‘Twitter-exclusive’ @DellOutlet has gained quite a significant following

@DellOutlet has been one of the major success stories amongst big brands using social media. It’s a Twitter account owned by Dell, which tweets out major discounts for their computers and allied products. All of the deals available on @DellOutlet are ‘Twitter-exclusive’.

@DellOutlet has gained quite a significant following and has acted as an effective online outlet that sold a lot of computers. The progress made in terms of volumes and sales figures has been truly impressive. And @DellOutlet continues its rapid rise.

@DellOutlet was started in June 2007. The concept was initiated by Dell’s Richard Binhammer. Making a rather modest beginning, it soon started catching fancy of buyers. The idea fast spread among customers who got hooked to it.

The ‘Twitter-exclusive’ project created immense buzz, resulting retweets, and a rapid rise in followers. Enthused by the success of @DellOutlet, the company has since chosen to embrace social media on multiple accounts. As one of the top brands to successfully employ Twitter as a business platform, Dell clearly has been a trendsetter for other brand building exercises like @Zappos and @JetBlue on Twitter.
@DellOutlet is a proof of the fact that platforms like Twitter can indeed be lucrative for companies – big and small - looking to leverage the reach and power of the Internet. It’s a win-win scenario for both the companies (that can indulge in brand building and earn significant revenues) as well as the consumers (who can get a great deal online).

Android operating system will contribute to the netbook sales, feels Acer

Acer plans to incorporate Android in the Aspire One. This will give Acer a significant marketing edge, whereas users will get more choice in the form of Google's mobile phone operating system on their netbooks apart from Microsoft's operating system. They may select their preferred option of operating system.

Acer feels that the Android operating system will significantly contribute to the worldwide netbook market growth. At the recent Computex trade show in Taiwan, the company stated it planned to ship most versions of its new Aspire One netbook with a version of Linux-based Android operating system, employed on mobile phones like the G-1. Shipping both Android and Windows on a majority of Aspire One netbooks will cut down the cost of having separate stock-keeping units for Windows and Linux.

"The Android operating system will allow Acer netbook users faster Internet connectivity, enhancing efficiency on-the-go," claimed the company. It remains to be seen how many users of Aspire One actually employ Android because, in Q3, the company will presumably begin shipping netbooks running Windows 7.

Presumably, even the Starter version (that no longer has the potential limit of only being able to run 3 apps at once) looks markedly better than Android. But it still might give Acer a selling point against other rival netbooks that don't incorporate something similar.

Android is open source so suppliers can customize it. One of the main reasons Linux failed on netbooks was that the top suppliers offered their own versions instead of opting to unite behind a common platform. It now remains to be seen whether the netbook market will have different versions of Android.

Smart mini-search engines are trying to carve out a new niche

Many smart, albeit ‘small-scale’ search engines are trying to carve out a new niche for themselves. Realizing that it is futile to take on Google and other top search engines, entities like Kosmix and Powerset are treading off-beat paths.
Kosmix smartly combines results thrown by other search engines. Its computers in response to a topic search create a page full of information automatically pulled from websites like YouTube and Wikipedia, as well as blogs, Twitter feeds and more sources.

According to Kosmix’s co-founder Venky Harinarayan, their computers comb through over 10,000 websites and applications. For instance, if you want to research a trip to Hawaii, it can find you various opinions and ideas from Twitter, a guide on Mahalo and also the latest images from Flickr, all of which is then displayed on one page ordered by relevance and importance.

These are all new mini-search engines that still form a very tiny part of the global search market. They are estimated to draw less than mere 2% of total search traffic worldwide. However, their relevance is underlined by a recent report from Web traffic monitor Hitwise. According to their estimates, these mini-search engines are growing rapidly. Kosmix has witnessed its market-share increase by 730% year-over-year, whereas traffic is almost double on Microsoft owned Powerset from that of a year ago.

Your website acts as a platform to serve the vast customer base worldwide

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The services offered by Webidiotz meet and surpass each client’s expectations. Appreciating the contribution made by Neil Patel to the website for www.amandamydesigns.com, Mandy Yakubovich mentions: “He carefully listened to my ideas and didn't hesitate to point out when something I wanted wouldn't work out for the best. He offered expert advice and a new way of doing things.”

Describing Webidiotz as an innovative company, which places great emphasis on complete customer satisfaction, Mandy Yakubovich adds, “I am thrilled with my website. When a friend commented that it really showed my passion for my work, I realized that Webidiotz had helped me capture the true essence of what I do!

