Web Development Live

The Wall Street Journal has just accepted Facebook’s request to be online friends.
Hoping to tap into the growing buzz of online social networks, the Journal is adding a feature to its Web site that will allow readers to see which Journal stories are popular among that user’s Facebook friends.
The feature, which goes live early Wednesday morning, is called “SeenThis?” and is powered by a company called Loomia Inc. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Loomia already provides WSJ.com with another feature called “People who read this … also read these stories” which appears on the right-hand side of the text of a story.
News Web sites will commonly feature lists of the most popular stories on the site, as measured by the most views, most e-mailed or most recommended or blogged about.
But by showing articles that were read by viewers who apparently had similar interests, the Journal is hoping to harness some of the magic of successful shopping sites like Amazon.com Inc., which will make recommendations to shoppers based on what other buyers also bought.
Adding the link with Facebook takes the idea a step further, by letting viewers see what stories their own friends are interested in, not only those of the general WSJ.com readership.
Daniel Bernard, general manager for Wall Street Journal Online, said the “SeenThis?” feature will be opt-in only, meaning it won’t start up unless the viewer expressly asks it to, and users can opt out any time.
The application also won’t collect personally identifiable information on which people are reading which articles, just aggregated information on which articles are being read most by those in a readers’ group of Facebook friends or networks.
Loomia’s chief executive, Dave McMurtry, said the Journal was the first media company to fully implement the “SeenThis?” application. General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal and CNET have also signed up to use it.
The module that will be visible on the Journal Web site is something called a “widget” in Internet lingo _ a small, self-contained application that does a specific task.
The user can also add that application on to his or her Facebook page, where it would show users not only which Journal articles are most popular among that users’ friends and networks, but also video and other material from CNET or other providers.
Bernard said the Journal’s goal in adding the fixture was not only to help make the Web page more functional for its existing users but also to try and lure in new users from outside sources such as Facebook.
Other newspapers have also been developing widgets that people can post to their Web sites or pages on online social networks like Facebook in hopes of bringing in more online traffic and spreading awareness of their brand name.
The New York Times offers an online crossword puzzle through Google Inc.’s personalized Web pages as well as a news quiz application on Facebook. Gannett Co.’s USA Today also offers users widgets for various uses, as does The Washington Post Co.

The Wall Street Journal has just accepted Facebook’s request to be online friends.
Hoping to tap into the growing buzz of online social networks, the Journal is adding a feature to its Web site that will allow readers to see which Journal stories are popular among that user’s Facebook friends.
The feature, which goes live early Wednesday morning, is called “SeenThis?” and is powered by a company called Loomia Inc. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Loomia already provides WSJ.com with another feature called “People who read this … also read these stories” which appears on the right-hand side of the text of a story.
News Web sites will commonly feature lists of the most popular stories on the site, as measured by the most views, most e-mailed or most recommended or blogged about.
But by showing articles that were read by viewers who apparently had similar interests, the Journal is hoping to harness some of the magic of successful shopping sites like Amazon.com Inc., which will make recommendations to shoppers based on what other buyers also bought.
Adding the link with Facebook takes the idea a step further, by letting viewers see what stories their own friends are interested in, not only those of the general WSJ.com readership.
Daniel Bernard, general manager for Wall Street Journal Online, said the “SeenThis?” feature will be opt-in only, meaning it won’t start up unless the viewer expressly asks it to, and users can opt out any time.
The application also won’t collect personally identifiable information on which people are reading which articles, just aggregated information on which articles are being read most by those in a readers’ group of Facebook friends or networks.
Loomia’s chief executive, Dave McMurtry, said the Journal was the first media company to fully implement the “SeenThis?” application. General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal and CNET have also signed up to use it.
The module that will be visible on the Journal Web site is something called a “widget” in Internet lingo _ a small, self-contained application that does a specific task.
The user can also add that application on to his or her Facebook page, where it would show users not only which Journal articles are most popular among that users’ friends and networks, but also video and other material from CNET or other providers.
