Internet is the domain where something boggling is happening all the time. But the deal I am going to talk about has truly changed the face of blogging on the Blogosphere. It has given new hope and an entirely new direction to countless blogs that are there on the net.
Bankaholic has made it to the headlines, probably for the first time in its life by being sold for $15 million. Bankaholic blog has been sold to BankRate financial information website and service provider. Many people are questioning the Bankrate move by saying that Bankaholic was not even generating one-tenth of the revenue for which it has been sold.
But anayists say that Bankaholic indeed has a potential to give good business to BankRate financial information. If we recollect, five months back ArsTechnica, a site focussing on technology related news etc was sold for an estimated price of $25 million. And only three months back, the financial news blog PaidContent was taken over by Guardian. The deal was struck for more than $30 million. Unlike Bankaholic, the two sites were popular among networking site such as Digitt and Stumbleupon.

All said and done, this acquisition has given small fish the hope that they can also make a big deal if they have a faithful niche clientele. One just needs to imagine how can they offer a unique advantage to a potential buyer and work upon it with all the dedication and hardwork.

Via Profy

It’s more than shocking when I read Maati Saari’s merciless psychedelic killing spree that took ten of his classmates’ lives and also his own post the massacre. The most horrible part of the whole scene was when he put them on fir post the massacre. The victims have been left beyond recognition due to the results of the severe burns received by the corpses. What dumbfounded me the most is the bold step that he took by uploading a video on YouTube, which shows him shooting at a range. The question is, why couldn’t the Law react to this illegal video on time? Reports validate that this particular video was posted on Finnish social networking site and with circulation it had reached the YouTube.

It seems to me that the Law is washing its hands off and not taking the charged completely on its own, obviously for political issues. But who will control this killing spree which is reported to occur frequently especially in educational institutes. It’s a tough nut to crack, as nothing seems to be conspicuous. Nobody has the precise clues as to why this heinous crime is committed by the school and college students. What stimulates these youngsters to take themselves into this scandalous crime should be the Law’s concern. This merciless crime should be nipped in the bud not by the Law alone but collectively which involves all the citizens.

Educational institutes are no more safe. Acquiring education has equally become as dangerous as facing a troop of army in the battlefield. Who will save the innocent people now? Whose fault is it that the innocent lives have been taken forcefully. Maati Saari killed his ten classmates but who will control this insane crime? How many more Maati Saari are people going to withstand? Acting upon this serious issue at once will perchance ameliorate the safety of the innocent people. It’s time to wake up and be harsh on the concerned people who are responsible for this kind of an unforgiving crime. One must obliterate this crime forever. Can a one person alone do this? Possibly not, so join your hands together and allow no more such a crime to be registered in the history.

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Via: TimesOnline

Children are susceptible to virals (not just the infections caused by viruses). I’m talking about the Virals/ Viral Promotions and ads on Internet, being made to exclusively target your small kids! We all know what a powerful medium advertising is in affecting our senses and molding our behavior especially when it comes to our decisions regarding purchasing a product. Despite being banned on TV, commercials promoting highly salted, sugary and fatty junk food are frequently mushrooming on the worldwide web to lure soft targets- children (under16) who are often unable to differentiate between healthy and non-healthy foods.

Companies manufacturing such greasy and highly saturated junk food have now devised a smart backdoor policy of actively advertising on internet because they know that today’s kids are smart enough to use internet but gullible enough to fall in their trap. In the United Kingdom, where the problem of child obesity is rapidly increasing it seems, a mere ban on such TV ads is not enough. While the traditional advertising-tactics like cartoon characters, film tie-ins and celebrity endorsements still continue to target a younger demographic, a report prepared by the consumer group “Which?” found that junk-food producers are now circumnavigating their tactics to reach a wider audience young in age and computer & mobile phone savvy. Junk-food companies now push their products on kids by using gaming websites or via sponsored mobile phone competitions.

The prizes won in such games are often rebate coupons or happy-hour tickets of junk-food outlets offering combo meals consisting giant burgers, colas, ice creams, fried chips etc. All this lacking any substantial nutritive value in terms of fiber content, vitamins, or minerals! The rise of advergaming promoting fast food ads is also a concern regarding this. Researchers at Which have singled out an ad campaign by Fanta (soft drink brand). The latter launched a “Want It, Win It” competition and sent a free branded mobile phone game to anyone who accessed the competition. As per the company the competition was aimed at young people above 16yrs. But Which? found out that younger children could easily access the website holding competition by lying about their age!

Ofcourse Fanta is not alone in the business. Cadbury’s Creme Eggs made social networking website Bebo its niche for promotion and publicity. Similarly, McDonald’s continues to host a “Kid Zone” on its website. Small children can actively play games here and can browse through a no.of Happy Meal products, thanks to the alongside adverts by the company. Which? is now signing out petitions against such reckless and irresponsible advertising. The companies’ ofcourse have a different word to offer on it. The issue also is not a new one but now it is acquiring dimensions that are harmful for young ones. Parents indeed act as a vital interface between these ads and the demands created by their children after being affected by such ads. But in this age of active and diverse media proliferation, tackling problems like child obesity demands action in many spheres so that, kids can opt for healthier food choices.

