901am

New Media News Every Morning

Google introduces Chrome OS

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We know it’s coming as part of their grand plan. So, let us all welcome the Google Chrome Operating System.

Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director formally announced the highly anticipated OS via the Official Google Blog. Pichai explained the nature of this new project:

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Match.com acquires People Media for $80 million cash

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IAC’s Match.com has signed an agreement to acquire People Media, operator of targeted dating sites, from American Capital Ltd for $80 million in cash.

The acquisition of People Media will expand and strengthen Match.com’s position in the online dating space. People Media operates 27 websites including BlackPeopleMeet.com, SingleParentMeet.com, SeniorPeopleMeet.com, BBPeopleMeet.com and LDSPlanet.com.

Greg Blatt, CEO of Match.com, said:

People Media’s momentum will continue, and that the combination of Match.com and People Media can accelerate each business’ current growth trends in a variety of ways, including through the sharing of product development and online marketing expertise and the ability to market a broader array of services to the combined customer base, thereby improving customer acquisition economics for both companies.

Facebook app allow users to refer and earn

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ReferQuest.com and its Facebook version has launched, allowing its to state what they’re looking for, along with the reward they’ll pay the person who finds it for them.

Money can be earned also by promoting requests, finding matches, and earning the offered rewards. ReferQuest.com currently offers over $40 thousand in rewards. Small businesses can use the free application to offer finders’ fees to reward customer acquisition. Posting requests is free, and users only pay when they’ve found what they’re seeking.

It’s straightforward: Offer rewards for the results you want. We will see though how this new site progresses.

Bing gains but still way too far to challenge Google

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Bing has increased Microsoft’s share of the search market by 1% in the US according to analysis for June conducted by StatCounter. Google, obviously, still dominates the US search market.

Microsoft (Bing, Live Search and MSN Search in total) had 8.23% market share in June, behind Yahoo! at 11.04% according to monthly analysis by StatCounter Global Stats. Google has fallen back slightly from 79.07% in April to 78.48% in June but maintains its strong foothold on the lead. Nothing to worry for Serge and Larry.

Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter, said:

“At first sight, a 1% increase in market share does not appear to be a huge return on the investment Microsoft has made in Bing but the underlying trend appears positive. Steady if not spectacular might be the best way to describe performance to date.”

Data is based on an analysis of 1.316 billion search engine referring clicks (336 million from the US) which were collected from the StatCounter network of over three million websites.

Signing Off

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As I posted last April 1, my time to move has come after Splashpress Media decided not to renew my services. Others thought of that post as an April Fools joke but it’s true. My term ends at the strike of midnight today.

I asked you to continue supporting 901am.com and other Splashpress Media sites. I remain grateful to them for the opportunity. In the same way, I would like to invite you to visit me from time to time as I go back to my roots.