Bernard said the Journal’s goal in adding the fixture was not only to help make the Web page more functional for its existing users but also to try and lure in new users from outside sources such as Facebook.
Other newspapers have also been developing widgets that people can post to their Web sites or pages on online social networks like Facebook in hopes of bringing in more online traffic and spreading awareness of their brand name.
The New York Times offers an online crossword puzzle through Google Inc.’s personalized Web pages as well as a news quiz application on Facebook. Gannett Co.’s USA Today also offers users widgets for various uses, as does The Washington Post Co.

The top business news from The Associated Press for the morning of Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008:Investors Want More Interest Rate CutsWASHINGTON (AP) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, criticized last year for being too tentative in cutting interest rates, has shown he can act boldly. But the Fed’s two aggressive rate cuts in the past eight days have left investors demanding still more. That may be a sign of how much trouble the economy is facing, with many analysts contending that the country is flirting with a recession and may, in fact, already be in one.—House, Senate at Odds on StimulusWASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate is set to begin voting on dueling economic aid proposals, as senators rush to add jobless benefits and tax rebates for high earners, the elderly, and disabled veterans to a House-passed package. Senate Democrats and some Republicans are teaming up to tack $32 billion onto the House measure with a bill that would send rebates of $500-$1,000 to all but the richest taxpayers. Families also would get $300 for each child. Senators could begin voting as early as Thursday in hopes of completing the package by week’s end.—Starbucks Axes Sandwiches As Part of FixSEATTLE (AP) - The scent of ham, eggs, cheese and bacon will soon stop competing with the aroma of coffee in Starbucks stores as hot breakfast sandwiches become the first casualty of the company’s battle to win back customers. The sandwiches, which will disappear by this fall, boost a typical store’s annual revenue by $35,000, so pulling them off the menu will cost at first. Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Schultz said that proves the company isn’t letting the soft economy distract it from committing to big changes that will pay off over the long haul.—Amazon Expects Sales to Rise in 2008SEATTLE (AP) - This year isn’t looking quite as sweet for Amazon.com shareholders as 2007. Despite a possible recession in the U.S. economy, the Web retailer said it expects sales to rise briskly again in 2008. But the gains won’t translate as readily to bottom-line growth. “A lot of old Amazon bears are going to be growling,” said Tim Boyd, an analyst at American Technology Research.—Sony Quarterly Profit Rises 25 PercentTOKYO (AP) - Sony reported a 25.2 percent jump in profit for the October-December quarter Thursday as its PlayStation video game business stopped losing money after six straight quarters of losses. Profit at the Japanese electronics and entertainment company climbed to 200.2 billion yen ($1.88 billion) for the fiscal third quarter from 159.9 billion yen the same period the previous year.—Super Bowl’s Big Day for TV, Pizza SalesNEW YORK (AP) - Super Bowl Sunday may be the biggest day of the year for football fans, but it’s also a big day for people who sell big screen TVs, recliners and pizza. Yes, some sports fans are willing to pay thousands of dollars for a TV just to watch the game. Jim Ferrero, of Yardley, Pa., has done so twice.—Cost Cuts Push Lenovo Profit Up 198 Pct.BEIJING (AP) - Lenovo Group, the world’s No. 4 personal computer maker, said Thursday that profit in its third fiscal quarter rose 198 percent and forecast strong sales this year despite a possible U.S. economic slowdown. Driven by strong sales and aggressive cost-cutting, profit for the three months that ended Dec. 31 was $172 million, or $1.93 per share, on revenue of $4.6 billion, Beijing-based Lenovo said. That was below the average $253.5 million expected by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.—Market Turmoil Felt in Central EuropeWARSAW, Poland (AP) - It took years for Andrzej Solyga to muster the courage to invest in mutual funds. But in June 2007, at the urging of a friend, the Polish sculptor invested 200,000 zlotys ($82,000) in a fund that had been earning rich returns of 50 percent a year, joining a growing number of small investors in Europe’s post-communist countries who finally succumbed to the lure of booming stock markets.