Business reviews site Yelp will be focusing quite a bit on mobile features in the near future, including an upcoming location-aware iPhone app on the way, company representatives told CNET News.com Wednesday.

This will mean that iPhone users will be able to log onto the Yelp application and search …

Source [The social]

Share This

Share This

As I write this, Amazon.com, like Twitter, is offline. Amazon’s outage is the big news Friday morning. But what of Twitter?

I used to love Twitter. But the site’s pogo status–it’s up! it’s down! it’s up again!–is driving me away. I’ve removed the Twitter sidebar from the Webware home page, and I’ve stopped religiously updating it. Because I figure its users, and my followers, are learning to not trust it, to not bother visiting the site since it’s likely to be down when they visit. Chances are fewer people are reading my Twitter posts now than a month ago.

I believe Twitter is bleeding users. Every time Twitter users go to Twitter.com or to their Twitter app and they see the “Fail Whale,” an error message, or just a non-responsive site, they’re that much less apt to come back the next time. Instead, they’re going to FriendFeed, Jaiku, Pownce, or even the whacked-out Plurk.

Until the Twitter team can get the service working again for good, here’s what they should strongly consider: Close the site. Take it offline. Put plywood over the doors and windows, as it were, with a big “We’re remodeling!” sign on the front. Ask users if they want to be e-mailed when the site reopens for business and don’t send that e-mail until the thing is fixed. Really fixed. Then have a grand reopening party.

It’s not like doing this would cost Twitter revenue. It doesn’t have any. But if Twitter is going to be on the web, it needs to be reliable. Twitter isn’t just a toy. It’s a communications platform that people were just beginning to rely on before it overloaded and got flakey. Now, no one can rely on it and we’re learning that at any given moment, there’s a very good chance that Twitter will be offline. The more people who learn that, the fewer people will visit, and the more people will walk across the street to competing services. Remember how Friendster lost its momentum?

If Twitter can’t deliver a reliable experience, I think its best bet is to close until it can. That way, we have the ability to all come back to the site at the same time, all together, instead of each of us showing up one by one and finding it deserted.

Related: Disqus’ Downtime Reminds Us of Woes for Data In the Cloud, by Louis Gray.

Fore more visit Source: [webware]

Share This

Share This

NEW YORK–As head of Web video studio Vuguru, longtime entertainment exec Michael Eisner has been on a sort of tent-revival tour for the past few years, preaching the gospel of Internet video. On Thursday, his audience was the ad industry, and he was there to tell them not to be …

Source [The social]

Share This

Share This

Federal Trade Comm Confirms Antitrust Inquiry Into Intel Last Update: 6/6/2008 1:16:16 PM By Fawn Johnson Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–The Federal Trade Commission on Friday confirmed that it is investigating Intel Corp. (INTC) for anti-competitive conduct. An FTC spokesman wouldn’t comment further on the case. Intel, the world’s largest personal chip […] For more visit Source:www.investment-blog.net

Share This

Share This

NEW YORK–As head of Web video studio Vuguru, longtime entertainment exec Michael Eisner has been on a sort of tent-revival tour for the past few years, preaching the gospel of Internet video. On Thursday, his audience was the ad industry, and he was there to tell them not to be …

Source [The social]

Share This

Share This

Bye-bye, Expo. We, um, didn't use you.

(Credit: Windows Live Expo)

This post was updated at 11:56 AM with comment from Microsoft.

Chalk one point up to Craigslist: Microsoft has decided to shut down Windows Live Expo, the classifieds service that it originally launched in February 2006.

Expo will disappear on July 31, a notice on the site explains. Until then, no new listings can be posted or extended, and no new accounts can be created. Microsoft representatives responded on Friday with a statement from the company: “We have learned a tremendous amount from our experience with Windows Live Expo and believe this decision, while a hard one, will serve to more effectively focus our resources towards other priority online service investments for our customers.”

