On March 8, 2010, Monday, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer talked to an audience at the University of Washington and told them that cloud computing is becoming the center of attention for every technology company. He said that the global technology industry is putting its bet on the said method.

Cloud computing is regarded as a growing trend in information technology, and Ballmer perceived this as an opportunity to reinforce Microsoft’s optimum competency in the field.

As reported by eWeek, Microsoft’s scheduled update of its Office productivity suite will have cloud computing as its main focus. Although MS Office 2010 users can make use of the software version of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Access on their computers, Microsoft is preparing trimmed editions of these programs to contend with Google and its Docs suite.

Although Google Docs is hardly teeming with features, many still prefer it because of its main features: it is free of charge and it can be obtained as a link via Gmail or through Google’s homepage. Microsoft will have to persuade Office users to either go to a site in order to utilize the online editions of its programs or to purchase the software’s desktop versions.

Cloud computing is a result of the accessibility to computing sites provided by the Internet, sharing resources as a substitute for using software or storage on a local PC. The said method is a shift from the use of PCs, whereby details are extracted from the users who no longer have need of, capability in, or control over the technology infrastructure that supports them.

Cloud computing usually involves the supply of dynamically scalable resources that are often virtualized as a service on the Internet.

The term “cloud” is a metaphor that is used to describe the Internet. The idea of using this metaphorical connotation came from a cloud drawing that represented the telephone network.

Months of speculation finally ended on Wednesday, January 27, 2010, when Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, announced the release of the company’s latest gadget offering on the market: the iPad. Apple, the company that introduced revolutionary gadgets like the MacBook and the iPod, hopes that the new iPad will be the next big thing in the technology market. A slender tablet computer, the iPad looks like a crossover between the laptop and the smart phone.

However, the biggest question still remains as to whether or not this new gadget will duplicate the success that other Apple gadgets have had with consumers and the over-all market. The iPhone, another very popular gadget released by Apple a few years back, has the distinction of transforming the telecom landscape and forcing other mobile phone companies to catch up with its technology.

The device will be available worldwide this March and it is being positioned by the company as a “pioneer in a new genre of computing.” Steve Jobs admits that the bar has been set pretty high, and that is why the iPad should do better than its competitors in the key areas where it is expected to deliver.

The device is 0.5 inch in thickness and weighs around 1.5 pounds, making it very sleek and easy to carry around. The iPad will accommodate eBooks, newspapers, web pages and videos; all in its 9.7 inch glass touch screen. The release of the iPad opens up a new market for publishers to enter, especially since print media has been steadily declining through the years.

When Steve Jobs introduced the iBook application integrated into the newly-launched gadget, he added that five of the world’s largest publishing houses have already agreed and promised to provide eBook content for the new Apple tablet. These publishers include the HarperCollins Publishers, Hachette Book Group, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan.

A music video streaming site launched Dec. 8, 2009 received high benedictions from record labels. Called Vevo, the site marks yet another effort by labels to monetize their increasingly devalued products.

Foraying where MTV has gone, Vevo contains over 30,000 studio-produced music videos from Vivendi Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music, plus content from Last.fm and various other CBS radio stations. The site is a joint venture of these recording companies with Google.

Google has pulled out professionally produced music videos from YouTube, its popular streaming site, and made Vevo its repository. In addition, Google—currently the world’s most successful advertising company—is infusing Vevo with YouTube’s technological know-how. If successful, Vevo could do for the digital era what MTV did for the 1980s.

McDonald’s Corp, AT&T Inc, Colgate-Palmolive Co, and MasterCard Inc, among 20 other companies, have struck advertising deals with Vevo. In exchange for an audience with its highly lucrative demographic, the site has pegged its ad price anywhere between $25 and $40 for every thousand page views.

Backed in part by the Abu Dhabi Media Company, Vevo somewhat replicates a business model pioneered by Hulu. The latter has become very profitable as a one-stop site to watch films and TV shows, drawing the likes of Disney.

