Zach Miners, Author at NetworkingNexus.net

Zach Miners

Author Archives: Zach Miners

YouTube cofounder endorses paid version

As Google prepares to launch a subscription version of YouTube, the move has been endorsed by at least one interested party: YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley.YouTube has grown massively since its launch in 2005 and its acquisition a year later by Google. But to support its continued growth, the site needs to provide the right tools for people to create and post videos, even if that might result in a cost to users, Hurley said.“You have different forms of [video on demand],” he said, suggesting that some might be worth paying for. YouTube needs tools to help people create better content, determine how to make money from their video, and charge subscribers, he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New York judge rules against Facebook in search warrant case

A New York judge ruled Tuesday that Facebook has no legal standing to challenge the constitutionality of search warrants served on its users, highlighting the limits to online companies’ abilities to protect user privacy.Last year, Facebook appealed a court decision requiring it to hand over data, including photos and private messages, relating to 381 user accounts. The data was sought as part of an investigation by the New York County District Attorney’s office into a disability fraud case.Other companies including Google and Microsoft filed briefs supporting Facebook’s move, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

In Q2, Yahoo spent a pretty penny to achieve unusual growth

Yahoo reported on Tuesday an uncharacteristic rise in revenue for the second quarter, but it came with a hefty sum spent on boosting its search traffic.Total sales for the period ending June 30 were US$1.24 billion, up 15 percent from the previous year. In the company’s announcement, CEO Marissa Mayer called it the most substantial growth in revenue in nearly nine years.Yahoo’s revenue from search ads and display ads both grew, at rates of 22 percent and 15 percent, respectively.It would appear that Mayer’s efforts to turn around the struggling Internet portal have begun to pay off. Yahoo has struggled in recent years to grow its ad sales and attract users to its various online properties.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

In Q2, Yahoo spent a pretty penny to achieve unusual growth

Google grabs Pixate to improve its apps, and others

Google has acquired Pixate, whose app-prototyping service could help Google make better apps of its own.Pixate provides a suite of tools to help mobile developers design and prototype their apps. Thousands of mobile designers at companies including Amazon, Apple and Facebook—and Google—have used its services, the company says.The Google acquisition will help Pixate expand its service to improve the app development process for many more designers across iOS, Android and other platforms, the company said Tuesday.Pixate will live on as a standalone service. But its tools will also aid in Google’s own development processes. This would include material design, Google’s new design aesthetic to unify the look and feel of its various apps and online services. Google released a material design guide for Android L at its I/O conference last year, partly in an effort to compete against the slick design of Apple’s services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google to begin closing Google+ Photos on Aug. 1

The end is near for Google+ Photos, the photo sharing service that’s part of the company’s social network.Google will begin closing down the service on Aug. 1 on Android, with the Web and iOS devices to follow soon after.For a time, Google touted the service as a key element in Google+, with a range of editing tools and image enhancement technologies rolled out over the years.But Google hinted that its days might be numbered when the company rolled out its new Google Photos service at Google I/O in May.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Report: Microsoft paying $320 million for cloud security provider Adallom

Microsoft is said to be paying $320 million to acquire Adallom, a cloud security provider whose services might help Microsoft in its new push toward becoming a “cloud-first” company.Adallom provides back-end security tools that gather usage data and detect suspicious activity. Its services are used by Netflix, SAP and Hewlett-Packard, according to the company’s website. The acquisition was reported Monday by the Calcalist financial newspaper.A spokesman for Adallom declined to comment, and Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Adallom could help boost the defenses of Microsoft products including Office 365 and Yammer. Adallom’s tools can give businesses more granular control over who has access to Office 365, or identify anomalies in usage patterns for the cloud suite, according to Adallom’s website. An acquisition would bring those tools under Microsoft’s umbrella.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The average mobile YouTube session is now 40 minutes, Google says

Why stop your video for a snack, or when nature calls, when you’ve got a smartphone?On mobile devices, the average length of a viewing session on YouTube is now more than 40 minutes, Google reported Thursday. That’s double what it was last year, CFO Ruth Porat said during the company’s quarterly earnings call.Google didn’t say what types of video people are watching for that long of a stretch. You can imagine how individual music videos, movie trailers, and tutorials could add up throughout the day, but the fact that Google’s figure is for uninterrupted viewing shows how popular it’s become to watch video on mobile devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google reports strong earnings, propelling its stock

Google’s stock jumped more than 7 percent in the after-market hours on Thursday, after the company reported strong earnings results for the second quarter.Total income for the period ended June 30 was US$3.93 billion, up 17 percent from $3.35 billion in the second quarter of 2014, Google announced Thursday. Excluding certain expenses, Google reported earnings of $6.99, beating analysts’ estimates of $6.71, as polled by the Thomson Financial Network.The company’s stock was trading at around $620 after Google reported its earnings at the end of trading, up from closing at $579.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google reports strong earnings, propelling its stock

