Sector news

The New York Times  thinks that location based Web services are still a hard sell. Big companies and start-ups alike — including Google, Foursquare, Gowalla, Shopkick and most recently Facebook  — offer services that let people report their physical location online, so they can connect with friends or receive coupons. Venture capitalists have poured $115 million into location start-ups since last year, according to the National Venture Capital Association, and companies like Starbucks  and Gap have offered special deals to users of such services who visited their stores.

The New York Times today devotes a long article to “retargeting ads”, a marketing practice that is attracting the attention of privacy protectors. The article sites the example of a woman who looked online for a specific pair of shoes, but did not buy them. “For days or weeks, every site I went to seemed to be showing me ads for those shoes. It is a pretty clever marketing tool. But it’s a little creepy, especially if you don’t know what’s going on,” the article quotes the woman. Retargeting seems to have reached a level of precision that is leaving consumers with the feeling that they are being watched as they roam the virtual aisles of online stores. In the digital advertising business, this form of highly personalized marketing is being hailed as the latest breakthrough because it tries to show consumers the right ad at the right time. Others, even within the industry find it disturbing.

There are many stories of people who failed to get a job because of some silly posting on their Facebook page. Now the German government on Wednesday proposed placing restrictions on employers who want to use Facebook profiles when recruiting. This would be part of the draft of a law governing workplace privacy. The bill would allow managers to search for publicly accessible information about prospective employees on the Web and to view their pages on job networking sites, like LinkedIn or Xing. But it would forbid the use of purely social networking sites like Facebook, said Philipp Spauschus, a spokesman for the Interior Minister, Thomas de Maizière. Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet on Wednesday gave its backing to the proposed law. The bill will now go to Parliament for discussion, and could be passed as early as this year, Mr. Spauschus said. (Source: New York Times)

An Enquiry by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that mobile operators expect that within three years, most of their revenues will come from app downloads rather than from voice services. At the moment voice services, account for about 70 per cent of their income, but that will be overtaken by app download revenues in 2013. Mobile operators want to charge content providers for preferential access to their networks, which raises  questions about net neutrality.

UK consumers are spending almost half (45 per cent) of their waking hours watching TV, using their mobiles and other communications devices, new Ofcom research revealed. UK consumers are now sending four times as many texts per day than in 2004, spending almost a quarter of their internet time on social networking sites andspending 3 hours and 45 minutes per day watching TV. They are also using several types of media at the same time – with the average person cramming 8 hours 48 minutes of media into just over seven hours during the average day.

Facebook has launched its long awaited geo-location product called “Places”. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the mobile product will focus on tree major features: “It will allow users to share where they are with their friends; allow them to see who is near them; and allow them to discover new places around them”. Predictably, the product raised fears about privacy protection but company executives insisted there were strong privacy controls. Places is a mobile product for "advanced mobile browsers" and can be accessed through Facebook's most recent iPhone app or via touch.facebook.com. Direct competitors such as Gowalla, Yelp, Booyah and Foursquare - at least publicly - appeared eager to work with Facebook. Mr. Zuckerberg did not say anything directly about ads on Places, but hinted that that may come. This first version of Places will only roll out in the US. (Source: AdAge.com)

Net neutrality has been in the news lately with the agreement between Google and Verizon in the centre of it. Net neutrality is the principle that all Internet traffic – content, platforms, and websites – should be treated equally by the networks that deliver them. Telecoms firms want the right for companies to pay a premium to have their content delivered faster than rival content, or to establish new layer of faster internet on which to serve paying, premium services. That would leave non-commercial sites on a poorer, slower web where they would find it harder to attract readers – changing the democratic nature of the Internet. It would also mean poorer users, or those in the developing world, would find it harder to access the "full" Internet experience.

Spanish telecoms operator Telefónica is to acquire a stake in Tuenti, Spain’s leading social network. In order to maintain Tuenti’s success, the current management team, headed by Zaryn Dentzel, will remain at the helm. This deal will increase Telefónica’s exposure to the innovative changes taking place on the web and to the services being sought by young people. It will also strengthen Telefónica’s Internet position, particularly in social networks, allowing it to tap into this growth business which is radically changing the way users interrelate and communicate online. Tuenti is Spain’s leading social network and boasts the highest number of traffic (ComScore May 2010) with 25,000 page views. (Source: Telefónica)

After many difficulties surrounding the project, the Street View service is to go live in Germany before the end of this year. Residents who object to have their house shown online have four weeks to demand that their house is made unrecognizable. To this end Google is to embed a new function on the German Street View page, which will remain active for four weeks. All demands for unrecognizability are supposed to be met within this time. Afterwards it is still possible to demand not to be shown on Street View, but for a limited time the house pictures will remain online.