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EBay Inc. announced Wednesday that it acquired StumbleUpon Inc., a software startup that suggests Web sites based on reader reviews and personal preferences of its members.

The $75 million cash acquisition gives eBay access to about 2.3 million people who have filled out profiles at StumbleUpon, founded in 2001 by three Canadian software engineers in Calgary. The venture capital-funded company, which recently relocated to San Francisco, is considered a pioneer of the so-called ”Web 3.0” niche.

The term refers to technology that pairs general Internet search capability with a user’s personal data and aggregated community data, theoretically delivering more relevant results than a standard search engine such as Google Inc.

For example, a StumbleUpon search for ”cars” could generate a list of Web pages that factor in a user’s income, age, gender, home address, current vehicles owned and other demographic data submitted. The search results would also include sites ranked favorably by other StumbleUpon members with similar interests and background.

By contrast, a straight Google search delivers 357 million Web pages ranging from the popular Hollywood movie ”Cars” to advertisements for used car dealers and newspaper classified sections.

StumbleUpon is free for users and generates revenue through advertising, though the company doesn’t disclose financial information. Members who pay an annual fee bypass advertisements completely.

Michael Buhr, senior director at San Jose-based eBay, will serve as general manager of StumbleUpon. StumbleUpons founders and managers will become eBay employees.

”StumbleUpon is a great fit within our goal of pioneering new communities based on commerce and sustained by trust,” Buhr said.

Source: Tech2

Apple TV will soon offer content from Google’s popular website,YouTube. Beginning in mid-June, Apple TV will wirelessly stream videos directly from YouTube and play them on a user’s widescreen TV. Users will be able to view the content using Apple TV interface, to browse, find and watch free videos from YouTube.

Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs said, “This is the first time users can easily browse, find and watch YouTube videos right from their living room couch, and it’s really, really fun. YouTube is a worldwide sensation, and Apple TV is bringing it directly from the Internet onto the widescreen TV in your living room.”

Apple has also announced that it is offering a new Apple TV build-to-order option, with a 160GB hard drive. The new, larger hard drive offers four times the storage for up to 200 hours of video, 36,000 songs, 25,000 photos or a combination of each.

Apple TV, which includes the Apple Remote, is available through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers at USD299. Apple TV with a 160GB hard drive will be available at Rs USD 399. The YouTube feature for Apple TV will be available as a free software update in mid-June.

Source: Tech2

Executives at eBay Inc. are touting security as their top priority in 2007 after an internal survey showed that online scammers may be denting the company’s reputation.

The San Jose-based online auction company began a program last year to safeguard members’ identities by concealing their user names on expensive listings. That measure could make it harder for con artists to contact losing bidders and goad them into ‘’second chance offers,” where customers wire cash to the scammers’ accounts.

Engineers also want to reduce counterfeit items and clamp down on scams between buyers and sellers from different countries, said William C. Cobb, president of eBay North America.

”It’s no secret that online criminals who target sites like eBay and PayPal have grown in number and sophistication over time,” Cobb said in comments posted Wednesday to an eBay forum. ”Where we’ve historically put an emphasis on transparency and free choice, today the security threats are more complex, and we’re more actively protecting our buyers from fraud.”

Representatives are also sending nasty e-mails to sellers who charge egregious shipping and handling fees. EBay reduced the average shipping cost in the ”cell phones” category by 25 percent since last summer, Cobb said.
The emphasis on security enhancements — billed as the most important initiative in the company’s 12-year history — comes as senior eBay executives host the site’s top 250 sellers at closed-door meetings this week in Burlingame. Entrepreneurs attending the second annual E-Commerce Forum sold 7 million items worth $1.5 billion in 2006.

So-called ”power sellers” have expressed concern — and have threatened to go to other sites —_ over concerns that eBay has been slow to combat fraud.
EBay says less than one-hundredth of one percent of the listings on its Web site are fraudulent. But even by that conservative measure, 58,300 auctions may have been fraudulent in one three-month period. More than 583 million items were listed in the third quarter of 2006.

More concerning, fraud disproportionately strikes high-end categories such as automobiles, electronics and jewelry. There’s no reliable way to estimate how much is lost to con artists on eBay, where $12.64 billion in merchandise exchanged hands in the third quarter.

Spokesman Hani Durzy said Wednesday that the company is targeting all scammers — from petty thieves to organized crime syndicates.
”We’re never going to completely stop the bad guys from using the Internet, but we do know that negative experiences are a major reason people leave eBay — and they pass along word of mouth to other people,” Durzy said. ”In 2007, you’ll see a sea change in our approach to trust and safety.”

Search engine company, SearchMe has launched a new service to search open source web encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Wikiseek is designed to index and search the contents of Wikipedia and links to webpages referenced within Wikipedia. WikiSeek also features additional tools such as a search plugin for FireFox, IE7 and Opera, and Firefox extension, that alters actual Wikipedia pages to add a ‘Wikiseek search button’.

According to the Wikiseek website, “The contents of Wikiseek are restricted to Wikipedia pages and only those sites which are referenced within Wikipedia, making it an authoritative source of information less subject to spam and SEO schemes. Wikiseek utilizes SearchMe’s category refinement technology, providing suggested search refinements based on user tagging and categorization within Wikipedia, making results more relevant than conventional search engines.”
It says that as Wikipedia grows and more links are added, the service will continue to increase in value over time as a resource for researchers, students and anyone who frequently uses Wikipedia.

The site, built with Wikipedia’s assistance and permission, won’t show every relevant result to a query, but aims to give a good overview of a subject. The search results on Wikiseek also include a ‘tag cloud’ containing Wikipedia categories containing the search term. The first three results of a query are always Wikipedia content, shaded blue while the remaining results are below the shaded area.