For their part, YouTube has inked deals to legitimately use content from several film studios and television networks, e.g. Sony Pictures, MGM Studios, Lionsgate and CBS. Additionally, the site has plunged into partnerships with all four major record labels, including sole Vevo holdout Warner Music Group.

Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman was visibly absent at the Vevo launch party on Tuesday. The affair was nonetheless studded with all three music industry moguls, together with their talents.

“Vevo is a huge platform, and you know what’s best of all? It’s our platform,” said Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris at the party.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt took center stage that night, alongside Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff. They hobnobbed with such musical greats as Lady GaGa, Shania Twain, 50 Cent and Sheryl Crow. Guests were serenaded by performances from Mariah Carey and John Mayer, among others.

The New York Times published an article yesterday describing how news sites are looking more and more like television and how video ads are often dominating these sites’ commercial presence.

News sites are beginning to highlight video, ads and news content, on their homepages. The article uses several popular sites like CNN.com and WSJ.com (Wall Street Journal), which has live newscasts twice a day on its Web site.

The reason for this, according to the article, is largely commercial based.

“At a time when other categories of advertising dollars are shrinking, video ads are booming,” wrote New York Times reporter Brian Stelter. “News sites are adding more video inventory to keep pace with the demands of advertisers, and benefiting from the higher cost-per-thousands, or C.P.M.’s, that ads on those videos command.”

Video campaigns are now the fastest-growing segment of the Internet advertising market.

But video has also proven to be a very powerful draw for Web site readers looking for news. It’s the big events, such as the presidential election, that bring in the viewers.

A new biography depicting one of the most celebrated actresses and celebrities of all time provides new details about Elizabeth Taylor’s life.

“How to be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood,” by William Mann, tells the life of a woman who was always reinventing herself to stay in the spotlight. Read the article on www.npr.org.

“Elizabeth always loved living large, and it served her very well,” Mann said in the NPR interview. “She was the woman swathed in mink and ermine, and dripping with diamonds and emeralds.”

Taylor, now 77, gave notable performances in films, such as “A Place in the Sun” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”

Taylor is still active in the media, even frequently updating her Twitter account. The star told the world her status after heart surgery in October.

“My heart procedure went off perfectly,” Taylor tweeted. “It’s like having a brand new ticker. Thank you for your prayers and good wishes.”

On Dec. 2, 2008 the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group published The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch. It is written by media, politics and power writer Michael Wolff of Vanity Fair.

This book has propelled to the forefront the remarkable media tycoon’s life of conquest, this time with actual interviews from the man Murdoch himself, his associates and family members. When an article featuring the book and its subject of interest was printed in Vanity Fair’s October issue, word got out that Murdoch’s side raised objections on some of the content. The prepublication dust up was eventually cleared.

Murdoch left a rather intriguing question unanswered though. Business and media people are still asking why he would allow Wolff considerable open access to his closest network of family and business associates. That remains a mystery in the same way that Murdoch is, even after numerous publications have been written about him.

Keith Rupert Murdoch, presently the Chairman and CEO of News Corporation, began his legacy in native Australia. Inheriting majority of the shares in News Limited, he became the Adelaide newspaper company’s managing editor in 1953. Just three years after he started the weekly television magazine TV Week, the first and most successful of its kind in Australia.

In the following years he would establish himself in Australia by acquiring newspaper companies throughout the country. He would seal his title as media mogul in 1964 by launching Australia’s first national daily newspaper, The Australian.

The consequent decades saw the growth of his empire in exponential proportions. In Britain, he took over the family company The News of the World (1968), new entrant The Sun (1969), and Lord Northcliffe’s The London Times and The Sunday Times (1981).He also ultimately improved the industry landscape by introducing electronic production processes to all his publications in 1986.

Aside from acquiring and creating newspaper companies, when Murdoch turned his entrepreneurial eye to the US, he also invested in television stations (i.e. Fox News), major news websites (MCI Communications) and the cable news market (Fox News Channel). His most recent media industry-staggering win is the bid for the Dow Jones & Company (The Wall Street Journal publisher) for USD 5 billion.

Salon.com article on Rupert Murdoch.

The New York Times also published a profile of Rupert Murdoch.

