Marketing

Turn your iPad into a Web server

Japanese software development shop FreeBit recently announced "ServersMan HD," an application that makes your iPad act like a Web server--allowing documents and files to be uploaded, downloaded, and viewed on the device.

Currently, the primary way to get files on and off of the iPad is through iTunes syncing or e-mail, or by using an online service such as Google Docs that stores your files in the cloud.

And while odds are you won't be building an iPad-based data center anytime soon, this application, like others, helps to prove the use case of cloud-based storage for tablets … Read more

Sourceforge eats its open-source dogfood

You might not recognize the name Geeknet, but you probably know its popular tech sites such as Sourceforge, Slashdot, Ohloh, Think Geek, Freshmeat, and the recently acquired Geek.com.

When Geeknet opened a new data center in Chicago two years ago, the network operations team wanted to centralize management of hundreds of systems serving the Geeknet Web network.

Geeknet's servers run 100 percent open-source software, including CentOS Linux, and a number of open-source Web servers, mail servers, databases (MySQL, Postgres, Memchache), along with a large number of source code repositories running Subversion.

The company needed a monitoring and management … Read more

Virtual goods revenue continues to climb

New survey data from research firm Magid and Associates and in-game commerce provider PlaySpan shows that virtual goods sales continue to grow, with games leading the way to monetization.

Virtual goods remain a promising alternative to advertising, and even to subscription revenue for many games and social networks. As mobile games continue to play an important role in gaming revenue, I would expect to see the sales of virtual goods continue to skew toward mobile devices as users seek instant gratification and bite-sized chunks of high-quality gameplay.

The follow-up to last year's survey reveals that buying habits aren't … Read more

How Google is redefining the enterprise

With all of the talk about Android, the open Web, and video taking place at this week's Google I/O conference, big software vendors could have easily been lulled into underestimating how much Google is actually targeting enterprises with new and updated offerings.

That would be a mistake.

Google has become such a prolific creator of technology that suits its own business needs, somewhere down the line it crossed over into the future of the enterprise, or at least a version of the future--one that develops software to consume and manage IT services and resources without having to build … Read more

Twitter phones to hit Japan

Mobile phones exclusive to Japan have long been more sophisticated than those in the rest of the world. And while smartphones like the iPhone and BlackBerry have changed the way U.S. consumers use mobile devices, the Japanese market continues to roll out new features and functions that can make the rest of feel a tad behind the curve.

Softbank, the third largest carrier in Japan, announced on Tuesday what are effectively "Twitter phones," using the app as a key marketing and sales driver. Twitter will be preinstalled on all 13 models rolling out this summer, either as … Read more

Read/write APIs redefine content

National Public Radio, which produces popular programs such as "All Things Considered," "Talk of the Nation," and "JazzSet," was an early adopter of Web technology, making its content available through a standards-based API, or application programming interface.

APIs are at the heart of many cloud services that provide for two-way, or read-write, communication such as Twitter or Salesforce.com.

A firehose of content (meaning read-only) is all well and good, but having the ability to integrate and tweak content into new forms makes it much more interesting.

Earlier this year, NPR announced API Ingest, … Read more

Features, not game titles driving console adoption

New research from Nielsen Games shows that the purchase of a specific game title actually ranks lowest in a list of purchase motivators and that consumers are driven by a myriad of factors that relate more toward a longer-term usage pattern than an impulse purchase for a specific title.

In the study of God of War III--a PlayStation 3 (PS3) exclusive--Nielsen found that the new game title had some influence in the sale of the console, but far less than would have been expected. In fact, buying a specific game was at the bottom of the list of purchase motivators.… Read more

Content meets commerce on members-only sites

Invitation-based, private sale sites like Gilt, Vente-privee, and Ideeli have become all the rage over the last two years as entrepreneurs and investors have looked for new ways to reach customers who have more disposable income than the recession-burdened masses.

On Thursday, Thrillist, a provider of daily e-mails highlighting cool things to do, see, and buy, announced it would acquire JackThreads, a guy-oriented shopping site that runs daily specials for invitation-only members. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. (Note: in this case, invitations are given to pretty much anyone who asks, and are used as more of a … Read more

Following, not leading on Twitter

The number of followers a Twitter user has doesn't directly correlate as an indicator of influence, new research by Meeyoung Cha of the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Germany demonstrates.

After looking at data from 52 million Twitter accounts including a more detailed look at the 6 million "active users" (or roughly 8.6 percent of the user base), Cha found that popular users with large number of followers "are not necessarily influential in terms of spawning retweets or mentions."

The data in the paper also provides a number of interesting points related to how followers interact with the Twitter service, and how influence and fame don't always match up.

The most-followed users span a wide variety of public figures and news sources. They were news sources (CNN, New York Times), politicians (Barack Obama), athletes (Shaquille O'Neal), as well as celebrities like actors, writers, musicians, and models (Ashton Kutcher, Britney Spears). The most retweeted users were content aggregation services (Mashable, TwitterTips, TweetMeme), businessmen (Guy Kawasaki), and news sites (The New York Times, The Onion). The most-mentioned users were mostly celebrities. Ordinary users showed a great passion for celebrities, regularly posting messages to them or mentioning them, without necessarily retweeting their posts. Most influential users can hold significant influence over a variety of topics. The top Twitter users had a disproportionate amount of influence, which was indicated by a power-law distribution Mainstream news organizations consistently spawned a high level of retweets over diverse topics. In contrast, celebrities were better at inducing mentions from their audience. Influence is not gained spontaneously or accidentally, but through concerted effort. In order to gain and maintain influence, users need to keep great personal involvement.

Cloud.com software stack goes open source

Cloud.com--which until now was known as VMops--is launching on Tuesday the latest salvo in the battle for cloud computing adoption and mindshare as it releases a new product and changes its name.

In addition to rebranding the company as Cloud.com, the company is releasing the latest version of its CloudStack software under both open-source and commercial licenses. (Note: I struggled with both the .com in the name and hitching entirely to "cloud" until they explained that it's great for market and search results.)

Cloud.com describes CloudStack as "an integrated software solution that … Read more