Ajax Blog

Apparently more than a few traders had heart palpitations today. As the market closed, Google’s share price appeared to fall apart, falling to $200 from an opening price of $396. At least that’s what the Nasdaq ticker showed.

That was $62 billion in market cap that was zapped away in the last four minutes before the fiscal quarter ended and the markets closed, and it was automatically reported by Google Finance and other sites (the comments here on MarketWatch’s uncorrected article show how freaked out some people were).

And the “drop” came as the markets surged on news that the bailout was still in play and mark-to-market rules were suspended (allowing banks to stay solvent). So what happened?

“It was a data glitch, which is extremely rare” said one hedge fund guy I know. “But yeah, for a second we freaked out.” In after hours trading Google is back to normal, trading at $407.

Update: From Briefing.com (still trying to figure out if any actual trades occurred, everyone says no so far):

Google trades after 3:57 pm under investigation by Nasdaq; trades were “potentially erroneous” - Bloomberg (404.14 -39.57)

Update 2: Ok, we’re hearing that some trades DID go through at the crazy prices, and they will almost certainly be undone.

Update 3: NASDAQ has posted an official statement, and is canceling all of the erroneous trades:

Pursuant to Rule 11890(b) NASDAQ, on its own motion, has determined to cancel all trades in security Google Inc Cl - A “GOOG” at or above $425.29 and at or below $400.52 that were executed in NASDAQ between 15:57:00 and 16:02:00 ET. In addition, NASDAQ will be adjusting the NASDAQ Official Closing Cross (NOCP)and all trades executed in the cross to $400.52. This decision cannot be appealed. MarketWatch has coordinated this decision to break trades with other UTP Exchanges. NASDAQ will be canceling trades on the participant’s behalf.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/DZIfbMINwEM/

YouTube has launched a new feature as part of its Insight tool for content creators that allows members to visually examine exactly where in their videos their viewers gain and lose interest. The new feature, called Hot Spots, displays the dropoff data in a dynamic graph that can be viewed alongside the original video.

To determine which points in a video are “hot”, Hot Spots compares each video to other videos of similar length on YouTube - if people are leaving more quickly than average at a given time, you’ll know you have some tweaking to do. The site also tracks rewind and fast forward data, so you can see if viewers are repeatedly watching a certain segment.

There are a number of obvious applications for the new feature: publishers can objectively determine which segments of the video are the most appealing, and edit their content accordingly. Advertisers can use multiple YouTube videos to run different versions of an ad to see which ones are the most effective. Other users will likely find more creative applications - I wouldn’t be surprised to see a comedian test out a stream of jokes to see which ones bomb.

You can read more about the announcement here.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vVgoF1BkSoY/

When the iPhone was first released, there was an abundance of speculation over whether the phone’s lack of Flash support would cripple its browser and give us something less than “the real web” that Apple had promised. At the time, Steve Jobs explained that the full version of Flash wouldn’t run well on the iPhone (the iPhone runs on an ARM11 chip, which doesn’t play nice with Flash), but that Adobe’s Mobile Flash was lacking in functionality - he wanted a product in the middle before Apple would consider putting Flash on the iPhone.

Today at the Flash On The Beach (FOTB) conference, Adobe has confirmed that such an application is in development (it had previously been speculated to exist, but there was no official word from either company Adobe previously annouced it had a version working on an emulator). Adobe Sr. Director of Engineering Paul Betlem made the announcement, stating “My team is working on Flash on the iPhone, but it’s a closed platform.”

Betlem’s insistence that the iPhone is a closed platform is meant to infer that Adobe isn’t ultimately in control of whether or not Flash will ever make an apperance. This may be strictly true, but it’s unlikely that Adobe would begin work on the iPhone plugin in the first place if it didn’t have a reasonable expectation that Apple would include it, once it met Jobs’ expectations.

So it sounds like Flash is on the way. But do we really want it?

These days, most of us use Flash primarily to view videos on sites like Hulu, YouTube, and CNN. Flash on the iPhone may give us access to all of these sites (assuming its CPU can handle video), but I’d rather see native applications for each of these media hubs similar to what YouTube has created. Flash is notoriously CPU-intensive, which is the last thing the iPhone needs with its already lackluster battery life - native apps would allow for H.264 video playback on the phone’s Quicktime player that would probably require only a fraction of the CPU cycles.

