WhosHere, the popular location app made by myRete, reached a big milestone recently by surpassing 3 million downloads. The app was also helpful in putting a sex offender behind bars, according to Stephen Smith, the co-founder of myRete.
He told WebProNews that because WhosHere does not tolerate inappropriate behavior, it is one of the worst places for someone to try to commit a crime. The app has also been included in FBI presentations to schools regarding online safety.
Although the app is currently only available on the iOS platform, Smith said that it would likely appear on other platforms in the near future.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jun 11th, 2011. 
Google’s first Chrome OS-powered Chromebooks from consumers finally became available today after months of testing through a pilot program with the Cr-48 model Google introduced when it first unveiled the operating system.
Available models come from Samsung and Acer, and can be ordered from Amazon and BestBuy.com. In other launch countries, consumers can visit google.com/chromebook to find local retailers. Best Buy is offering the Samsung Chromebook Series 5 in white and Titan Silver. Amazon has the Samsung Series 5 and the Acer Cromia.
The way devices come with Wi-Fi +3G, as well as an interesting “It just works.” slogan, also heavily used by Apple to describe its products.
“Chromebooks were built and optimized for the web to give you a faster, simpler and more secure experience without the headaches of traditional computers,” says Director of Product Management Felix Lin on the Chrome blog.
@google
A GooglerBuilt for the web: #Chromebooks now on sale @Amazon & @BestBuy in the US. More countries: http://goo.gl/pWMMj via @googlechrome
1 hour ago via Tap11 · powered by @socialditto
Rajen Sheth, Group Product Manager, Chrome for Business, says:
Users like the easy, instant access to all of their computing needs without the complexity of traditional PCs. And if you’re a business or school, they’re extremely cost-effective.
With today’s announcement that the new Google Chromebooks are available from our partners, we’re officially open for business. For businesses and schools, we’re offering a subscription that includes the Chromebook, a web-based management console and 24/7 support from Google starting at $ 28 per month/user for businesses and $ 20 per month/student for schools.
He also shares the following video from a pilot customer- Jason’s Deli, discussing Chromebooks:
After Chrome OS was revealed, we asked readers if they thought it would succeed. Suffice it to say, many have been skeptical. Personally, I’ve had few complaints. You have to take it for what it is. It’s not ready to replace all other PCs, but the Chromebooks are pretty handy and are good on battery life for basic web browsing needs. It will probably compete more with the tablet market than the PC market, at least at this point.
For our previous coverage on the Chrome books and Chrome OS, read the articles here.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jun 13th, 2011.
Until recently, Nielsen’s data suggested that the heaviest media consumers were the heaviest across every type of media – streaming, mobile, standard TV, etc. Basically, that meant that if you watched a lot of streaming content online, then you also watched a lot of television.
In their latest Cross Platform Report, they found that simply isn’t the case anymore.
A subset of consumers from television and Internet homes has now emerged that defies that notion, with the lightest traditional television users streaming significantly more Internet video, and the heaviest streamers under-indexing for traditional TV viewership.
This behavior is led by those ages 18-34. The group of consumers exhibiting this behavior is significant but small. More than a third of the TV/Internet population is not streaming, whereas less than 1% are not watching TV.
This means that nowadays, if you are heavy into streaming, you most likely aren’t turning on the cable. Here’s a visual demonstration of this:
And the next graph shows that the tendency is more pronounced in people aged 18-34. Makes sense, since that is the generation that has grown up on Netflix and YouTube.
This is interesting news, and unsettling news I’m sure for TV executives and cable providers. Among a set of people (the heavy online video connoisseurs), albeit a small set, they are satisfying themselves almost exclusively with streaming video. Is it only a matter of time until it is not just the heavy internet users who are watching traditional TV less and less?
As of right now, however, it looks like Americans simply love any type of video you put in their faces. According to Nielsen, overall TV watching increased 22 minutes per person per month year-over-year. Nine out of ten households with TVs have cable service. DVR usage continues to grow and even mobile video has increased 41% year-over-year.
Will internet video ever completely knock the crown off Television? Let us know what you think.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jun 15th, 2011.
Google has had a busy week of launching features. Today, the company announced that it is now showing collections of top referenced items for some topics that are searched.
Product manager John Provine explains, “Sometimes when you’re searching, you’re not just looking for one specific result, you may be looking for a list to start a series of searches. For example, if you search for [greek philosophers], many search results mention well known philosophers like Plato or Aristotle. Typically, searches like these are the beginning of a research task, where you follow up by searching to learn more about each item in the list, in this case each philosopher.”
These items appear in a block that will look something like this:
“If you click one of these links, the collection of links moves to the top of the results page, and results for the philosopher you clicked are shown below,” says Provine. “Since the top references block stays anchored on top of your search results, it’s easy to explore and learn about each of the philosophers.” He lists “american authors,” “seattle neighborhoods,” “famous basketball players,” “cruciferous vegetables,” and “famous astronauts” as other examples of searches that will return such a block.
Also, Google is now doing something similar for other kinds of searches like movies, tv shows, and artists. A search for “van goh” might return a block pointing you to searches for specific paintings. A search for a movie title might or a tv show might give you searches for cast members. A search for an author, like Stephen King, will give you searches for various books:
It’s fairly smart too, because if you click on the suggestion for “It,” which is the title of a beloved King novel, it won’t take you to a query for “it,” which may not return the most relevant results. It instead takes you to a query for “stephen king it book,” even though in the block, it simply says “It,” and features the book cover.
Google is actually using Google Squared in this feature. Remember that?
“To better understand and answer your searches for a list, we use a variety of signals to assess what the web collectively thinks are the most significant items associated with your search keywords,” says Provine. “Since Plato is discussed so frequently in pages about Greek philosophers, our algorithms can infer that he is an important Greek philosopher. Much of this work is based on common search patterns and Google Squared technology which we introduced into Google Labs in June 2009.”
Google says the feature reflects its efforts in improving algorithms to better understand content the way humans do, and that it sees a lot more potential in this area or research.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jun 16th, 2011.
mSpot is known for its popular cloud music service but, recently, added a new feature into beta called Radio Spotter. WebProNews spoke with mSpot’s CEO, Daren Tsui, about the new addition and what it means for the overall service.
He explained that mSpot not only allows for users to store music that they already own on the cloud, but they can also discover more music through the new streaming radio feature. Radio Spotter is currently available in beta on Android devices, but Tsui said iPhone, Mac, and PC versions would be coming later this year.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jun 16th, 2011.
