Showing posts with label latest news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label latest news. Show all posts
09:07
Who Broke the News (or the Embargo) First?
Let’s say a company is about to launch a new product and, as is the standard practice, they have pre-briefed a select group of media outlets and bloggers about the news under an embargo.The launch date is close and writers have already prepared their news stories so that they can push them as soon as embargo is lifted. And then something strange happens – one media outlet publishes the story ahead of time thus breaking the embargo – intentionally or unintentionally.
Find Who Broke the News Embargo?
Broken embargoes can be frustrating for journalists and bloggers as the limelight (and page views) often shifts to the news publication who did not honor the embargo.If a news embargo gets broken, here’s a simple way that may help you determine the name of the publication that broke it in the first place.
Step 1. Go to google.com/realtime and type a few words from the story headline.
Step 2. In the timeline, click an area where you have minimal number of tweets around that story. That’s when the news first broke on the Internet and looking at the tweets, you should be able to figure who broke that news.
To give you an example, Google pre-briefed a number of publication about the priority inbox feature of Gmail and the news was supposed to stay under embargo until 9 AM. eWeek however published the story at 8:36 AM while others still had their story in the queue.
This technique works because most sites now auto-syndicate their content to social sites like Twitter and Facebook. Since all the stories are getting on Twitter, you can easily sort them by publication time through the timeline of Google Real Time search.
08:59
Gmail Introduces Rich Text Signatures
As of today you can use a rich text signature in Gmail, meaning that you can add links and images to it, as well as change the text’s format, font and color.
To change your signature in Gmail, click on “Settings,” and scroll down to the “Signature” section. You’ll see a new signature editor which contains the same functions that are at your disposal when you compose an e-mail.
If you have more than one e-mail address associated with your Gmail account, you’ll be able to choose a different signature for each one using the drop-down menu (the menu doesn’t appear if you have only one e-mail address associated with your Gmail account).
09:56
Bing vs Google
Bing vs Google Face-Off Still On: Bing Announces Search Index Boost, Social Results & More
Did you notice the competition going on between Bing and Google? The game is still on and after Google announced its new Caffeine search index, it is Bing's turn to tout the future release of its enhanced 'Bing Webmaster Tools' this summer.Bing Webmaster Tools
The company calls it its "no-cost toolset" for webmasters and SEOs. The new version - as Rick DeJarnette wrote on the blog - was created from webmasters' feedback and built with (surprise!) Microsoft Silverlight 4 although basic functionalities are supposed to still be available on most browsers.
What other browsers might not get are the features such as "Index Explorer, a tree-view that enables webmasters to see at a glance all of the crawling and index data for their website.
Each level in the tree view offers webmasters access to specific data management controls, such as URL blocking, cache blocking, and recrawl requests."
Webmasters will be able to submit 'priority' URLs as well as those to be blocked from showing up on SERPs.
If this really happens then it might well revolutionize the search marketing world - and push Google to innovate too in that area.
Bing said it will roll out further features in time so it's worth keeping your eyes peeled for that.
Real-Time, Social Results
Walking in the footsteps of Google who has launched a refreshed SERP including real-time results in May, Bing is now also integrating real-time/social data in its SERP. With Yahoo and Facebook having entered a content sharing deal, it was only a matter of time before Bing also announced it followed suit. After all, Bing is partnering with Yahoo in the Search Alliance. This time, Twitter is part of the real-time search fest too, and it is called Bing Social.
So far, Bing had only 'socialized' its shopping experience by enabling prospective buyers to consult their peers and friends through Twitter, Facebook and email directly through its platform.
By extending users' search capacities to information aggregated from micro-blogging sites - namely the status updates from Facebook and Twitter users worldwide -, Bing hopes to get more traction.
This is what Bing Social looks like:
Fear Not For Your Privacy
No. Don't fret. The data that is being crawled and indexed by Bing is that from fan pages as well as public profiles. Read: personal profiles whose privacy settings allow the sharing of their status updates with 'everyone'. At least, this is what the company said on its blog post announcing the news.
"No names or photos, or even the text in the update associated with the link are published - just the link in aggregate," Bing's Lawrence Kim wrote.
Needless to say, privacy is to be taken more than seriously these days, with glitches being pointed at as well as enquiries (and sometimes lawsuits) being launched left and right across the globe on Facebook's privacy issues, Google's rogue Wi-Fi data collection, or even AT&T exposing iPad users data.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see any such real-time social entries on Bing's SERP. At least I did several tries and such content was only visible once out of five times. Very strange. My driving test query was on "World Cup"... as it is slated to kick off tomorrow and related real-time content should therefore be more than abundant.
World Cup Splurge
Speaking of which, Bing is also betting big time on the World Cup.
