Wireless Federation

To provide an integrated , co-branded Verizon-Yahoo! portal, Verizon Communications and Yahoo! have signed a new multiyear agreement. Under this agreement, the customisable Verizon-Yahoo! portal will be offered as the first portal choice option for all new subscribers to Verizon’s FiOS Internet and High Speed Internet services. Verizon-Yahoo! portal will provide customers Yahoo! Search, and co-branded e-mail, Instant Messenger and Toolbar applications. E-Commerce revenues generated by users as well as search, advertising will be shared between both the companies.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

AOL is making a move to work in the arena of mobile advertising for expansion. Last year Time Warner’s Internet business moved its headquarters to New York to be closer to Madison Avenue, and streamlining its advertising services into one group called Platform A. Now it has been disclosed that AOL is partnering with iPhone to deliver customized mobile advertising. Company has already started shedding its e-mail ther subscription Web services last year in attempts to transform itself into an ad-supported portal along the lines of Yahoo and MSN. Last year AOL obtained mobile ad company Third Screen Media. 

We can not only help advertisers effectively reach iPhone users on WAP pages and Web pages, but we can also deliver banners optimized for display on the iPhone, President of Platform-A, Lynda Clarizio said. As the medium through which the advetisement reaches is Advertising.com and Third Screen networks, Platform-A can deliver up to 75 million ads a month to iPhone users, AOL believes.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
 

Apple’s iPhone faces another glitch in it’s premium email service.

The company has been migrating its Mac pay email service to an upgraded version, called MobileMe. But in doing so, it has run into problems, including service outages and customers losing access to their accounts, the latest in the string of issues that have cropped up since the launch of the latest iPhone, an unusual turn for a company known for its attention to detail in its products and services.

Google is backing Yahoo in its effort to stave off an unsolicited takeover by Microsoft because an independent Yahoo will increase competition in the internet search and advertising markets, an Associated Press report said.

The Associated Press report also quoted Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt sayiing that Google “absolutely supports the decision that Yahoo made” in rejecting the Microsoft overture.

He made the comments during an hourlong interview with reporters. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were also present, the report said.

“There is no question in our view that an independent Yahoo is better,” Schmidt It “will provide more competition in search and other advertising markets, in particular in display advertising,” he said.

Google is the leading seller of internet ads, but most of its revenue comes from paid search ads, which appear next to the results of an internet search using Google.

Yahoo, which is stronger in display ads, rejected in May a €29.8 billion (US$47.5 billion) offer from the world’s largest software maker. Schmidt would not say whether the informal offer fairly valued Yahoo, but said there is no way to know what the actual bid would ultimately be.

“Microsoft has a long history of having deals that look quite good and end up looking not so good when you read the fine print,” he said.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is also in Sun Valley, but has so far ducked reporters’ questions. A Microsoft spokesman did not immediately return calls seeing comment.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Having conquered desktop search, Google increasingly appears to be extending its dominion to the mobile Internet.

With a 62% share of mobile Web searches, Google’s market share on cell phones is roughly on par with its commanding lead in PC-based queries. Helping foster that connection, Google recently redesigned its mobile site to more closely resemble the desktop version.

Further, Google is also leading in SMS-text searches, with a 40% share compared to Yahoo’s 27%, according to Nielsen Mobile.

That’s noteworthy because more U.S. mobile data users currently perform searches via SMS than the mobile Internet, 13.1 million to 11.4 million. “While Yahoo got into mobile quickly and broadly and continues to lead as a brand in the mobile Internet, Google is positioning itself well as the leader in mobile search, through all forms including SMS, 411 and WAP (wireless application protocol),” said Nic Covey, director of insights for Nielsen Mobile.

So, is the mobile search war already over? Not necessarily, says Greg Sterling, who leads the local mobile practice for Opus Research, in a new report. While mobile search may not be a wide-open field, Google’s success depends in part on whether search will be as important on mobile devices as on the desktop.

He points out that search is fundamentally more cumbersome in mobile because it’s not as easy to navigate back and forth between search results and WAP sites as on the wired Internet.

