakeholder groups which range from commercial constituency groups to non-commercial constituency groups. In the .music example, the multiple stakeholders community governance model includes musicians, bands, industry professionals, government music export offices/art councils, major labels, indie labels, major publishers, indie publishers, manufacturers, ticketing companies, agents, managers, promoters, engineers, technology companies, music universities/educational institutions, music websites, associations, broadcasters, collection societies, media and other music companies. Secondary Market for Pre-Registration Slots I believe this should NOT be permitted because it undermines the very nature of new TLDs and the process to represent the true interests of the public. An initiative such as .music has invested millions of dollars in development over the last half decade, allocated significant resources and performed global outreach efforts to create our multiple-stakeholder governance model for fair and guaranteed representation of both commercial and non-commercial constituents within the music community. The EOI should not be used as an opportunistic investment by parties only interested in selling slots. If ICANN is truly looking for legitimate applicants with real business plans and credibility, then such behavior should not be permitted, because the ICANN TLD process should not be about buying and selling ICANN slots. ICANN is not a Ticketmaster secondary ticket selling agency. Applicants should not be allowed to flip their EOI slots to illegitimate 3rd party candidates. GAC Input I am disappointed that ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) has chosen not to participate in the EOI comment period. The only active GAC participant has been Bertrand de La Chapelle and I commend him for his efforts and his input in regards to multiple-stakeholder community issue which .music finds crucial to community applications. GAC input is important but it seems quite unacceptable that a day before the EOI comments close that GAC puts in a comment saying that they need to comment at a later date i.e Nairobi ICANN meeting. I find it inconsistent from GAC that they applaud new IDN ccTLDs, 4 of which are already accepted (Egypt, the Russian Federation, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia) WITHOUT addressing any of the overarching issues plaguing the gTLD process. As a possible IDN gTLD applicant for .music, I am disappointed about this double-standard from the GAC. The GAC knew about the EOI process and chose not to comment. Why does GAC not participate in these public comments? GAC members could have sent an email outlining their opinion but in vast majority chose not to. ICANN alerted them about the comment period and should not be responsible for others lack of interest or inactivity. The official comments from GAC were submitted 1 day before the SECOND comment period expired, which merely alerted ICANN that "face-to-face" meetings are necessary with the community. So what is the point of public comments? Aren't they important? I suggest GAC take a more active approach towards its obligations to the Internet community and put in its comments in a TIMELY manner. Where in the bylaws of ICANN does it say that the GAC is mandated to provide feedback on everything related to ICANN? I can point to countless public comment periods and issues where GAC has not provided official feedback. Please let me know where in the Affirmation of Commitments there is a clause that states that every ICANN affair needs to have formal "face-to-face" discussions with GAC. This is the 2nd comment period for EOI and GAC is missing in action and then complain to ICANN for not participating. This is not how policy making works. If you choose not to comment then your inactivity should be addressed appropriately by ICANN. Trademarks As mentioned in an email I sent to ICANN, the International Trademark Association (INTA) invited 6,000 lawyer members to flood the EOI public comments with input that is not useful or encouraging. No solutions were offered by any of the attorneys nor did they offer any constructive feedback. The process has been delayed a few times and despite the efforts of the IRT team, there has been an outcry of unrealistic complaints from the trademark community, citing that their trademarks are in danger and that they will be forced to defensively register their brand names across all TLDs. Furthermore, they cite that new TLDs will create user confusion and will increase malicious conduct and unethical behavior. I embarked on some research of these trademark owners to see if they had indeed registered their names across other existing generic TLDs, such as .travel, .pro, .aero, .name and .tel. The resounding answer is that they had not. I have read comments from companies such as Heinz, which did not offer solutions, but just reiterated the legal arguments that the International Trademark Association has asked them to utter in the EOI public comments. A significant amount of "me too" comments from the trademark community resulted in the flooding of the EOI public comments with opinions with no apparent proposed solutions or useful information on how to fix the problems they feared. Let us make things clear. These were the opinions of their legal department exclusively. However in most cases, these comments do not represent the opinions of the whole organization or their sales/marketing departments. I encountered an interesting case with Sun Microsystems , who has submitted such as similar bland comment with no useful feedback to ICANN about any proposed solutions they had to fix the current issues at stake. I have been attending multiple conferences and events as part of the global outreach initiative of .music and have been approached by Sun Microsystems to collaborate together and be a possible technology partner to power our global marketplace platform we built for .music. I quote their representatives: "We are looking for exciting new projects and we believe .music is unique and Sun Microsystems can provide great value to you and help you with your technology needs." So in one hand, the Sun legal team wants to stop new TLDs from happening and on the other hand their company is trying to partner with me and come up with a deal worth quite a significant amount of money. There is certainly a disconnect as well as a lack of communication between departments within corporations. As a result, the process lacks useful feedback and builds roadblocks to reaching solutions. How do we bring innovation in the Internet space if ICANN is being indecisive about resolving issues? Individuals such as Michael Palage who represent the trademark community serve as ICANN insiders to stall the process. As an ex-ICANN Board member, Palage is using his vast insider knowledge, influence and connections to do whatever it takes to delay the process in exchange of pushing big corporate agendas and monies for his services. He has attacked the authenticity of .music numerous times and labeled our initiative as front-running, potentially using trademarks in bad faith as well as calling me an insider when I am new to this process and never in my life ever witnessed an organization like ICANN that never wants to move forward with anything. It is time for ICANN to do its job and serve the community and not continue to bow to corporate interests and agendas. I have had enough of watching these corporate attorneys drink champagnes at these meetings because ICANN is unable to make swift, timely decisions. The music community or any of the new gTLD initiatives have never even received a formal apology from ICANN for wasting our time and breaking their promises. Let me remind ICANN that companies such as Time Warner, Yahoo, Verizon and others have used illegal practices and wild redirects to abuse as well as profit from others trademarks. This kind of typosquatting behavior has made these corporations a lot of money and they did not even get a slap on the wrist. Now they are crying foul play when entrepreneurs such as myself are trying to launch something meaningful. VeriSign even launched SiteFinder, which used wild-card DNS redirect typosquatting, in an attempt to redirect any top-level .com or .net domain that didn't exist (either because they were not yet registered or mistyped) to a parked page that had affiliate links, information about VeriSign products, and advertisements. There are plenty of cases that were revealed by George Kirikos that address the issue of ICANN's lack of transparency, inconsistency in policy development and favoritism towards big corporations despite their "not-so-pleasing" track record. George Kirikos reveals that corporations like these do not represent "good" actors and that they do not work in the best interests of Internet users and society as a whole. It is all about increasing shareholder value and profits. Michele Neylon reiterates this point by outlining in a recent CircleID article (Big Brands Shooting Themselves In The Foot) that "a lot of the big brands and companies aren't as "clean" as they'd like us all to be." Conclusion Let us move forward with the EOI and new gTLDs. I urge ICANN to make timely decisions on the overarching issues and finally offer solutions that are pragmatic, realistic and serve public interest not corporate attorney agenda. Let us work together to introduce some new innovations in the domain space. The overarching issues should be carried out in parallel with the EOI communication/outreach process and be finalized before the EOI begins. This way by the time the EOI starts, most overarching issues should be addressed and there is a movement towards the right direction. If not, ICANN will face what I call the "Adverse Snowball Effect." P.S I would love to hear any feedback from the ICANN community. I believe there needs to be an open dialogue in order to solve these issues. Proposed solutions are welcomed. Written by Constantine Roussos, CEO & Founder of .Music & Music.us Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:20:00 GMT http://www.circleid.com/posts/why_icann_traveling_without_innovation_in_domain_space/ 2010-01-29T16:20:00Z http://www.circleid.com/posts/big_brands_shooting_themselves_in_the_foot/ One of the topics that keeps coming up in ICANN policy discussions and as part of the new TLD application process is "transparency". ICANN, and the internet community in general, has had plenty of issues in the past with "bad actors" who have caused a lot of issues for everyone (think of many of the registrars who have lost accreditation in the last couple of years for example). On more than one conference call or policy discussion the issue of a company or a person's track record has come up. Now while I personally think that anyone who has been knowingly involved in criminal activity OR who has knowingly been involved with a serious breach of ICANN policy (or any of the contracts) should be barred from any further involvement with the DNS, a blanket ban is not without its own