—$50M Grant Will Finance Plant ResearchPHOENIX (AP) - A collaboration of botanists and computer scientists is being awarded a $50 million federal grant to conduct research into plant biology with an eye toward resolving global problems related to agriculture, environment and energy production. The five-year National Science Foundation grant announced Wednesday will pay for research on topics such as climate change, development of biomass energy, and agricultural land use, said foundation Director Arden L. Bement. The University of Arizona is leading the project.—Mardi Gras Means Money in New OrleansNEW ORLEANS (AP) - That happy, singsong sound heard on Bourbon Street is trickle-down economics at its best as hundreds of thousands of Carnival season visitors spend themselves silly before Fat Tuesday. The city’s tourism industry, getting back on its feet after Hurricane Katrina, is counting on a big weekend crowd to fill restaurants and hotels leading up to Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, on Feb. 5.—Gold PricesLONDON (AP) - Gold opened in London Thursday at a bid price of $923.10 per troy ounce, up from $920.85 on Wednesday.—Japan MarketsTOKYO (AP) - Japanese stocks rose Thursday as reports that a troubled U.S. bond insurer had closed an investment deal helped to ease concerns about the subprime loan crisis. The Nikkei stock index rose 247.44 points, or 1.85 percent, to close at 13,592.47 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The index shed 0.99 percent the day before.—Dollar-YenTOKYO (AP) - The dollar fell against the yen in Asia Thursday amid anxieties about U.S. bond insurers and continuing fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis. The U.S. dollar was trading at 106.46 yen at 2:50 p.m. Thursday, down from 106.95 yen late Wednesday in New York. The euro fell to $1.4879 from $1.4898.

Apple also said it would let people rent films over the web with upgrades to its iTunes online media store, a technological challenge to a movie industry still largely focused on DVDs.
Shares of movie rental firms Netflix and Blockbuster fell sharply in response, and Apples own stock lost 5.5 per cent since the announcements were widely expected and Chief Executive Steve Jobs failed to conjure up any big surprises.
Jobs set a high bar last year by unveiling the iPhone. In addition, many times he ends presentations with by saying, One more thing… as a prelude to something unexpected. This year there was none.
Still, Jobs talents as a showman were on display when he took the stage at the annual Macworld convention in San Francisco to cheers and applause from a few thousand software developers, customers and Apple employees.
He detailed a series of new products and services but saved the laptop, dubbed the MacBook Air, for last, drawing it out of a standard manila envelope to emphasize its slim dimensions.
Jobs said the new notebook was the thinnest available, measuring 0.76 inches at its thickest point and tapering to just 0.16 inches.
Priced from $US1,800 ($NZ2280), the Air bridges the gap between Apples entry-level and high-end laptops, but analysts voiced concern that it could steal customers away from pricier products.
Its not really clear how many more incremental buyers you can drive, and there could be some cannibalization, said Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research.
MacBook laptops have been one of the companys strongest products, with sales rising 37 per cent on the year in the fiscal fourth quarter ended last September.
NEW APPLE USERS SOUGHT
Phil Schiller, Apples vice president of marketing, said the new laptop could appeal to a large swath of customers, including business travelers, those in education and people who wanted a more attractive computer at home.
The goal overall is to continue to grow the business, so having another product in the line helps to do that. If the mix (of customers) changes a little bit, it doesnt matter as long as we grow everything, Schiller said.
Apple stock has nearly doubled since last years Macworld, and in late December topped $US200 for the first time, driven by market-share gains by Mac computers, continued iPod strength, and enthusiasm over the iPhone, which Jobs said had sold more than 4 million units since its release last June.
Jobs showed off new iPhone features such as displaying a users location on a map and a way to customize the main screen with icons linking directly to specific parts of a website.