Meanwhile, the growing number of mobile applications and widgets make it easier than ever for cell phone users to find information through browser-like interfaces than search boxes. Apple’s App Store opening Thursday with 500 applications for the iPhone is sure to fuel that trend.

“There’s no search required to get the most-desired content,” wrote Sterling. “Search potentially becomes a secondary tool for finding information not provided by the chosen widgets.” Of course, Google has its own set of mobile applications it plans to help spread through phones due out this year using its Android mobile operating system.

Sterling also suggests bookmarks, or short lists of favorite sites, could assume renewed importance on the mobile Web, reducing the need for search.

While concluding search will still have a significant role to play on the handset, his report argues that the wide range of devices and user experiences “creates potential openings for companies other than Google to rise in mobile and potentially gain mindshare and market share.”

One mobile search category where Google hasn’t made inroads is in 411 services. Its Google-411 offering has only 4% of the market, well behind standard 411 (66%) and 1-800-Free-411 (23%).

“411 is an established market and also a market that skews to older users, making it harder for Google to make inroads there, even with a compelling free service,” said Nielsen Mobile’s Covey. But he added that it may just be a matter of time before Google’s free 411 service, launched in April 2007, gains ground.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

As the 3G iPhone launches in Germany and the UK today, comScore M:Metrics reports that more than 80% of iPhone users in France, Germany and the UK browse the mobile web, compared to 32% of other smartphone users. 

Even on 2.5G networks, the iPhone has increased internet consumption by 13 times for social networking sites: 42% of iPhone users visited a social networking site on their device in May compared to the market average of 3% and 10% of other smartphone owners.  

Nearly 70% of iPhone users send and receive e-mail, compared to 26% among other smartphones users and 7.6% of the mobile phone market overall. Given stories of massive demand for the 3G version, it will be interesting to see how it is put to use.

In the meantime, Nokia claims operators and other interested parties are flocking to join the new Symbian Foundation whose first version of royalty-free software is due out next year followed by open source in 2010.

Whatever their functionality, it turns out that 97% of mobile phones no longer in use languish in drawers: the Western world need to do much better at recycling. Ignorance is no defence.

Dan Kaminsky announced that he had saved the world – having discovered an security flaw in the internet six months ago, he immediately set about fixing it in secret, in cahoots with some of the world’s biggest tech companies. Now it’s fixed with a software patch and a global phishing phest has been averted – we hope.

The European Parliament decided it would like to have a single telcom authority after all – to be known as BERT – and opted to pursue a policy of functional separation, which managed to enrage both incumbents and alternative service providers. Quite a coup.

The European Commission continued to rain on the mobile industry’s parade, outlining plans to change the way mobile termination rates are regulated by 2012, suggesting that wholesale charges should be calculated on a different basis.

The UK’s Competition Commission is taking immediate unilateral action: its  enquiry into mobile termination is likely to run and run.

Vimpelcom, Russia’s second largest mobile network operator, has finalised its mobile joint venture with Vietnamese state companies. A Reuters report said this will be the Russian carrier’s launch pad for its Asian expansion.

It’s likely to meet the Chinese coming the other way, so to speak: Huawei’s 2007 revenue was up 48% to almost €8 billion, due in large part to expansion outside its home market.

And of course the week wouldn’t be complete without more action on the Yahoo/Microsoft/grumpy shareholders front. Microsoft has given shareholder agitator Carl Icahn assurances that if he manages to oust Yahoo’s board at the general meeting in early August, it will put another deal on the table.

Yahoo decided that a new approach to search is the way to attack Google.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News Mobile

In the 1976 British DJs were bereft when Queen’s six minute Bohemian Rhapsody was no longer in the charts – it had been a staple for so very long. Technology journalists are going to feel the same about the final outcome of the Microsoft/Yahoo debacle because here we go again.

Yesterday Microsoft issued a statement saying it wanted to reopen talks to acquire either the search business or all of Yahoo, on the condition that the current board was replaced first.

The software company also acknowledged, for the first time, that it has been discussing its plans with billionaire shareholder and agitator Carl Icahn. He has campaigning to get rid of the board since it blocked the original Microsoft bid as he does not believe it was in shareholders’ interests.

