NBC has come to the conclusion that more and more people are less interested in watching television programs in the old fashion way. For this reason, they have announced a service in which viewers will be able to download programs for free to their personal computer or other electronic device.

After the show airs first on NBC television, it will then be available through this service for a week. Popular shows that are set to kick things off include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Heroes. For how popular these programs are on regular television, it will be interesting to see how many downloads this translates into. (more…)

Over the past couple of years, Web 2.0 companies have been collecting venture capital at a record pace. And during the first half of 2007 this trend held the same. In fact, approximately 6 percent more money was invested during these six months. But guess what? Most of this increase took place outside of the United States; particularly in Israel and Europe.

The most noticeable sign of a slowdown in the US is the pace at which venture capitalists are investing. For instance, take Benchmark Capital; the country’s top investor in 2006. Last year, this firm made 16 deals. Through the first half of this year, they have only backed three companies. To make this situation even more complex, only one was in the Silicon Valley area. Similar situations can be found with other large venture capital companies such as Storm Ventures, Omidyar Network, and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, and Byers. (more…)

A public Google video page recently made available a video with the title, “Nooglers and the PDB: Reactor.” While this may not sound like a huge deal, the video was actually leaked by mistake. In other words, it was not meant to be seen by the public eye.

So what exactly does the title mean? At Google, a noogler is known as a new employee. The Reactor is what employees call the back end operations of the ever popular Google Reader.

Although the video has since been removed from the Google website, several sources did get a good look at it, and have made it well known what the video was all about. Here are some of the major points that are touched on. More…

1. The backend of the feed grows at an astonishing pace of approximately 4 percent per week. It contains data from just about eight million feeds. (more…)

From a general point of view, Facebook is nothing more than a space that allows college aged students (and others) to communicate with one another. But anytime there is communication, there are sure to be some problems. Most recently, Facebook is faced with an issue that is based around free speech. While you may think that this would be easy enough to resolve, nothing could be further from the truth.

The problem at this time is a group of approximately 750 people who have organized against Islam. Even though the group does not say anything too harmful, they have definitely made it well known what they are all about. The group says: “The Quran contains many lies and threats. Islam is false, no god exists, and someone should say that loud and clear.” To some people this may not be a huge deal, but as you can imagine, many others are taking great offense to this statement. (more…)

Acer is getting serious about becoming a major player in the computer industry. They recently reached an agreement to purchase Gateway, Inc. for $710 million. Although Gateway had fallen off the map as of late, this acquisition is sure to move Acer up the computer industry ladder.

Gateway is the fourth largest PC manufacturer in the United States. Each year, they ship approximately 20 million units. But now, these numbers will all be credited to Acer. This will immediately send them to the number three spot as far as computer production is concerned.

“The acquisition of Gateway and its strong brand immediately completes Acer’s global footprint, by strengthening our US presence. This will be an excellent addition to Acer’s already strong positions in Europe and Asia. Upon acquiring Gateway, we will further solidify our position as number three PC vendor globally,” said Acer chairman J.T. Wang. (more…)

Do you remember when Google acquired YouTube for approximately $1.65 billion? You probably do because this was not too long ago. But it is only right now that Google has decided to attempt to cash in on this huge opportunity. And as you can imagine, there are many people who are not liking what they see.

Fans of YouTube are beginning to weigh in on the advertisements that are being added to the site. Some people have found the ads to be annoying, others don’t mind them, and of course, many are thinking about how they can profit from them. While there are sure to be thousands of opinions on this move, one thing is for sure: (more…)