The iPhone is not standing still. We keep making it better and better and better, Jobs said.
But the company has struggled to find a big audience for Apple TV, a product originally designed as a Mac accessory for watching internet video on a television and unveiled alongside the iPhone a year ago.
Its not what people wanted. We learned what people wanted was … movies, movies, movies, Jobs said.
A new version of Apple TV will be able to connect to the internet directly and download TV shows, movies and music through iTunes. Viewers will be able to choose movies directly from their TVs and Apple said viewers could start watching within seconds if they had a fast Internet connection.
Jobs announced deals with all six major movie studios and several smaller ones to offer movies for rental through iTunes in the US, with new releases costing $US3.99 and library titles $US2.99. High-definition movies will also be available.
The revamp of Apple TV hardware combined with a broad selection of movies would give Apple an edge over competitors such as Amazon.com, Netflix and Microsoft, American Technology Researchs Wu said.
News Corps 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney, Time Warners Warner Bros, Viacoms Paramount, General Electrics Universal, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, MGM and New Line have all signed on to Web rentals, Apple said.
Its too early to declare that this is going to be a big hit but this is arguably the best offering out there right now, Wu said.

Last week, Time Warners Warner Bros studio said it would exclusively release high-definition DVDs in Blu-ray format instead of Toshibas competing HD DVD technology.
While the announcement was seen as tipping the balance of power in favor of the Blu-ray format, retailers at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week did not see the announcement as a definitive sign of a clear winner.
I dont think were in a position to go out and declare a winner, said Steve Eastman, spokesman for US retailer Target.
As long as there are two standards competing in public, consumers will stay away, he added.
Until it settles completely I think were going to continue to see consumers sitting on the sidelines, Eastman said.
That is bad news for the development of a much-needed multibillion dollar industry. US sales of DVDs, which are crucial to Hollywood studio profits, fell 4.8 per cent to $US15.7 billion ($NZ20.5 billion) in 2007, the first significant drop since the format was introduced, according to preliminary Adams Media calculations.
It would be our hope that by this Christmas there would be a clearer choice for the customer, instead of battling back and forth between the formats, said Gary Severson, senior vice president in charge of electronics for Wal-Mart Storess US stores.
I dont know if thats going to happen or not.
THE BATTLE CONTINUES
HD DVD was developed by Toshiba while Sony developed the Blu-ray standard.
The new high-definition DVDs, with better picture quality and more capacity, were expected to help revive the slowing $US24 billion global home DVD market.
But Hollywood studios split their alliances between the two standards. After the switch by Warner, studios behind some three-quarters of DVDs are backing Blu-ray. Some release in both formats, with a minority focused on HD DVD.
Similar to the Betamax-VHS battle in the 1980s, having two competing DVD standards has created customer confusion, dampened sales of both formats and put retailers in a conundrum of having to either choose sides or sell products that have a chance of becoming obsolete very quickly.
This holiday season, shelves at many consumer electronics retailers were stuffed with Blu-ray DVDs, HD DVDs, and players the supported one or both formats.
Amid the plethora of products, some retailers chose to make a decision and support a single format.
Target decided to sell only Blu-ray disc players in its stores, although it offered both formats on its Web site.
We felt, initially because of the confusion, we had to pick one, Eastman said.
CLOSER TO A CONCLUSION?
Circuit City Storesand Best Buy indicated no plans to change sales strategy after the Warner Bros announcement, although they said it was a signal that the industry was closer to backing one unified standard.
We are very excited to see progress of any type, and we see this as significant progress, said Circuit City Chief Executive Officer Phil Schoonover at CES.
Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson also said at the conference that the decision makes it a lot easier to see the likelihood that we get to one format, and it makes it easier for us as retailers to help push it to that one format.
Even if a winner emerges, Hollywood executives and retailers at CES say consumers still need to be convinced high definition is worth buying.
