Fit to search…Bing
Posted by melting on May 28, 2009
In the last week search seems to be on peoples mind. Well in all honesty search is on almost every web traveler all day long. With the internet came gobs of data available to the masses. This data was fit to consume, if only you can find it. Thus the birth of the search engine.
In the beginning, they were bad…very bad. I would spend hours trying to find a specific nugget of information. Having the knack for coming up with that perfect search term made you are person worth knowing. That all changed when Google came around and made the world searchable.
Fast forward to today where Google has blown away all of the players and left only a few left to pick up the scraps. Enter Microsoft. Microsoft has branded its search in many ways over the years and are now branding it once again. Microsoft has announced Bing. To be fair this does seem to be a bit more than a rebrand. This even seems like something I would like to check out.
I will check it out for a couple reasons. One of the trends that people dub web 2.0 is a simplification. Making all the data that the internet has brought easier to use, manage, and interact with. Search seems to only have taken on the pastel colors and perhaps the dynamic suggestion bar. Bing seems to be embracing that some information isn’t worth clicking multiple times. Some of the ways Bing will try to do that is by bringing weather, directions, and travel all into the search window.
I think the concepts are sound, but as with anything that seeks to bring information in the user interface has to be impeccable. I will save my skepticism for a later post when I can actually use it.Until then I will see what other ways WolframAlpha can impress me.
The $10 Billion Facebook
Posted by melting on May 27, 2009
How would you like to have 200 million dollars to pad your wallet just in case. For a cash cushion or strategic options. Facebook has found another sucker investor to do just that. Digital Sky Technologies has decided to hand over $.2 billion for what is roughly a 2% owners stake in Facebook. This deal values the preferred shares of Facebook to about $10 billion.
While it is challenging to truly determine the value of private companies, this will likely give a good idea. DST is not getting a seat on the board of directors, or becoming a strategic partner like Microsoft did over a year ago, when they plopped down $250 million. A second factor which details are still pending is DST announced they are planning to put down another $100 to by the common stock that many employees have earned over the last few years. While this is likely to be at a different valuation it may be more than the $4 – $6 billion rumored current transactions for common shares have been going for.
With their latest chapter, Social Graph Victory, coming to an end, this money will surely help Facebook in their next chapter.
Sources: Facebook, TechCrunch, All Things Digital
It’s back … circuitcity.com
Posted by melting on May 21, 2009
As you can see from the graph above Circuit City’s website was once a proud web destination for those seeking the latest tech gadgetry. But that ended very quickly when they went out of business.
But don’t hold your breath…their back…well the site is at least with the branding and domain sold to systemax. Ever heard of CompUSA.com, check out the bottom for the Systemax logo.
Very recently circuitcity.com has come back with a splash page promising a full launch soon. See the video below.
