Webware

The Financial Times reported Tuesday that Apple is poised to announce a deal in which it will sell iTunes store tracks through social-networking site Bebo. At first, it appears that this applies only to Bebo's 8.8 million users in the U.K. and Ireland, where the service is most popular, but the story hinted that it may expand to the rest of Bebo's 33 million-strong user base if successful.

According to the Financial Times article, any band or artist with a Bebo profile--there are approximately 500,000 of them--that's already part of the iTunes catalog will … Read more

Heavy, the online video site with a distinct focus on the Jackass demographic, announced Tuesday that it will be using the IP Intelligence technology from Digital Element in order to "geotarget" its advertisements, language, and video content based on where a visitor's IP address is located.

This means a couple of different things. One, by knowing where its visitors come from, Heavy can run locally targeted advertisements, which can make it a more appealing buy for advertisers. This, as we've seen with many of Google's locally-oriented applications, can be very lucrative.

And two, imagine the … Read more

TechCrunch reported late on Friday about a hot new rumor in the social media space. The Germany-based business networking site Xing, according to TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, may be in talks to acquire online address book management company Plaxo. The deal is rumored to be in the $250 million range--a significant buy indeed.

Plaxo, for some background, was founded in 2002 by Napster co-founder Sean Parker. Since then, the company claims to have hit 15 million members (as of September 2006). It synchronizes primarily with Microsoft Outlook address books, but has also formed deals with companies like Yahoo and AOL'… Read more

It's a well-known fact among those of us in the tech industry that Salesforce loves to package free chocolate--and sometimes other swag along with its press kits. It's kind of notorious. So when I saw today that Salesforce sent me a package (despite the fact that my beat of social media, pool toys, and The Colbert Report has nothing to do with customer relations management) my immediate reaction was "Hey, chocolate!"

So I opened up the package, and to my dismay, I saw some kind of strange white box instead of shiny foil wrappers. CRIPES! A Salesforce missive without chocolate? That's criminal. And disturbing.… Read more

It could be said that GotFrag, a news and social networking site for fans of competitive video gaming, just got pwned--but in a good way. New York-based professional gaming league Major League Gaming announced Wednesday that it has purchased GotFrag for an unspecified amount.

Through the acquisition, Major League Gaming hopes to boost the visibility of professional gaming, especially in the United States, where it's far more under-the-radar than it is in European and Asian countries. This has been an ongoing goal for the professional league, which inked a deal with the USA Network last year to have … Read more

Google Maps is just so hot right now, we couldn't resist giving it yet another nod this morning. On Tuesday, the low-cost U.S. airline JetBlue Airways announced that real-time flight tracking on Google Maps will be available on its in-seat TVs soon.

Plenty of airlines offer screens with in-flight tracking, but it appears that this is the first time that one has used Google Maps to do so. If you're flying on a JetBlue plane, you'll be able to watch your flight via Google Maps (along with speed and altitude) on channel 13 of the carrier'… Read more

Google Maps' new Street View feature might be getting all the buzz these days (Hello, kitty) but that's not the only thing that's new with the popular online map application. On Monday, Google announced that Google Maps now has improved information about public transportation in many cities worldwide.

Subway stops, in addition to building outlines and car traffic data, first appeared on Google Maps in February. Now, the subway and train stops provide additional information: which lines are serviced by a particular station, a link to the Web site for the corresponding transportation company, as well as upcoming … Read more

Mobile media company Melodeo, best known for mobile radio and podcast deals with cellular carriers, has launched the public beta of a new brand: Nutsie, which allows you to upload iTunes playlists to its Web site and stream them to your cell phone. (Get it? "Nutsie?" It's "iTunes" with the letters rearranged.)

So far, it's compatible with a bunch of different cell phones: the Motorola Razr, LG CU500, Sony Ericsson W600, and a handful of Samsung and Nokia handsets. Upon signing up, you export your iTunes library to Nutsie's Web site (no word … Read more

One of my most memorable career moments thus far was the "road test" of BuyYourFriendADrink.com (BYFAD), in which I took a midday field trip to a neighborhood bar to test out the service (which does exactly what its name implies it will do, via text message). It worked like a charm, but a few of us continued to wonder how a limited and somewhat gimmicky site could survive--especially since it has yet to expand outside a set of 60 bars in New York City and the surrounding metro area.

Well, now we have an inkling of an … Read more