If we were able to have one united message and say: Heres high definition TV, heres a high definition DVD, heres the medium to play on it, its a much cleaner story to customers that the industry can push, that every retailer can push and the customer goes, OK I get it, Wal-Marts Severson said.
Right now theyre basically being taught to wait and see what happens, he said.
But one retailer is not concerned with whether the wars end this year or next year, or ever.
We dont have to choose, said Paul Ryder, vice president of the electronics store for online retailer Amazon.com, which tries to offer as wide a selection of electronics products as it possibly can since it has no physical stores.
I dont have to say I dont have enough room on my shelf.

Wales told a conference of software developers in Portland, Oregon, that his commercial start-up, Wikia, has acquired Grub, a pioneering Web crawler that will enable Wikia’s forthcoming search service to scour the Web to index relevant sites. “If we can get good quality search results, I think it will really change the balance of power from the search companies back to the publishers,” said Wales, chairman of San Mateo, California-based Wikia. “I could be wrong about this, but it seems like a likely outcome.” Wikia %26#150; which has helped groups set up thousands of Wikipedia-style sites on topics ranging from popular TV shows to specialist health or travel %26#150; plans to develop an “open source” Web search service with the help of volunteers. Wales founded the anyone-can-edit Wikipedia encyclopedia, a non-commercial project that is one of the Web’s most popular sites. He also co-founded the Wikia ad-supported network of self-edited wiki sites. However, the two organisations have no formal ties. The new Wikia search service will combine computer-driven algorithms and human-assisted editing when the company launches a public version of the search site toward the end of 2007, Wales said in a phone interview. Human editors would help untangle terms with multiple meanings, such as palm, which can refer to location like Palm Beach, or generic topics like trees or handheld computers. Search results are generated via another open-source software project called Lucerne. Wales said he is looking at options to enhance Lucerne, but would not detail his plans. Grub was originally an open source project that was freely available to software makers to enhance as long as they shared any improvements they made. Wikia has acquired Grub from LookSmart Ltd., which had halted work on the project. Wikia plans to open up Grub to other developers to make improvements or to incorporate the crawler into other sites. Terms of the deal between Wikia (http://wikia.com) and LookSmart were not disclosed. However, last week, San Francisco-based LookSmart, which provides banner and search-based online advertising to Web sites, said it had agreed to supply advertising across Wikia’s network of wiki sites. Wikia had been using Google’s advertising service. “We have interest from a lot of other commercial players in the search space,” said Wales. Grub relies on distributed computing technology to power the crawler. Computer users who download the software at http://www.grub.org can share computer processing time when they are not using their machines, cutting the cost of Wikia developing its own network of computers to crawl the Web. Open search is part of Wikia’s broader push to promote the spread of free content publishing on the Web. Wales’ objective is to make explicit the editorial judgments involved in modern Web search systems. Proprietary search systems such as Google Inc. keep secret key details of how their search systems work to prevent spamming and for competitive reasons. Ultimately, Wales wants the Wikia search service to be available to other Web sites and smaller publishers who would be able to install a custom version of the service that points Web site visitors only to links with a specific site. Target customers might include local newspapers, for example. He detailed his plans at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) in Portland, an annual gathering of open source software developers. More details can be found at http://search.wikia.com. Wikia has raised $US14 ($NZ18.08) million in outside financing, including its latest round of $US10 million from Amazon.com, according to a regulatory filing by the company.

The Wall Street Journal has just accepted Facebook’s request to be online friends.
Hoping to tap into the growing buzz of online social networks, the Journal is adding a feature to its Web site that will allow readers to see which Journal stories are popular among that user’s Facebook friends.
The feature, which goes live early Wednesday morning, is called “SeenThis?” and is powered by a company called Loomia Inc. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Loomia already provides WSJ.com with another feature called “People who read this … also read these stories” which appears on the right-hand side of the text of a story.
News Web sites will commonly feature lists of the most popular stories on the site, as measured by the most views, most e-mailed or most recommended or blogged about.