Should Icahn succeed in his campaign to get rid of the board – his big chance is looming, at Yahoo’s general meeting that is to take place on 1 August – Microsoft wants his support.

And it looks like they’ve got it: Icahn has apparently written to shareholders saying that if they support his proposals for a new board, then negotiations with Microsoft will be reopened forthwith.

News of the behind the scenes action drove Yahoo’s shares up almost 12%, to US$23.89: in May Microsoft’s offer of US$33 per share was rejected.

Yahoo said it was open to negotiations, but argued that effectively placing Yahoo in Icahn’s hands for sale to Microsoft at an unknown price would not be putting shareholders’ interests first.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Paris-based ad holding company Publicis Groupe formed an ad network spanning all four major ad serving systems?Microsoft , Google/DoubleClick, Yahoo and AOL ?to tightly coordinate campaigns across these platforms. The announcement also included an additional deal with Yahoo for mobile advertising, which aims to help brands reach mobile consumers more easily.

The breakdown of the deal: Publicis will integrate its current media buying systems with Yahoo!’s Right Media Exchange (which also recently signed a deal with Publicis rival WPP’s GroupM), and with AMP!, Yahoo’s advertising management platform. Publicis Groupe’s mobile marketing agency, Phonevalley, will also lean heavily on Yahoo’s Blueprint technology which is the backbone of Yahoo! Go, a platform that supports widgets and third-party apps. Blueprint, in theory, allows developers to create an app once that can run on the Yahoo! Go platform, which is compatible with hundreds of phones around the world. Brands working with Publicis could tap into this capability, making it easier to develop one campaign that could work on various phones, carriers and across multiple countries. Phonevalley is claiming to be the first global agency to integrate Blueprint. In addition, Yahoo! and Publicis Groupe will work with Yahoo’s Smart Ads technology, allowing Publicis to create numerous permutations of a given brand’s message more easily.

This relationship may provide a much needed boost to mobile advertising. Often times, ad agencies don’t have the expertise in-house to roll out a campaign that may need to be adapted for hundreds of phones, carriers and countries. Of course, this is a pretty big win for Yahoo, which has been slowly setting up an empire of mobile search and advertising relationships around the world with carriers. Just last week, Yahoo announced five new partners, bringing the total list of carriers that uses its mobile search to 60 over the last 18 months.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Charles Darwin famously declared that “natural selection” was Mother Nature’s way of improving a species so it could advance.

Internet search engines are locked in their own Darwinian drama. Depending how it turns out, desktop brands such as Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO) could become sturdier versions of themselves, ensuring survival as more people bolt for the mobile Web. Or they could become the Dodo birds of the Net — outclassed by a new generation of rivals.

Born in the early days of the Internet, Google, Yahoo and smaller competitors help billions of people navigate the Web each day. Now, they’re scrambling to adapt their desktop services for the hard realities of the wireless world.

Today, about 1 billion people have PCs; about 3 billion have mobile phones, growing to 4 billion by 2010. A major driver is the growing popularity of Web-enabled devices such as the Apple (AAPL) iPhone.

One of the biggest challenges: dealing with the matchbox-size screens of cellphones and other devices, which aren’t hospitable to the ads that are the lifeblood of traditional search engines. Billions in potential ad revenue are at stake as social networks, location-based services and wireless search deliver instant answers to wireless users on the go.

“As hot as they are right now, Google and the others could become dinosaurs if they simply try to use their old business models,” says Roger Entner, a senior vice president at IAG Research in Boston. But if they can adapt, he says, they could extend their dominance.

Microsoft (MSFT) has been pushing its Windows Mobile operating system for years. Today, it’s available from 50 handset makers and more than 160 mobile operators worldwide.

Even so, it’s been tough slogging, says Phil Holden, director of online services for Microsoft.

“What we’ve learned is that loyalty on the PC doesn’t necessarily transfer to the mobile phone,” he says. The wireless world, he adds, “has a lot of different dynamics.”

One thing everybody agrees on: The mobile Web is an advertising gold mine just waiting to happen.

