Clipmarks | horatiu's clips

Yahoo Quietly Pulls The Plug On Geocities

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:19:50 GMT

clipped by: horatiu

Not with a bang, but with a whimper. Yahoo! is unceremoniously closing GeoCities, one of the original web-hosting services acquired by Yahoo! in 1999 for $2.87 billion.

GeoCities’ traffic has been falling over the past year.

There are plenty of other Website creation and hosting services out there, including blog platforms such as Wordpress, Blogger, and Typepad, as well as Website creation and hosting services such as Ning, Webs, Jimdo, Snapages, Weebly, and countless more. GeoCities never really kept up with the times, but always remained a decent pageview generator.

One of the pioneers of web-hosting sites, GeoCities gave users personal publishing tools and created “neighborhoods” within its web platform for users to be able to create pages, add a picture, text, a guest book and a website counter. Long before MySpace, Geocities was known as a place where teenagers, college students, and eventually others could impose their own garish taste upon the rest of the world.

Tags: news, technology, web, geocities, yahoo, web hosting, history, content

MSN is now partnering with WetPaint, the simple website building platform, to power new entertainmen

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:14:47 GMT

clipped by: horatiu

Clip Source: www.techcrunch.com

These sites will specifically be powered by WetPaint Injected, its service which allows any site owner to place user generated content onto their sites.

And what’s really nice about these WetPaint Injected-powered site is that they play nicely with search engines

WetPaint is SEO-friendly, and that has led to large increases in traffic from searchable terms that fans include on pages.

MSN taking a lead in making its sites more socially friendly, when other large portals are strugling with that. And as a number of big names in entertainment and brands start to move to use fan pages on Facebook, he also notes that WetPaint-powered fan pages perform well when compared to Facebook fan pages. Generally, the WetPaint variety see 100 times the usage from fans when it comes to contributions and comments

Why pay someone to do work that fans will do for free? Not only that, but fans tell other fans about the contributions their making, and it’s like built-in buzz for the community you’re targeting.

Tags: news, technology, web, wetpaint, msn, wiki, community, social networking

Many Twitters are quick quitters: study

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:04:11 GMT

clipped by: horatiu

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Today's Twitters are often tomorrow's quitters, according to data that questions the long-term success of the latest social networking sensation used by celebrities from Oprah Winfrey to Britney Spears.

Data from Nielsen Online, which measures Internet traffic, found that more than 60 percent of Twitter users stopped using the free social networking site a month after joining.

"There simply aren't enough new users to make up for defecting ones after a certain point," he said in a statement.

Martin said Facebook and MySpace, the more established social network sites, enjoyed retention rates that were twice as high and those rates only rose when they went through their explosive growth phases.

Both currently have retention rates of about 70 percent with Facebook having about 200 million users.

"Twitter has enjoyed a nice ride over the last few months, but it will not be able to sustain its meteoric rise without establishing a higher level of user loyalty," said Martin.

Tags: news, technology, web, twitter, internet, users, facebook, myspace, internet traffic

Mexican toddler first U.S. flu death

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:57:47 GMT

clipped by: horatiu

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Mexican toddler in Texas has died of the H1N1 flu strain, the first confirmed death outside Mexico from a virus which health officials fear could cause a pandemic as it spread to two more countries in Europe.

Nearly a week after the threat emerged in Mexico, where up to 159 people have died, U.S. officials said on Wednesday a 23-month-old boy had died in the state bordering Mexico.

A Houston city health official said the baby was Mexican, fell ill two weeks ago in the U.S. border town of Brownsville and died in a Houston hospital.

"We're going to find more cases. We're going to find more severe cases and I expect that we'll continue to see additional deaths," he said.

Germany reported its first three infections and Austria one, taking to nine the number of countries known to be affected.

Tags: news, health, swine flu, medical, mexico, vegetarian

U.S. Economy: GDP Shrinks, Marking Worst Recession in 50 Years

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:54:59 GMT

clipped by: horatiu

Clip Source: www.bloomberg.com

April 29 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy plunged again in the first quarter, making this the worst recession in at least half a century.

“We are likely to emerge from this recession very slowly and the recovery will be very weak,” said Richard Berner, chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley in New York. “The aggressive policy response we have gotten will take time to work, but it will counter the still-strong headwinds holding the economy back.”

“We’re not quite sure where the bottom is,” Ford’s Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally said in an April 24 Bloomberg Television interview. “But we believe with the stabilization of the banks, freeing up the credit, and the stimulus packages we have, both monetary and fiscal, that we’re going to see an uptick in the third and fourth quarter.”

Tags: news, economy, recession, us

Apple plots course for middle of mobile

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:45:42 GMT

clipped by: horatiu

Clip Source: news.cnet.com

Apple seems almost ready to bridge the gap between the iPhone and the Macbook with a new type of mobile computer.