The Wikiseek community on Wiki says, “This Wikiseek Community is hosted by Wikia but Wikiseek is an independent project with no affiliation with Wikia or Wikipedia. It also mentions that Wikiseek donates a majority of revenue to the Wikimedia Foundation.”

Nokia has announced an extension of its relationship with Sony Ericsson, bringing Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email to two additional Sony Ericsson devices, the M600 and P990. Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email allows mobile professionals to enjoy a synchronized, real-time email, calendar and contacts experience on their mobile devices. The solution is available immediately.

Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email provides comprehensive wireless communications capabilities for virtually any device built on any platform. In addition, Nokia now enables operators and enterprises to deliver advanced wireless communications services including wireless email, synchronization for calendars, contacts, files, data and applications, and highly secure device management software for Sony Ericsson users.

The Sony Ericsson P990 smartphone is a Wi-Fi enabled UMTS device that boasts a 2.0 megapixel camera with autofocus and a full QWERTY keyboard beneath the flip-down alpha-numeric keypad for fast text input. The M600 is also a 3G phone, based again on the Symbian operating system, and optimized for wireless email with a dual function keyboard & large 2.6″ colour touchscreen.

Users of Video sharing site, YouTube.com will soon be able to access Christian sermons on worship services, due to the efforts by Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.
According to the Telegraph (UK), the Church of England aims to counter the dwindling presence of youth and churchgoers with its ‘Fresh Expression initiative’ to reach the Internet generation via YouTube. The church also plans to upload another video on YouTube later this month, urging other churches to adopt the contemporary style of their services.

Church of England has lost nearly eight per cent of its worshipers between 2000 and 2002. Since YouTube sees upto100 million clips daily and over 20 million visitors each month, Rev Steve Croft, team leader of Fresh Expressions, says the popular video sharing site could provide the perfect way to reach teenagers.

Also, the Bishop of Lichfield has posted a message YouTube to encourage more people to attend Sunday services. He also called for support for a national Back to Church Sunday campaign in September which will invite local people to give their churches another try.

The founders of revolutionary Internet telephony firm Skype unveiled a test version of an online television service on Wednesday that will be free to users.
Niklas Zennstrvm and Janus Friis said they “combined the best of TV and the best of the Internet” in a venture called Joost to enable people to watch television online with “choice, control and flexibility.”
Joost was a “piracy-proof” Internet platform based on the open-source Mozilla web browser and was crafted to guarantee copyright protection for creators and owners of content, according to its founders.
“People are looking for increased choice and flexibility in their TV experience, while the entertainment industry needs to retain control over their content,” said Joost chief executive Fredrik de Wahl.
“With Joost, we’ve married that consumer desire with the industry’s interests.”
Luxembourg-based Joost claimed to be the first global television distribution platform that brought content owners, advertisers, and audiences together in an interactive, community-driven environment.

Wanna watch Youtube videos on your iPod? Check out iTube!iTube downloads your favorite Youtube videos, converts it to the iPod format and imports it into iTunes with just one click! All you have to do is paste the URL of the Youtube video into iTube and it takes care of everything else… pretty cool, huh? Now you can watch those dumb ass videos wherever you go!

iTube, brainchild of Benjamin Strah, is a neat software and does everything for you in the background. Can be used for downloading videos from Youtube, Myspace, Metacafe or even Blip.tv and transferring them to the iPod.

While Google Video is also supported by iTube, that may not be very useful as Google Video lets you directly download video clips for the iPod or PSP.

Intel Corp has announced its collaboration with media and entertainment company, Eros, to launch on- demand Bollywood service on Intel Viiv technology-based PCs. Eros and Intel demonstrated the new service at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which delivers access to online selections of Bollywood entertainment content, such as high definition movies, music videos, day and date premieres andclassics, from the Web to Intel Viiv technology-based PCs on large screen TVs. The Eros service will offer rental, subscription, download to own at launch and even download to burn models in the future.

Kishore Lulla, Chairman and CEO of Eros, “Our effort with Intel will give us the opportunity to serve an even broader audience worldwide, enter new markets and gain new revenue streams, while exploring and embracing a variety of exciting new digital distribution technologies, such as Intel Viiv technology. We are a content company that believes in empowering consumers so they can watch what they want, when they want, how they want.”
Intel Viiv technology-based PCs powered by Intel Core 2 Duo processors helps connect the PC and TV, and enables consumers to access, manage, share and enjoy a growing assortment of digital entertainment, including Hollywood movies, TV shows, music videos, sports, games among others.

Kevin Corbett, Vice President, Intel’s Digital Home Group and general manager of the Content Services Group said, “Intel’s goal is to accelerate the availability of broadband-delivered entertainment into every home. And, with Intel Viiv technology, we’re helping to change the economics of distribution and allow more people around the world to enjoy exciting content, irrespective of their physical location.”

Building on the availability of the ‘Bollywood’ service, Eros will debut the broadband premiere of ‘I See You’ on Intel Viiv technology-based PCs within a few weeks of its global theatrical release on Dec. 29 and ahead of its release on DVD.

Google has moved another step in creating a 3D virtual model of the Earth with

its latest version of Google Earth that is Google Earth 4.

The application will now feature a mixture of textured 3D renderings of famous architectural sites and terrain but obviously you will have to turn on the proper layers.

The company has started developing some parts of the earth with some rich 3D renderings of some famous landmarks. But still the mission of a complete model of the earth is a far fetched dream.

To make the dream possible in time Google will also users to create rich 3D renderings of buildings as KML or KMZ files and share them as overlays on Google Earth.

Users can also search for these structures without downloading Google Earth 4. They will also be allowed to rate and comment on the structures.

So far there are many important landmarks that have to be added into the imagery for completing the 3D model.

Source: Cnet