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October 8, 2008

In This Update:

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Google Launches AdSense for Games
VENTUREBEAT
After months of testing, Google is publicly launching the beta version of its AdSense for Games software. The product represents the company’s first push into a fast-growing new market – the ability to insert ads into games, either as they are being played or just after they finish.The plan is pretty much what I reported in July, when word surfaced that the search giant was testing the ads. Its decision to enter the market with a public beta test is a big deal because it means that the game advertising market is becoming lucrative enough to attract an industry giant.
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Touch-Screen BlackBerry Coming this Autumn: RIM
REUTERS
Research In Motion will roll out a touch-screen model of its BlackBerry smartphone later this autumn, thrusting it into direct competition with Apple’s popular iPhone.RIM said on Wednesday the BlackBerry Storm will be available exclusively to Verizon Wireless subscribers in the U.S. and Vodafone subscribers in Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand. RIM’s launch of a touch-screen BlackBerry is not a surprise. Technology bloggers and analysts have speculated since early this year that the Waterloo, Ontario-based company was working on such a device.
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Wikia Search Opens Up Platform for Search Results Customization
MASHABLE
Wikia Search, the people’s search engine from the workshop of Jimmy Wales, has unveiled a platform that allows the creation of applications and customization of search results. The platform is called WISE (short for Wikia Intelligent Search Extensions), while an application created on the platform is called a WISEapp. Something similar has already been developed by Yahoo in the form of SearchMonkey, however, Yahoo’s search platform is still pretty much in closed beta stages, although some of it – for example, the search app gallery – is visible to everyone.
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Monster Acquires Remaining 55 Percent of ChinaHR for $174 Million
PAIDCONTENT
Monster.com has full ownership now of major Chinese recruitment site ChinaHR.com, spending $174 million on the 55 percent it did not already own. Monster acquired 40 percent in 2005 for $50 million with a promise that it could get the remainder if ChinaHR failed to do an IPO within three years, according to TradingMarkets.com. As recently as mid-September, ChinaHR president Zhang Jianguo held out hope that the company would finish its IPO plan before year’s end.
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Universal Music Videos Come to Teen Site Kiwibox
WEBWARE
Universal Music Group has licensed its music videos to Kiwibox, a social-media site for teens that relaunched in August after quietly existing since the late ’90s.Under the terms of the agreement, Universal’s music videos will begin being distributed on the “KiwiboxTV” video portal before the end of the year. Universal’s labels and artists will receive a cut of ad revenue in compensation.
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Seattle’s Top Entrepreneurs Band Together to Invest in Local Startups
TECHCRUNCH
Like other tech hubs, successful Seattle entrepreneurs tend to become angel investors and help the next crop of companies come of age. An example: Pressplane , which recently announced a long list of Seattle angels.Now those angels are getting a little more organized by investing in the relatively new early stage fund Founder’s Co-op . The fund was first launched last March by (now-deadpooled ) Judy’s Book founders Andy Sack and Chris DeVore , and focuses on early stage investments. They typically invest $100,000 – $300,000 in an angel round. To date they’ve made three investments for a total of about $700,000.
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TouchType Makes iPhone Email Better with Landscape Mode
TECHCRUNCH
Apple decided not to allow “landscape mode” on iPhone email. If you want to turn the phone when the web browser is open and get the larger keyboard that makes two thumb typing realistic, no problem. But the email app is portrait only. Now a new iPhone application called TouchType fixes the problem. Open the application and you get a landscape mode keypad. type an email, hit the send button and it auto-populates the email application. Type in the email addresses and you’re all set.
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YouTube Makes Affiliate Play with Click-to-Buy Links
CLICKZ
Google’s YouTube hopes a new click-to-buy program for music, video, and games will kick up some revenue for itself and its big media “frienemies.” Through agreements with Apple’s iTunes and Amazon, YouTube will let video watchers click through to buy related media from those companies. The retail links to iTunes and Amazon product pages will show up adjacent to video content from media companies where the media is authorized to appear.
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Growth in Revenue from Online Advertising Slows
LOS ANGELES TIMES
There’s one thing that can be said about the new online advertising numbers released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau on Tuesday: They could have been worse.Unfortunately, analysts say they probably will be soon.Internet advertising revenue in the U.S. for the first half of 2008 totaled $11.5 billion, up 15.2% from the same period last year. When you consider that in 2007, revenue in the first half of the year was up 27% from the same period the previous year, and that in 2006, revenue climbed 36% from the previous year, the growth numbers aren’t that impressive.
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Report: Analysts Cut 2009 Mobile Phone Growth Estimates
REUTERS
The global mobile phone market should grow at much slower-than-expected rates next year as consumers put off buying new devices due to deepening economic concerns, according to forecasts from analysts.While industry executives often say mobile phones are the last thing consumers will give up to save money, analysts are now citing lengthening phone replacement cycles and weakening economies around the world for their weaker sales estimates.
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