Other issues with Flash crop up on more standard websites. Flash-based sites can be fun and innovative, but they also tend to be inefficient and unnecessarily difficult to navigate (see the Chipotle homepage for a good example). Finally, there’s the concern over Flash-based advertisements, which can be incredibly intrusive.

These issues aside, Flash still plays an integral role on the web, and there’s nothing more frustrating than getting denied trying to watch a Flash-only video clip. Apple should include Flash if only for completeness’ sake, while trying to give web developers an incentive to use it sparingly on their mobile sites.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/g7YyA0ahduo/

Microsoft CEO Steve “Sweat” Ballmer said that the financial crisis will “sap consumer and business spending,” leading to a downturn in Microsoft’s revenue. He explained that no company will be immune to the crisis although analysts predict an 8 percent rise in revenue this quarter.

Read more…

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/4RBfgV0zG2w/

With one of the most fascinating PR headlines I’ve seen this year we find ourselves smack in the middle of the perfect Web 2.0 storm: Latinos, babies, and social networks. Introducing Babyspot Latino, a social network for parents of Latino babies or babies of Latino parents. Add in the words “Twitter” and “API” and you’ve got a grand slam.

Don’t get me wrong, this a noble goal. It brings a new voice to baby care to a market traditionally under-served by standard social networks. The site debuted on a Spanish-language talk show featuring cute little shavers capering like cupids and the site will include educational material on baby health and pregnancy along with the standard BabySpot features like photo sharing and group creation.

My main question is how that headline (”Latino Babies and Social Networking Unaffected by Financial Markets - BabySpotLatino.com Debuts with Great Success on Univision’s Despierta America“) made it past some PR flak’s absolute bull sensor. Connecting the launch of a Latino baby site with the economic collapse of the free world is probably not the image young mothers from here to Jalisco want to conjure up while dandling junior on their knees.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/49UJtVOtKcM/

In a move that could start a new wave in PC sales, Dell and Paramount Pictures today announced that they have signed a joint venture that will see “Iron Man” come pre-loaded on Dell computers for anyone who wishes to order the unit.

So far, the details of the deal are a bit disappointing. Paramount is the only studio that has signed on and “Iron Man” is the only film being offered. Dell claims that more titles will eventually be offered during the purchase process, but for now, it looks like Dell and the studios have a “wait and see” attitude to decide if they want to move forward with a broader strategy.

“Iron Man” will be offered on Dell’s Inspiron, Studio, and XPS models and can be added as an option during the purchasing process. Much like the DVD, the film pre-installed on Dell computers will run you $20 and feature the bonus footage contained on the DVD. More importantly, you can burn the movie onto a DVD, but there’s one catch: you can only do that once.

The option to add “Iron Man” to Dell computers is available now.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/N54UvJTJWmk/

Earlier this month both AOL and Yahoo redesigned their home pages to include more links to outside services.  The new AOL homepage features prominent links to Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail, as well as to bookmarks leading elsewhere, and integration with Facebook and MySpace.  Yahoo’s new home page, which it is still bucket testing selectively, also includes more directlinkstoother e-mail providers, social networks, and a new left-hand channel strip that can be modeified by suers to include links to their favorite Web services.  For YAhoo, it is part of its strategy to become the preimier starting point on the Web, no matter where people wan to go.  But in an era when the destination site is quickly dying, if not already dead (with information pushed and personalized to you via services like Facebook, FriendFeed, and Twitter), will these redesigns be enough?

In a note today, Wall Street analyst Douglas Anmuth (formerly of Lehman Brothers, now of Barclays Capital) is not so sure.  He writes:

• Fundamentally, we believe these actions are necessary steps, but we question if they will make the portals more relevant in the context of a constantly fragmenting Web, and we certainly do not expect them to have an immediate impact on financials.
  
• We believe embracing openness principals by Yahoo! and AOL are the right steps strategically, but the key is whether both properties can improve their monetization of traffic given the current challenging display ad market.

