TWiST #223 News By Lons [150 more lists]

News stories we're covering for This Week in Startups Episode #223, airing on Friday, January 13th, will be posted here. Vote up the stories you most want to see discussed on the show. If you have suggestions for news topics that aren't listed here, leave them in the comments section below and we can add them! And don't forget to click through to Page 2 for more of the stories we're covering!

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Google Introduces "Search Plus Your World"

Google has introduced a new feature they're calling "Search Plus Your World" this week that adds info from your social graph directly into search results for logged-in users. As Google currently doesn't have access to, say, Facebook content, this means the system draws largely from Google+, pulling in photos, profiles and posts from Google+ where relevant. (This includes Google+ profile 'suggestions.' Look up "indie rock," and you might get suggestions for bands to follow on G+, for example.) These results will come up even for people who are not signed in to Google, or don't even have a Google+ account.

For their part, Google has argued that it's not favoring G+ content by choice, but only because Facebook, Twitter and other companies are not granting Google full permission to pull in their data.

Still, the decision has proved highly controversial, especially to publishers and the SEO community that depend on favorable position in Google rankings to thrive. On SearchEngineLand, for example, Danny Sullivan has closely tracked the story, even pointing out that there are cases where Google appears to favor their own Google+ results even when they could provide relevant Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr links.

QUESTIONS: Is this an overall improvement in Google search that is just hampered by an over-reliance on Google Plus? Or does the use of the social graph over the traditional Google algorithm erode search result quality? Some have mentioned that this may violate anti-trust and anti-competition laws. Should the government intervene?

SOURCES: SearchEngineLand, TechCrunch and Marketing Land
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CES Roundup Added by: cbedgood1

- Lumia 900 phone: Nokia was on hand to show off their Lumia 900 Windows phone, available only on the AT&T network, and discuss their ongoing partnership with Microsoft. The Lumia has a 4.3-inch screen, a 1.4GHz processor and 512MB of RAM, similar to the HTC Titan. Ars Technica praised of the speedy Windows OS, but had concerns about the cheap-feeling plastic body and potential battery life issues.

SOURCE: Ars Technica

- The Year of Ultrabooks Much of the talk of the conference this year centered around new ultrabooks, super-lightweight laptops that present an alternative to the tablet craze. HP’s Envy Spectre 14 is coated in Gorilla Glass (an ultra-thin, chemically strengthened material) and NFC-enabled; Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga has full range of motion at the hinge, so when fully folded, the laptop itself turns into a 13 inch tablet.

Wired

- Televisions Apple didn't even attend CES, but nonetheless, ongoing rumors about their forthcoming Apple TV in many ways dominated the conversations among attendees. Stories about what Apple's next foray into the TV world might feature include things like gesture recognition, eliminating the need for traditional remote controls or Siri-like voice commands. The speculation has been ongoing since the publication of Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography, which referenced Jobs saying he had "cracked" the next-generation TV set. As for news from TV manufacturers actually present at CES, LG and Samsung showed off OLED (organic, light-emitting diode) TVs, brighter than LED or flat-panel televisions and capable of far greater contrast. (LG's entry took the "Best of CES" from CNET.) LG also introduced a "magic remote," which functions much like a Nintendo Wii controller.

SOURCES: LA Times and CNET

- Myspace? Myspace investor Justin Timberlake announced a new joint venture with Panasonic called Myspace TV, which will let viewers share music and TV shows with friends through Panasonic’s VIERA Connect HDTVs, as well as companion smartphone and tablet apps. Most of the content will center around Myspace's library of 42 million songs and 100,000 music videos. Eventually, the service will expand to include reality TV and sports-centered channels as well.

SOURCE: Rolling Stone

In other Myspace-themed news (I know, right?), Om Malik has put up an intriguing, brief post on GigaOm noting that Myspace traffic continues to exceed "hot" competitors like Google+ and Tumblr. (Visitors also spend more time on Myspace than G+.) Where is Myspace getting all of this traffic from? Think it's a strong enough foundation to rebuild their once-mighty social empire?

CES QUESTIONS: What did you think was the highlight of the show? Do you agree with the conventional wisdom that other TV manufacturers are hanging back to see what Apple is coming out with? Is the "ultrabook" trend being overhyped?
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Facebook Offers Up User’s Info to Politico for Analysis Added by: cbedgood1

Political news site Politico and Facebook have announced a partnership in which the social network will provide data about their users' political sentiments to reporters in advance of the South Carolina Republican presidential primary on January 21. Facebook's data team has designed software to scan through user posts and comments, determine general sentiment on the candidates based on the text and then turn this data into reports for Politico journalists to analyze. Politico and Facebook are claiming that using this system was able to "predict" Mitt Romney's eventual victory in the New Hampshire primary based on the volume and sentiment of posts on the social network.

QUESTIONS: How much stock do you put in Facebook's ability to predict political outcomes in this way? Is using user comments and posts in this way a violation of the spirit of social networking?

SOURCE: CNET
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S T O R E C E P T I O N Added by: cbedgood1

In kind of a weird plan, Target has announced plans to feature mini-Apple Stores inside 25 of its own retail stores. They're calling these "expanded displays" of Apple products, but have not specified whether the design will be specifically based on the familiar Apple Store style. Target already sells iPads and iPods, though this announcement has led to speculation they may add iMacs to the inventory. Target also announced a separate plan to include smaller "boutique shops" inside their locations, selling specialty products like pet food and accessories or clothing.
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Sony's Music Unlimited Coming to iOS

Sony Network Entertainment announced at this week's CES that the company will launch their Music Unlimited streaming service on Apple's mobile platform, iOS, some time in the first quarter of 2012. The app will stream music from Sony's Music Unlimited catalog, and much like Spotify, will allow users to "save" their music for offline streaming. The service is available for Android devices presently, as well as any number of Sony devices.

