Adobe Systems Incorporated announced the preview release of Acrobat.com Presentations, available for free sign-up as a public beta on Adobe Labs. Acrobat.com Presentations extends the Acrobat.com vision of enabling a better way for people to work together on the web by providing an engaging presentation application built on the Adobe Flash Platform.

Acrobat.com Presentations builds on the Acrobat.com set of hosted services, including Adobe Buzzword and Adobe ConnectNow, by making it easy for virtually anyone to create professional-looking presentations online. The application includes built-in tools and layouts for adding visually appealing elements, such as pre-defined color sets, intelligent image placement and graphic tools for creating diagrams and adding effects. Users can enhance their presentations with visual special effects, slide transitions and embedded videos that can be accessed by anyone with Adobe Flash Player, which is installed on 98 percent of Internet-connected desktops worldwide.

Acrobat.com Presentations lets people work together on a presentation, all contributing at the same time or separately, regardless of where they are located. Now, there is no need to search for the latest version or combine multiple copies in order to capture everyone’s changes. With simultaneous editing capabilities, no one is locked out of the presentation while others are making changes. The application also makes it easy to see who has access to the presentation, who is viewing, who is editing and which slide each person is editing. Because the presentation lives online, people can access the latest version from any Internet-connected computer and deliver the presentation from anywhere online via ConnectNow or offline by exporting to PDF.

Online community for soccer fans Footbo.com has now integrated Facebook Connect. This enables users to share information across the two platforms and log-in with their Facebook profile.

The access to Facebook’s activity stream enables Footbo users to connect their accounts to Facebook and share their football blog posts, discussion topics and comments with their friends on Facebook. New users coming to Footbo will be able to log-in with their Facebook account, without having to fully register on Footbo.

Footbo features include:

• Interaction with friends and more than 250,000 football fans from around the globe
• Live scores, fixtures and personalized news
• Blogs and forums
• Prediction Games
• Grading of players’ performances
• Photo and video sharing
• Team and player profiles – created by the Footbo community
• Fan groups of teams and players

Zoho announced that the name of its parent company has changed from AdventNet, Inc., to ZOHO Corporation, effective immediately. The name change represents the evolution of the company and the emergence of Zoho as its widely known division.

“In 1996, we started the company with a primary focus on network management. Over the years, we grew significantly, serving different markets,” said Sridhar Vembu, founder and CEO of ZOHO Corp. “We are now best known for the Zoho suite of on-line business applications. Given the reach of Zoho, we are renaming the company to ZOHO Corporation, and Zoho.com will be one division. The other divisions — ManageEngine and WebNMS — will continue operating under their established names and also become divisions of ZOHO Corp.”

The new name complements the rich history of ZOHO Corp. Founded in 1996, the 13-year old company has grown to 1,000 employees and remains privately held and profitable, having never sought nor raised venture capital.

Plastic Jungle, the website where you can sell, buy and exchange gift cards, has secured $4.8 million in its Series A Preferred Stock Financing, led by Shasta Ventures with investments from Bay Partners, First Round Capital and Harrison Metal. The financing will allow Plastic Jungle to accelerate its growth through key new hires, as well as increased marketing and business development efforts.

As part of the round, Plastic Jungle will add two new members to its board of directors, including Tod Francis of Shasta Ventures and Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital. Existing board members include Gary Briggs, Plastic Jungle founder and Chief Operating Officer Tina Henson, and St. Bernard Software CEO Lou Ryan.

Linden Lab, creator of the virtual world Second Life, revealed that it has delivered over 15 billion minutes of voice services, demonstrating the rapid growth and broad adoption of VoIP in Second Life. The company also revealed its product roadmap for the remainder of 2009, such as introducing new features that will enhance the Second Life platform and provide unique monetization opportunities. With 700,000 unique users consuming more than a billion minutes a month, voice has become an integral component of the Second Life experience.

Over 50% of Second Life users, a group that includes a broad range of consumers, educators and large enterprises, use voice as part of their everyday inworld experience. In addition to making education, business meetings, simulations, training and casual conversations more meaningful, realistic and fluid, voice is also a key component of Linden Lab’s business model and strategy moving forward. With several key product launches scheduled for the latter half of 2009, Linden Lab expects this rapid adoption to continue while also adding several new revenue streams for the company.

In addition to revealing its roadmap for the rest of the year, Linden Lab is also introducing a new service called AvaLine that enables residents to receive voice calls inworld from an outside number. Greatly extending the reach of the Second Life experience, AvaLine lets friends, customers, colleagues and business associates connect to the Second Life viewer via a landline, cell phone or VoIP application.

