USA today is reporting that online advertising in the United States decreased by 5% in the first quarter of 2009. The decline marks the first negative quarter in Web advertising since 2002, causing some economic analysts to claim that the worldwide economic recession has finally begun to have a marked impact on the Web.
Economic Recession Hits Online Advertising
China Cracks Down Further on Web Surfing
According to a new report on CNN.com, the Chinese government has passed a law requiring all new computers sold in China to include software to block so-called “harmful” web sites and content. The new law will go into effect on the second of July, and the blocking software is allegedly aimed at limiting access to pornographic web sites.
The Google Tax?
Anyone who has even remotely been paying attention will realize that Google has made a fortune online. The reasons for Google’s unprecedented success are many, but there has also been a certain amount of luck involved.
What is WolframAlpha? And Should Google be Worried about It?
Every now and then some industrious soul will invent a new type of search engine. But inevitably, any new search engine is compared to Google. Specifically, “Will this one be the Google killer?” WolframAlpha is a new type of search tool that is causing quite a buzz, but the search engine’s creator, Stephen Wolfram, is not interested at all in comparing his software to Google.
Is Google Making the Internet Boring and Predictable?
The charge has been made so many times that it’s beginning to sound like a broken record: Google is too big for its own good.
The latest example of Google’s total online dominance is the lesson learned by Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. Wale’s “dared” to challenge Google by creating a massive open source search engine, Wiki.com. However noble Wale’s intentions though, it was simply not meant to be, and the project lasted just one year before going under.
Cable TV Emulating the Internet
A recent article on BusinessWeek.com makes an interesting point: cable TV networks are gradually becoming more and more like video-based web sites. The fear is, of course, that if cable networks do not evolve, they will continue to lose ground to the popularity of Internet-based media sites such as YouTube and Hulu.
Is Google Really Buying Twitter?
The blogosphere is buzzing like crazy with rumors that Google is finalizing an agreement to buy the micro-blogging social networking upstart Twitter. Over the past week, searching the phrase “Google buying twitter” yielded over 100 million search results. But is this just a Internet rumor gone wild, or is the big G actually putting in a bid for Twitter?
Gmail Celebrates Fifth Birthday with New Features
Google has announced that their Gmail web-based e-mail service is once again expanding, adding new features, including support for 49 languages. While most extra e-mail features already supported numerous languages, the new update should make Gmail the first truly international advertising supported e-mail service.
Skype Targets Business Users
This past Monday, Skype unveiled a new service designed to coax business users into trying Internet telephony, and increase the company’s revenue by competing with the big phone companies for the business communications market. Skype representatives say that at this time of economic uncertainty, small and medium-size businesses can save a bundle by integrating all of their phone, texting and IM needs and communicating via the company’s online network.
Is Marissa Mayer Leaving Google?
While on vacation in Africa in late December, Marissa Mayer received an e-mail from her boss, Jonathan Rosenberg, asking her if she was leaving Google. This was not a normal question to be coming from the CEO of the Internet’s most heavily-trafficked search engine. There have been numerous rumors of her leaving Google and offices and web sites all across Silicon Valley have been buzzing with tales of her possible departure.
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