Is the world finally ready for the mobile minitablet?

It's become quite clear over the last several months that Apple is ready to bridge the mobile computing gap, with plans to develop a device that fits somewhere in between the iPhone and the MacBook.

Apple is developing a "media pad" that would let users watch videos on a larger screen than an iPod Touch or Amazon Kindle, but on a device that's more portable than notebooks and lacks a keyboard.

The personal computer industry has long tried to make such a device a reality

Apple's iPhone OS, however, was designed for a small-screen mobile environment. Installing the iPhone OS 3.0 on the iPad would allow Apple to preserve the user interface from the iPhone and iPod Touch and keep the device simple: a more complicated (and power-hungry) operating system isn't needed for a computer like this.

Tags: news, technology, os, apple, mobile, computer, iphone, minitablet, media pad, netbook

Time Warner anticipates possible spinoff of AOL

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:38:35 GMT

clipped by: horatiu

Clip Source: www.marketwatch.com

Media giant sees earnings slide amid weakness in ad sales, online revenue

The company completed its spin-off of Time Warner Cable

At AOL, revenue dropped to $867 million from $1.2 billion, Time Warner said. Advertising revenue fell 20% in the first quarter, on the heels of an 18% slide in the fourth quarter, continuing a long slide for the online unit. Declines in display ads on AOL Network sites were again blamed for the decrease in the latest quarter, along with sales of advertising on third-party sites.

In the cable-networks segment, including Turner Broadcasting and HBO, Time Warner's revenue rose 6%. Fees paid by cable and satellite operators to carry the channels rose 9%, while advertising sales slipped 2%.

In the filmed-entertainment division, revenue fell 7%. The company only had about five major DVD releases in the latest period, compared with 13 in the same quarter a year earlier.

At the Time Inc. publishing unit, revenue fell 23%, reflecting a 30% decline in ad sales.

Tags: news, advertising, online advertising, aol, time warner, hbo, movies, cable, economy, media

'Patient Zero' in Swine Flu Outbreak Identified as 5-Year-Old Mexican Boy

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:24:17 GMT

clipped by: horatiu

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

Edgar Hernandez, 5, known as 'Patient Zero', may be the first person to have contracted the swine flu.

Edgar Hernandez lives in the southern Mexican town of La Gloria, where more than 450 people — out of a population of 3,000 — have complained of respiratory problems.

Edgar got sick in late March or early April and recovered after a few days.

Edgar's case has gained attention because he lives near a large pig farm, fueling suspicion that the outbreak began there. The farm, Granjas Carroll, is a joint venture between Mexican firm Agroindustrias Unidas de Mexico SA and Virginia-based Smithfield Foods Inc.

Now that doctors are aware of the new bug, there is a greater likelihood that they will make the right diagnosis the first time.

"The mortality rate has been very high, but that's before people knew what was going on. Greater awareness by both patients and doctors may help lower that," said Julio Frenk, the dean of Harvard's School of Public Health and a former Mexican health minister.

Tags: news, health, swine flu, medical, mexico, vegetarian

Lucescu Jr takes up Romania reins

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:52:25 GMT

clipped by: horatiu

Clip Source: www.uefa.com

Răzvan Lucescu, the 40-year-old son of FC Shakhtar Donetsk boss Mircea Lucescu, has followed in his father's footsteps after being named coach of Romania's national team with Victor Piţurcă having been relieved of his duties.

EURO target
Lucescu has become the second-youngest coach to take charge of Romania, with the record still held by his father who was appointed in 1981 at the age of 36 – leading Romania to the 1984 UEFA European Championship before leaving the post in 1986. Răzvan Lucescu has accepted the job with a view to guiding his country to UEFA EURO 2012™. Their chances of qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup are slim after they picked up just four points from their first five Group 7 games.

Regarded as an intelligent workaholic, Răzvan Lucescu is also known for his excellent rapport with players, and with 26 UEFA club games to his name he has more experience on the European stage than any Romanian coach – barring his father.

Tags: romania, football, uefa, razvan lucescu, mircea lucescu

University of Miami's Underwater Photo Contest Winners

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:36:37 GMT

clipped by: horatiu

Clip Source: animals.about.com

The University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science has announced the winners of its Fifth Annual Underwater Photography Competition. The competition is open to amateur photographers and this year there were 918 photo submissions from entrants in 23 countries.

Clip Source: rsmas.miami.edu

Best Overall
Marchione Giacomo
Italy

Macro 1^st Place
Vickie Coker
Austin, TX

Macro 3^rd Place
Judy Townsend
Boca Raton, FL

Wide-angle 2^nd Place
Alessio Viora
Borgomanero, Italy

Tags: science, photography, competition, university, miami, marine, amateur, annual, nature