Company’s “Technology-Focused Solution” Recognized Among Social Media Listening Firms

SEATTLE, WA

• Visible Technologies, an industry leading provider of social media analysis and engagement solutions, today was named a “strong performer” with a “strong technology backbone” in the January 2009 report, “The Forrester Wave™: Listening Platforms, Q1 2009.”

• The report marks the first time Forrester Research defines the category as “Listening Platforms.” Previously called “brand monitoring,” the new market definition reflects the need for brands to understand the increasing influence of consumer conversations and peer reviews on a company’s ability to engage with and market to customers.
• Providing an in-depth look at how well vendors mine traditional, online and social media sources to extract and deliver insights for marketers, the report gives top score to Visible Technologies for its product strategy.
• Forrester writes in the report, “Visible Technologies, a new entrant to the listening platform category, offers an impressive technology stack. Visible Technologies delivers strong reporting capabilities and is the vendor best positioned to extend social media analysis data and attributes into CRM systems.”
• Visible Technologies helps brands, including Microsoft, Panasonic and Hormel, bolster brand reputation, build revenue and measure the success of social media engagement. The company’s TruCast®2.0 social media analysis and engagement platform launched in May 2008.
• Cited for its “technology-focused solution set,” the Visible Technologies team is also increasing the frequency of product release cycles to deliver client-requested enhancements and provide deeper insight into online conversations and influence.
• A Webcast hosted by Visible Technologies featuring the Forrester report author Suresh Vittal, Microsoft social media practitioners and the American Marketing Association, titled “Navigating the Groundswell: Marketing in a Consumer Controlled World,” is scheduled for February 17. Additional information and registration is available at https://cc.readytalk.com/r/12slb60ssbkhz.

Quotes

“Visible Technologies is a good fit for the self-sufficient and socially aware marketer.” – The Forrester Wave™: Listening Platforms, Q1 2009, by Suresh Vittal

“We think it’s important companies listen to, learn from and engage with their customers online to glean actionable business insight. Many marketers grapple with the notion of social media, its enormity and its velocity, and we’re pleased Forrester has included us in the latest Wave analysis as the market continues to progress.” – Adam Selig, CEO, Visible Technologies

“Smart companies are increasingly incorporating the real-time data of social media across the enterprise. This 360-degree view of consumer conversations yields business intelligence that can be used to gain further visibility, measure marketing investment and see the success of customer service initiatives. This integration begins to fulfill on the promise of customer-centric business transformation and CRM environments.” – Blake Cahill, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Visible Technologies

Supporting Resources

• Free Forrester Wave “Listening Platforms Q1 2009″ Report Download
  http://www.visibletechnologies.com/solutions/request_fw09.php
• AMA Webcast featuring Forrester report analyst Suresh Vittal
  https://cc.readytalk.com/r/12slb60ssbkhz
• Visible Technologies
  http://www.visibletechnologies.com
• TruCast®
  http://www.visibletechnologies.com/solutions/trucast.php
• VisInsights Blog
  http://www.visinsights.com

About Visible Technologies

Visible Technologies helps companies listen and learn what consumers are saying about them online, and it enables brands to participate in the right conversations with the right influencers at the right time. With this real-time business insight and response, companies build relationships with customers, bolster their brands and grow revenue. Its innovative TruCast® platform is the industry’s first complete solution for social media analysis and participation. Visible Technologies also helps brands and individuals manage and protect their online reputations with the powerful TruView™ search engine solution. For more information, go to http://www.visibletechnologies.com, or follow the blog at http://www.visinsights.com.

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• Microsoft’s Bill Baker joins Visible Technologies as the company’s CTO.  Baker lead the development of SQL Server, PerformancePoint Server and Master Data Management at Microsoft.
• Wunderman leverages Visible Technologies’s TruCast Solution as a listening platform to “build greater brand equity and drive measurable business results for its clients.”
• MediaPost published the recent alliance between Spring Creek Group and Visible Technologies.
• Visible Technologies was nominated for Best Commercial Product or Service of the Year by the Washington Technology Industry Association.