GAMIL Friends' update

Google Operating System has found code that would suggest that GTalk within Gmail may soon offer friend updates, similar to what is offered by services such as Plaxo.

Some more details pulled from the code:

…these updates will help you learn more about them. Gmail’s code suggests that you’ll be able to delete the updates you don’t like, reply by email or post a comment. It’s not very clear what kind of updates you will receive, but they’re probably the latest important actions of your contacts from different Google services.

Google already offers similar activity updates in services including Picasa Web Albums and Orkut.

The best line in the article, for those wondering what Google’s hidden social networking game plan might be:

The Gmail updates will probably gather all this information, merge it with recent activities from other Google services and display it in a continuous stream, similar to Facebook’s newsfeed.

TechCrunch

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Microsoft Using YouTube To Promote Vista & Live, Leaves Comments Open

Microsoft has taken its marketing push for Windows Vista and Windows Live into enemy territory by offering demonstration videos on YouTube (example above). The new channel (link) was launched December 21.

The content itself isn’t all that exciting, but they do demonstrate various positive aspects of Vista and Live that viewers may not be aware of. The more interesting aspect is that Microsoft would use the Google owned YouTube for such as promotion; it certainly demonstrates just how powerful the market position of YouTube has become over the last 2 years that Microsoft would use it to promote their products.

Courageously, Microsoft has also left comments open on each video. Most people can guess the next part:

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Saudis Arrest Top Blogger

US ally in the “War on Terror” Saudi-Arabia has arrested the country’s most popular blogger for “purposes of interrogation,” according to the NY Times and VOA.

Fouah al-Farhan writes at alfarhan.org and has been vocal in discussing corruption and advocating government reform. A Interior Ministry spokesman said al-Farhan was “being questioned about specific violations of nonsecurity laws.” No charges have yet been laid but family members have been denied visitation rights.

Saudi Arabia’s community of over 200 bloggers have been protesting the arrest and are calling for international support.

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The Google Algorithm Is Changing

Google Operating System points out something interesting in Google’s algorithm recently: a preference in favoring recent content.

The example provided would seem to favor the conclusion; TCP/IP’s anniversary today has resulted in Google preferencing recent posts, including from Digg, over informative articles related to the search term such as Wikipedia who would have normally had the top or near to the top position.

Indexing recent posts has been a strength for Google, to the point that at least for areas like Blog Search they’ve become the defacto standard as others such as Technorati have struggled to keep up. That Google would preference recent posts in its search results without the usual incoming authority links throws out the rules we’ve always known with Google, and I’m not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing. It would depend a lot on the results, but it would limit attempts to game Google results through incoming links. Perhaps it’s the first step towards Google embracing Web 3.0 with semantic search that learns as it goes, constantly updating its results to suit the user at the time they are searching, complete with contextual awareness as well.

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Untitled

Source: TechCrunch

has acquired domain registration and auction powerhouse Moniker for what is believed to be $65 million.

Oversee.net previously purchased Snapnames in May for $35 million and will integrate Moniker into its Snapnames Live service.

Moniker has become a leader in the continually growing second domain names market. We’ve covered Moniker auctions twice before (here and here); they may not have the volume of some of their competitors but they had carved out a strong niche at the top of the market.

Both parties said that the acquisition would strength their positions in a highly competitive market.

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Top five web/internet companies acquired in 2007

Thanks to private equity firms, 2007 was an active year for M&A in general. But interestingly, in the web/internet space, most of the large acquisitions were done by Stretegics, the corporate acquirers, and not the private equity firms.

The sector that saw the highest activity was the Internet advertising sector; aQuantive, 24/7, DoubleClick, Right Media and a long list of others were acquired this year.

Here are the top 5 acquisitions in the Web/internet field.

(1) aQuantive - Microsoft : $6B. aQuantive is a digital marketing and technology company. It is now part of Micorosoft’s Advertiser and Publisher Solution group.

(2) WebEx - Cisco : $3.2B. Webex is a leader in the online video concerning. Cisco’s mantra? “Unified communication”. Hmm, where have I heard that before?

(3) Double Click - Google : $3.1B. The deal is not complete yet but it was approved by FTC. DoubleClick develops and provides internet ad serving service. Google + DoubleClick will rule most of the clickable space on a webpage.

(4) Club Penguin - Disney : $700M. Club penguin is a virtual world for kids. Social Web - start them when they are young.

(5) Right Media - Yahoo : $680M. Yahoo already owned 20% of Right Media and purchased the remaining 80%. Some suggest that Yahoo purchased Right Media in response to Google’s DoubleClick purchase.

Some other notable acquisitions of 2007 are:

• Postini - google : $625M. Postini is an e-mail and communication security company.
• 24/7 real Media - WPP : $649M. 24/7 is a significant player in the online advertising marketplace.
• Zimbra - Yahoo : $350M. Zimbra provides online office software.
• Adult Friendfinder - Penthouse : $500M. Adult FriendFinder is an an online adult dating site.
• How Stuff Works - Discovery : $250M. How Stuff works has expanded in to online video instructions.
• American Greetings - Webshot : $45M. This was notable because CNET purchased Webshot for $70M not too long ago. I still remember the time when Webshot was a wallpaper site.
• Business.com - Donnelly : $345M. From a directory serving Google text ads to the sale at $345M was remarkable.
• Lexico - Answers.com : $100M. Lexico owns dictionary.com and thesaurus.com. This deal was notable because Answer.com paid almost $10/unique visitor - that is on the rich side for sure.

For a more detailed list, see PartnerUp and seeking Alpha and DealBook.

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