The Good NET Guide

Posts Tagged ‘eastern’

The numbers are in. And they look good. It appears that online holiday spending rose slightly this year, by 5 percent, to $27 billion for the shopping season from November 1 through Christmas Eve, according to comScore. For the time period from Black Friday through Christmas Eve, sales showed a slight uptick, rising 3.5 percent. With respect to individual product categories, consumer electronics saw yearly sales growth of slightly over 20 percent, while sales of jewelry and watches also rose.

From reports over the past few months, the numbers indicated that the total online spending would be higher this year than last, when the U.S. spending was blindsided with a crippling recession. The final shopping weekend before Christmas saw a 13 percent growth rate in online spending from the previous year, thanks to the wintry mess that hit the Eastern Seaboard. And the full week posted a 6 percent yearly increase in spending, setting a one-week sales record with more than $4.8 billion in spending. Online sales numbers from Black Friday and Cyber Monday also appeared to be stronger than last year.

ComScore also reported that larger e-retailers like Best Buy and Walmart outperformed the smaller online shops. The web analytics company says that sales from larger retailers were buoyed by promotions, and offers of free shipping later in the holiday season. Social media was also used as a strategy for retailers. 28 percent of shoppers surveyed by comScore reported that social media promotions from retailers influenced their purchases.

Of course, it’s important to note that these sales numbers are being compared to those from last year, when spending was at a low thanks to the bleak conditions of the economy. While it’s a good sign that online spending is growing, retailers still need to dig themselves out of the hole from last year’s season. But there’s still a little less than a week left of the holiday season, and sales could rise even more.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Venture-backed online advertising company Yodle has filed suit against three former employees, one of which is an ex-manager of the company, alleging that the men ‘hacked’ into its computer systems and stole trade secrets and proprietary data, some of which was sensitive information about current and potential future customers.

Caveat: apparently the three ex-employees now all work for a company that rivals Yodle in the local online advertising space. New York City-based Yodle helps local businesses advertise online by publishing ads on search engines and driving leads to its custom-built client sites.

Former Yodle employees Daniel Mousetis, Christopher Esgro and Ronald Pousson, who once ran Yodle’s Philadelphia operations, allegedly helped competitor Local Internet Doctors to ‘hack’ Yodle’s systems and steal proprietary data, according to a complaint filed earlier this week in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. LID was founded by Pousson together with his partner Frank Norris, who is the fourth defendant in the suit.

Since the ‘hacking’ involved using an old user name and password to gain access to the system, the alleged employment contract violations and data theft clearly weigh more.

Fired June 5, 2009, Pousson allegedly began soliciting other Yodle employees, saying he had found work at a Yodle competitor, WebVisible. In reality, Pousson had founded Local Internet Doctors along with Norris, according to the complaint, to compete with Yodle directly. Beyond soliciting Yodle’s employees, Pousson also allegedly gained unauthorized access to Yodle’s computer systems, the complaint adds.

With that access, Pousson allegedly downloaded as much confidential information as he could, including “competitively sensitive” data on Yodle’s current and prospective customers — names, contact information, monthly budgets and contract terms, according to the complaint.

The suit accuses all defendants of conversion, tortious interference with business and contractual relations and civil conspiracy. It also accuses Pousson, Mousetis and Esgro of breach of duty and loyalty, misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of implied contract and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

(Source: Law360)

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

As Google keeps collecting 360-degree Street View, panoramic photos of the world’s roadways, bike paths, and park trails, most of us are becoming accustomed to calling them up on Google Maps. Microosft and even MapQuest now have street-level photos. Now that we’ve mastered placing stitched-together panoramic photos on a map, the next step is obviously to go to video.

Europe seems to be ahead of the U.S. in this regard. I’ve already GlobalVision drove a Citroen equipped with 360-degree video cameras around Switzerland and put up a demo site called VideoStreetView to show off the experience. (They’ll have to be careful, though, the Swiss are particularly sensitive when it comes to public images on maps).

The VideoStreetView site shows a map on the right and the video view on the left. Red lines on the map indicate which routes have accompanying video footage. You pick a starting point and an end point and then the video starts playing, showing you what’s along the route. But just like a 360-degree photo, you can swivel the view in any direction and the video continues to play from that angle.

Below the video and map, there is a street listing on the bottom left and points of interest on the right. These are clickable, and the points of interest could easily contain businesses which might pay for placement. The site takes a little getting used to and the UI is a bit clunky, but it shows what is possible with 360-degree video maps. The technology works. The user interface just needs to be simplified so that people can jump right in without wondering what to do. But seeing the technology actually work makes you wonder how long it can be before we see video street views in Google Maps.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Short Version: There are two kinds of people in the world: those who will wear Vibram Five Finger shoes and those who won’t. After a bout with plantar fasciitis and shinsplints, I joined the former camp and feel much better for it. These new shoes, called the VFF KSO (Keep Stuff Out) Trek, add a bit of coverage to what are essentially foot gloves for running, hiking, and looking like a total freak.

