Net News
Yahoo! and Microsoft to share a bed? - Just on the heels of the story of eBay looking to find partners to help them compete against Google, a rumour that suggested Yahoo! and/or MSN as potential suitors, is the rumour that Microsoft is possibly looking to partner with Yahoo! in a bid to better compete against Google. The power of the search engineÂ? and the revenue generated is phenomenal, but it is unlikely that this will happen. Microsoft is in the middle of a re-organization that will increase their net-presence, and Yahoo! has made their own agressive moves through acquisitions that would compete with Microsoft’s core business, software. There are several reasons this may make sense, but look no further than the Compaq/HP merger to find reasons to not jump into this too quickly.
Skype Adds Skypecasts - This could be the first bigÂ? move for Ebay’s Skype. The beta version 2.5 is being released today with a variety of new features. Skypecasts, one of the new features, allows individuals to host their own public presentations of up to 100 people. The host can mute and pass the microphone to other users, and pre-schedule their Skypecast with their own set of tags for the public to follow. Throw in a few “radio” ads or charge businesses or keynote speakers for the service, and suddenly there’s a new source of revenue.
Blurb launches as personal book publisher - With downloadable software that allows a user to easily create their own book, including graphics, photos, text, and their own book cover, Blurb is looking to capitalize on the digital content in a new way. Whether it is a collection of blogs, photos, or some other form of expression, this looks like it may provide aÂ? convenient and relatively cost-effectiveÂ? scrapbook or coffee table bookÂ? for the average person.
Network Neutrality - Although I’m not entirely up-to-date with the whole controversy, this article on gigaom gives an interesting view of why network neutrality is a good thing. Although the typical start-up will obviously be negatively affected by a loss in network neutrality, those merely looking for a taste of net-fame can always look at their own creative ways of achieving reach and popularity on the internet.
Online Karaoke - kSolo was just acquired by Fox, something I briefly discussed in yesterday’s musings. Today, a story on SiliconBeat talks about a new website, SingShotÂ? that raised $1 million for their own online karaoke service. With the popularity of the Idol TV series, it’s suprising that this took so long, but it seems like the market could fill quickly.