set of issues. The larger the company the more likely it will have been involved with litigation or criminal law suits at some point or other in the past. And who is pushing for all these "checks and balances" within the ICANN processes? In many cases it's the big brand owners, who live in fear of "squatters" and other "evil doers". So why do I raise this? Well George Kirikos has, yet again, managed to dig up some quite revealing data about some of the companies that likely to be involved in new TLDs in the future and who have been very vocal in the ICANN "space" over the last few years. You can read the full text of what George uncovered here, but suffice to say that a lot of the big brands and companies aren't as "clean" as they'd like us all to be (and no that wasn't a typo). Unilever, Disney, Coca-Cola, Time Warner, Yahoo! and Telstra are all named and, if you'll excuse the cliche, shamed… Written by Michele Neylon, MD of Blacknight Solutions Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:30:00 GMT http://www.circleid.com/posts/big_brands_shooting_themselves_in_the_foot/ 2010-01-28T15:30:00Z http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8480191.stm Blur's manager warns pop and rock stars to think carefully before appearing in TV adverts for big brands. Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:09:51 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8480191.stm 2010-01-26T09:09:51Z http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=136284 CauseWorld (iTunes link), an iPhone app from Shopkick, is off to a strong start. They first launched in December, and they quickly got the coveted featured spot on the iTunes app store. Yesterday, they started letting users donate to the American Red Cross for Haiti relief. The application gives users karma points for checking in to certain retail stores. Those karma points can then be converted into donations to various charities and other good causes (water in Sudan, food for the poor, trees in the Amazon, etc.). Big brands supply the cash for donations (and get lots of advertising exposure). Users decide how that money gets spent. see our original launch post for more details. Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:00:46 GMT http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=136284 2010-01-15T16:00:46Z http://feeds.style.com/~r/style_file/~3/qx1UtJyptpE/ Ubiquitous lensman (and thumbs-up popularizer) Terry Richardson has a Tumblr, Terry's Diary. Was he inspired by friend and fellow nudity appreciator Olivier Zahm's Purple Diary? Either way: Mothers, lock up your bloggers. The rumors swirling around Louis Vuitton tend to concentrate on who's repping the brand in front of the camera ... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:50:51 GMT http://feeds.style.com/~r/style_file/~3/qx1UtJyptpE/ 2010-01-12T21:50:51Z http://redir.internet.com/rss/click/www.internetnews.com/webcontent/article.php/3857366 Major companies are taking to the microblogging service in record numbers for marketing, branding, customer support -- you name it. And at CES, a panel of experts explored their achievements. Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:33:16 GMT http://redir.internet.com/rss/click/www.internetnews.com/webcontent/article.php/3857366 2010-01-08T22:33:16Z http://www.autoblog.com/2010/01/05/by-the-numbers-december-2009-strong-finish-edition/ Filed under: By the Numbers Industry finishes year strong with Ford up 33% and GM down 6% It appears that all your Toyotathons, Nissan A-Z Year End Events and Ford Year-End Sales Events worked their magic in the month of December, as the final 31 days of 2009 saw positive sales for most brands and automakers in the U.S. The biggest story is perhaps the Ford brand, which saw its sales rise 37 percent in December to 159,169 units, just 126 units shy of beating Toyota and its 159,295 units sold. The Ford Fusion and Escape had particularly good months to end a great year, with monthly sales rising 86 and 75 percent respectively. In the battle of the big brands, Chevrolet came in last with sales falling 1.5 percent on 135,622 units sold. As they have been for the entire year, Kia, Hyundai and Subaru ended the year on high notes with sales rising 44 and 41 percent respectively for the Korean brands and 33 percent for the Japanese brand. In terms of multi-brand companies, every one had something to smile about except Chrysler and General Motors. The Pentastar people will be glad to put behind a month that saw their sales fall about four percent overall, with only Dodge managing an small rise in sales last month. General Motors, meanwhile, can't wait to get its four non-core brands off the books, as Saab, Hummer, Pontiac and Saturn managed to weigh down the company's sales performance to the tune of a six percent slide. Stay tuned, as we'll be publishing our By The Numbers evaluation of 2009 as a whole later on today. *Brands and companies are displayed in descending order according to their percentage change in volume sales. There were 28 selling days in December 2009 and 26 selling days in December 2008, so the change in monthly sales volume will be different than the change in the average daily sales rate (DSR) for each brand/company. Brand/Company Volume % Dec. '09 Dec. '08 DSR* % DSR 12/09 DSR 12/08 Kia 43.73 21,048 14,644 33.46 752 563 Hyundai 40.60 33,797 24,037 30.56 1,207 925 Buick 37.36 12,237 8,909 27.54 437 343 Ford 36.99 159,169 116,188 27.21 5,685 4,469 Toyota 34.33 159,295 118,587 24.73 5,689 4,561 Subaru 33.48 23,074 