Publishing

Twitter Launches Spanish-language Version of Site

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 4, 2009 - 12:29pm.
San Francisco - Twitter has launched a Spanish-language version of its website, co-founder Biz Stone announced in a blog post published yesterday. The site was created with the assistance of volunteers -- similar to how Facebook has used volunteers and software to create foreign language versions of its site.

tags: Publishing | Twitter |

Yahoo Testing Real-Time Data in Search Results

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 4, 2009 - 11:28am.
San Francisco - Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) is experimenting with providing real-time search results from services like Twitter, and has partnered with real-time search providers including OneRiot on the trials, Reuters reported.

Tribune Newspapers to Go Without AP for a Week

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 4, 2009 - 8:54am.
Baltimore - The Baltimore Sun and eight other daily newspapers owned by Chicago-based Tribune plan to publish next week without using articles or photos from the Associated Press (AP), an experiment to see how difficult it would be to possibly sever ties with the international wire service, The Chicago Tribune reported.

Peek Launches TwitterPeek Dedicated Twitter Mobile Device

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 3, 2009 - 10:35am.
New York - Consumer electronics firm Peek on Tuesday introduced the TwitterPeek, a mobile device designed exclusively for the purpose of accessing the Twitter microblogging service. The device, which features a QWERTY keyboard, is available for $199 with lifetime unlimited nationwide service, or $99 with a six-month service contract. The TweetPeek lets users send tweets, replies, retweets and direct messages, and also allows users to view pictures on TwitPics.

Marvell, E Ink Introduce New E-book Reader Chip

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 3, 2009 - 9:02am.
Santa Clara, Calif. - Marvell, a provider of storage, communications and consumer silicon technology, and partner E Ink on Tuesday announced the launch of a new line of semiconductors aimed at the e-book reader market.

Financial Services Firm Motley Fool Raises $25 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 2, 2009 - 8:12am.
Chantilly, Va. - The Motley Fool, a multimedia financial services and news publishing company, has received a $25 million investment from BIA Digital Partners and Patriot Capital II.

Godengo Raises $2.2 Million for Online Magazine Services

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 30, 2009 - 6:39am.
Emeryville, Calif. - Godengo, a provider of advertising, SEO and other online services for magazines, has raised $2.16 million in new funding, SiliconTap reported, citing a regulatory filing.

Politico to Launch Site Covering Local D.C. News

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 28, 2009 - 11:52am.
Washington - Political news blog Politico plans to launch a new site that will cover local news in Washington, D.C., The New Republic reported. The new Metro site, which will compete with the Washington Post, will be headed up by former Washingtonpost.com editor Jim Brady.

Omaha World-Herald Acquires WikiCity Local Wiki Network

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 28, 2009 - 7:21am.
Omaha, Nebr. - WikiCity, an online network of over 22,000 city-based wikis, has been acquired by newspaper publisher Omaha World-Herald Co, the World Herald reported on its website.

Co-founders of Reddit Exit Conde Nast

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 27, 2009 - 12:16pm.
New York - The founders of social news service Reddit, who three years sold their company to publisher Conde Nast, have announced that they are leaving the company, PaidContent reported, citing a post on the Reddit blog. Co-founders Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian said in the post that they plan to pursue other interests.

StatusNet Gets $875K for Open-Source Microblogging

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 27, 2009 - 9:28am.
Montreal, Canada - StatusNet, the developer of an open-source microblogging service called identi.ca, has raised $875,000 in seed funding, TechCrunch reports.

Report: MySpace, Facebook in Talks on Content Sharing

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 26, 2009 - 12:00pm.
London - As News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace looks to rebrand itself as more of a social entertainment destination, the company is in negotiations with rival Facebook on sharing content between the two sites, London's Telegraph reports. "Facebook is focusing on building the best technology which helps people share content, while at MySpace they are focusing on more a content-led strategy. We would like to have their content, as we already do with many other sites, shared across our network because it is good for our users," Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told the Telegraph.

Yahoo Hires Talking Points Memo Writer for Political Blog

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 23, 2009 - 10:42am.
Los Angeles - Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) has hired former Talking Points Memo deputy publisher Andrew Golis to head up a new political blog, PaidContent reported. Yahoo maintained that it is not launching a new site or vertical, but rather "ramping up" its original content.

HotPotato Lands $1 Million for Real-Time Event Messaging

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 23, 2009 - 9:35am.
New York - HotPotato, the developer of a real-time communication service geared towards events, has raised around $1 million in funding, led by First Round Capital and RRE Ventures, All Things D reports.

Newsday to Charge $5 per Week for Website Access

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2009 - 12:10pm.
New York - Cablevision-owned (NYSE: CVC) Newsday will next week begin charging a $5 per week subscription fee for access to all of its website content, the Associated Press reported. Some online content -- including the site's home page, classifieds, weather, obituaries and community notices -- will remain free. The site will also remain free to print subscribers, and subscribers to Cablevision's Optimum Online Internet service.

Amazon Releases Free "Kindle for PC" Application

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2009 - 12:09pm.
Seattle - Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) on Thursday released a new, free software application that will allow users to read books purchased from its Kindle Store on a PC. The Kindle Store offers over 360,000 titles for $9.99 or less. The Kindle for PC application includes Amazon's Whispersync feature, which will save and sync bookmarks in e-books across devices, including the Kindle, iPhone and now PC. Separately, the company knocked $20 off the price of the international version of its Kindle 2 e-book reader, which will now sell for $259 -- the same price tag sported by the version sold in the U.S.

Google to Include Real-time Twitter Data in Search Results

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2009 - 8:57am.
Mountain View, Calif. - Shortly after Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) announced a similar deal, Google (NASD: GOOG) yesterday said that it had signed a deal with Twitter, to include real-time status updates in its search results. "We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months," Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, wrote in a blog post.

HP to Print Paperback Copies of Digitized, Out-of-Print Books

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 21, 2009 - 10:52am.
Palo Alto, Calif. - HP (NYSE: HPQ) on Wednesday announced a new service that will print on-demand bound copies of digitized, out-of-print works. The HP BookPrep service launches with a deal to make some 500,000 public domain titles from the University of Michigan available. HP estimates that a 250-page paperback book will cost about $15 on BookPrep, the Associated Press reported.

Microsoft to Add Facebook, Twitter Data to Bing Search Results

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 21, 2009 - 8:54am.
San Francisco - Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) announced on Wednesday that it has signed separate deals with Facebook and Twitter, to bring real-time status updates from the services to its Bing search engine. While financial terms of the nonexclusive agreements were not disclosed,  PaidContent cited earlier reports pegging Twitter's take as "several million dollars," in addition to a share of ad revenue.

Ad.ly Lands $500,000 for In-Stream Twitter Ads

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 20, 2009 - 10:15am.
Los Angeles - Ad.ly, a month-old provider of in-stream Twitter advertising services, has raised $500,000 in seed funding from GRP Partners, TechCrunch reported.