Author Archives: Tara Lane

Google Revises its Social Strategy with Google Me

It all started with a single tweet. Digg co-founder Kevin Rose tweeted that Google is planning to launch its own social network, a viable competitor to Facebook. Within hours, the Internet was buzzing with news of Google Me, the rumored name of this new network. Continue reading →

Posted in Market Trends by Tara Lane | Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

eBay Innovates in Mobile E-Commerce with RedLaser Acquisition

Internet auction giant eBay has just acquired the popular iPhone app RedLaser. The application allows users to scan barcodes to uncover more information about products, and compare price points at nearby locations. With eBay backing the application, eBay results will … Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by Tara Lane | Friday, June 25th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Google to Launch its Own Digital Music Service

The digital music market is about to grow in a big way. The Wall Street Journal just confirmed Google’s plans to roll out a digital music download and subscription service, to be up and running by 2011. Continue reading →

Posted in Market Trends by Tara Lane | Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Rising 3D Trend in Entertainment

At this week’s E3 Expo in Los Angeles, Nintendo introduced its newest gaming device – the Nintendo 3DS – a product that is already garnering positive buzz and attention around the Web. The 3DS is the latest addition to a small but growing set of products in tech, and part of a much larger and rising trend in entertainment – 3D. Continue reading →

Posted in Market Trends by Tara Lane | Friday, June 18th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

MTV Launches Search for First-Ever “Twitter Jockey”

Twitter was just banned at The New York Times, but it’s the next big thing for MTV. This week, MTV announced a nationwide search for its first-ever “Twitter Jockey,” — TJ for short — a digital version of the network’s early Video Jockey (VJ) job. Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Marketing by Tara Lane | Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Google Moves Toward Real-Time Search with Caffeine

Google’s search index has just received a big boost of energy – literally. This week, Google launched its newest solution to improve search, a system called Caffeine. Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by Tara Lane | Friday, June 11th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Apple Debuts iPhone 4 – How Does it Compare?

Apple fans rejoiced Monday when Steve Jobs revealed the newest addition to the Apple family, the iPhone 4. Along with a sleek new design, the iPhone 4 boasts a number of long awaited features, like a front-facing camera, multitasking and the iPhone 4 OS. Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by Tara Lane | Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Amazon’s Kindle to Hit Target Stores this Weekend

After a trial run in select stores, Target Corporation announced plans this week to sell Amazon.com’s popular Kindle e-reader device at all 1,740 Target stores beginning this Sunday, June 6. The deal marks the first time Kindle will be available … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Marketing by Tara Lane | Friday, June 4th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Asus Debuts the Eee Pad – Can it Top the iPad?

The tablet wars are heating up once again. At this week’s Computex Technology Show, computer manufacturer Asustek debuted its device aimed to rival the iPad — the Asus Eee Pad. A big company with little brand recognition, Asus pioneered the … Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by Tara Lane | Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Facebook Simplifies Privacy — But Can They Do More?

Following weeks of public controversy, backlash, and legal woes, Facebook has just announced its plan to once again revamp privacy controls – this time, making it a much simpler process. Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Marketing by Tara Lane | Friday, May 28th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nokia and Yahoo! Partner to Increase Brand Recognition

Nokia and Yahoo just announced a unique partnership that will create cross-platform opportunities for both companies. Starting this summer, Yahoo will become the global provider of Nokia’s Ovi e-mail and messaging service, available on all Nokia devices. In turn, Nokia will power Yahoo’s popular maps service both online and on all of the phone supplier’s mobile devices. Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Marketing by Tara Lane | Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Google’s Chrome Store Brings Apps to the Web

At Google’s I/O developer conference this week, the search giant unveiled a number of exciting products and programs that should debut in the coming months, including a formal announcement of Google TV and the new WebM video platform. Of these … Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by Tara Lane | Friday, May 21st, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

MySpace Moves to Simplify Privacy

Since Facebook’s announcement of Connected Profiles feature and Open Graph initiative, the social network has faced criticism and raised concern over privacy on the Web. MySpace this week announced that it will roll out simplified privacy settings in the coming weeks. Continue reading →

Posted in Market Trends by Tara Lane | Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Microsoft Competes with Google in the Cloud

Microsoft had the Web in a flurry this week with the long-awaited announcement of its Office 2010 Productivity Suite. Available June 15, the updated programs – Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook – boast more than 100 upgrades from the 2007 version. Continue reading →

Posted in Market Trends by Tara Lane | Friday, May 14th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Twitter to Launch New Features for Brands

Though Twitter is an individual-dominated social network, the micro-blogging site hosts a number of corporate accounts as well. Brands utilizing Twitter often use the site as a customer service platform, or as a way to build relationships with their customers. … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Marketing by Tara Lane | Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Facebook Privacy Breech – Trouble for the Future?

Facebook endured another privacy debacle this week when a security flaw was found, allowing friends to view each other’s private information, including chats and messages. Though the security breech lasted only a few hours, many users are upset that their privacy had been compromised for the second time in less than a month. Continue reading →

Posted in Social Impact by Tara Lane | Friday, May 7th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Apple Facing Antitrust Charges?

April wasn’t a great month for Apple. The tech giant endured the lost iPhone 4G debacle, and CEO Steve Jobs’ strongly worded post against Adobe on Apple’s official blog has now caught the attention of the federal government. Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by Tara Lane | Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

HP’s Palm Acquisition Could Make it a Strong Mobile Competitor

Palm PDA’s were the first inkling of smartphones to come, and at one point had Palm riding high in the tech world. But in 2010, Palm struggled to keep up with its competitors in the mobile market. After much speculation over the future of Palm, the company… Continue reading →

Posted in Market Trends by Tara Lane | Friday, April 30th, 2010 | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Earth View: Google Maps & Earth Enhance User Experience

Google Maps is the undoubtedly the king of online mapping. With directions for bikers, walkers, public transit users, as well as traffic and street views, Maps can get you anywhere. Now, Google is taking the Maps user experience to the next level with its… Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by Tara Lane | Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Living with Google: A Day-in-the-Life

Google’s cloud-based apps have transformed the way people surf the web, do business, and view the world around them. Gmail has 176 million users to date, and Google Maps sees more than 44 million visitors each month. Google has more than 50 apps, with… Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by Tara Lane | Friday, April 23rd, 2010 | Tagged , | Leave a comment