17,287 23.94 824 665 Honda 28.07 96,568 75,405 18.92 3,449 2,900 Lexus 22.27 28,565 23,362 13.54 1,020 899 Nissan 19.44 64,296 53,829 10.91 2,296 2,070 Audi 17.09 9,030 7,712 8.73 323 297 Volkswagen 15.99 20,387 17,577 7.70 728 676 Lincoln 15.62 10,467 9,053 7.36 374 348 Volvo 13.83 5,638 4,953 5.70 201 191 BMW 11.45 20,128 18,060 3.49 719 695 Cadillac 11.41 14,745 13,235 3.45 527 509 Infiniti 10.11 9,108 8,272 2.24 325 318 Mercedes-Benz 8.20 20,025 18,507 0.47 715 712 Mercury 5.73 9,381 8,873 -1.83 335 341 GMC 4.82 31,220 29,783 -2.66 1,115 1,146 Mazda 1.61 18,255 17,965 -5.64 652 691 Dodge 0.68 47,591 47,269 -6.51 1,700 1,818 Acura -0.98 10,575 10,680 -8.06 378 411 Chevrolet -1.50 135,622 137,691 -8.54 4,844 5,296 Porsche -1.67 2,118 2,154 -8.69 76 83 Mini -2.16 3,489 3,566 -9.15 125 137 Mitsubishi -4.70 4,355 4,570 -11.51 156 176 Chrysler -6.84 18,122 19,453 -13.50 647 748 Jeep -9.88 20,810 23,091 -16.32 743 888 Saab -26.38 868 1,179 -31.64 31 45 Pontiac -48.86 8,410 16,446 -52.52 300 633 Smart -63.09 864 2,341 -65.73 31 90 Saturn -84.29 5,084 32,365 -85.41 182 1,245 Hummer -85.02 325 2,170 -86.09 12 83 COMPANIES Ford Mo Co 32.78 184,655 139,067 23.30 6,595 5,349 Toyota Mo Co 32.34 187,860 141,949 22.89 6,709 5,460 American Honda 24.46 107,143 86,085 15.57 3,827 3,311 Nissan NA 18.20 73,404 62,101 9.76 2,622 2,389 BMW Group 9.21 23,617 21,626 1.41 843 832 Chrysler Group -3.66 86,523 89,813 -10.54 3,090 3,454 General Motors -6.07 208,511 221,983 -12.78 7,447 8,538 By the Numbers - December 2009: Strong Finish Edition originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:01:00 GMT http://www.autoblog.com/2010/01/05/by-the-numbers-december-2009-strong-finish-edition/ 2010-01-05T21:01:00Z http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/Frances-big-brands-reel-under-online-spoof-assault/articleshow/5414580.cms The rise of video-sharing websites such as YouTube and Dailymotion is proving to be a headache for some of France's biggest companies as their image comes under fire from satirical online videos. Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:30:20 GMT http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/Frances-big-brands-reel-under-online-spoof-assault/articleshow/5414580.cms 2010-01-05T19:30:20Z http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=132926 Flurry Analytics has been real busy this holiday season. They recently merged with Pinch Media to create the biggest (in terms of user base) mobile analytics platform on the market. Today, Flurry is announcing a partnership with comScore, Inc. to provide mobile analytics for comScore clientele. This will provide Flurry with a fresh new revenue stream and comScore with the ability to stay relevant with their analytics offerings to existing clientele. Essentially, comScore, inc. has a large sales force and existing relationships with big brands that pay comScore to provide them with analytics. These analytics come primarily through panel data, in which comScore uses a sampling of users as a way to determine web traffic and usage data. By selling Flurry's SDK to clients, comScore can remain relevant by providing mobile analytics on top of their existing web analytics package. Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:03:57 GMT http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=132926 2010-01-04T14:03:57Z http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=131067 Six months ago I wrote about a startup called Shopkick (it was then called MOBshop). The company won't disclose much of what their eventual product will be, but they've attracted some of the most high profile investors in Silicon Valley: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Reid Hoffman. Here's what CEO Cyriac Roeding will say about Shopkick which is scheduled to launch in 2010: they aim to bridge the gap between the mobile phone and the physical shopping worlds. In the meantime they are launching CauseWorld, "the first mobile application that let's you do good deeds simply for walking into a store." The application should be available on the iPhone appstore later today. Android is coming soon, along with more mobile platforms. CauseWorld app users earn “karma points” when they walk into stores and check in with their cell phone. No purchase is required at any store, and karma points can be redeemed nine predefined good causes. Big brands like Kraft Foods and Citi (both are on board) then turn the karmas into real dollar donations to those causes. Food for poor families, water in Sudan, trees in the Amazon, etc. are examples of the causes. Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:00:55 GMT http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=131067 2009-12-23T16:00:55Z http://www.circleid.com/posts/20091217_maawg_ietf_and_bits_establish_formal_relationships/ As announced this morning, the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) has established formal relationships with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the BITS/Financial Services Roundtable. MAAWG is comprised of ISPs, technology vendors, ESPs, and a small but growing number of big brands, all interested in talking about email spam and other abuses of messaging systems. Some of their published documents include the periodic Email Metrics Reports, one of the very few non-vendor-specific sources of data on email spam, and the Common Best Practices for Mitigating Large Scale Bot Infections in Residential Networks. The IETF, as most CircleID readers know, is the organization responsible