The fledgling mobile search industry generated about $700 million in ad revenue in 2007, JupiterResearch estimates. By 2012, revenue is expected to hit $2.2 billion and keep rising. Jupiter analyst Julie Ask says mobile search could eventually eclipse the traditional Web, which currently generates about $20 billion in ad revenue.

No matter how things shake out, consumers will benefit, predicts Ford Cavallari of Monitor Group, a consulting firm in Boston that specializes in technology. Search rankings based on factors that have little relation to the quality of a product or service, such as the number of daily “hits” a website gets, or a paid advertisement placement, are about to become history, he says.

Soon, word-of-mouth referrals from social-networking sites (think Facebook and MySpace(NWS)) and customized data made possible by instant messaging and other instant communications will rule, he says.

The upshot: In the near future, a restaurant “might actually have to be high quality and offer value” to patrons to draw customers from the Web, Cavallari says.

“In the next 12 to 18 months we’re going to see a growing segment of (consumers) using wireless services as the way to get on the Internet 95% of the time,” says Imad Mouline, chief technology officer of Gomez, which helps Facebook, Expedia (EXPE) and other companies improve the quality of their Web presence. Currently, about 16% of cellphone owners use handheld devices to access the mobile Web, Jupiter says.

Entner, for one, thinks the mobile Web could produce a mighty rival to traditional desktop engines, one whose core strengths are rooted in the unique world of wireless. Such a newcomer, he says, “could wind up doing to Google what Google did to Yahoo” and other PC-based search engines. Namely, it could trump them in the marketplace.

To be sure, Google, a Web monster with a market value of more than $200 billion, would be tough to topple. But it’s not impossible.

If it’s not careful, Entner says, Google could wind up following in AOL’s famous footsteps. AOL in the ’90s was an online juggernaut with a gold-plated brand name and more than 30 million subscribers. Today, it’s a free service with a dwindling base of about 8.7 million customers.

“Google is trying to replicate a 20-inch experience on a 2-inch screen, and that’s leaving them, inevitably, about 90% short,” he says.

Too much information

Making the leap to wireless is a lot trickier than it might appear.

For starters, there are those tiny screens. Internet search was designed for PC screens, which can easily accommodate loads of advertisements. The latter is critical, because search engines depend on ads for their financial survival.

In the PC environment, ads are abundant and constant. Paid advertisements are typically stripped along the right side of the PC screen, with premium spots at the top reserved for the biggest spenders.

Try that on a wireless device, and you’d quickly run out of room for anything else.

Similarly, the basic act of rendering searches also gets tough on a tiny screen.

In the online world, a single search request can result in a dozen or more pages of results. If results aren’t specific enough, you simply resubmit a query. After a few tries, you usually find what you’re looking for.

That entire process is a total non-starter in the wireless environment, says Sameer Mithal, a senior principal with IBB Consulting in Princeton, N.J.

Mobile consumers are typically on the run, he says, with little time or patience for typing on pint-size keypads. As for pages of search results — forget about it. There isn’t nearly enough screen space for that, Mithal says.

And advertisements? Approach with care; otherwise, you may offend customers and lose them for good, Gomez’s Mouline warns. “Not doing it thoughtfully can get you to a point where customers will abandon your entire brand.”

Traditional search engines, to some extent, are victims of their own success. Basic search algorithms are designed to do a massive Web “crawl” each time a search request is received.

In the mobile environment, however, such thoroughness can be the digital equivalent of using a shotgun to take out a housefly — way too much firepower for the task at hand.

“The desktop search engines are what they are,” Mithal shrugs. Even if you’re only asking for a very specific thing — a sports score, for example — “they still have to search overall Web content.”

Search engines, angling to win over mobile customers early, are racing to solve these problems. Their solutions, in some cases, are wildly different.

Yahoo’s solution is a nod to the social-networking craze. Its OneConnect service, which makes its debut this summer, integrates messaging and social-networking updates from Facebook, MySpace and the like in one spot on the phone. OneConnect ties directly to a user’s address book, letting people share information, social-networking updates and messages on the fly.

“On the phone, time is limited, so you really need to provide highly relevant and useful information,” says Marc Davis, chief scientist for Connected Life, the Yahoo unit responsible for non-PC services, including mobile.

