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Why Microsoft didn't bungle Bing jingle

I awoke on the floor of my house today with a thumping, bumping sound bashing lumps into my ears.

Yes, someone had called me to play a winning Bing jingle over my cell phone. This was a friend, indeed. A friend with no conscience.

I heard a little techno beat, the voice of a distant cousin of the Pet Shop Boys and the oft-repeated phrase "Bing goes the Internet."

When it ended, my friend shouted into the phone, at least I think he shouted, that this ditty had won its creator $500 in a competition sponsored by Microsoft.… Read more

Marines, NFL in assault on Twitter, Facebook?

Alright now, you know-it-alls, show-it-alls, and tell-it-alls. It's time you people learned a little discipline, a little social decorum, a little good old fashioned discretion.

So here are the rules. No more Twittering. No more friending. And definitely no more updating people on your latest moods, feelings, lovers, and hangnails.

Yes, in what seems like a concerted effort on the part of traditional culture, two highly similar organizations, the Marines and the NFL, have decided to fight back against all the careless talk.

They have each reportedly begun to ban Twitter and Facebook.

Let's start with the Marines. … Read more

Why the new Palm Pre ads aren't creepy

Perhaps I watch the wrong TV shows.

Perhaps the subliminal machinators on high know that I've just upgraded to yet another wonderfully simple and understandable Nokia.

But I've yet to see the new Palm Pre ads on TV.

However, there seems to have been such a wondrous outpouring of bile in their direction that it was only a matter of time before I suffered some splatter.

So I wafted off to YouTube to see what all the puss was about. What I saw was a rather ethereal woman's head whispering to me in a way that, frankly, … Read more

Bing sees slight uptick in July

It'll probably still be a long time before people start saying things like "I'd spend some time binging that guy before I go on a date with him," but in the U.S. things are looking up for Microsoft's new search engine, Bing, which was unveiled in May.

Web analytics firm StatCounter released analysis Monday stating that Bing slightly increased Microsoft's share of the U.S. search market in July. It now claims 9.41 percent, up from 8.23 percent in June.

The combined market share of both Microsoft and Yahoo in July … Read more

YouTube's monetization claims: Where's the beef?

Last week, at this here mental-research facility, we asked the question, YouTube, how much are you making off Jill and Kevin's wedding? And those fine boffins over at the Tube have decided to answer--kind of, at least.

In an announcement entitled, "I now pronounce you monetized: a YouTube video case study," posted by Chris LaRosa, technical account manager, and Ali Sandler, music partner manager, the Tubers' hoops are cocked at the joy of the video's success (now more than 12 million views).

They also were rather happy with the performance of "Forever," the Chris … Read more

Microsoft, ComScore partner on digital-ad service

Digital-ad campaigns have proven stubbornly challenging to plan and track. Microsoft hopes to change that.

The software giant announced on Thursday a new collaboration with consumer measurement firm ComScore to design a digital media-planning service dubbed the Reach and Frequency Planner (RF Planner).

The goal of the RF Planner will be to help brand advertisers better measure and track their online-ad campaigns. Advertisers would be able to more easily determine and predict how consumers will respond to their digital ads.

Microsoft says online advertisers have been stymied by the inability to measure digital-ad campaigns with the same metrics used for … Read more

Microsoft and Yahoo: Done deal

After months of Microhoo maneuvering, the two companies sign the dotted line on a deal that puts Yahoo search in Microsoft's hands.

With Yahoo search gone, content becomes king What kind of company will Yahoo be when the Microsoft search deal takes shape? A content company that will need to make hard decisions about how to attract eyeballs. (Posted in Webware by Tom Krazit) July 30, 2009 4:00 AM PDT

Breaking down Microsoft and Yahoo's search deal It will take months to play out, but who are the winners and losers in Yahoo's decision to offload … Read more

Reports: Microsoft-Yahoo deal to come in next 24 hours

Updated at 6:30 p.m. and 11:50 p.m. PDT with additional details.

For more than a year now, rumors of a potential deal between Microsoft and Yahoo have ebbed and flowed. And it looks like the denouement of this epic tale may finally be upon us. A search and advertising deal between the two tech giants is expected to be announced within the next 24 hours, according to All Things D's Kara Swisher, who cites multiple unnamed sources.

It wasn't clear if a final deal had been signed, Swisher said Tuesday afternoon, but negotiations have … Read more

New iPhone app scores sexual performance

We are all insecure.

Our noses are too big, too small, too pointy from the side. Our hair is too thin, if it exists at all.

And as for our ability to please a member of our target gender in the bedroom, well, admit it, we are all a bit freaked.

So a highly caring and simultaneously enterprising man called Chris Alvares has released an iPhone app that scores us objectively as we strive for sexual Kilimanjaro.

It's called Passion. And its heart is very simple.

In the hard sell at the Apple App Store, Alvares lays it on … Read more