Aside from bringing real-time scores and coverage, Bing is partnering with location-based service Foursquare and recommendation site Thrillist to create "World Cup badges and specials for check-ins during the world Cup."
Today as well, Bing is launching Home Turf Finder, a feature that allows football fans to locate the "second best" (after South Africa itself?) place to watch their matches. This means you can find the best neighborhood place with the friendliest crowd that supports your team.
This is sort of an aside but so you know, tomorrow, on the day the World cup actually kicks off, Facebook will allow you to customize your profile picture with the World Cup scarf of the team you support...
Wooing Apple
It's not too hard to tell what the tug of war is. Apple has been rumoured to be planning to forsake Google for Bing but has never commented on it. However, since Bing gained mobile credit by becoming one of the search engine options on Safari, the battle has been raging and announcements galore have been made both by Google and Bing.
You might have had a nudge today if Google has rolled it out in your country: the home page has turned totally Bing-esque with a background picture .
One thing that Google did early last month was to hire a "head of social" to boost its strategy. We have no news yet of Bing's stance on that.
What we know is that Bing is "going Hollywood," scheduling a 40-minute show in Los Angeles on June 22nd to announce changes to its search engine...
So stay tuned and please let us know how you feel about your Bing Social experience
The company calls it its "no-cost toolset" for webmasters and SEOs. The new version - as Rick DeJarnette wrote on the blog - was created from webmasters' feedback and built with (surprise!) Microsoft Silverlight 4 although basic functionalities are supposed to still be available on most browsers.
What other browsers might not get are the features such as "Index Explorer, a tree-view that enables webmasters to see at a glance all of the crawling and index data for their website.
Each level in the tree view offers webmasters access to specific data management controls, such as URL blocking, cache blocking, and recrawl requests."
Webmasters will be able to submit 'priority' URLs as well as those to be blocked from showing up on SERPs.
If this really happens then it might well revolutionize the search marketing world - and push Google to innovate too in that area.
Bing said it will roll out further features in time so it's worth keeping your eyes peeled for that.
Real-Time, Social Results
Walking in the footsteps of Google who has launched a refreshed SERP including real-time results in May, Bing is now also integrating real-time/social data in its SERP. With Yahoo and Facebook having entered a content sharing deal, it was only a matter of time before Bing also announced it followed suit. After all, Bing is partnering with Yahoo in the Search Alliance. This time, Twitter is part of the real-time search fest too, and it is called Bing Social.
So far, Bing had only 'socialized' its shopping experience by enabling prospective buyers to consult their peers and friends through Twitter, Facebook and email directly through its platform.
By extending users' search capacities to information aggregated from micro-blogging sites - namely the status updates from Facebook and Twitter users worldwide -, Bing hopes to get more traction.
This is what Bing Social looks like:
Fear Not For Your Privacy
No. Don't fret. The data that is being crawled and indexed by Bing is that from fan pages as well as public profiles. Read: personal profiles whose privacy settings allow the sharing of their status updates with 'everyone'. At least, this is what the company said on its blog post announcing the news.
"No names or photos, or even the text in the update associated with the link are published - just the link in aggregate," Bing's Lawrence Kim wrote.
Needless to say, privacy is to be taken more than seriously these days, with glitches being pointed at as well as enquiries (and sometimes lawsuits) being launched left and right across the globe on Facebook's privacy issues, Google's rogue Wi-Fi data collection, or even AT&T exposing iPad users data.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see any such real-time social entries on Bing's SERP. At least I did several tries and such content was only visible once out of five times. Very strange. My driving test query was on "World Cup"... as it is slated to kick off tomorrow and related real-time content should therefore be more than abundant.
World Cup Splurge
Speaking of which, Bing is also betting big time on the World Cup.
Aside from bringing real-time scores and coverage, Bing is partnering with location-based service Foursquare and recommendation site Thrillist to create "World Cup badges and specials for check-ins during the world Cup."
Today as well, Bing is launching Home Turf Finder, a feature that allows football fans to locate the "second best" (after South Africa itself?) place to watch their matches. This means you can find the best neighborhood place with the friendliest crowd that supports your team.
This is sort of an aside but so you know, tomorrow, on the day the World cup actually kicks off, Facebook will allow you to customize your profile picture with the World Cup scarf of the team you support...
Wooing Apple
It's not too hard to tell what the tug of war is. Apple has been rumoured to be planning to forsake Google for Bing but has never commented on it. However, since Bing gained mobile credit by becoming one of the search engine options on Safari, the battle has been raging and announcements galore have been made both by Google and Bing.
You might have had a nudge today if Google has rolled it out in your country: the home page has turned totally Bing-esque with a background picture .
