LimeWire 5.0 allows users to share files with friends on any Jabber-compatible system, as well as to have search results incorporate files from the LimeWire store.
(Credit: Lime Wire)LAS VEGAS--Get ready for the collision of social networking and peer-to-peer file sharing.
With the beta release of LimeWire 5.0 (download for Windows| Mac), which was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show here, the popular P2P service is incorporating a social element that will enable people using Jabber-compatible services like Gmail to share files with friends on their buddy lists. Lime Wire calls this a "personal sharing network."
The idea, said Lime Wire CEO George Searle, is to add trusted context to user searches for content, given that people are more likely to want--and feel comfortable with--content from people they know.
Additionally, Searle explained that the new social features of LimeWire--which has 70 million monthly unique users and more than 5 billion queries a month--will enable people to choose whether to make files available to the public at large, or just to their friends and family.
In many ways, this is much like many other content-sharing systems. But to Searle, adding a social component to LimeWire means making what is already an extremely popular service more personal to many users.
Essentially, the way the new feature works is that users will be able to decide whether to make files--photographs, for example--available to anyone on LimeWire, or just to people on their buddy lists. Similarly, users will be able to search for files from their friends. And this will take advantage of a sharing system that tens of millions of people already use, something that Lime Wire hopes will encourage many on the service to adopt the social elements.
Searle said he hopes that the social feature will allow users to trust the sources of the content they share across the system in a way that's not really possible when sharing with strangers.
(Credit:
Opera Software)
Article updated 1/9/08 at 1:45 p.m. PST with details on set-top boxes and a correction about the relationship with Wii. Article updated at 3:41 p.m. PST with more details on how to acquire the SDK. Correction, 10:55 a.m. PST: This story misstated the day the Opera announcement was made. It was Wednesday.
Opera has thrown a little more love ...
Read the full post at CNET's CES 2009 blog.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated that technology from the Five Across acquisition was the foundation for the new Eos service. It is not.
LAS VEGAS --Two years after it first started courting big media companies, Cisco Systems will finally launch a new product to help these companies harness the power of social networking and connect their brands to fans.
On Wednesday, Cisco will kick off the Consumer Electronics Show here by announcing Eos, a hosted software platform that allows media and entertainment companies to create, manage and grow online communities. Through Eos Cisco has compiled technology tools and slapped on an easy to use interface to make building and customizing Web sites easy. But most importantly, it's bundled into the software, technology that will allow media companies to build interactive Web sites so that fans can connect with musicians, TV shows, movies, or whatever brand a media company wants to promote.
Cisco first began looking for ways to help big media companies late in 2006, when it created the Media Solutions business unit. The idea was to develop and market products to digital media content owners. In February last year, the company bought a startup called Five Across, which developed social networking software.
Dan Scheinman, the Cisco executive behind Eos, believes that the new software platform addresses one of the biggest problems that media companies face today.
"The reality is that media is so disrupted by digital technology," he said. "Fans are looking for ways to connect to their favorite artists or TV shows and they are seeking out communities, but the media companies have been slow to provide this for them. Eos is centered around community and allows fans to participate."
The service provides tools that allow media companies to create blogs, live chats, message boards, rating and ranking systems.
Scheinman believes that social networking is the most important way for marketers and big media companies to reach consumers. Consumers are using sites such as YouTube and Facebook to share media, like videos, music and pictures. He also believes that media companies can combat piracy by offering fans an interactive experience through their own branded Web sites.
"In many ways digital destroys the value proposition for media," Scheinman said. "Other people can rip off the content and monetize it, aggregate it, and take pennies for it."
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LG Electronics will add video streaming features from CinemaNow and YouTube to its 2009 lineup of networked Blu-ray players, the company said Tuesday.
The company will be showing off the new functionality at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) next week in Las Vegas. (Click here for CNET's complete coverage of CES 2009.)
LG launched its first network-connected Blu-ray player in July with partner Netflix. As part of the deal, ...
Read the full post at CNET's CES 2009 blog.
Yahoo's Widget Channel software for TVs and video devices shows a link to Yahoo's Flickr photo-sharing site, stock prices, and an advertisement. Intel, Yahoo, and several partners will show the technology off at CES 2009.
(Credit: Yahoo)Yahoo and Intel built their success upon widespread use of personal computers, but the two companies hope products to be shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in January will ...
Read the full post at CNET's CES 2009 blog.
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