Archives: November 2006

Cyber Monday Hype Pays Off

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 30, Categories: Cyber Monday, e-commerce

A lot of stories have been explaining that Cyber Monday, supposedly the kickoff of the holiday shopping season online, isn't really all it's cracked up to be. In fact, I...

News Rating Service NewsTrust Launches Beta

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 29, Categories: Power of Us, Social Media, citizen journalism, citizen media

When I first wrote about NewsTrust, an online news rating service, I wasn't sure about how well a rating system for stories would work given the subjectivity about what's good...

The Wii Really Is an Updated GameCube

Posted by: Stephen Wildstrom on November 28, Categories: gaming

In comments posted to my column on the PlayStation 3, many readers took exception to my statement that the Wii is basically an updated GameCube. I'm going to fall back...

Vonage: Making Calls to Santa

Posted by: Olga Kharif on November 28, Categories: VOIP

Web-calling provider Vonage has just introduced a cool new service called CallSanta. It's an example of the sort of innovative services VoIP providers can offer in the future -- finally differentiating their offerings from traditional telcos'.

PlayStation 3 Revisited

Posted by: Stephen Wildstrom on November 27, Categories: gaming

Over the holiday weekend, long after my Technology & You column on the PlayStation 3 had been published, I finally had some extended time to play games and also watch...

Second Life's First Millionaire

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 26, Categories: Power of Us, Second Life, Social Media, games, gaming, virtual worlds

Anshe Chung, the virtual land baroness that I highlighted in my cover story earlier this year, My Virtual Life, has apparently become the first millionaire in Second Life. That's...

Shoveling on Digg

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 25, Categories: Digg, Power of Us, Social Media, Techmeme, Web 2.0

As much as I like the idea of Digg--a site where a community chooses the most interesting or relevant news--I must confess that I just don't use it that much....

Social Networking's Cable Television Era

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 24, Categories: social networks

That's what I'm calling the crush of social-networking upstarts who are either aiming at ever-narrower communities, such as Dogster or the karaoke and photography groups on Multiply, or letting people...

Monster.com: Readying to Rumble?

Posted by: Olga Kharif on November 22, Categories: Web

Jobs site Monster.com just dismissed its general counsel. While the dismissal is related to an investigation into options, it could indicate that Monster is readying to respond to competitors CareerBuilder.com and Yahoo's HotJobs.com

A new Techbeater

Posted by: Stephen Wildstrom on November 22, Categories:

I have resisted blogging for a long time since the weekly Technology & You column keeps me busy enough. But it's time to catch the wave of the future. One...

Tired of Unwanted SMS Messages and Cell Phone Calls? Help Is On Its Way

Posted by: Olga Kharif on November 21, Categories: wireless

In 2007, U.S. carriers will start allowing cell phone users to better manage their presence, contacts and incoming and outgoing calls and SMS messages. It's about time such services were offered.

Is Yahoo! Spread Too Thin?

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 19, Categories: Yahoo

Everybody's talking about the "peanut butter" memo from Yahoo! Senior VP Brad Garlinghouse, which Paul Kedrosky posted and the Wall Street Journal wrote a story around Saturday (behind a subscription...

Real Threat to Virtual Goods in Second Life

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 15, Categories: Second Life, Social Software, games, gaming, virtual worlds

The many people who make real money by selling virtual clothing, houses, and much more on the online virtual world Second Life aren't real happy right now. A program...

Valleywag: Bye Nick, Hi Nick

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 13, Categories: Valleywag

Nick Douglas is out at Valleywag, the gossip site that has alternately entertained, infuriated, and bored folks in Silicon Valley with its posts on everything from old romances at...

Web 2.huh?

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 13, Categories: Web 2.0

The survey service Zoomerang says 79% of marketers aren't even aware of the term Web 2.0. On the other hand, some clearly do, judging from a definition offered by one...

Benioff the Author Strikes Again

Posted by: Steve Hamm on November 09, Categories: books

Marc Benioff, chief executive of Salesforce.com, has done a remarkable job of marketing his company and the software-as-service business model. But less known is his interest in philanthropy. Through the...

Like.com: Visual Shopping Search

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 08, Categories: PayPal, e-commerce

Anyone who uses search engines to look for products knows the process can be an exercise in frustration. Whether it be Google or shopping comparison sites like Shopping.com, it’s often...

Google Rival Hopes for Its Turn

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 06, Categories: Google, Search, advertising

Who's crazy enough to try to take on Google's fearsome ad network? A little startup called Turn Inc., which my colleague Steve Baker had written about way back in February....

Hey, Somebody Has to Build the Hardware, Too

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 06, Categories: Chips, IBM, Innovation, Sun Microsystems, computer science, computers

The cover story I just wrote on Amazon.com's move into utility computing may make it sound like computer hardware is passe. (Oddly enough, in fact, when I went to...

Google Moves Further Into Print

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 06, Categories: Google, Search, advertising

As if its commanding role in online ads isn't enough, Google is driving further into print ads with a new test of a system to let advertisers bid on space...

Going for the Casual Gamer

Posted by: Cliff Edwards on November 03, Categories: games

Speaking of games, I wonder if we're sometimes spending too much time obsessing on the console market and overlooking the growing sophistication of casual games? Big Fish games just launched...

Showdown for PS3, Wii and 360 Nears?

Posted by: Cliff Edwards on November 03, Categories: games

I gotta say, having just gotten my hands on a Sony PlayStation 3 test machine, I got all a-tingle. I knew it didn't deliver the full functionality of a consumer...

Jeff Bezos' New New Thing

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 02, Categories: Amazon.com, e-commerce, software as service, utility computing, web services

Amazon.com has been rolling out a number of very unretail-like services over the past year, from the Amazon Mechanical Turk to the Elastic Compute Cloud. I recently met with...