One thing that Google did early last month was to hire a "head of social" to boost its strategy. We have no news yet of Bing's stance on that.
What we know is that Bing is "going Hollywood," scheduling a 40-minute show in Los Angeles on June 22nd to announce changes to its search engine...
So stay tuned and please let us know how you feel about your Bing Social experience
09:11
Microsoft Pushes Out 64 GB Zune HD
Microsoft has doubled the capacity of its Zune HD portable media device: 64 GB for $349.99.
Microsoft has opened the doors on a new 64 GB version of its Zune HD, doubling available storage capacity at a price tag of $349.99. The 64 GB version of the device is essentially the same as its 16 GB and 32 GB siblings—however, all new Zune HD models recently picked up new features via the Zune HD 4.5 firmware update.
Zune HD 4.5 firmware adds a new Smart DJ Mix capability, enabling users to create an automatic playlist directly on the Zune HD device based on a particular song or artist. The Smart DJ mix feature pulls songs from the Zune’s available collection of material—and, for users with a Zune Pass, from Zune Marketplace. The firmware update also offers custom music recommendations and picks based on the music both the Zune owner and other Zune HD users have been listening to on Zune Marketplace. That might turn you on to some pretty cool music, or confirm your low opinion of other Zune users’ musical tastes…hard to tell.
The most significant feature of the Zune 4.5 firmware update might be Zune Music Marketplace on TV: users can connect a Zune HD to a television via the A/V dock, and they can stream, brows, and buy music from the Zune Marketplace on their television. The feature enables users with a Zune Pass to stream music via their television—and potentially via their home theater system. The Zune HD 4.5 update also adds additional video codecs so more video formats play without transcoding on the Zune (including Xvid and native AVI).
Existing Zune HD customers can get the update for free by launching their Zune software and connecting their Zune HD to their PC. Folks who want a 64 GB Zune HD can head over to ZuneOriginals.com and pick out their own custom colors and etchings.
Microsoft has opened the doors on a new 64 GB version of its Zune HD, doubling available storage capacity at a price tag of $349.99. The 64 GB version of the device is essentially the same as its 16 GB and 32 GB siblings—however, all new Zune HD models recently picked up new features via the Zune HD 4.5 firmware update.
Zune HD 4.5 firmware adds a new Smart DJ Mix capability, enabling users to create an automatic playlist directly on the Zune HD device based on a particular song or artist. The Smart DJ mix feature pulls songs from the Zune’s available collection of material—and, for users with a Zune Pass, from Zune Marketplace. The firmware update also offers custom music recommendations and picks based on the music both the Zune owner and other Zune HD users have been listening to on Zune Marketplace. That might turn you on to some pretty cool music, or confirm your low opinion of other Zune users’ musical tastes…hard to tell.
The most significant feature of the Zune 4.5 firmware update might be Zune Music Marketplace on TV: users can connect a Zune HD to a television via the A/V dock, and they can stream, brows, and buy music from the Zune Marketplace on their television. The feature enables users with a Zune Pass to stream music via their television—and potentially via their home theater system. The Zune HD 4.5 update also adds additional video codecs so more video formats play without transcoding on the Zune (including Xvid and native AVI).
Existing Zune HD customers can get the update for free by launching their Zune software and connecting their Zune HD to their PC. Folks who want a 64 GB Zune HD can head over to ZuneOriginals.com and pick out their own custom colors and etchings.
07:28
Letters reveal JD Salinger was writing regularly long after 1965
Letters to go on display for the first time in New York show that JD Salinger wrote regularly for years after he stopped publishing
JD Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye, in 1951.
The 11 letters, written between 1951 and 1993, were sent to his friend of more than 40 years E Michael Mitchell, who at one point Salinger addresses, Holden Caulfield-style, as "Buddyroo". They show that he would start work every morning at six, or seven at the latest, refusing to be interrupted "unless absolutely necessary or convenient", according to a report in the New York Times, which revealed that the letters were to be made public at the Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan.
A 1966 letter points to "ten, 12 years' work [which includes] two particular scripts – books really – that I've been hoarding at and picking at for years," the New York Times reported, while in 1951, the author refers to a trip to London just before The Catcher in the Rye was published, during which he visited the home of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh for cocktails. "Naturally, some gin went up my nose. I damn near left by the window," Salinger wrote.
Salinger died aged 91 at the end of January after years spent avoiding the public eye. The letters show him apologising for his solitary ways, telling Mitchell that he can't answer the telephone "without unconsciously gritting my teeth", and revealing his anger at a planned biography in 1983. "I'll weep if they bother you and Bet," he wrote, referring to Mitchell's ex-wife.
The letters were donated to the museum in 1998 but kept under wraps until the author's death. They are now being prepared for an exhibition.