In This Update:
• Microsoft Buys Search Distribution
• Samsung Dives Into Connected TV Market
• Nokia Launches Here & Now Site as it Acts on Move to Become Internet Player
• Microsoft Rolling out Trial Versions of Vista Successor
• Amazon, Netflix Get another Streaming Partner: TV Maker Vizio
• Microsoft Introduces 2nd iPhone App – Microsoft Tag
• JibJab Closes $7.5 Million Third Round Funding
• As Consumers Try to Cut Back, Tropicana Promotes Quality and Value
• Google Won’t Buy Ailing Newspapers, Could ‘Merge without Merging’
• Evernote’s Raises $4.5 Million for Searchable Photos and Web Clippings
• Major League Gaming Raises $7.5 Million in Funding
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Microsoft Buys Search Distribution
REUTERS
The agreement follows more than a year of speculation on who would become the default mobile search provider for Verizon Wireless, which is set to surpass AT&T Inc as the No. 1 U.S. mobile carrier after it closes its purchase of smaller operator Alltel later this week. Microsoft made a bid for Yahoo last year, but walked away after they disagreed on price. Investors have been skeptical about whether the software company can win online advertising revenue away from Google and Yahoo, which are both stronger than Microsoft in the Internet search market.
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Samsung Dives Into Connected TV Market
VENTUREBEAT
Samsung said it will team up with Yahoo to deliver TV Widgets and other web applications that run on TVs. (Notice that nobody is teaming up with Google on this front.) The widgets are compact apps that let you interact with your favorite web sites via remote control. They deliver things like local weather or communication with your friends. Yahoo vice president Patrick Barry demoed the user interface of the Yahoo Widget Engine, which Samsung is using. He said it lets TV viewers access the best of the web. Samsung also has alliances with Pandora and Netflix.
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Nokia Launches Here & Now Site as it Acts on Move to Become Internet Player
BEARING PARNTERSHIP
The mobile interest site, aimed at 18-35-year-olds, features a range of content from partners including news resource Reuters and music magazine Rolling Stone. Millions of consumers will be able to access the site via links from the main nokia.mobi site, which is bookmarked in all new Nokia phones. The Here & Now portal offers visitors news, celebrity updates, music, applications and videos to download, as well as links to other mobile content sites. Nokia is currently hunting for advertisers to run display, sponsorship and advertorial campaigns across the site. It has previously signed ad deals across its third-party network with clients including Dolce & Gabbana, Kraft Foods, MTV and Unilever.
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Microsoft Rolling out Trial Versions of Vista Successor
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Microsoft on Wednesday released to programmers a trial version of Windows 7, the follow-up to the Windows Vista operating system, which bruised the company with bad reviews and disappointing sales. New features are designed to make operating a computer less frustrating and to work better with gadgets. Microsoft is betting that the final version of Windows 7, expected to arrive in stores in a year, will address some of the flaws that have dogged Vista — and have been lampooned famously in Apple Inc. commercials.
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Amazon, Netflix Get another Streaming Partner: TV Maker Vizio
SILICON ALLEY INSIDER
TV maker Vizio announced a new series of Internet-connected TVs at CES today. The new TVs will ship later this year and include support for Amazon and Netflix video streams, Blockbuster on demand, Yahoo’s Flickr photo service, Pandora’s music streaming service, Rhapsody, etc. Adobe, which makes the Flash video and animation software, is also listed as a partner. This may mean that sites that use Flash for video — like Google’s YouTube, Hulu, and Major League Baseball’s MLB.TV — will someday work with the TVs. Vizio is in “deep talks” with Hulu, Gizmodo reports.
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Microsoft Introduces 2nd iPhone App – Microsoft Tag
NEOWIN
The idea behind the Microsoft Tag application is that you just aim your camera phone at a Tag and instantly access mobile content, videos, music, contact information, maps, social networks, promotions, and more. Tag is similar to QR Codes, however Microsoft is using HCCB bar codes so instead of storing the data using square pixels it uses triangle shapes and colors. The difference is that Microsoft Tags don’t actually store the information. All it stores is a unique ID which it then sends to Microsoft’s servers. This way, you can include more information, and more variety of information, then if it was just on the tag itself.
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JibJab Closes $7.5 Million Third Round Funding
PAIDCONTENT
Animated e-cards site JibJab has raised a $7.5 million third round funding to promote the company’s modest plan to “reinvent the $8 billion greetings industry.” New investors Overbrook Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment joined existing backer Polaris Venture Partners for the round. The Venice, Calif.-based company raised $3 million in October 2007 and $6.4 million in its first round back in June 2006. As for 10-year-old JibJab’s master plan to upend the greeting card market, which it only entered about a year ago, the company is betting on building up paying subscribers for premium content.
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As Consumers Try to Cut Back, Tropicana Promotes Quality and Value
NEW YORK TIMES
A multimedia campaign, getting under way this week, is the first for the Tropicana juice brand from its new agency, the Arnell Group in New York, part of the Omnicom Group. The campaign carries the typographically challenging theme “squeeze it’s a natural,” which is intended to evoke the way oranges are turned into Tropicana along with the warm way in which the company wants consumers to embrace the brand. One noticeable change is the disappearance of the longtime Tropicana symbol, a straw stuck in an orange that stood for the juice’s fresh taste. The device is being replaced by a tall glass filled with Tropicana and an orange-colored twist cap atop large cartons that is shaped like a halved orange.
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Google Won’t Buy Ailing Newspapers, Could ‘Merge without Merging’
PAIDCONTENT
Their fortunes are poles apart and yet inseparable-one is hauling in buckets of advertising, the other losing it at an alarming rate. Google sympathizes with the newspaper business’ predicament and continues to say it can help, but, sadly for NYT-Google acquisition speculators, CEO Eric Schmidt says he isn’t about to buy or bail out any news publishers. Schmidt tells Fortune: “The good news is we could purchase them (newspapers). We have the cash. But I don’t think our purchasing a newspaper would solve the business problems. I think the solution is tighter integration. In other words, we can do this without making an acquisition.
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Evernote’s Raises $4.5 Million for Searchable Photos and Web Clippings
PAIDCONTENT
Evernote , which is up for a Crunchie award , rang in the New Year with an extra $4.5 million of cash from Russian investment firm Troika Dialog. A mid-December report had put the investment at $5 million, but the company did not actually close its B round until December 31. He is still trying to raise another $3.5 million tranche, but believes the current funding will hold the company through 2010. Evernote turns photos and Web clippings into searchable notes. It has gained 630,000 registered users since its public launch last year, with more than half of those on the iPhone.
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Major League Gaming Raises $7.5 Million in Funding
PAIDCONTENT
The company is calling it a follow-on to the $25 million second round it raised back in late 2006. All told, MLG has raised $42.5 million, the majority of which came from Oak, but also from first round backer Ritchie Capital. And the company has spent it well, acquiring online console tournament site GameBattles.com in 2006, and buying out GotFrag, a competitive gaming news site and social net, a year later. MLG has also outlasted its U.S. competitors in the space, including the DirecTV backed Championship Gaming Series (CGS), which folded last year, though there are a number of international leagues that host televised game tournaments.
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