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Yahoo putting People Search, Yahoo Voices, Xobni and other products out to pasture to further its focus

Jul02
by on July 2, 2014 at 8:22 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Insider, yahoo

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It’s summer time in Silicon Valley. Time to throw out all the stuff no one uses anymore. That’s what Yahoo is doing. Today the company announced it was shutting down some less-used services. In a Tumblr post, SVP of the Cloud Platform Group, Jay Rossiter announced the company’s progress on focusing on its core mission: “making the world’s daily habits more inspiring and entertaining.” Part of that mission involves sunsetting products to focus on its core. Here’s what’s on Yahoo’s chopping block today: People Search: As a user, you want one place to find everything you need. You can use Yahoo Search…

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Google’s first 100 Ara beta testers will get the phone for free

Jul02
by on July 2, 2014 at 6:33 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Google, Insider

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Project Ara might not be ready for actual use, but that hasn’t stopped Google from announcing the first 100 beta testers of the device. The kicker, they’re getting the modular phone for free. On its dscout site, Google says that over 90,000 people signed up to be “scouts.” Of those, the company selected the top 100 most active scouts to receive the phone. A statement in the announcement says that “over the next 8 months, Google will continue to refine the Ara prototype.” That puts the release of the device sometime in March 2015. Not surprising considering that the ATAP…

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Facebook acquires video advertising platform LiveRail

Jul02
by on July 2, 2014 at 5:58 pm
Posted In: Around the Web

Facebook revealed today plans to acquire LiveRail, a supply-side advertising platform for video content. LiveRail will help Facebook make video ads “better and more relevant” for viewers and publishers. LiveRail boasts a number of top clients, including MLB.com, Condé Nast Digital, CBS Interactive, ABC Family and Univision. Facebook officially rolled out premium video ads in March, following limited tests late last year. In May, the company expanded those ads internationally to Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the UK. ➤ Facebook to Acquire LiveRail

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The race for right now: How to build a real-time commerce app

Jul02
by on July 2, 2014 at 5:25 pm
Posted In: Analysis and Opinion, Around the Web, Design & Dev, Entrepreneur

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Gautam Golwala is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Poshmark. Today’s economy is one that’s rooted in the right here, right now, instant delivery mentality. Mobile technology is empowering consumers to follow the news, order a driver on demand, and make purchases from each other all in real-time. At the highest level, real-time commerce drives sales by connecting people and merchandise together through interactive app experiences. Many brands today are engaging in real-time commerce, each with a different approach that caters to their communities: Uber is one-to-one, Twitter is one-to-many, and Poshmark is many-to-many. While real-time commerce apps are…

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Microsoft acquires SyntaxTree, maker of a popular Visual Studio plugin for Unity

Jul02
by on July 2, 2014 at 5:09 pm
Posted In: Around the Web

Microsoft announced today that it has acquired SyntaxTree, the creator of UnityVS, a Visual Studio plugin for the Unity game engine. UnityVS will soon be available to download for free from Microsoft. UnityVS enables developers to view and debug the code for their games from within Virtual Studio. A number of top gaming companies, including EA, Ubisoft, Mojang, Valve and Blizzard, use the plugin. ➤ Microsoft acquires SyntaxTree, creator of UnityVS plugin for Visual Studio

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