May 2012

Everyone has a mobile problem: not just Facebook

It’s the question that has dogged Facebook all year and likely contributed to its IPO fiasco: does Facebook have a mobile problem? According to Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins, it does: but then so does every Internet company trying to figure out how to make money in the mobile landgrab.

During her latest presentation on the tech landscape at D: All Things Digital, Meeker pointed out that the factors that caused Facebook to warn investors about how increased mobile usage is changing its business model are universal. Mobile traffic now accounts for 10 percent of overall traffic and overall mobile revenue is surging, but companies built around desktop-web economics are scared by the fact that mobile ads are seen as far less valuable: five times less valuable than desktop Internet ads, Meeker said. And even companies that have figured out how to get users to actually pay them for their products–think Tencent and Zynga–are taking in far less revenue per mobile subscriber than per desktop subscriber. That implies that companies born entirely of the mobile era might have an advantage, but not necessarily, as those companies haven’t really figured this out yet either.

Fox releases 4-minute attack on Obama

[Commentary] So much for "Fair and Balanced." The Fox News program "Fox & Friends" has produced a four-minute video attacking President Obama. For all its blatantly conservative programming, Fox News does a pretty incredible job of swearing up and down that it's nonpartisan. But it's kind of impossible to see how you walk this one back. Bill Shine, Executive Vice President of Programming, said, “The package that aired on FOX & Friends was created by an associate producer and was not authorized at the senior executive level of the network.

Some Clear Facts About Google's "Transparency" Report

Google published a “Transparency Report” showing the number of requests it receives from copyright owners to remove search links to infringing material. In its blog posting, Google acknowledged that fighting piracy is very important and that it doesn’t want search results directing people to materials that violate copyright laws. It is good to see that Google agrees with this fundamental principle and continues to take steps to deter infringement. Transparency is also important -- knowing which infringing sites receive the most notices presents an important red flag regarding those sites. But even more transparency is needed to fully understand the scope of the problem.

Knowing the total number of links to infringing material available and the limitations Google imposes on rights owners to search for infringements reveals how meager the number of notices is relative to the vast amount of infringement. After all, as recently highlighted here, search for any major recording artist’s track and the term “mp3,” and you’ll find that most of the very first results offered by Google direct people to infringing material. Unfortunately, one sees similar results when one searches for any popular creative content followed by the words “free download.” On the one hand, Google states that it processes an overwhelming number of notices. On the other hand, Google’s data misleads by calculating that the DMCA notice requests represent a tiny fraction of the pages on even the most recidivist sites. Let’s review some facts.

Canada slowly abandoning efforts to digitally archive its national history

The fight to maintain a centralized, comprehensive, and publicly accessible national archive is losing ground in Canada. According to a recent update from a group advocating the rescue of the Library and Archives Canada (LAC), efforts to digitally archive the nation's history are being cut back significantly, with the LAC saying that only a "representative" collection is possible in the "digital" age.

Korea Fair Trade Commission Raids Google. Again.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) raided Google’s offices in Seoul on May 28. This is the second time the agency has busted in on Google’s South Korean headquarters, and appears to be a response to the search behemoth’s resistance to the KFTC’s Android-related antitrust investigation. Sources say the agency believes Google impeded its probe by deleting documents and asking employees to telecommute while it was occurring.

Germany in trouble with EC over lack of ISP, telecom data retention

The European Commission is preparing to refer Germany to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, for failing to introduce a new law that would put it in line with the European data retention directive, according to a new report from Reuters. In 2006, the EU passed a directive in the wake of the London and Madrid terrorist attacks that compels ISPs and telecommunications companies to retain all e-mails, phone calls, and related data. These directives, while mandated from Brussels, must be written into the law of each of the 27 member states at the national level. However, since the directive, Germany, Romania, and the Czech Republic have had their national laws overturned by their courts.

French Court Sides With Google in YouTube Case

A French court on May 29 dismissed a copyright lawsuit against Google’s online video-sharing platform, YouTube, in a case that has parallels with the long-running struggle between YouTube and Viacom in the United States.

The Tribunal de Grande Instance declared that YouTube, which lets people post videos to the site, had made sufficiently adequate efforts to remove programs like “Heroes” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” for which TF1, the biggest television company in France, owned French broadcasting rights. TF1 had sought €141 million, or $176 million, in damages. Instead, it was ordered to pay €80,000 for Google’s legal expenses. The decision “represents a victory for the Internet and for all those who depend on the Web to exchange ideas and information,” said Christophe Mueller, YouTube’s head of partnerships for Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Google: Search Activity Rising Following Revamp

Google said it has seen a noticeable increase in activity on its vaunted Web-search in the two weeks since the company began one of the biggest search transformations in its history.

People doing Web searches now see a big box of information and photos related to search queries such as sports teams (try typing “San Francisco Giants”), geography (try “Matterhorn”), attractions (try “Matterhorn Bobsleds”), celebrities (try “Pink”), and science (try “Jupiter” or “Einstein”) located prominently on the right of the search results page. Before the change, Google users might have seen relevant search ads, content boxes with information from Google+, the company’s social network, or nothing at all. The new feature currently draws upon information from sites like Wikipedia, as well as music and movie catalogs that Google has licensed, among other things.

Rick Kaplan, FCC Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Chief, To Step Down; Ruth Milkman To Return As Bureau Chief

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that Rick Kaplan will step down as Chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and that Ruth Milkman, currently Special Counsel to the Chairman for Innovation in Government, will succeed Kaplan as Bureau Chief. The change will be effective mid-June.

Milkman served as Chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau from August 2009 to June 2011, and occupied various roles at the Commission between 1986 and 1998, including Deputy Chief of the International and Common Carrier Bureaus, and Senior Legal Advisor to Chairman Reed Hundt. She also was a founding partner of Lawler, Metzger, Milkman & Keeney, LLC, and served as law clerk to the Honorable J. Harvie Wilkinson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She received her B.A. from Harvard University and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.

Silicon Valley donations to Obama reach record levels

Last week, President Barack Obama swung through Silicon Valley, taking in nearly $13 million for his re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee, according to Politico. That’s more than at the same point four years ago, when he brought in $9.1 million. However, the political site points out, while there’s more money coming in, it’s coming in from fewer sources.

"A Politico analysis of federal campaign finance reports shows that the president received 12,000 contributions of $200 or more from Silicon Valley through this point in 2008 but only 6,400 so far in this election cycle," the site reported. “A small set of e-elites, 36 in all, had given the president $35,800 maximum checks through the end of March. The group includes familiar names such as Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, who is one of four executives from his company to max out to Obama." Not surprisingly, the Valley largely swings to the left, but Mitt Romney has attracted some tech superstars, like Marc Andreesen, the venture capitalist and founder of Netscape, who has given the Republican challenger $100,000 this year—Andreesen was an Obama supporter in 2008. According to Politico, Romney has only taken in $1.76 million so far from the California tech community.

Benton

Search