Also: O2 to carry to iPhone? | Chinas biggest search engine signs music deal | The BBC's iPlayer is Web 1.0 | Is Technorati in decline? | Google's Copiepresse case drags on | How to be a good Facebook friend | Nokia partners on Indian "mobile newspaper" | Diverting website of the day - bear, inside out
Former MySpace chief executive Brad Greenspan is leading an investment group prepared to bid $1.25bn for 25% of Dow Jones, according to the New York Times and his vision, says Beet TV, is to make Dow a financial video news channel.
Bambi Francisco, the former Marketwatch columnist - who left a few months back after questions over her financial investments in tech firms - told Beet that Dow Jones employees are short-sighted to reject Rupert Murdoch's bid for Dow Jones.
"News Corp will take the paper and the journalists to a new level that includes video integrated with text on a 24-hour internet news channel that can also be watched on TV/cable. That's where the news world is heading. News Corp can help DJ expand its desire to create that Internet channel. DJ is already trying as I've been one of the journalists trying to build that budding channel."
Beet TV rightly points out that though the opportunity is there, it is questionable whether old media can move fast enough to fit the space.
"I think that there is going to be a big challenges in culture and legacy for traditional media like Dow Jones, Forbes and Reuters to transform, to create a scalable and engaging video property beyond a compliment to their text offerings." (Beet TV)
O2 to carry the UK iPhone?
I will, I confess, be prepared to change mobile operators if Orange doesn't get the iPhone deal. It seems incredibly unlikely, not least because Orange has the worst customer service I have experienced - second only to NPower and NTL - and Apple is unlikely to want to jeoparidise its UK customer relations by going down that route. But I hadn't expected O2 to be in the frame either, so was surprised to see it now tipped to be the UK carrier. Staci Kramer on MocoNews has a good, brief, practical review, and the Technology Blog explained how tech firms made money this week by ripping the device apart, identify who manufactured the components and then investing in them. (MediaGuardian)
China's biggest search engine signs music deal
Baidu.com has signed a deal with the Chinese record label Rock Music Group to provide an online music streaming service. Part of the label's catalogue will be made available to users for free under the deal and the two companies will share advertising revenue. Both Baidu and Yahoo China have come under fire from US music labels for facilitating illegal music downloads that account for 85% of China's music. (Reuters)
The BBC's iPlayer is Web 1.0
Snippets from a speech by Ashley Highfield, BBC director of future media and technology, on Monday: the iPlayer is just Web 1.0, the 2.0 is how the BBC works with social media and 3.0 is working with the semantic, intelligent web. The BBC has already decided not to do its own socila net site, thank God. (CNet)
Is Technorati in decline?
Blog search engine Technorati, which seems to be becoming progressively less useful, is seeing an exodus of staff: chief executive Dave Sifry is leaving but also chief techie Tantak Celik, vide president of engineering Adam Hertz and product manager Liz Dunn. (Valleywag)
Google's Copiepresse case drags on
Google is likely to try to extend its appeal against the Belgian ruling that ruled it has breached the copyright of Copiepresses, a group of European publishers. Talks with the French, German and Belgian publishers are ongoing, according to the report. The publishers had objected to Google's use of copyrighted snippets in its search indexes without payment or permission, but after talks Google reintroduced snippets to the publisher's work. At a guess, I'd say the publishers probably agreed to this when they saw their traffic plummet when they weren't included in search results any more. Google still hasn't paid any fines to Copiepress, or paid for access to work it has indexed. (Wall Street Journal)
How to be a good Facebook friend
Yep, it's kind of pathetic. If you need telling then you're probably wasting your time on Facebook anyway. But Valleywag suggests ten points that might help:
- Have at least 15 friends so you don't look like a loser.
- Include interesting details, not just descriptions.
- Message your friends, otherwise there's no point being there.
- Don't bother with the secrecy options.
- Only add people that aren't really your friends if there's loads of activity.
- Post flattering photos and stories, but avoid Photoshop. And lies.
- Don't opt for the creepy "it's complicated" setting in your relationship status.
- Link all your social net profiles together.
- Make mutual friends by raiding your real friends.
- Post messages on birthdays. It's only polite.
One other Facebook story is not online as far as I can discern, alas, but The Guardian's editor Alan Rusbridger has made a nib on page 24 of The Sun for suggesting that head of departments make sure they are signed up to Facebook, and start posting photos. Oh yes, we're very forward thinking here. I can reveal that actually the real obsession is creating look-e-likee Simpsons avatars on simpsonsmovie.com...
Nokia partners on Indian "mobile newspaper"
Nokia is launching some kind of mobile newspaper in India, in partnership with the dual-language daily newspaper Malyalam Manorama. The service will be native language and accessible to users with one of a handful of GPRS-enabled Nokia handsets. No indication here of exactly how the service operates or what it actually looks like that makes it a "mobile newspaper" instead of a mobile news service, but it will provide both national and international news across all the usual categories of sport, entertainment and so on. (TechTree)
Diverting website of the day
Courtesy of Boing Boing, we discover the photobook by Kent Rogowski, the guy that turns teddy bear inside out.
