Facebook Inc. ramped up its rivalry with Google Inc. and other Internet companies, as the social-networking giant unveiled a messaging service to compete for the loyalty of millions of Internet users. The new Facebook service, which offers people a “facebook.com” email address among other tools, encroaches onto turf that is already well covered by Google through its Gmail service, Yahoo Inc. and others. The new service is designed to draw more of users’ time to Facebook and could help build up the appeal to advertisers, among other things.”We don’t expected anybody to wake up tomorrow and say ‘OK, I will shut down my Yahoo or Gmail account and switch exclusively to Facebook,’” said Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg at an event in San Francisco. But over time, he said, he expects users will shift their communication to Facebook if it is “more fun and more valuable for them to use.”
Read more via Facebook’s New Front in Google Rivalry – WSJ.com.
After seven months of unchallenged prominence, Apple’s hot-selling iPad now has its first credible competitor in the nascent market for multitouch consumer tablet computers: the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
Read more via Samsung’s Galaxy Tab Is iPad’s First Real Rival – WSJ.com.
Revolutionary Email Based Reminder System :: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
If you’re like me much of what goes on in your world these days revolves around email. It’s become the center of a great deal of my communication and how I schedule meetings, follow-up with prospects and clients, and assign tasks in the office.
Read more via Revolutionary Email Based Reminder System :: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing.
GMail contacts will no longer be automatically handed over to other websites and services, says Google.
The search firm will now only share user information if the site wanting access provides reciprocal data feeds to others.
Read more via BBC News – Google turns off GMail data feed to sites like Facebook.
Wednesday MySpace finally bowed down to Facebook by officially re-branded itself and launching a new beta website focused on serving the “Gen Y” user as a social entertainment destination. Rather than provide a website for users to generate pages solely focused on themselves, MySpace now allows members to discover content and connect with other fans with similar interests based on music, celebrities, movies, television, and games.
Read more via MySpace Gets Facelift, New Focus.
News: PlayStation Phone: Android OS looking likely – ComputerAndVideoGames.com
Sony marketing chief Peter Dille has dropped some of the heaviest hints yet that a PlayStation Phone is just around the corner – as the company admits that it has “relationships” with Google.
Read more via News: PlayStation Phone: Android OS looking likely – ComputerAndVideoGames.com.
Ozzie’s ‘doomsday’ memo warns Microsoft of post-PC days – Computerworld
Departing Microsoft executive Ray Ozzie’s just-published memo is a “doomsday-ish” missive that calls on the company to push further into the cloud or perish, an industry analyst said today.
Read more via Ozzie’s ‘doomsday’ memo warns Microsoft of post-PC days – Computerworld.
HP today announced the imminent release of webOS 2.0 and Palm Pre 2. webOS 2.0 is both the first major update to the webOS smartphone platform, and the first major webOS release by HP since the company bought Palm in April this year. Like the original Palm Pre, the Palm Pre 2 will be a CDMA phone. Unlike the first model, which was exclusive to Sprint, the new Phone will launch on Verizon.
Read more via Palm Pre 2, webOS 2.0, coming soon, on Verizon.
The chain, which operates 3,600 stores across the U.S., recently confirmed long-simmering rumors that it would add the hot-selling tablet to its inventory starting Oct. 15, joining rival Target as the only other mass merchandiser to stock the device.
Read more via Apple’s iPad Arrives At Wal-Mart — InformationWeek.
It would appear that Apple and Verizon Wireless can agree to work together after all. Thursday’s announcement that Verizon Wireless will offer the Apple iPad at its retail stores is a bit of a surprise, to say the least.
Read more via Verizon Inks iPad Deal With Apple — InformationWeek.