Given that AOL and Yahoo are seriously exploring a combination, at least they are on the same page strategically. But it kind of makes you wonder how much difference the more open strategies pursued by both portals will make. Especially in this market.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/l_YW5z7xkLQ/

With the $700 billion bail out on hold and banks dropping like flies, it seems this economic apocalypse will come in - and out - with a bang and not a depression. To that end we’ve decided to scour our mind-holes for gear that will help you survive the coming economic catastrophe.

While we can’t promise that there will be zombies during this international economic breakdown, we wanted to be completely prepared for all potential threats, especially when Pfizer goes belly-up and their laboratories are overrun by environmental activists who release a deadly “rage” virus into the wild. So, in a very real way, this is both to help you survive the Great Dustbowl of 2008 and the great Zombie uprising of suburban New Jersey. Let’s begin.

Read more…

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/3UAqf6KVIFk/

We’ve heard a lot about optimizing CSS, HTML and JavaScript but one thing that is less talked about is how much extra information image editors put into image files. You might think you’ve done a great job optimizing your GIFs, PNGs and JPGs while still keeping them visually pleasing but when you use a text editor you’ll realize that there is quite a big amount of data you can save by removing information about the image editor used, the date the file was edited last and lots of other bits that really are only interesting to the image editor. There are a lot of free tools that strip this information from the files for you and squeeze some extra optimization out of the file without affecting the look. The problem is that all of them are command-line based and you need to know how to use them. “Stoyan Stefanov”:http://www.phpied.com/ and “Nicole Sullivan”:http://www.stubbornella.org/content/ of the Yahoo exceptional performance team took all of these tools and their experience in using them and built one application that does all the optimizations for you in one go:

You can upload images, give it a URL or use smushit as a Firefox extension or bookmarklet. Smushit will show you how many bytes you can save by removing cruft from the images and gives you all the images as a zip file to replace them on your site.

Here’s a video of Stoyan and Nicole presenting Smushit.com at The Ajax Experience in Boston (sorry about the audio):

Source: Ajaxian » Front Page
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/407389042/smushitcom-makes-image-optimizing-a-breeze

As the concept of the “social graph” began to gain focus and attention, a buzz around the notion of multi-player social games began to grow as well. How cool would it be to play a game of pong between two users of a social network, right? And yet most multi-player games are limited to Chess, Checkers, and Poker. It’s not that there’s a shortage of companies developing casual games—in fact, money is being poured into the space in truck loads. Yet the multi-player games we were teased about have failed to materialize so far. Don’t despair though because salvation is upon us and it comes in the form of Come2Play’s multi-player API.

In my initial review of Come2Play I dubbed them the “Ning of social gaming networks“. Today they are upping the ante by putting out an open source multi-player API aimed at allowing Flash game developers to create real multi-player games.

The logic behind Come2Play’s move is to free game developers from matters revolving around the infrastructure necessary to drive multi-player games. The company believes it can catalyze a multi-player casual game revolution by removing this barrier and doing all the heavy lifting itself, specifically: hosting the infrastructure, providing emulations, and delivering distribution and reporting.

Released under the GNU Lesser General Public License, the API currently supports two players and will be gradually ratcheted-up to include a theoretically unlimited number of players. Developers will be able to create multiplayer games using ActionScript 2/3 which they should feel more comfortable with than server side scripting languages such as .NET, Java, and PHP. Social features that can be leveraged through the API include: Game rooms for up to 60 players, chat, leader board, ranking system, tokens, reward system and an ad-space-sharing mechanism.

Come2Play’s API could be perceived as a “honey trap” for several reasons. First, game developers can focus on developing games, rather than developing and maintaining infrastructure. Second, they get to keep all in-game ad revenue. Third, the developers get instant game distribution through Come2Play’s publisher network. Plus, all games can be automatically ported to Facebook and OpenSocial apps.

And now comes the trap (it is not as bad as it sounds). First, games built upon the API must be hosted on Come2Play’s infrastructure. Second, the games will be published in Come2Play’s game galleries and channels by default. Third, Come2Play reserves the right to display ads in the game wrappers and in the pre-game loading screen. The company splits this revenue 50/50 with publishers. CEO Alon Barzilay indicates that the company is open to flexible options in regards to the last two points. However, this will have to be done on a business development level.

So no more excuses… Can someone please develop multi-player pong for me…?

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/MoWbfUH-LK8/