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Apple beats HTC in US patent battle

HTC has been informed by the US International Trade Commission it is in violation of an Apple patent, with the Taiwan-based manufacturer given until 19 April 2012 to comply with the ruling or face its handsets from being banned from import into the USA. The patent in question concerns a “system and method for performing an action on a structure in computer generated data”. This could refer to a situation where a user clicks on a phone number in an email to make a call with the phone app. Despite having been ruled against by the ITC, HTC considers the decision a tick in the win column. “Since the infringing elements identified by the ITC involve and impact only a very minimal part of the user interface, we will remove it as soon as possible and sell non-infringing products,” HTC said in a company statement.

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Apple beats HTC in US patent battle

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Facebook introduces private Page messaging

Facebook is making it easier for brands and consumers to communicate with one another in private. The titan of the social network recently began rolling out a mechanism that will allow brands to communicate privately with consumers via their Facebook Pages. However, unlike with Twitter, where either party can initiate a direct message, Facebook will require the individual initiate the conversation. Using a “Message” button on a brand’s Page, consumers will be able to privately message companies – much like they currently do with their “friends”. Once that is done, though, the conversation is open to both parties. The feature will also allow brands to privately respond to comments or posts on their Pages. Social media has long been marketed as a tool for one-on-one engagement with customers, but has to date primarily been used as a one-to-many platform. Private Page messaging opens up the possibility for more effective one-on-one communication and a greater level of customer service on Facebook

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Facebook introduces private Page messaging

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Leveraging the Social in Social Media

So, social media marketing is about the conversation, not the pitch. People are starting to get that. This is a good step, but what does it mean in practical terms? Having conversations with people is nice, but the goal of a brand is ultimately to get people interested in spending their time or money on the brand, after all. What does having this conversation accomplish, and just how does a brand use that conversation to get the critical conversion from conversation to customers? The Key Thing: Customer Investment Just about everyone’s familiar with the smart and trendy Mac commercials. They’ve been seen, redone, spun off and parodied just about to death, and will stand as icons of excellent advertising

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Leveraging the Social in Social Media

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F-Commerce | Revolutionising the Way We Buy Online

Social Innovations, the Manchester based Social Media Experts have released the latest version of their revolutionary F-Commerce plug-in. SIIP (Social Innovations Interactive Plug-in) is an application that allows an E-commerce site to be replicated into Facebook. SIIP intelligently targets users by interests, events and likes that are posted on their Facebook pages, this means that businesses who utilise the plug-in can actively target users on aspects such as the music, books or movies they like, where they like to go on holiday, birthdays and other general demographic information such as age and location. This means that the site, once incorporated into Facebook will present relevant products to the user based around their interests and likes. The application also has the facility to incorporate a separate section for ‘Facebook Offers’ giving the user the incentive to use the interactive f-commerce plug-in

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F-Commerce | Revolutionising the Way We Buy Online

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Yahoo! launches new results pages as Silver Lake consider buyout

Despite the recent firing of its CEO Carol Bartz, Yahoo! is adopting a business-as-usual approach by launching improved search engine results pages [SERPs]. A cleaner design for the pages has been implemented with navigational filters and tabs showing related content such as videos and images. “At Yahoo! , we’re always looking for ways to make the Yahoo! Search experience even more organized and streamlined while serving the most relevant content,” Paul Ko, Girish Ananthakrishnan and Caroline Tsay wrote on the company blog . “We have been working to unify the search experiences across web, multimedia, and vertical search results pages with a design that is clean and intuitive.” However, much bigger changes may be in store for the company as investment firm Silver Lake Partners is reportedly mulling an acquisition offer for Yahoo! Bloomberg reported yesterday that Silver Lake’s plan includes the liquidation of Yahoo’s assets in Asia and focussing the firm’s core business elsewhere in hope of attracting a new buyer.

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Yahoo! launches new results pages as Silver Lake consider buyout

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Google unveils developer app platform for Google+

As new social networking site Google+ continues to evolve, Google has now unveiled the first developer application programming interfaces, and has also released public data APIs. Philip Tucker stated on the Google Blog his excitement regarding this next stage for Google+. “We want every one of you who builds applications to be able to include rich sharing, identity, and conversations in your app. Today, we’re taking the next step on that journey by launching the first of the Google+ APIs,” Tucker said. The new application programming interfaces will let developers create Google+ apps and integrate the social network into their existing apps. When creating their apps, developers will benefit from recently released API data which will allow them to query a single activity, action or person on Google+

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Google unveils developer app platform for Google+

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Google Plus gets political

The leaders of all three largest political parties have signed up to Google + in an attempt to make themselves more accessible to voters. Prime Minister David Cameron of the Conservatives, Labour’s Ed Miliband and Liberal Democrat and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will all have their own profiles on the new social networking site, according to the Telegraph. Google+ was launched in on a trial basis in June and now has more than 25 million members. The network’s ‘Circles’ feature, which allows members to share content with specific groups, could be particularly appealing to politicians, as it will let them communicate with other MPs, constituents and the general public. Cameron took the opportunity of his first post on the network to say: “Proud to see British politicians leading the way when it comes to embracing new methods of engaging people online, from e-petitions to the latest developments in social media.” Labour leader Ed Miliband said: “I am determined for Labour to look outwards, not just inwards. So I am looking forward to using this site to keep in touch with people who follow me here.” The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said on his profile: “The Liberal Democrats are always open to new and innovative ways of communicating with voters, so creating a Google+ account was an easy and logical step.” According to findings reported by the Daily Mirror , 57 per cent of adults read or received information on the internet during the 2010 general election. Understandably Google UK’s MD, Matt Brittin, is very positive: “It’s great to see David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband embracing new innovations.” “Britain’s political parties and the UK Government are leading the world with new innovations in citizen engagement, from Google+ to online petitions and open data.” The presence of the politicians could also lead to larger user numbers as well, as the celebrity presence on Twitter was considered by some to fuel the microblogging outlet

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Google Plus gets political