QUESTION: Think Sony has a chance to crack this massively overcrowded space? In addition to iTunes, iOS users also have choices like Spotify, Rdio, Pandora and even the recently-released "streaming service for n00bs," Rara. What can they possibly do at this point to stand out and attract new users?

SOURCE: TechCrunch
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Hulu Announces Earnings

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar took to the company's blog on Thursday for a look back at how the streaming TV service fared in 2011. The big numbers: Hulu took in $420 million in revenue in 2011, and signed up 1.5 million subscribers to its Hulu Plus premium service. Kilar projects that, by the end of 2012, Hulu Plus will be responsible for more than half of the company's total revenue.

Other notable stats:

- Hulu's library expanded 40% during 2011
- Hulu is now available on 200 million devices
- Since launch, Hulu has had more than 1000 brand advertisers

Kilar also boasted about Hulu's ability to pay higher licensing fees per subscriber than comparable services, a clear shot at Netflix.

QUESTION: What does 2012 hold for Hulu? Is the subscription model going to eventually win out over advertising dollars in this case? Do you/would you pay for Hulu Plus?

SOURCE: GigaOm
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Mass Suicide Threatened, Averted at Foxconn

Hundreds of workers at the Foxconn factory in Wuhan, China, threatened to commit suicide as a result of an ongoing pay dispute this week. The Foxconn factory produces Microsoft's XBox game console, Apple products such as the iPhone and iPad, and innumerable other parts and products for international electronics companies. The original controversy stems from a dispute over pay, rather than the allegedly poor working conditions that have previously brought the company infamy in the US. (2010 Foxconn factory suicides were reported at a different factory, in Shenzhen.)

The situation was resolved on Thursday, following an eight-hour standoff in which 32,000 Foxconn employees threatened to jump off the factory roof. All but 45 of the workers eventually returned to work. Microsoft has announced they will investigate the working conditions at the factory, as well as Foxconn's overall policies and treatment of its workers.

QUESTION: Is this purely about corporate greed? What needs to happen to make this stop? Should Microsoft, Apple and other Western electronics and technology companies just make less profit off of their hardware? Would consumers tolerate a slight price increase on these items to allow for better conditions for these workers?

SOURCE: CNN and The Verge
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Google Caught Scraping Kenya Database

In Kenya, there's a company called Mocality Kenya, which is a directory containing 170,000 verified business listings. (The company rewards users for submitting company listings by using the popular mobile money system M-PESA.)

Cut to Septmeber 2011, when Google launches the ""Getting Kenyan Businesses Online"" initiative, aiming to develop a small web presence for the country's thousands of small and medium sized businesses which don't have any official websites.

However, in a post to the official company blog, Mocality Kenya is alleging that Google has scraped their comprehensive database and fed it into their own new service. They became aware of the alleged malfeasance when business owners started calling them up and asking for help building out their websites, a service that Mocality doesn't offer. A bit of investigation then revealed that a single IP address had made 65,851 data requests, and soon enough tracked this back to Google. Not only that, but it seems Google Kenya was going even further, contacting businesses and telling them it was working in tandem with Mocailty to offer website services.

Google's official statement on the matter: "We’re aware that a company in Kenya has accused us of using some of their publicly available customer data without permission. We are investigating the matter and will have more information as soon as possible."

QUESTIONS: I'll just reiterate the questions posed by Mocality CEO Stefan Magdalinksi: If Google wanted this data, why not just ask Mocality to collaborate? Whose decision do you think this was? How damaging will this be for Google?

SOURCE: The Next Web
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Apple's Education Event

Apple has announced an upcoming "education event" at New York's Guggenheim Museum on January 19th. No official word yet on what will be discussed, though of course the rumors have been coming fast and furious all week. Internal sources have suggested the announcement might concern a new textbook initiative, probably related to both the iBooks store and iTunesU. Perhaps the "textbooks-on-iPads" concept mentioned briefly in Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs bio?

QUESTION: Think it's the electronics textbook project? Anything else you expect to get thrown in, maybe as a "one more thing..."?

SOURCES: AllThingsD and TUAW
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Bing Claims Second Place in Search Added by: cbedgood1

Microsoft’s Bing has surpassed Yahoo in the U.S. search market, claiming a 15.1% market share in December. That's good enough to top Yahoo’s 14.5% share, but it remains a DISTANT second place, as Google held on to nearly 66% of the market.

QUESTION: Is this a gap Bing will ever be able to narrow? Or will we see a new search competitor emerge in the next few years to vie for first place?

SOURCE: AllThingsD
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Foursquare Launches Mobile Recommendation Engine Explore Added by: cbedgood1

Foursquare first introduced its recommendation engine, Explore, to mobile users back in March of 2011. The company is now bringing Explore to the Web as part of its larger cross-platform strategy. It's a personalized search engine giving you recommendations on places to go in your area, powered by Foursquare's massive database of check-ins and tips. Explore allows you to browse through categories, as you would on Yelp, but also to search using more specific terms. Unlike the mobile version, the Web's Explore allows you to search anywhere and everywhere, and isn't limited by your present location.

QUESTION: Yelp or Foursquare... who you got?

SOURCE: VentureBeat
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