The fine folks over at dealnews and Dealhack have put together a list of shipping deadlines for popular online retailers so you can make sure to get that special gift sent out on time. Here are some of the more gadget-oriented retailers for your reference.

Read more here: 
Public Service Announcement: Holiday Shipping Deadlines

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last Tuesday affirmed a lower court’s decision to dismiss patent claims against Skype and its parent company (for now) eBay relating to uniform network technology. The federal appeals court affirmed without comment the dismissal of claims brought by Peer Communications, a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation, reports Law360.

Acacia Research’s subisidiaries are in the business (PDF) of acquiring, developing, licensing and enforcing patents, according to its website.

One of those subsidiaries, Peer Communications, filed the patent case in August 2006 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The court ruled in favor of Skype and eBay swiftly, but the case then went on to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has now affirmed the lower court’s decision.

The two patents are somewhat related, to be fair. They deal with “a uniform user interface for network access that can enable a network agent to access multiple discrete network services,” according to court filing documents. The technology contributes to a system that allows groups of loosely interconnected agents to communicate contemporaneously without intermediaries such as a servers and to exchange data. A quick Web search reveals that the actual patent holder is most likely Miami-based Sociocybernetics, which has held such a patent in the U.S. since November 2005.

It’s a small victory for Skype/eBay, who is neck deep in far more serious litigation than this patent case. More on that later.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Russian social network Vkontakte.ru, notoriously heavily ‘inspired’ by Facebook’s design, business model and features, is plotting an international roll-out according to daily business newspaper Vedomosti (Google translation).

The report mentions that the company has recently acquired the domain name vk.com for an undisclosed amount and plans to use it to brand and market Vkontakte.ru in 12 unnamed languages, starting October this year.

Notably, Vkontakte.ru is backed by Digital Sky Technologies (DST), the same investor who recently took a 1.96 percent stake in Facebook for $200 million – giving the company a $10 billion valuation – and soon after offered to purchase up to $100 million of common stock from current and former Facebook employees. Now the other high-profile portfolio company of the Moscow-based investment firm, Vkontakte.ru, is going head to head with the Palo Alto-based social networking giant in multiple languages.

Of course, it’s not that extraordinary for investors to hedge some of their bets on multiple companies operating on the same market, but it reminded me of something that was said during the video interview Michael did with Mark Zuckerberg and DST founder and CEO Yuri Milner after the $200 million dollar investment. When asked if he had an active account on Facebook, Milner responded that he spends more time on Russian social networks (in fact, Russians are avid social networkers compared to the rest of the world) but sees no reason why people wouldn’t just use two social networks synchronously more in the future. I’m sure he said that knowing that Vkontakte.ru would soon be expanding internationally, and I daresay there was some wishful thinking involved there too.

Vkontakte.ru claims to have attracted over 42 million registered users and comScore pegs the number of unique visitors to exceed 14 million per month. When we last modeled the value of social networking sites around the world, Vkontakte.ru came in 17th at a hypothetical $234 million. The company was already competing with Facebook in Russia, Ukraine, Poland and other Eastern European markets, but will be expanding to support more languages and countries starting next October.

(Thanks to Andrei Taraschuk for the tip)

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

You can save $30 and some dignity by making sure you never get lost again (unless your GPS system tells you to drive into a lake like that episode of The Office) with the Magellan Maestro 4210 widescreen GPS system. Amazon is selling the unit for $99 until 11:00 Eastern today, down from the regular price of $129. Features include a 4.3-inch touchscreen, six million points of interest, flexible re-routing, turn-by-turn directions, and a thickness of less than an inch.

Read more from the original source: 
CrunchDeals: Magellan Maestro 4210 GPS system for $99 until 11AM Eastern

When the power goes out and you finally find your flashlight, it’s invariably out of batteries. Soon you’ll be able to buy a solar-powered flashlight from Chinavasion

Here is the original:
Solar-powered flashlight features LEDs, lithium-ion battery

Amazon’s got a nice deal on the Tonium Pacemaker portable DJ system until 1:00 PM Eastern today. Normally selling for $499, you can get an extra $100 off as one of Amazon’s daily Gold Box deals

Go here to see the original:
CrunchDeals: Tonium Pacemaker portable DJ system for $399 (until 1PM Eastern)