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Yahoo NewsGlobe Links News With 3D Earth Map

Arun — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:21:56 +0000

Innovation at the search major Yahoo continues with recent unveiling of a mashup for news on a 3D map of earth as it happens around the globe. Dubbed NewsGlobe, the new feature that allows users to watch news on a three dimensional model of earth.

An excerpt from the PC Advisor on NewsGlobe

“For each story location, we draw a marker object and place it in the proper position on a sphere representing the Earth,” Shuman said. “The display is calculated and drawn in real time. This allows us to animate the view over time and even lets the user change the view by interacting with the objects in the scene.”

The news tool works in an interactive or automatic mode and makes use of News feeds, Yahoo maps and ActionScript libraries.

There is the fact that this feature is more of a proof of concept and does not represent any ground breaking technology. There a lot more applications that can perhaps take off from here. The product competes with Google’s mashup offerings. The tool could be also used as a desktop standalone thanks to integration with Adobe’s AIR.

Huge Failures on the Internet

Daniel Scocco — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:40:19 +0000

Ever heard about Kozmo.com or Flooz.com? Probably not, but that is because they emerged and disappeared from the Internet scene within a small time frame. Sure, there are many success stories out there like Facebook. What about failure stories though? We should talk about them more often!

That is exactly what an article that I came across yesterday was doing. It was titled “How 9 Tech Companies Lost 2 Billion Dollars.”

Here is what happened with Kozmo.com:

“A great idea poorly executed. Kozmo.com was founded by investment bankers Joseph Park and Yong Kang. The company’s purpose was simple: to deliver a wide variety of small goods within an hour for no delivery charge. Wanted popcorn, soda, and a movie on your doorstep in under an hour? No problem! Unfortunately for Kozmo, the gimmick that made it famous, “Free Delivery”, was also its undoing. The company claimed that the money saved by not needing rental space for store fronts would easily offset the costs of delivery. This however was not the case as the company would shut its doors after only three years of service. Kozmo raised roughly $250 million in funding including $60 million directly from Amazon.com, but one wonders what their logic was when they promised $150 million of that money to Starbucks for advertising.”

The other companies covered are Webvan, Pets.com, Flooz.com, eToys.com, Go.com, GovWorks.com, Boo.com and MVP.com. You can read the full article here.

PC Magazine Favorite 100 Blogs

Daniel Scocco — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:19:43 +0000

The guys from PC Magazine recently published a list with their 100 favorite blogs. There are many similar lists around the Internet, but this one is not carrying the usual suspects. I came across some blogs that I had never seen, and they all look pretty interesting.

The list is somewhat biased towards the technology and business fields, but we could not expect otherwise given the magazine that is releasing it. Anyway below you will find the first 10 on the list:

Information Age vs. Connected Age

Daniel Scocco — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:43:47 +0000

I am not sure if we are already leaving the information age, but there is an interesting reflection on this matter over the GigaOM blog. On the article “From the Information Age to the Connected Age” they argue that changed on the Web will enable us to make that switch.

“The Information Age is the age of the knowledge worker. The Connected Age is the age of the web worker. Knowledge workers create and manage information, massaging it into intangible knowledge goods. Web workers create and manage relationships across knowledge goods, hardware, and people.”

Two good examples that the article brings forth are Microsoft and Google, who belong respectively to the information and connected age. In the connected age value is no longer created from intangible information goods and knowledge, but rather relationships, aggregation and social interactions.

Internet Marketing Masterclass

Daniel Scocco — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 19:17:24 +0000

French Philosopher Descartes once said “Cogito, ergo sum,” which means “I think, therefore I am.” If this statement will ever mutate it will be something along the lines of “Google, ergo sum.”

The Internet is changing the way we communicate, work and live. It would be hard to find a business that will not be affected by these changes.

There is a conference taking place in London (08/11/2007) called “Internet Marketing Masterclass.” If you are not so confident navigating your way through the Internet you should check it out. Some high profile speakers have been confirmed, including a former managing director of Google UK.

Here are some of the topics that will be covered on the event:

how to get found on search engines
performance based advertising on the Internet
social media and how it can impact your business
online marketing and public relations
content creation for the Internet
how Google will affect your business in the future

If your job has anything to do with the Internet it could be a good opportunity to stay updated with the latest trends. The standard price for the conference is £245, but there is an early bird until the 19th of September which costs £195. You can check further details about the conference on the official website.

This post was a sponsored review.