Redfin, the real estate infustry’s first online brokerage for buying and selling homes, revealed that 51% of people who bought a home through Redfin reported that the company’s online community influenced their decision to work with the brokerage. Prior to making a purchase, over 22% of Redfin buyers had posted a question to the community.

Visits to Redfin’s online community have increased 415% year over year. In that time, Redfin’s revenues have increased by more than 40%, while the company has reduced marketing program expenses 82%; Redfin’s Net Promoter Score, a measure of customer satisfaction, has increased by 5%.

Redfin’s community, powered by Lithium, is one of the only forums for real estate consumers to ask one another about pricing trends, neighborhood guidance, and local best practices The community allows customers to comment on individual agents’ service, and to suggest improvements to Redfin’s website. Community postings appear throughout Redfin’s site, with each agent’s contributions appearing on a profile page that also includes the agent’s entire deal history as well as customer reviews and ratings.

Vlingo Corporation released results from the second annual Vlingo Consumer Mobile Messaging Habits Report. Despite Driving While Texting (DWT) bans in seven states and the District of Columbia as well as reports of accidents caused by DWT, 26% of mobile phone users continue to text behind the wheel. Drivers in Tennessee are the worst offenders, with the highest percentage of respondents (42%) who admit to DWT, while Arizona has the lowest percentage (18.8%). The Vlingo Report also reveals that text messaging has grown steadily over the past 12 months across all age groups, with nearly 60% of mobile phone users now texting, compared to 54% in 2008.

One in four of all mobile phone users admit to DWT and it occurs in all age groups. Almost 60% of those ages 16 to 19 admit to DWT and 49% of those 20 to 29 admit to DWT. The percentages get smaller for older respondents, but usage remains high with 13% of those in their 50s admitting to doing so.

Among survey respondents there is general consensus that DWT should be legally banned. Slightly more than 83% of respondents think DWT should be illegal, while only 7% think DWT should be legal, and 10% are undecided. However, with more safety precautions such as hands-free solutions that enable consumers to text without typing, 40% of respondents favor making DWT legal. Additionally, nearly 70% would use voice recognition technology while driving instead of typing if they could speak text or email messages and have incoming messages read to them.

The fate of the nation’s traditional news sources, specifically newspapers and TV news programs, may lie in the hands, eyes and pocketbooks of America’s well-connected, growing network of women age 50-plus. A recent survey by VibrantNation.com among its more than 20,000 members, shows that while Boomer women are now utilizing the Internet as their core news source they remain heavy consumers of “traditional” media outlets with nearly 70% of respondents citing a combination of newspapers, TV, radio and magazines among their primary sources of news. VibrantNation.com is the first online destination created exclusively for women 50+ and a peer-to-peer information exchange populated by smart and passionate women.

With statistics showing that women 50+ are spending more money compared to any other demographic– and more time online than teenagers– understanding this often overlooked yet powerful, advertiser-friendly block of consumers could be key to the survival of “traditional” media such as newspapers and TV news programs. Among these “Vibrant Women,” as dubbed by VibrantNation.com, the survey findings uncovered that:

• Online News Leads the Way: 28% of women 50+ depend on the Internet as their primary news source. Of those who turn to the Web for news, 29% use their Web service homepage (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.), 25% log-on to newspaper websites (NYTimes.com, WSJ.com, local newspaper sites, etc.), 25% read news blogs and specialty online news sources (HuffingtonPost.com, Politico.com, DrudgeReport.com, Weather.com, etc.), and 16% rely on online news sites of broadcast media outlets (CNN.com, ABCNews.com, CBSNews.com, etc.).

• “Traditional” Media Still Plays a Central Role: While garnering smaller percentages than the Web on an individual basis, when combined 70% of respondents cite multiple “traditional” print and broadcast media as their primary news source — TV news programs (23%), newspapers (21%), radio (15%) and magazines (11%).

Mobile games publisher Glu Mobile Inc. announced the launch of the game Cops & Robbers on the Apple App Store. The app is an original Glu title for iPhone and iPod touch that will give players a rush of adrenaline as they play a thief escaping pursuers or play as a cop chasing down a criminal on the run.

Cops & Robbers plays off of parkour-style acrobatics using unique accelerometer controls of the iPhone and iPod touch. Set in a 3-D urban landscape, the game is a visual feast full of shadows and rich glowing effects.

The Knot Inc. announced the acquisition of several registry patents from Felicite.com, as well as the ongoing business of eWish, a web-based service that enables online merchants to easily add online gift registries to their websites.

With Felicite’s patented group gifting technology, wedding guests can pool gift money online to put toward the pricier items on a registry. The patent pending cash substitution technology allows brides and grooms to get more of the gifts and cash they actually want from their registry. These new features will provide couples more options and flexibility when creating and updating their wish lists.