It looks like Google CEO Larry Page really is putting more wood behind fewer arrows. Google has discontinued Knol, the company’s attempt to recreate Wikipedia in its own ad-supported image, adding to a long list of product funerals the company has held in 2011. According to Information Week, the number tops three dozen if you count not only full-fledged products but features, acquisitions, initiatives, and APIs. READ MORE
After you’ve stuffed yourself with turkey this Thursday, what will you do next? While some may nap or watch football, a huge number of Americans will get started on their holiday shopping, according to prognosticators at PayPal. READ MORE
It wasn’t all that long ago that getting technical support meant clicking around your machine while someone—possibly in another country—blindly tried to coach you on the telephone regarding what to do. Worse was the other option of paying to actually get your computer into the hands of a tech wizard. Those days are fading into memory thanks to all sorts of solutions that enable people access and control computers remotely. READ MORE
Earlier this month, Google launched its Gmail app for iOS devices. It wasn’t exactly met with a round of applause. There were few of the powerful features users get with regular Gmail, notifications weren’t working correctly, and the app crashed so often that Google finally pulled it from the Apple Store. READ MORE
Having a Facebook page for your business can help you engage with customers, build your brand and grow your business, but getting fans—and knowing what to do with them once you have them—can be a challenge. READ MORE
A new survey of mobile app developers by Appcelerator and IDC found that Amazon’s new Kindle Fire edged out Samsung Galaxy Tab as the leading Android Tablet in North America. Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 also moved ahead of RIM’s BlackBerry operating system for third place behind iOS and Android. RIM’s displacement follows the successful release of the Mango update for Windows Phone and the public announcement of the first wave of devices from the Microsoft/Nokia partnership. READ MORE
If Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are all old hat to you and you’re looking for a different social experience, you might want in on a new Web app now in alpha testing. StormDriver acts as an interactive overlay for the entire Web. With the goal of making the whole Internet “one great social platform,” it lets you see who else is on the same web site as you, where people came from and where they are going. It also analyzes your browsing habits and content tastes and uses this information to provide content recommendations that get more accurate the more you use the system. READ MORE
Google has acquired Apture, a start-up that brings instantaneous search to content on the web. Apture developed Apture Highlights, a browser extension that aims to plug what it calls the “search leak,” which occurs when a user is reading content, wants more information about a keyword or phrase and then opens another browser tab to search for the information on Google, Bing or Yahoo. For content publishers this isn’t ideal—it means the user has disengaged and left the page. Apture Highlights enables you to highlight any word or phrase on a page and instantly bring up in a window search results from more than 60 sources including YouTube, Twitter, Wikipedia, Google and more for extra context around content. READ MORE
This holiday shopping season eBay will be making it extra easy for people to find the items they’re looking for via the latest version of its RedLaser mobile app, which enables users to search for prices on all kinds of items by either scanning a bar code or QR code or typing in the product’s name. Previously the app has shown the price for an item at both online and local brick-and-mortar retailers, but now RedLaser users can also see a selection of local retailers that have the item in stock and that allow for purchasing it through the mobile app. Shoppers can now complete a transaction using PayPal and pick up the purchased item later at the store. READ MORE
Since more than 100 million people are on LinkedIn, chances are, you’re one of them. But are you using it as much as you should be, or in the right ways? Lisa Barone, co-founder of Outspoken Media, contributed a column to Small Business Trends in which she suggested six ways SMBs can benefit from LinkedIn: READ MORE
