http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/19/unhyped-internet-and-mobile/
10 Million hits a day with Wordpress using a $15 server [Update 2] – It seems W3 Total Cache support has been silently discontinued – it’s not been updated for over 12 months now, and has allegedly got some security issues. Because of this, I would recommend not installing W3 Total Cache as part of these instructions, everything else should run fine. [/Update] [Update] – I’ve tested this using the new Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Edition, and the settings all appear to work correctly without modification. Spectrum Crunch: The cell phone industry hits its limits - Feb. 21 This is part one of a week-long series on the cell phone capacity crunch. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The U.S. mobile phone industry is running out of the airwaves necessary to provide voice, text and Internet services to its customers. The problem, known as the "spectrum crunch," threatens to increase the number of dropped calls, slow down data speeds and raise customers' prices. It will also whittle down the nation's number of wireless carriers and create a deeper financial divide between those companies that have capacity and those that don't.
How Facebook Can Improve Upon Its 'F' Grade in F-Commerce A lot of attention is being given to the failure of so-called "F-Commerce." Several brands, including JCPenney, Gap and Nordstrom, have launched and already shuttered Facebook stores after seeing disappointing sales on the Facebook platform. I think that is too easy an answer; after all, replace "bar" with "mall" and that statement ceases to make any sense. Malls exist nowadays not merely to give consumers a place to buy products but to provide a physical space for us to get together, be social and shop together. Why shouldn't Facebook be a virtual space for the same sorts of activities that combine social and commerce?
Brands Give Facebook F-Commerce an F By Brian Solis On February 22, 2012 With a looming $100 billion IPO on the horizon and a community that’s estimated to hit a billion users this Fall, Facebook seems unstoppable. Yet on one important front–the store front that is–Facebook has exposed an imperfection. People are not proving ready to actually buy goods and services in Facebook – at least not at the scale retailers are used to seeing through traditional e-commerce. And suddenly, many question the role Facebook actually plays in the monetization strategy of any business.
Aggregation, Not Algorithms, Is The Key To Establishing Trust Online The biggest issue the new sharing economy is currently facing is one of trust. After issues like the Airbnb debacle and high-end car sharing service HiGear’s closure due to theft, it's clear that trust issues are the main barrier preventing sharing from becoming mainstream. The answer that everyone seems to be looking for is a some sort of global reputation system. There has been a lot of talk about a single "reputation score" that you could take with you in any new service. At a first glance the idea seems like a winner: with every action you do in the web affecting the score, it would be easy to find the rotten apples. However, it turns out this idea is fundamentally flawed.
Google sugarcoated privacy policy changes to mislead users, group charges The Center for Digital Democracy sent a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission Wednesday asking it to find Google in violation of a 2011 consent order, conduct an investigation and request the search giant postpone the rollout of its new privacy policies. In the 16-page complaint, the CDD says Google failed to accurately and honestly inform users of the real reason for changes its privacy policy, which go into effect March 1. The CDD claims the changes are not designed to make a users life easier, as Google has stated, but designed to fuel competition against Facebook, incorporate social media data and to boost Google's advertising business, specifically to grow its display advertising to a $200 billion business.
Joseph Turow: How Companies Are 'Defining Your Worth' Online One of the fastest-growing online businesses is the business of spying on Internet users. Using sophisticated software that tracks people's online movements through the Web, companies collect the information and sell it to advertisers. Every time you click a link, fill out a form or visit a website, advertisers are working to collect personal information about you, says Joseph Turow, a professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. They then target ads to you based on that information. John Palfrey » Blog Archive » Intellectual Property Strategy: Book Launch I’m excited to be launching a new book, Intellectual Property Strategy, tonight at Harvard Law School. (If you’re in Cambridge, MA, USA, please feel free to come by Austin Hall East at HLS at 6:00 pm this evening for the event and a reception thereafter or tune into the webcast.) The discussion tonight will cover two bases: first, the substance of the book and second, the format of this book, and possibly others, into the future. On the substance of this book, I will make a few claims.
Google Busted With Hand in Safari-Browser Cookie Jar Google intentionally circumvented the default privacy settings of Apple’s Safari browser, using a backdoor to set cookies on browsers set to reject them, in the latest privacy debacle for the search and advertising giant. Google immediately disabled the practice after the Wall Street Journal disclosed the practice Thursday night, which was discovered by Stanford researcher Jonathan Mayer and confirmed by security consultant Ashkan Soltani. Safari, which accounts for about 6% of desktop browsing and more than 50% of mobile browsing, is the only major browser to block so-called third-party cookies by default. When you visit a website, all browsers, including Safari, allow that site to put a small tracking file on your computer, which allows the site to identify a unique user, track what they’ve done and remember settings. However, many sites also have Facebook “Like” buttons, ads served by third parties, weather widgets powered by other sites or comment systems run by a third party.
Digital Content Is Different Yesterday we sat down with someone who is starting a new digital venture. As we discussed the potential, the market, the options and much more, it became apparent to us that there are a lot of things that applied to the physical book market, that simply do not apply, or should be questioned in the digital market. Walking blindly into the digital world assuming that all remains the same is in danger of establishing a set of urban myths that we have written about in the past but that continue to dog all our thinking and real digital opportunities. We would like to take the opportunity to offer a dozen points as to why we believe digital content is different. 1.
F-Commerce Trips as Gap to Penney Shut Facebook Stores: Retail (Corrects to remove wrongly attributed quote in seventh paragraph of Feb. 17 story.) Last April, Gamestop Corp. (GME) opened a store on Facebook to generate sales among the 3.5 million-plus customers who’d declared themselves “fans” of the video game retailer. Mobile's Coming Costs Put CFOs on the Spot CIO CFOworld — The iPad/iPhone-driven BYOD trend means demand for mobile bandwidth is expanding exponentially. That's interesting as a reflection of the boom in mobile devices across consumer and enterprise markets, but means problems for carriers. And CFOs need to think today about how the movement to bring-your-own-device may impact their bottom line tomorrow. Pros and Cons of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) The most recent Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast draws a picture of growing demand for bandwidth in the post-PC era, setting the scene for carriers to develop new pricing tiers and new demand-based services as they attempt to monetize this demand while attempting to be as frugal as they are able when it comes to infrastructure investment. Carriers Are Businesses
The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services — think apps — are less about the searching and more about the getting. Chris Anderson explains how this new paradigm reflects the inevitable course of capitalism. And Michael Wolff explains why the new breed of media titan is forsaking the Web for more promising (and profitable) pastures. Who’s to Blame: Us As much as we love the open, unfettered Web, we’re abandoning it for simpler, sleeker services that just work. by Chris Anderson You wake up and check your email on your bedside iPad — that’s one app.