That philosophy is the force behind “OneSearch with Voice,” which integrates voice-recognition technology with traditional search. The service allows users to simply speak their request into a cellphone — “Where’s the best craps table in Las Vegas?” — in plain English. Responses are sent back in text form, as in any other search.

The voice-recognition technology is “so good, it’s shocking,” Davis says, handling accents, continuous speech and verbal affectations with ease.

While all searches, mobile and otherwise, use the same search algorithm, there is one big difference: Yahoo says mobile search responses are provided strictly on the basis of relevancy, with no preferential treatment for ad-supported products and services. “This is about providing answers, not links,” Davis says.

Google says it sees no reason to change what it does just because it’s moving into the wireless arena. “We think that what we do is highly transferable to the mobile device,” says Matt Waddell, chief of mobile and developer products for Google.

The tiny screen isn’t a problem, he says. “It’s still as easy as typing.”

That said, Google is making a few accommodations. Instead of giving wireless users pages of search results, for example, it only offers “snippets” — Google-speak for the first few search results that appear at the top of the page. It’s also limiting the number of ads to one or two per search.

Waddell says the advertising opportunities in wireless are huge. One example: Say you’re in San Francisco, and you suddenly get an urge for pasta. Provided your device has Global Positioning System location technology, Waddell says, Google can offer up a list of Italian restaurants within a five-minute walk.

“Advertisers would probably be willing to pay more money for such an ad, because it would be much more targeted,” he says.

While such an approach might seem to subjugate the interests of consumers to advertisers, Waddell says that’s not the case at all. “We never think of advertising first,” he says, adding, “We won’t touch an ad with a 10-foot pole unless we think it delivers a better search experience.”

Google on the go

Google is taking other steps to make sure it doesn’t get iced out of wireless opportunities. The Web giant is pushing development of an open wireless operating system — dubbed Android — that would make it easier for consumers to use Google’s mobile services. Android-loaded devices are expected to hit the market later this year.

While the big incumbents duke it out, start-ups are nipping at their heels. That includes Medio, a Seattle-based company that hopes to turn itself into the Google of mobile.

Like Google, Medio’s service is geared around a simple “search box” format. That’s where the similarity ends, CEO Brian Lent says. Medio “was designed as a pure-play company for the mobile industry.”

Unlike Google, he says, Medio’s patented algorithm hones in on “mobile discovery,” producing far more relevant answers for users. Example: A search for a Madonna ring tone might also result in links to a CNN article about the singer, as well as V Cast, the mobile music channel offered by Verizon.

“That’s a lot different than crawling the Web” as Google does every time a query is received, Lent says.

Another difference: Medio is a “white label” company that works directly with big carriers such as Verizon and T-Mobile. Carriers, in turn, rebrand Medio’s service under their own names.

Lent has a very personal view of the Web’s biggest search engine. A data-mining expert, Lent was part of the academic team that worked on Google when it was still a lab project at Stanford. He left to take a job at Amazon a month before Google was incorporated.

Lent, who remains friends with Google co-founder Sergey Brin, says he’s hugely admiring of Google’s pioneering efforts. The Web giant, now a Medio partner, almost single-handedly raised the online search category to a new level, he says, introducing billions of people to the wonders of the Web.

But now it’s a new world, he says — a wireless world. “Everyone wants to bash the incumbent, but I’d rather take a playbook out of judo and leverage the strengths that they have” and build on top of that, Lent says.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
 