Here’s how Google wants you to buy stuff on mobile

Google is rolling out a new service that lets users buy retail items directly from the search results page on mobile devices, in an effort to make mobile search more useful and give advertisers a new way to attract customers.A new link reading “Buy on Google” will appear in the ads that show up after users search for certain retail items. Clicking on that link will take you to a retailer-branded product page hosted by Google where you can get more information about the product, like reviews, and select item quantities. A checkout button will let you enter and save payment information, and provide a shipping address, before placing the order.Google had been rumored to be prepping the service, which it calls Purchases on Google. On Wednesday, the company talked a little more about how it will look and work, in announcements online and during a retail-focused event in New York.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Most Google de-listing requests are from everyday folk, leaked data shows

Newly leaked figures reveal that the vast majority of people who exercised their right to be “forgotten” by Google’s services in Europe are everyday members of the public, with just 5 percent of requests coming from criminals, politicians and high-profile public figures.Europe’s highest court affirmed last year that people have the right to ask Google to remove certain results from its search engine, on the grounds that the information might be outdated or otherwise unfairly cast them in a negative light.Google has protested the decision, arguing that removing links requires “difficult value judgments” and can go against the public interest. It has pointed to “former politicians wanting posts removed that criticize their policies in office; serious, violent criminals asking for articles about their crimes to be deleted; bad reviews for professionals like architects and teachers; comments that people have written themselves (and now regret).”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Most Google de-listing requests are from everyday folk, leaked data shows

Fake Bloomberg news story causes Twitter shares to spike

Twitter’s stock spiked in midday trading Tuesday after a fake Bloomberg news report said the company had received an offer to be acquired for US$31 billion.The story appeared convincing, with a Bloomberg Business logo, but Bloomberg quickly tweeted that it was fake. There were some telltale signs it wasn’t authentic: the URL was businessweek.market rather than businessweek.com, and CEO Dick Costolo’s name was misspelled.That didn’t stop Twitter investors from reacting. The company’s shares on the New York Stock Exchange spiked briefly just before noon Eastern Time, surging about 10 percent from Monday’s close to more than $38 before settling back down as news spread that the report was fake.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Reddit chief Ellen Pao resigns amid vitriol, protests

Ellen Pao is resigning as Reddit’s interim chief executive after a week of tumult on the online message board with many users calling for her ouster.Pao is resigning under a mutual agreement with Reddit’s board, the company announced. She will be succeeded by Steve Huffman , Reddit’s co-founder and original chief executive, who will work alongside Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.Pao leaves the company after a storm of furor from users after Reddit’s termination of Victoria Taylor, a key employee who helped facilitate Reddit’s popular Ask Me Anything sessions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The curious case of Google Street View’s missing streets

With the arrival of El Capitan on Google Street View last month, you can now haul yourself virtually up one of the most famous rock faces in the world. Navigating certain streets in urban areas, however, can still be a challenge.As Google expands Street View into ever more exotic places, it appears to have a problem in many of the towns and cities where the service has been available for years. Look closely at any major city, especially the residential areas, and Street View is littered with hundreds, even thousands, of little gaps. And although it’s hard to be sure, the problem may be getting worse.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

PayPal to acquire money transfer service Xoom for $890 million

PayPal is acquiring Xoom, an international money transfer service, in a deal that lets PayPal break into a new market worth an estimated $600 billion a year, the companies said Wednesday.PayPal is paying $25 per share in cash for Xoom, valuing the deal at $890 million, the companies said.Xoom, founded in 2001, lets U.S. customers send money to others and pay bills in 37 countries, including Mexico, Brazil and India. Users can track their transactions with text updates, email notifications and online access from desktops and mobile devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Facebook tests a new way to show video – and make money from it

Facebook is preparing a new way to show videos on the social network and opening the door to a new source of advertising revenue at the same time.The new feature, called Suggested Videos, will roll out first on iOS in the coming weeks and probably will come to other platforms like Android and the Web in the next few months.It works like this: When users click on a video in their News Feed, a new area pops up with related videos from Facebook partners that users can also watch. Some of those videos will be advertisements, and when a user watches one of them, Facebook will share the advertising dollars with the other partners supplying the video.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Which songs stumped Shakira? Shazam will now show you

Shazam is releasing a new version of its music recognition app that lets users connect with artists they like and see what songs they’ve searched for using its service.Shazam lets people identify songs, TV shows and movies by capturing a brief snippet onto their phone, which gets matched against Shazam’s database. The new version due out Tuesday, for iOS and Android, lets users see what songs have been identified by artists using the app. Because not even musicians know every song that’s playing.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Uber grabs mapping tech, employees from Microsoft

Uber is adding to its mapping smarts by acquiring technology used by Microsoft’s Bing Maps, and has hired roughly 100 Microsoft employees who work on image collection and data analysis.Microsoft decided it will no longer collect the imagery and data for Bing Maps itself, and will instead rely on partners. Bing Maps will continue to provide driving directions and information about traffic and road conditions.The employees joining Uber constitute “a small number” of Microsoft’s larger maps team, the companies said.For Microsoft, the acquisition fits with its decision a year ago to focus on productivity services, which are at the core of its strategy, a spokeswoman said on Monday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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