Report: Nokia gobbles up Dopplr

TechCrunch is reporting that Nokia has just acquired social travel start-up Dopplr. The rumored acquisition price is between 10 million and 15 million Euros, which is around $15 million to $22 million.

In an effort to stop the bleeding at the cell phone giant, Nokia has been acquiring a string of smaller companies. With intense competition from Apple's iPhone and RIM's Blackberry, Nokia has been struggling to keep pace in the mobile industry. Om Malik compares the acquisition spree at Nokia to what we have seen at Yahoo in the last few years.

It will be interesting to … Read more

Two steps forward, one step back: NBC's online Olympic coverage

Ever since NBC announced their very ambitious plans for online coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, I have been very excited to see how well they execute it. Promising 3,500 hours of online video, with 2,200 hours of live streams, full event replays, and highlights, for free, how could they go wrong? It has recently come to light that the online coverage may not be as complete as we were hoping.

NBC will not be offering live online feeds of any events that will be broadcast on TV. The ones broadcast on TV will, of course, include the … Read more

Microsoft sets a three-week ultimatum for a Yahoo decision

Following earlier news that Microsoft was recalculating its $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo, it has become clear what the company has decided to do. Microsoft has thrown down the gauntlet, as evidenced by a letter Saturday from CEO Steve Ballmer to Yahoo's board of directors. Here's the quote that sums up the entire letter:

"If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo! board.&… Read more

Here's something interesting, a beta test for coffee

This post is straying a bit away from my typical posts on web services, but I saw this a little bit ago and just had to share. The Tampa, Florida based company, Joffrey's Coffee and Tea, is holding a "beta test" for their Jamaican Me Crazy brand of coffee. They are asking 10,000 bloggers to sign up and try their new coffee, for free, hopefully in exchange for buzz about their product.

The beta test page appeals to the tech crowd, by saying, "Using web software that is in perpetual beta, like Gmail? Frequently signing … Read more

MicroHoo: The effect on search and Web services

Just about everyone else on the Internet has written on the potential acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft for $44.6 billion, but I thought that I would weigh in on what I think this might mean for search and Web services.

According to ComScore's search share numbers for December 2007, Google has 58.4 percent of the market share, with Yahoo and Microsoft trailing at 22.9 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively. If Microsoft and Yahoo combine forces and change nothing, that will put them at 32.7 percent to Google's 58.4 percent. While those numbers … Read more

NBC and Netflix offer 'Heroes' and 'The Office' online

As we have seen, Netflix and NBC have a very solid working relationship, offering exclusive web content for the site in the past. Today, Netflix announced that it will offer episodes of hit NBC shows, such as Heroes, The Office, 30 Rock, and Friday Night Lights to its subscribers for instant viewing online.

Just to clarify, Netflix has offered instant viewing of various DVDs, including Heroes Season 1, prior to today, but now it will be making episodes that are currently unavailable on DVD available for viewing. This also marks the fourth way that you can see NBC shows online. … Read more

Facebook snatches up Parakey

Facebook on Thursday made its first acquisition. The social-networking site bought a Web start-up called Parakey.

Parakey was started by Firefox's two founders, Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt. The site gives this description of the service: "Computers are frustrating. Creating documents, finding files, sharing information--why do everyday things still seem so tedious and counterintuitive? We hope that Parakey will make your life easier."

According to Inside Facebook, "Parakey is intended to be a platform for tools that can manipulate just about anything on your hard drive: e-mail, photos, videos, recipes, calendars."

What is Facebook planning … Read more

Yahoo is on the move again: Inks acquisition deal with Rivals.com

Only days after getting a new CEO, Yahoo has already made a great acquisition. Yahoo announced yesterday that they are acquiring college sports website, Rivals. The subscription based website has become the standard for college sports news over the past few years.

Rivals will be a great supplement to the already popular Yahoo Sports. There is no doubt that Rivals is excited about the deal. In their statement they said, "For all of our current readers and community members, we believe this agreement means that you can expect an even better experience in the future. We will have the … Read more

Search, Flickr, and Frustrated Investors: Terry Semel's time at Yahoo and a look towards the future

It is clear that Terry Semel was forced from his role as CEO of Yahoo today due to increasing concern from Yahoo's investors. Along with not being able to fend off Google's rise to power, investors were also angry over Semel's pay package, which was revealed to be $71.7 million dollars in April of this year. Over the last year, Yahoo's stock dropped 18 percent. That seems to be the final straw, as we see Semel stepping down today.

From 2001 to 2004, Terry Semel seemed to be the cure to Yahoo's woes after … Read more