The most current post on the Expo blog is from last September.

Online classifieds continue to be dominated by Craigslist, a scrappy start-up with a hippie attitude and a user interface worthy of 1997. The company is currently ensnared in a legal tiff with major investor eBay over the auction giant’s in-house classifieds site, Kijiji.

Fore more visit Source: [webware]

Share This

Share This

A lot of people get sticker shock when they look at the price of a new hybrid. They figure that the added expense won’t pay itself back very swiftly on fuel savings alone.

And in some cases they’re right. Even with $4 gas, someone who drives 15,000 miles per year won’t necessarily recoup those added costs in the first year of ownership. Depending on the non-hybrid car used for comparison, it may take two or more years before the gas savings alone equals the up-front premium for the hybrid.

But this swift analysis misses a number of hybrids’ other economic benefits.

For starters, hybrids are holding their value superior than non-hybrid vehicles. This means that, even if you don’t recoup the extra cost of the hybrid in gas savings, you’re likely to get more money out of the car when you decide to sell it.

In addition to resale, some lenders — typically credit unions — offer discounted loan rates for hybrids. And some insurance companies — including Geico, the Travelers, and Farmers — offer discounted premiums.

The federal government is also offering tax credits of up to $3,400 for hybrids — but only for the first 60,000 vehicles, which means that Toyota and Honda models are no longer eligible. Some employers offer incentives for hybrid vehicles as well.

Testing the idea
Recently, Bryan put together a swift spreadsheet to compute the “real” cost of owning a new hybrid versus another vehicle.

In his calculations, he stacked up the Prius against the non-hybrid versions of Honda Accord and Civic, the cars he and his wife were looking at.

As you can see from the screen shot below, the Prius came out a winner.

Crunching the numbers
You can build a similar spreadsheet yourself by consulting a few resources and making a few assumptions.

Bryan, for instance, estimated the minimum number of years an person usually owns a car (three), the average cost of gas (~$4.00), the number of miles someone might drive per year (12,500), standard maintenance costs, and how the buy was financed.

If you’re really particular, you might want to tack on extra cost such as the insurance premiums of owning a particular make and model car. You might also want to check and see if there are tax incentives from your say or the federal government for purchasing your particular model of hybrid.  

For the parts of the calculation you don’t assume, here are a couple of links to get you on your way:

• Kelly Blue Book has average new automobile prices and resale values in your area. Models do tend to change from year to year, but assuming most features stay the same, you can estimate an average resale value for a vehicle by looking at how old models are reselling. My colleague assumed he’d hold onto the new 2008 Prius, Accord, or Civic for at least three years, so he looked at resale values for 2005 models.
• Fueleconomy.gov has tons of data on average MPG of most automobiles. Your actual MPG will depend somewhat on driving habits, but the EPA stats will at least get you in the ballpark.
• E-loan should give you an idea about how much interest you’d have to pay to finance the purchase. Though, be sure to look around at your bank and local credit unions that may offer discounts for hybrids.

Noah Buhayar and Bryan Palmintier are fellows at Rocky Mountain Institute.

For more visit Source:[green.yahoo]

Share This

Share This

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Moody’s Investors Service said Wednesday it might downgrade the Aaa insurance financial strength ratings of MBIA Inc.’s and Ambac Inc.’s insurance units. Also, Moody’s stated it might downgrade Ambac Financial Group’s Aa3 debt ratings, and the Aa2 surplus note rating of MBIA Insurance Corp. and the Aa3 ratings of MBIA Inc. The moves reflect Moody’s […] For more visit Source:www.investment-blog.net

Share This

Share This

Last.fm, the music-focused social site that CBS Interactive acquired last year, announced Wednesday the launch of a project called “Last.fm In A Box,” which distributes the site’s ad-supported streaming radio services to partner companies.

Launch partners include a variety of social networks, personalized home page services, and …

Source [The social]

Share This

Share This