partnership

Zynga’s IPO as popular as its games

Zynga Inc. is raising more than virtual livestock these days, having pulled in $1 billion (

partnership

Ultrabooks introduce ‘tap-and-pay’ online shopping

Intel Corporation and credit card giant MasterCard have announced a multi-year strategic collaboration to further advance the security and consumer payment experience of online shopping. The collaboration aims to combine MasterCard’s payment processing and commerce expertise with Intel’s strengths in silicon innovation and chip-based security to provide merchants and consumers better options for a safer and simpler online checkout process on Ultrabook devices and future generations of Intel-based PCs. Additionally, the two companies are working together to optimize emerging payment technologies, such as MasterCard’s PayPass and Intel Identity Protection Technology (IPT), in order to provide a safe “tap-and-pay” feature. PayPass is a payment method that allows consumers to make purchases without swiping a card or providing a signature. Intel IPT allows consumers to use strong two-factor authentication and hardware-based display protection to provide increased online security against malware. When used with an Intel IPT-enabled reader, consumers will be able to pay for online purchases with a simple tap of their PayPass-enabled card, tag or smart phone on an Ultrabook device. “MasterCard is constantly working to improve the shopping experience for consumers and merchants,” said Ed McLaughlin, MasterCard’s chief emerging payments officer. “The collaboration with Intel will deliver enhanced security and faster checkout – with the convenience of a simple click or tap.” Internet shopping is a huge industry, and it’s only getting bigger. According to Forrester Research, online sales reached $176.2 billion (

partnership

Google Music to download everything except Sony and Warner

Google is expected to add downloading to its cloud music service at a press conference scheduled this Wednesday. Google Music launched the unlicensed beta test version of its long-anticipated music service in May – allowing users to upload their music to the cloud and access their libraries on the go. Speaking about the service in May, Google exec Zahavah Levine said : “This is a personal storage service that doesn’t require licenses anymore than the sales of an iPod or a hard drive requires licenses. “It’s like a user making personal copies of their own music and transferring it to their iPod, but rather than a portable hard drive they have a hard drive on the cloud.” Though Google managed to circumvent licensing and launch its service anyway, adding an online music store to its service would help Google keep up with competitor music stores – Amazon and iTunes most notably – and give Android users a way to download and access their music without using up valuable storage space on their phones. According to CNET , Google has signed a licensing agreement with Universal Music, but has yet to secure deals with other industry titans Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, and sources are reporting that relations between the search seraph and record labels remain tense. “With the widespread adoption of digital music, music has become fundamental to two things we care very much about. The mobile experience is one, and the power of the Web to improve people’s lives,” Levine said. Without licencing agreements from all the major music labels, it seems unlikely Google Music will be able to compete with Apple’s long-established music service iTunes – who launched its own fully-licensed cloud music service in May

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Google Music to download everything except Sony and Warner

partnership

YouTube Opens Partnership Program to More Users

Just about anyone can now get paid for creating a video on YouTube, as long as it attracts viewers. Google has announced they are extending the YouTube Partnership Program (YPP) to include individual popular videos on the site. While the YPP was initially created to help YouTube’s more popular users make money from their videos, such as prolific users like Fred and ValsArtDiary, the company now plans to invite individual users with amateur-made videos that have accumulated a lot of viewers.

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YouTube Opens Partnership Program to More Users

partnership

Retailers coming around to search engine advertising

Data released by search marketing firm Performics shows that retailers are gaining confidence in the power of search advertising, a sign that retailers are beginning to ramp up their spending as the holidays approach.

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Retailers coming around to search engine advertising

partnership

Yebol.com launches with semantic search technology

On the heels of the partnership between Yahoo! and Microsoft to share search engine and advertising resources in an attempt to battle search engine monster Google, another competitor is entering the fray. Last week Yebol.com launched in beta mode, claiming to be the next step in search engines by using semantic search technology to deliver categorized results to users.

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Yebol.com launches with semantic search technology