But by showing articles that were read by viewers who apparently had similar interests, the Journal is hoping to harness some of the magic of successful shopping sites like Amazon.com Inc., which will make recommendations to shoppers based on what other buyers also bought.
Adding the link with Facebook takes the idea a step further, by letting viewers see what stories their own friends are interested in, not only those of the general WSJ.com readership.
Daniel Bernard, general manager for Wall Street Journal Online, said the “SeenThis?” feature will be opt-in only, meaning it won’t start up unless the viewer expressly asks it to, and users can opt out any time.
The application also won’t collect personally identifiable information on which people are reading which articles, just aggregated information on which articles are being read most by those in a readers’ group of Facebook friends or networks.
Loomia’s chief executive, Dave McMurtry, said the Journal was the first media company to fully implement the “SeenThis?” application. General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal and CNET have also signed up to use it.
The module that will be visible on the Journal Web site is something called a “widget” in Internet lingo _ a small, self-contained application that does a specific task.
The user can also add that application on to his or her Facebook page, where it would show users not only which Journal articles are most popular among that users’ friends and networks, but also video and other material from CNET or other providers.
Bernard said the Journal’s goal in adding the fixture was not only to help make the Web page more functional for its existing users but also to try and lure in new users from outside sources such as Facebook.
Other newspapers have also been developing widgets that people can post to their Web sites or pages on online social networks like Facebook in hopes of bringing in more online traffic and spreading awareness of their brand name.
The New York Times offers an online crossword puzzle through Google Inc.’s personalized Web pages as well as a news quiz application on Facebook. Gannett Co.’s USA Today also offers users widgets for various uses, as does The Washington Post Co.

The Wall Street Journal has just accepted Facebook’s request to be online friends.
Hoping to tap into the growing buzz of online social networks, the Journal is adding a feature to its Web site that will allow readers to see which Journal stories are popular among that user’s Facebook friends.
The feature, which goes live early Wednesday morning, is called “SeenThis?” and is powered by a company called Loomia Inc. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Loomia already provides WSJ.com with another feature called “People who read this … also read these stories” which appears on the right-hand side of the text of a story.
News Web sites will commonly feature lists of the most popular stories on the site, as measured by the most views, most e-mailed or most recommended or blogged about.
But by showing articles that were read by viewers who apparently had similar interests, the Journal is hoping to harness some of the magic of successful shopping sites like Amazon.com Inc., which will make recommendations to shoppers based on what other buyers also bought.
Adding the link with Facebook takes the idea a step further, by letting viewers see what stories their own friends are interested in, not only those of the general WSJ.com readership.
Daniel Bernard, general manager for Wall Street Journal Online, said the “SeenThis?” feature will be opt-in only, meaning it won’t start up unless the viewer expressly asks it to, and users can opt out any time.
The application also won’t collect personally identifiable information on which people are reading which articles, just aggregated information on which articles are being read most by those in a readers’ group of Facebook friends or networks.
Loomia’s chief executive, Dave McMurtry, said the Journal was the first media company to fully implement the “SeenThis?” application. General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal and CNET have also signed up to use it.
The module that will be visible on the Journal Web site is something called a “widget” in Internet lingo _ a small, self-contained application that does a specific task.
The user can also add that application on to his or her Facebook page, where it would show users not only which Journal articles are most popular among that users’ friends and networks, but also video and other material from CNET or other providers.
Bernard said the Journal’s goal in adding the fixture was not only to help make the Web page more functional for its existing users but also to try and lure in new users from outside sources such as Facebook.
Other newspapers have also been developing widgets that people can post to their Web sites or pages on online social networks like Facebook in hopes of bringing in more online traffic and spreading awareness of their brand name.
The New York Times offers an online crossword puzzle through Google Inc.’s personalized Web pages as well as a news quiz application on Facebook. Gannett Co.’s USA Today also offers users widgets for various uses, as does The Washington Post Co.