Mandy Yakubovich has been drawing and painting since ‘I was old enough to hold a pencil or a paintbrush’, as the artist puts it: “Even as a small child I always knew that I wanted to be an artist. And I have never deviated from that path. I feel so fortunate to be living my dream.” In between school carpools, swimming lessons and dance classes, the avid artist has managed to take on some fascinating art projects. The work forms part of many prestigious private collections throughout Canada and the US.

“I believe that we can find art in almost everything from the simplest objects of day-today life to the elaborate works hung on gallery walls,” the artist quips. Webidiotz has tried to ensure that the website www.amandamydesigns.com reflects the artist’s style and philosophy. It acts as the artist’s window to the vast art community online, and showcases the select works. You can either pick something you like or the artist will be happy to create a custom piece for you.

As with www.amandamydesigns.com, Webidiotz promises to provide a result-oriented site that plays a major role in acquainting your potential customers with the brand/ business/ service offerings from you. It increases your sales and vastly enhances your brand reach.

Breaking the Google hold is easier said than done, its competitors discover!

The major issue with the highly competitive search engine business is that its future may almost have nothing to do with increased accuracy of search results. Google's information is more than adequate for the majority of people who look to find information online.

Currently, search seems to be facing the same peculiar problem as the chip business. Intel and AMD make so powerful semiconductors that very few PC buyers can employ all of their available computational power. A lot of what these chips can actually do is wasted. And upgrading to a more power-packed processor does not really mean much to users who fail to grasp the difference.

Under the circumstances, building a new search engine is a risk since it's expensive to build and market one. It is not easy to make it stand and survive in the mass market. To make the proposition even tougher, not only do users prefer Google to other options, but also most of them are not able to tell whether a new search product is markedly better.

Aside from the top search engines that comprise Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, there are several smaller companies jostling for users' attention. Microsoft claims that if its search engine fetches more relevant results than Yahoo! or Google, people will ultimately turn to the ‘best’ product. However, Google has become a habit for over two-thirds of the people who make use of search engines in the US. And breaking the Google hold is easier said than done!

YouTube XL offers a more enhanced user experience

YouTube has launched its newest service as part of a concerted strategy to move its content from the screen into the living room, the social heartland of its users. The new feature, YouTube XL, was launched after introduction of Hulu Desktop just a few days ago.

Soon users may be clicking the remote from their most comfortable chair in order to see YouTube videos on high resolution TV screen.

YouTube XL is a major enhancement to the YouTube for TV beta, an earlier launch, Google released in January. Product manager of YouTube XL, Kuan Yong, was quoted as saying that nothing about YouTube itself has really changed—except for the framework, which holds all that video content.

So users will think of YouTube, but with a vastly different UI, or user experience. All you need to do is just visit YouTube.com/XL, and you are set to enjoy the experience. It's all in the browser. There is no need for any software or plug-in to be downloaded and installed. You are just required to log in to YouTube from any browser and use the XL feature that enlarges the video image to match the size of the screen, which you are using.

YouTube's XL dedicated development team has worked hard to ensure it runs smoothly on most devices – over 140 of them at last count, Yong informed to add: "It looks really good, particularly in full-screen mode."

The latest version of OpenX 2.8 is doing reasonably well

Formerly known by a succession of different names, including Openads, OpenX has developed its ad server essentially through the open-source developer community over a time span of nine years. It has raised almost $20.5 million in two rounds of funding thus far.

The company stated it had witnessed rapid growth in spite of the sudden slowdown experienced in online advertising market largely owing to the ongoing recession. The latest version of OpenX 2.8, its free ad serving software, has already attracted over 3,000 active users and also a monthly run rate of over 10 billion impressions in just six weeks since its launch. But with close to 300 billion impressions running through OpenX software, it clearly has room to expand further and become profitable

OpenX stated it would be using the additional funds for the purpose of expanding its suite of technology products and services and accelerating the growth of its recently launched OpenX Market. Some of the features of OpenX's new platform include ability to staging real-time auctions for online ad spots and allowing publishers to get the benefits of higher bids until the very last second.

The company’s community of over 38,000 publishers powers well over 150,000 sites. OpenX products are used in over 100 countries. They have been translated into different languages by community contributors.

OpenX’s main rival is Google's DoubleClick ad server. Google took over the company for roughly $3.1 billion two years ago, as part of a multi-billion-dollar wave of ad-server firm acquisitions, which included Microsoft and AOL purchasing aQuantive and Adtech, respectively. OpenX is demonstrating that combining a widely adopted open-source product with a unique business model can provide the basis for a company of significant scale.