Government is playing its part by banning adverts promoting unhealthy foods on terrestrial television programming. The law was enforced from Jan 1st this year and children’s channels like cartoon network, pogo etc. have to phase out such adverts completely by December. While broadcasters express their concerns over quality of kids programming in wake of such a ban, which will definitely affect the ad-revenues, social groups like Which? are concerned about the rerouting of such ads through another, more widespread and relatively unguarded medium of internet. A balance definitely needs to be achieved by those who make such junk food, by realising their social obligations. While no body is asking them to pull out their marketing efforts but it would be in the best of the interests for the younger generation, if these companies act more responsibly in choosing a proper medium to advertise for their products.

Via Independent

Multitasking is the order of the day and burning bright on the Internet scene these days is “Cloud Computing”. Computing what? Well this is something we all do it these days without even being aware of it (however, the term will not surprise the techno-freaks.

Cloud computing is actually a computing paradigm wherein tasks are assigned to a combination of connections, software and services accessed over a network. It is this network of servers and connections, which is collectively called “the cloud”. And when we work with our Internet files, or other softwares outside our company on some access point like an iPhone, BlackBerry or laptop we cloud compute. Through this cloud we can access a vast ocean of resources as and when we need to. Some technophiles thus love to call cloud computing by the name of “on-demand computing” as well. For corporate sector the term is not new because of the frequent use of Blackberry phones in higher echelons of business world.

The latest piece of news regarding it is that the company which gave iPhone 3G to the world is now providing cloud computing as well. Yes, I’m referring to Apple, which has now announced its new MobileMe service (in a typically clumsy manner). The service available at $100 per year is an overhaul of Mac’s Internet features. MobileMe is a panacea for your organizational headaches! It is aimed at simplifying your cluttered life by keeping emails, calendars, address books, Web bookmarks etc. on all your Windows PC’s and laptops, Macs, iPod Touches and iPhones- well synchronized in real time. The beauty of MobileMe service is that it stores the master copy of all this cornucopia of information in ‘the cloud’ so that whenever you edit an address on your iPhone, MobileMe will update your Address Book (on your Mac) and Outlook (on your PC)! This service can be a boon for those families which are always on a run and hard-pressed for time to remember all the contacts, update the details and the likes. Apple’s tag line for MobileMe is “Exchange for the rest of us” (although, the company needs to clarify this to a target audience which probably is unaware about the Exchange as a matter of fact!)

The service takes a while to get started, as there are many instructions and stuff to be downloaded before you reap the fruits of MobileMe. But once set you can see the real-time magic in front of your eyes, once you set up your email program to recognize your new MobileMe e-mail address. The latter ends with a cute me.com! So, once you are done with the set up just change an appointment in iCal on your kitchen Mac and your traveling spouse will get to know it within seconds on his/her iPhone! What’s more? If you made a change simultaneously on two machines, you get to choose one version from both of them. And this is not all, at Me.com, Apple has built attractive, ad-free, online versions of your calendar, e-mail program, photo-organizing programs and your address book. You can enjoy a good deal of flexibility while using MobileMe on web but you need the latest version of Apple’s Safari Web browser / Firefox as you cannot exploit the complete range of features with IE. Besides synchronizing your vast amounts of info. MobileMe service also retains most of the features of the old .Mac service. So, upload pictures and movies, download your photo files at full resolution for printing and greet your visitors with stunning slide shows. All of it for $100 and with just one service at your end! Not a bad deal I must say especially when I know that with this MobileMe I can always backup my sync personalized information in an iDisk (hard drive) and forget about data theft. I’m sure this attractive nouveau service from Apple will quickly catch up despite a shabby start.

Via NYTimes

I have had a couple of security breaches on my yahoo account owing to my forgetful memory. Although, I m more careful now with my Gmail account but once in a while I have this doubt over whether I logged out actually? I’m sure most of us feel that when we terminate our internet sessions in a jiffy or perhaps, in a sleepy mood. For people like me and all the temporary amnesiacs, Gmail has come with a new facility. Although, not a foolproof tactic but still a promising one. The good news is that if you are simultaneously logged-on either at Yahoo or MSN or elsewhere (even on any web based email provider on your cell phone) Gmail now gives you a chance to disconnect from such remote locations.

All you need is your presence in a simultaneous session even if you are no more working from Gmail. At your Gmail inbox’s bottom there’s a small notice which informs you about your other active sessions. This latest feature also offers info on the location and time of your recent activities on Gmail. So, watch out for that tiny notice carefully. Also, in case you have stored your password on some other computer, chances are anyone else can swiftly log back and may do harm unless you change the password. The feature is sure to make the sessions more secure on Google’s Gmail especially in a scenario where you are using it in a cyber café or a public library.

