Google goes after Baidu — will offer free music downloads
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008
The details are vague, but Google could be on the verge of a significant breakthrough in offering free music over the Web in China, according to the WSJ. If its planned project works in China, it may work elsewhere too.
Google is close to launching joint venture with a Chinese online music company to provide free — licensed — music downloads in China, according to the report. This is significant, because from the beginning, Chinese search engine Baidu.com has beaten Google in China by offering users searches for free, unlicensed music downloads. While there are legal issues with doing this, Baidu has continued to thrive without punishment. Now Google is apparently about to hit back, and do it legally.
Here’s the plan, according to the WSJ:
[Google will offer] high-quality music files embedded with a digital “watermark” that lets record labels track how often their songs are downloaded. The idea: Better-quality files will draw users away from unlicensed downloads, and give labels and search companies valuable data needed to make money from advertising, say people familiar with the plans.
Originally
from VentureBeat
by
reBlogged
on Feb 7, 2008, 4:15AM
Google’s Universal Search
Sunday, January 6th, 2008
A little over a year ago, I wrote a blog entry about Google’s OneBox feature — and it’s potential to impact other vertical search engines. Danny Sullivan’s SearchEngineLand blog has a detailed post that shows how Google has shifted from OneBox towards Universal Search. If you’re interested in search or content discovery, Danny’s post is well worth the read…
Originally
from Redeye VC
by
reBlogged
A New Year’s Resolution
Sunday, January 6th, 2008No I haven’t abandoned blogging. I’ve just been a little swamped lately. So, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to blog more. (Hopefully I’m able to fulfill that resolution more than my prior resolutions to exercise more or eat better).
Anyhow, I just want to shoot a quick congratulations to a few of our portfolio companies. First, to Mint.com, for being selected as one of the 25 Most Innovative Products of the Year by PC World. And second, to RockYou for being selected by Fortune Magazine as one of the "Six Leaps of Innovation" to "keep an eye on in 2008". (Although, the list clearly can’t be very selective if they also selected this).
Finally, I was amazed to see that our companies have been nominated for a total of nine "Crunchie Awards" — and if you haven’t already voted, I encourage you to vote for Like, Pleo, Weatherbill, Attributor, 1-800-FREE-411, OpenAds, RockYou, Mint.com, and Lance Tokuda.
I wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. (And stay tuned for some new blog posts in early January, as I usually keep my resolutions for at least a few weeks)…
Originally
from Redeye VC
by
reBlogged