for nearly all of the technical standards that make the internet work, from network routing to email to things most people have never heard of; I wrote about the lasting importance of their work last October. And BITS is the group within which many banks gather to discuss technology and technical interoperability. The relationship between MAAWG and the IETF probably seems obvious; MAAWG does more at the policy level, while the IETF is focused almost entirely on technology, but there's a lot of overlap. For example, the industry-standard Abuse Reporting Format (ARF) for single-message spam complaint feedback started as a discussion within MAAWG, became a draft standard within the IETF, and will be proceeding through the IETF process. Adding BITS to the mix is a sensible move when you consider the ongoing phishing problem. Financial institutions have always been one of the main targets of phishers, and that's unlikely to change. MAAWG, along with the Anti-Phishing Working Group, is working on ways to reduce phishing—including promoting the use of authentication by anyone who cares about their brand. It's often said that there are too many different organizations working on the overlapping areas of abuse, trust, and related issues. I believe the collaborative approach MAAWG has chosen will bridge these gaps. Working together as equals, each organization's individual strength and influence is combined and increased, leading to the best possible results. Written by J.D. Falk, Director of Product Strategy at Return Path Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:54:00 GMT http://www.circleid.com/posts/20091217_maawg_ietf_and_bits_establish_formal_relationships/ 2009-12-17T22:54:00Z http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CosmeticMakeovers/~3/0qmhP0jc3nw/iphone-beauty-apps Check out an interesting article about the rise of iPhone beauty apps in the New York Times today. A Mobclix founder says; Seven to 10 million iPhone or iTouch users have already downloaded a beauty-related app or indicated they are very interested in doing so. And we’re just starting to see big brands get involved, which will be huge... See Download the Face of Your Dreams Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:08:16 GMT http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CosmeticMakeovers/~3/0qmhP0jc3nw/iphone-beauty-apps 2009-11-26T23:08:16Z http://cosmetic-makeovers.com/2009/11/26/iphone-beauty-apps Check out an interesting article about the rise of iPhone beauty apps in the New York Times today. A Mobclix founder says; Seven to 10 million iPhone or iTouch users have already downloaded a beauty-related app or indicated they are very interested in doing so. And we’re just starting to see big brands get involved, which will be huge... See Download the Face of Your Dreams Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:08:16 GMT http://cosmetic-makeovers.com/2009/11/26/iphone-beauty-apps 2009-11-26T23:08:16Z http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Expatica-SpanishHeadlines/~3/arC3SB8xAr8/Littlewoods-Europe-_-bringing-big-brands-to-your-homes-in-Spain-_sponsored-contribution__57993.html Fashions to fit, in reassuringly familiar UK sizes, are just a click away. Britain's best-loved home shopping brand, Littlewoods, has now launched in Spain, Germany, France and Portugal. Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Expatica-SpanishHeadlines/~3/arC3SB8xAr8/Littlewoods-Europe-_-bringing-big-brands-to-your-homes-in-Spain-_sponsored-contribution__57993.html 2009-11-10T00:00:00Z http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Expatica-FrenchHeadlines/~3/uNFtlXGroUo/Littlewoods-Europe-_-bringing-big-brands-to-your-homes-in-Spain-_sponsored-contribution__57993.html Fashions to fit, in reassuringly familiar UK sizes, are just a click away. Britain's best-loved home shopping brand, Littlewoods, has now launched in Spain, Germany, France and Portugal. Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Expatica-FrenchHeadlines/~3/uNFtlXGroUo/Littlewoods-Europe-_-bringing-big-brands-to-your-homes-in-Spain-_sponsored-contribution__57993.html 2009-11-10T00:00:00Z http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=117236 With most online services, the idea behind advertising is to get people to come to your site to make some sort of transaction. Most of the time, that doesn't happen. In fact, even if they click on an ad to come to your site, 98% of the time, those users will leave without buying anything, according to the advertising startup Adroll. A new service they are offering hopes to help with that problem. The idea of ad "retargeting" is not at all new. A ton of big brands and advertising platforms use it to try to lure users back to sites using the fact that they know they already visited once. The difference with Adroll's new RoundTrip product is that they are making the practice accessible to any online advertiser to use. Previously, this type of campaign was reserved for those who were willing to spend a lot of money for this much more highly targeted ad type. Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:47:38 GMT http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=117236 2009-11-05T20:47:38Z http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=115827 Last night we wrote about the lead generation scams within social gaming networks. This is a guest post by Dennis Yu, the CEO of BlitzLocal, a privately held 50 person advertising agency in Denver, Colorado, specializing in local search engine marketing for franchises and professional service firms via Google and Facebook. BlitzLocal is no longer in the business of spam, but they do specialize in Facebook advertising and are now using the platform they’ve developed to run campaigns for big brands and small businesses. Dennis writes a blog at dennis-yu.com Did you know how Mark Zuckerberg supported Facebook in the early days, before he got venture funding? Casino ads. And how about those advertisers who were making over $100,000 a day selling Acai Berry and other weight loss products - they are friends of mine, pioneers of new advertising channels. You see those ads saying "Inbox (5). Nick, someone in San Francisco has a crush on you!” (with your name, profile picture, and city in the ad). I generated millions of dollars from these offers on Facebook - I am not proud of it, but it was very lucrative. I will walk you through how these online scams work on Facebook and other social networks - the mechanics of how the money is made, some of the people involved, and who is actually clicking on ads. If you’re reading this article, there is a good chance that you are not the type of person actually clicking on these spam ads, but are you curious as to who actually is? In June 2007, Facebook opened up their application developer platform so that anyone could build games on top of the social network. By having access to user data, game developers could instantly make engaging, viral games. Rate who is hottest among your friends, share quizzes, race cars, grow vegetables, and so forth - all with a click of a button. Users in one click gave the game permission to access their profile data and they didn’t think twice about it. Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:07:09 GMT http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=115827 2009-11-02T04:07:09Z http://www.topix.net/business/agriculture/2009/11/big-brands-sales-are-up?fromrss=1 Signs of an improving economy might be in your kitchen or bathroom cupboards. Consumers are showing a willingness to pay a little more to get Colgate toothpaste, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and Gillette Fusion shavers. Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:11:29 GMT http://www.topix.net/business/agriculture/2009/11/big-brands-sales-are-up?fromrss=1 2009-11-01T16:11:29Z http://www.topix.net/business/agriculture/2009/10/consumers-returning-to-big-brands?fromrss=1 Signs of an improving economy might be in your kitchen or bathroom cupboards. Consumers are showing a willingness to pay a little more to get Colgate toothpaste, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and Gillette Fusion shavers. Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:23:39 GMT http://www.topix.net/business/agriculture/2009/10/consumers-returning-to-big-brands?fromrss=1 2009-10-29T22:23:39Z http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/6786692.html Wu Guomin profited a lot for at least a decade by producing lamps under the big brands of "Philips" or "Wipro". But that was before the financial crisis. After an array of trade barriers, Wu, vice president of Zhejiang Yankon, China's largest producer of energy-saving lamps, decided to brand its lamps as "ENERGETIC" in the electricity-strapped India last month. "It takes years for us to realize that self-owned brand is the formula of long-term success for Chinese exporters," Wu t ... Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:12:23 GMT http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/6786692.html 2009-10-19T02:12:23Z http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Beware-New-branded-Nigerian-scamsters-may-soon-come-calling/articleshow/5137846.cms Unsuspecting customers falling prey to fraudsters masquerading as big brands such as Nokia & LG. Pirates of Somalia I Real or fake? | List of top 10 pickpocket traps Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:42:12 GMT http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Beware-New-branded-Nigerian-scamsters-may-soon-come-calling/articleshow/5137846.cms 2009-10-19T01:42:12Z http://allafrica.com/stories/200910160178.html DATATEC is planning a foray into China as the next step in its ambitions to become a truly global technology supplier. It is "just a pinprick" in Asia, but CEO Jens Montanana is confident the group can tap into that large and rapidly growing market through joint ventures or acquisitions. Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:28:20 GMT http://allafrica.com/stories/200910160178.html 2009-10-16T09:28:20Z http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/6778879.html About 30 French enterprises are going to bring a bit of France to an exhibition in Chengdu City of southwest China later this month, the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry said Friday. Including big brands like Citro-n and Decathlon, 29 French enterprises will present their specialty products from Oct. 23-27on Chunxilu, a famous commercial street in Chengdu. During the five-day exhibition, there will be two keynote speeches on French architecture and wine and cheese. There al ... Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:17:21 GMT http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/6778879.html 2009-10-10T00:17:21Z http://www.topix.net/motorcycles/2009/08/21-august-2009corser-and-coopers-big-brands-bashteam-bmw-motorrad?fromrss=1 With no World Superbike Championship round scheduled at the famous circuit this year, the organisers turned the British Superbike weekend into an action-packed motorcycle extravaganza. Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:32:35 GMT http://www.topix.net/motorcycles/2009/08/21-august-2009corser-and-coopers-big-brands-bashteam-bmw-motorrad?fromrss=1 2009-08-25T12:32:35Z http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/aug2009/pi20090824_731583.htm?campaign_id=rss_null After nearly shutting down earlier this year, the IPO market has come to life. Following Hyatt and Dole Food, the latest big name to consider an offering is Dollar General Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:20:00 GMT http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/aug2009/pi20090824_731583.htm?campaign_id=rss_null 2009-08-25T00:20:00Z http://www.topix.net/news/blogs/2009/08/paidcontent-will-eqals-shift-from-creating-content-to-hosting-it-pay-off?fromrss=1 This story was written by Tameka Kee. Another change in tack for digital content company EQAL - which recently shifted its focus from investing in its own original series, to producing content for big brands. Sun, 02 Aug 2009 15:40:19 GMT http://www.topix.net/news/blogs/2009/08/paidcontent-will-eqals-shift-from-creating-content-to-hosting-it-pay-off?fromrss=1 2009-08-02T15:40:19Z http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Big-brands---help.5477678.jp A CLUTCH of big-name retail chains are moving to the Capital in a major boost to the city's economy. Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Big-brands---help.5477678.jp 2009-07-21T00:00:00Z http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=84385 What big brands do the best job with social media? A new study by analyst Charlene Li of the Altimeter Group and Wetpaint ranks the top 100 brands by social media engagement. You can find the report embedded below or on ENGAGEMENTdb, which was presumably created with Wetpaint's site-creation software. The study scores the engagement level of each of the top 100 brands across more than ten social media channels, including blogs, Facebook, Twitter, wikis, and discussion forums. Starbucks scored the highest, with 127 points. The top ten brands are: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:18:44 GMT http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=84385 2009-07-20T13:18:44Z http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/hindi/article/48155.html Asin has cushioned herself in the filmdom, reigning in both south and north screens. It is not only the films that are roping her but even big brands of endorsement sectors are cashing on her successful image. Only, but, one prestigious offer was received with the actress’s ‘no-no’. Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:44:11 GMT http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/hindi/article/48155.html 2009-07-08T22:44:11Z http://insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ID=17885 June 17, 2009 6:00 AM Develop has published a new interview with OnLive CEO Mike McGarvey. The interview focuses on the company's promised broadband gaming distribution service, which will offer a variety of game choices to subscribers by handling each game's video and audio on remote servers and streaming the results to players. The service will be compatible with Mac and Windows based machines, or without a machine at all through the use of a "micro console" television attachment. There�s a lot of scepticism about the video encoding and streaming � what can you tell us about the technology that makes OnLive work? OnLive works by taking input from your controller, keyboard or mouse and connects the player to the OnLive service. Then, the service�s custom game servers render the game graphics. OnLive�s proprietary video compression technology streams back low-latency video to the player�s TV via the OnLive MicroConsole, or to a PC or Mac via a small browser plug-in. A proprietary compression algorithm and custom silicon make it possible for us to deliver games instantly over the Internet. Our revolutionary video compression algorithm was designed specifically for video games and can encode and compress video into data in about one millisecond. A custom-built silicon chip does the actual encoding calculations at the server end, and that information is decompressed at the gamers end, inside the MicroConsole for those playing on their televisions, or if someone is playing on Mac or PC, the decompression is handled within a small software client downloaded into a Web browser. The data delivered from the game server to the MicroConsole or to a PC or Mac is proprietary and highly tuned to not only produce low-latency HD video, but it is designed to tolerate packet corruption, and pass through consumer-grade firewalls, routers and switches. The current demo shows established big brands that have debuted on console as well as PC � are you hoping to secure original exclusive IP for the OnLive platform? In a way we have �exclusive� games for people with Macs and low end PC�s. Crysis is a great example. The game isn�t currently developed for the Mac and doesn�t run on low end PC�s yet both of those user groups will be able to play the game on OnLive, because we do all the computing in our server centres in the cloud and it just runs on their hardware. Also, the OnLive platform opens up several new avenues for game development and distribution � episodic games that update throughout the year, for example � and we expect games developed specifically for the OnLive platform to be available in the near term. Because we are the only platform that is wholly