This move by Gmail is certainly a cut above the rest of the Web email providers like Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp.’s Hotmail, Time Warner Inc.’s AOL which haven’t come so close to offering such a service. The max others do so far is automatic logoff after brief periods of inactivity or ask again for the password if the session stretched for long. So, heres one more reason to opt Gmail over others but yeah, you do need an auxiliary account on another portal to utilize the remote log-out facility of Gmail if the need arises.

Via NewsFactor

Catching on with Indian youth and Indian companies is the marketing strategy of Advergaming. For those who are new to this term, advergaming is also known as in game advertising in simple terms. However, according to eMarketer.com, advergaming can be defined as an immersive mixture of advertising and entertainment that takes the form of video games. These games being made available online and in one’s mobile phones by gaming companies now a days. In the western world, the beginnings of advergaming can be traced back to as early as 1980s when Atari 2600 games were developed by Kool-Aid and Pepsi. The 2 companies smartly featured their products in these games. In India, ofcourse the trend of advergaming has become popular only after the commencement of IT & telecomm. Revolution. Currently the scenario is hot for mobile phone’s market.

Advergaming in India is now getting established with advertisers considering it to be a powerful medium to improve marketing strategies like brand recalling and revenue generation aswell. This non-intrusive advertising and marketing mix also bears potent properties of effective market research and demographic assessment. One can see that Indian gaming companies are now looking into it. The CEO of Kreeda Games, Quentin Staes-Polet vouches for the freshness of advergaming as a new concept in Indian markets and he also feels that, this strategy is an apt one for youngsters who like to chuck TV & other traditional media for Internet and mobile gaming. Last year, Kreeda Games launched and online game Dance Mela that allows adverts as a part of the game structure. So that, the realistic appeal of this virtual world created within the game makes the user feel comfortable about the ads displayed rather than finding them irritatingly obtrusive. Dance Mela is one of a kind Bollywood-based massive multiplayer online game, which is freely available at www.dancemela.com. Those interested can also buy CD’s from retail stores. The popularity of such games is luring advertisers to specially design games for mobile phones aswell. A lot of mobile phones with gaming features already come with games that have well placed in- game ads like a branded energy drink for the hero/heroine of a game to revitalize the batteries of the avatar.

Others in the Indian mobile industry also feel positive for advergaming. Like, Salil Bhargava, CEO, Jump Games (part of Reliance Big Entertainment) who confirms that the biggest entertainer in India, Bollywood is also opening up to advergames now! Jump Games has devised a smart approach to turn mobile phones from a necessary gadget into an avenue for promotion of Hindi films. Their advergame Jurm was the first one in the country to usher the concept of promoting films via mobile games!

Needless to say that with the fast development of mobile marketing in India and the recent introduction of Oxicash (mobile wallet), the future seems bright for mobile games and advergaming.

Via BusinessStandard

Until now, we all have been contended with Google’s simplistic approach to web designing and have come to get quite used to its no-fuss style. This Tuesday however, Google introduced a product developed in Google Labs, which is an antithesis of its image so far. It’s Lively! Yes, the product is named Lively (www.lively.com) and was headed by Niniane Wang (an engineering manager inside Google).As the name suggests the product is after all very colorful and full of life. Lively is an online tool. It allows users to have text-based conversations with friends, distant relatives and other internet users in virtual chat rooms. The USP being its facility for users who can embody themselves as cartoonish avatars (something that Yahoo! Messenger launched in form of Yahoo Avatars and became a hit with young crowd). This new feature was officially announced on Google’s blog and I think for its discreetness many of you might still not be aware of its presence.

Until now, internet chatting has been predominantly two-dimensional. Lively – as a medium offers the 3D experience of chatting with a range of cool and hep avatars at your mouse’s click. Also, the virtual chat rooms on Lively can be handpicked and designed by the user him/herself and these rooms can be added to any blog or Web site. One can design one’s own virtual environment by picking up Photos from Google’s Picasa. What’s more? The text appears inside cartoon-style bubbles atop the avatars giving the whole chat a comic-book feel aswell. At any given time, upto twenty people can occupy a chat room. Lovely! Or may I say Lively! Readers, I shall be using an avatar, which resembles the Swan Princess; what about you guys?Â

Via NYTimes

Google Inc has begun allowing participants in news stories to post comments about the articles through its news service, a move that is raising questions in the media industry, a report said today.

The Internet search giant’s ‘Google News´ posts links and excerpts to articles from more than 4,500 English-language news sources, and in an experimental project, the company this week began soliciting comments from individuals and groups cited in stories it carries and displaying the comments alongside links to the original stories, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The company, which is working to verify the identities of those posting comments, said it started the project to make additional perspectives on the news available to readers.

But its announcement of the feature on a Google blog late Tuesday attracted attention among media organisations, which have at times had uneasy relationships with the Internet company, including fights over its right to excerpt their content in Google News without paying.

Some media watchers questioned whether Google is “effectively setting itself up as an ombudsman to field gripes with their coverage, and whether that is an appropriate role,” the Journal said.
Other news sites allow anyone to comment on stories — without requiring that they have a direct link to them — and carry links to blogs with such commentary.