Phentermine blue capules
Buy cheap vicodin
Time released xanax
Ionamin phentermine yellow
India pharmacies ativan valium xanax
Free viagra sample
Effexor
Cialis reviews
Phentermine 30 mg ordered with discover card
Lexapro and xanax
Meridia versus phentermine
Carbinoxamine
Dicumarol
Bontril phentermine adipex
Afrin
Viagra cialis comparison
Dont buy on black market get viagra legally
Phentermine usa pharmacy
99 phentermine
Phentermine pharmacy cod
Singulair
Xanax
Viagra online ordering
Free viagra samples
Tramadol hydrochloride overdose
Phentermine side affects
Cialis soft
Ethinyl
Tetracycline
Online viagra
Desyrel
Viagra high blood pressure
Phentermine side effects danger
Phentermine from canada
Cialis overnight shipping
Soft tab viagra
Compare viagra price
Natural viagra alternative
Triflupromazine
Pargyline
Discount pharmacy phentermine purchase
Phentermine ionamin
Effects of phentermine
Buy xanax without prescription in usa
Accutane
Capoten
Cialis new viagra
Order phentermine online without perscription
Mepenzolate
Mexican phentermine
Online tramadol
Phentermine florida
Diltiazem
Effects of viagra on women
Order tramadol cod
Lowest price phentermine with free shipping
Phentermine 90 day
Pilljar phentermine
What is viagra
120 cheap tramadol
Alternative to viagra
Soma seed
Order phentermine overnight
Cialis price compare
Viagra alternatives
Tramadol hcl
Phentermine feedback
Buy viagra internet
Pfizer viagra online
Luvox and xanax
Phentermine pharmacy online consultation
Cod tramadol money orders
Metformin
Depakote
Imuran
Metrizamide
Diazoxide
Phentermine buy best
Skelaxin
Generic cialis uk
Buy discount viagra online
Tocainide
Buy phentermine online pharmacy
Lethal dosage of xanax
Phentermine perscription
Grapefruit viagra
Order phentermine cod online
Buy phentermine mastercard
Nasonex
Effect viagra
Drug vicodin
Propafenone
Is it safe to take prozac and phentermine
Acebutolol
Ergotamine
Nalorphine
Cod delivered phentermine
Free generic sample viagra
Long term side effects of xanax
Cyber pharmacy phentermine
Order soma carisoprodol
Nasonex
Crestor
Indomethacin
Phentermine weight loss pills
Isoetharine
Capreomycin
Promethazine
Canada cialis
Cheap discount phentermine
Herbal viagra
Line prescription viagra
Phentermine lose weight loss diet pills
Bumetanide
Tramadol addiction
Buy xanax no prescription
Phencyclidine
Generic viagra india
Oxprenolol
Order buy phentermine online
Zocor
Niacinamide
Viagra discussion
Hydromorphone
Phentermine prescriptions
Buy Lorazepam
Phentermine no prescription required next day delivery
Cialis company
Phenolphthalein
Effects viagra
James thompson viagra lawsuit
Viagra overnight delivery
Discount hydrocodone
Tramadol prescriptions
Flutamide
Online viagra prescriptions
Diet phentermine pill sale
Thalidomide
Canada cheap viagra
Phentermine drug test
Viagra dangers
Vicodin prescription
Phentermine and pregnancy
Discount priced viagra
Tramadol hydrochloride capsules
Phenacetin
Phentermine meridia xenical review
Midodrine
Phentermine sameday overnight saturday delivery
Diethylpropion

Yahoo’s management ranks are rapidly thinning as the internet pioneer fends off a shareholder mutiny threatening to culminate in the firing of CEO Jerry Yang.

An Associated Press report said three more executives have decided to jump ship, according to reports published by two blogs, AllThingsD and Techcrunch, and The New York Times.

The reports were based on unnamed people with knowledge of the departures.

The latest defectors reportedly are: Qi Lu, an executive vice president in charge of Yahoo’s search and advertising technology; Brad Garlinghouse, a senior vice president who oversees communications tools like mail; and Vish Makhijani, a senior vice president involved in search.

Garlinghouse is the best known of the trio.

In 2006, he wrote a scathing memo arguing that Yahoo had gone awry and needed a major housecleaning. The so-called “manifesto” caused a stir when it was leaked to The Wall Street Journal.

The management turmoil appears related to a major reorganization that Yahoo president Susan Decker wants to complete as early as next week, according to a Wall Street Journal story that cited unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Hilary Schneider, a Yahoo executive vice president who is one of Decker’s most trusted subordinates, could wind up with expanded responsibility in a streamlining aimed at improving communication between the company’s product groups and overseas sales division, the Journal reported.

Yahoo declined to confirm the departures but issued a statement expressing its confidence in “a deep and talented management team.”

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News