online, those games would � by necessity � be available only on our service. Aside from the questions regarding the technology, there�s also a big question mark hanging over the cost of the whole operation. Is OnLive going to be affordable to the masses or more of a �core� gaming luxury? Can you give us any indication of pricing? We can�t say a lot about our pricing strategy quite yet, except to say that games will pay a basic monthly fee for access, and that the cost of the MicroConsole will be much less than competitive consoles. With respect to the games sold on the service, we expect them to be priced competitively. Regardless, we�re confident that the economics of the OnLive system will be favorable for consumers. Essentially, we�ve removed the reliance on high-end hardware, so gamers will never need to upgrade their PC or buy another console. So OnLive is very cost-effective, particularly over time. Visit the site below to read both parts of the inteview. Developmag.com: Online Q&A 1 Developmag.com: Online Q&A 2 OnLive Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:00:00 GMT http://insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ID=17885 2009-06-17T13:00:00Z http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=73860 Izea's paid shilling scheme first launched in 2006 and has evolved from there. But the essence of it is the same: people get paid to shill products on their blogs (and now Twitter). It's pollution. Disclosure of the conflict of interest became mandatory for people shilling products in late 2006. But that disclosure is often muddled. For example, people shilling on Twitter need only add "#spon" to the post to satisfy the disclosure requirements. Most big brands have avoided Izea like the plague. FCC regulations on word of mouth advertising are becoming stricter over time, and Izea is on the front line of this nonsense. But now brands may be sucked into Izea's pay per post scheme whether they like it or not. WOMMA founder and spam fighter Andy Sernovitz noticed a number of well known brands, like USA Today, Home Shopping Network, Priceline, 1-800-Contacts, Carbonite and StubHub (owned by eBay) all recently had campaigns running on Izea's SocialSpark site. It's shocking that those brands would associate themselves with Izea, so he dug further. And it turns out that at least some of them (and probably all of them) had no idea they were listed as Izea advertisers. Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:03:50 GMT http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=73860 2009-06-16T20:03:50Z http://web2.sys-con.com/node/982767 2009 has proved to be very exciting when it comes to new features and enhancements. Many companies, especially big brands, have taken recession as a pause for self analysis and they have been constantly upgrading their infrastructures for the time when economics crisis will be over. Search engines are no way behind and I have noticed some remarkable changes from Microsoft and Google. Yahoo, although being a major player among search engines, has not yet taken active part in the recent Search Engine Wars. read more Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:10:00 GMT http://web2.sys-con.com/node/982767 2009-06-01T09:10:00Z http://search.sys-con.com/node/982767 Year 2009 has proved to be very exciting when it comes to new features and enhancements. Many companies, especially big brands, have taken recession as a pause for self analysis and they have been constantly upgrading their infrastructures for the time when economics crisis will be over. Search engines are no way behind and I have noticed some remarkable changes from Microsoft and Google. Yahoo, although being a major player among search engines, has not yet taken active part in the recent Search Engine Wars. read more Sun, 31 May 2009 09:37:00 GMT http://search.sys-con.com/node/982767 2009-05-31T09:37:00Z http://story.venezuelastar.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/3a8a80d6f705f8cc/id/24051817/ CINCINNATI -- Shoppers around the globe are cutting down on optional purchases like fine fragrances and turning to cheaper store brands for everyday items like toilet paper, sapping sales for consumer... Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:13:02 GMT http://story.venezuelastar.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/3a8a80d6f705f8cc/id/24051817/ 2009-04-30T21:13:02Z http://wireless.sys-con.com/node/904234 Pay as you go on mobile service is the best solution for those who are getting frustrated with large monthly mobile bills. Pay as you go phones are an easy and sensible alternative to using mobile phone services with controlled expenditure on mobile calls. Pay as you go on mobiles is an ideal option for people who travel extensively or move from one place to other. read more Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:20:00 GMT http://wireless.sys-con.com/node/904234 2009-04-03T22:20:00Z http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=3715 Can big brands live on Linux-size margins? Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:37:06 GMT http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=3715 2009-03-16T13:37:06Z http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1238845 That the days of skyrocketing mall rentals are over is old news. Now, mall owners are looking to woo big brands with zero-rental schemes. Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:16:00 GMT http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1238845 2009-03-13T21:16:00Z