Nokia Acquires Geographic Intelligence Firm MetaCarta

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Espoo, Finland – Nokia (NYSE: NOK) announced on Friday
that is has acquired MetaCarta, a developer of geosearch and geotagging
technology.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in
2001, Cambridge, Mass.-based MetaCarta offers
geographic intelligence applications including NewsMap, LocalAlerts and
GeoSearch News.

The company’s investors included Sevin Rosen, FA Technology
Ventures, Solstice Capital, Chisholm, Hunt Ventures, Chevron Technology
Ventures and In-Q-Tel.

Nokia plans to use MetaCarta’s technology in the area of
local search for its location and other services.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/vcqo6

http://www.metacarta.com

Kontangent Raises $1.25 Million for Social Media Analytics

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Francisco
– Kontangent, the provider of a social media analytics platform, announced on
Friday that it has raised $1.25 million in funding.

The company received $1
million from a group of investors including Jameson Hsu; James Hong; Benjamin
Sun; Auren Hoffman; Greg Thomson; and Mike Sego.

Previous backers Naval
Ravikant and Extreme Venture Partners also participated.

The company received
$250,000 in seed funding from Facebook’s fbFund last year.

San Francisco-based
Kontangent also announced that its analytics tool is now being used by companies
with a combined 50 million users on Facebook.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/vcqfd
(Kontangent blog)

http://snipurl.com/vcqk3
(VentureBeat)

Apple iPad Sold Out at Best Buy Stores

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Francisco
– Apple’s (NASD:  AAPL) iPad has sold out at all 673 Best Buy (NYSE:  BBY) retail locations, CNET News.com
reports — although the range of Apple stores contacted reported relatively ample stock.
"We expect to have iPad inventory replenished at these locations by
Sunday," Best Buy spokeswoman Paula Baldwin told CNET. Apple said it sold 350,000
iPads last Saturday when they went on sale, and today updated that figure to
450,000.

Related Links:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20001953-64.html

http://www.bestbuy.com

The Filter to Provide Video Recommendations on NBC.com

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York
– The Filter, a provider of media recommendation services founded by musician
Peter Gabriel, announced on Thursday that it has signed a deal to provide
short-form video recommendations on NBC.com. The Filter said a test of its
platform by NBC "resulted in an uplift in video streams per session."


 

Related Links:
http://www.thefilter.com

http://www.nbc.com

Gracenote Licenses Spanish-language Lyrics to Univision.com

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Emeryville,
Calif. – Sony’s (NYSE: SNE) Gracenote music
identification and metadata service said on Thursday that it has teamed with
Univision to provide Univision.com users with licensed Spanish-language song
lyrics. The company said it worked with Univision Interactive Media to develop
a lyrics service geared toward Spanish-speaking music fans.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/vc3u2

http://www.gracenote.com

http://musica.univision.com/letras

Universal Music, German Banks Offer Download Credit Cards

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Berlin
– Universal Music has partnered with the German Savings Bank Association on a
loyalty rewards credit card service that, for between $16 and $27 per year,
will provide users with 10 song downloads per month, Billboard reported. The
downloads from Universal Music artists will be provided via a Soundaccount
online music portal.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/vc3lt
(Billboard)

http://www.soundaccount.de

Nokia Launches 'Comes With Music' Service in China

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Espoo, Finland – Nokia (NYSE: NOK) announced on Thursday the launch of
its Comes With Music music subscription service in China, which will offer
DRM-free downloads to computers and mobile phones.

The company partnered with
A8 Digital Music Holdings’ Huadong Feitian unit to power the service, which
will be known locally in China
as "Yue Sui Xiang."

Nokia previously selected the A8 Box as the music
player for its Nokia Ovi Store in China.

Yue Sui Xiang will offer
unlimited music downloads to purchasers of any of eight Nokia devices at
launch, with entry level prices from about $187.

Tracks have been licensed from
the four major record labels, as well as local Chinese distributors Huayi Brothers
Media Group, Taihe Rye and partner Huadong’s own user-uploaded music service.

Nokia has previously launched Comes With Music in growth markets including Brazil, Russia
and Indonesia, and plans to launch
in India
shortly.

 

Related Links:
http://www.nokia.com/press/press-releases/showpressrelease?newsid=1401314

http://www.a8.com

Report: Google Drew 70% of U.S. Search Market in March

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York
– Google (NASD:  GOOG) and Microsoft’s (NASD:  MSFT) Bing both lost a bit of search engine market share
during the month of March, while Yahoo (NASD:  YHOO) gained 3% and IAC’s (NASD:  IACI) Ask.com saw its
fourth straight monthly increase, according to data from market research firm
Experian Hitwise.

Google’s share of the total U.S. search market was down 1% to
69.97% in March, while Yahoo stands at 15.04% and Bing at 9.62%.

Ask.com’s
share of the market was up 21% in March, to 3.44% of the search market.

The
figures are based on Hitwise’s sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users.

 

Related Links:
http://www.hitwise.com/us/press-center/press-releases/google-searches-mar-10

Consumer Advocates Petition FTC to Regulate Ad Exchanges

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Washington
– Several consumer advocacy groups, including the Center for Digital Democracy
(CDD), have asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate online ad
exchanges and privacy issues related to the sale of user data for targeted
advertising.

Along with CDD, U.S. PIRG and the World Privacy Forum are asking
the FTC to investigate the online ad exchanges operated by Microsoft (NASD:  MSFT), Google (NASD:  GOOG)
and Yahoo (NASD:  YHOO), as well as companies that support the collection, targeting and
auction of consumer data, including BlueKai, Rubicon Project, AppNexus,
PubMatic, TARGUSinfo, MediaMath, Exelate and Rocket Fuel.

The consumer groups
wants the FTC to regulate user data collection by the ad exchanges and make the
exchanges be more up-front about their practices.

They also want an opt-in for
consumers on use of their data in advertising, and argue that consumers should
be compensated for the revenues generated through use of their personal data.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/vc2mb

http://www.democraticmedia.org/files/u1/20100407-FTCfiling.pdf
(PDF)

http://snipurl.com/vc22l
(PaidContent)

http://www.uspirg.org

http://www.worldprivacyforum.org

U.K. Digital Economy Bill Approved With 3-Strikes Provision

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

London – Britain’s lower
house of Parliament has passed a controversial Digital Economy bill with
provisions intact that will potentially suspend the Internet connections of
repeat file-swappers. The bill will see Internet service providers send warning
letters to subscribers suspected of illegal file-sharing at the behest of
copyright holders; if subscribers fail to heed several warnings, they could
face slowed down or suspended Internet service.

Critics have noted that the
bill as written could have a detrimental affect on public Wi-Fi hotspots, as
the account holder of an Internet connection would be charged in copyright
claims.

Another provision that would have made "orphaned" copyright
works more easy to license was removed from the bill, while a provision that
would require ISPs to block sites that offer unauthorized content will need
further approval after a May 6 election in Britain.

The Digital Economy bill
will be further addressed by parliament, but could become law within days, as
lawmakers speed to finish business before the break for elections.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/vc0m3
(Reuters)

http://snipurl.com/vc0qv
(PaidContent)

http://snipurl.com/vc0tb
(TorrentFreak)

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