
<?phpxml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" 
xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
>
<channel>
<title>Haaze.com / meganiggas / All</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
<description>Test Web 2.0 Content Management System</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 31 May 2011 07:10:02 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Eric Schmidt: 'Gang of four' rules tech]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=eric-schmidt-gang-of-four-rules-tech</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=eric-schmidt-gang-of-four-rules-tech</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 31 May 2011 07:10:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>meganiggas</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=eric-schmidt-gang-of-four-rules-tech</guid>
<description><![CDATA[RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said a &quot;gang of four&quot; rules technology today: Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook. The four companies are &quot;exploiting platform strategies&quot; to create enormous value both for consumers and shareholders, he said here today at the D9 conference.In addition to offering services that are unavailable otherwise (Amazon, for example: everything you want to buy in one place), each platform, Schmidt says, is a platform that other companies are building additional value on top of. He cites the combined value of these four companies--more than half a trillion dollars, he says--as unprecedented in the history of tech. Also unprecedented is the fact that there are four companies in such powerful and controlling positions. Schmidt does not expect to see consolidation of these four companies, nor is he convinced these four companies will stay in power for an extended period. It's more likely that one will falter and an upstart fill in for it. Or perhaps a company not in the top four will rise to power.  Like Microsoft, perhaps No, Schmidt posits that the fifth and sixth companies in his list are perhaps PayPal and Twitter. Microsoft, he says, is an enterprise company, not a driver of consumer products (Xbox notwithstanding). Furthermore, Schmidt implies that a shakeup among that gang of four could come quickly. &quot;It's axiomatic,&quot; he says, noting that the time a company has at the top of the heap on the Internet keeps getting shorter.  Google, he says, tries to keep ahead of the inevitable slow-down in his own company's innovation by building (and buying) completely new products--he says adding display advertising to Google's revenue stream was a completely new business that added billions of dollars of income to the company. The standard tech company curve, he says, is this: two guys start a company, go public, get rich, and the company &quot;asymptotically&quot; becomes boring and middle aged. Product innovation is absolutely required to avoid this.  Music is fundamental to Google's continued growth, Schmidt adds. In this field Google is trying to not just unseat Apple, but challenge the music industry to innovate when it comes to license agreements. Cloud-based consumer music licenses would add value to end-users and by extension to consumers, Schmidt says. &quot;We are attempting to convince the music industry to support cloud-based terms, and just have not been successful at it.&quot; <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Facebook: Liked to death]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=facebook-liked-to-death</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=facebook-liked-to-death</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 18 Apr 2011 07:10:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>meganiggas</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=facebook-liked-to-death</guid>
<description><![CDATA[You must Like to read.(Credit:Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET) We are cheap bastards, the lot of us. We don't want to pay for content. The New York Times puts up a pay wall that's leaky by design, so nonpaying readers can share stories they like with other people and articles pop up telling people how to take advantage to read all the newspaper online for free. The underlying conceit being that if you can get it all for free, no matter how valuable it is to you, you're a sucker if you actually pay. But if we won't pay with cash to see stuff we like, there are other ways that publishers and marketers can extract value from our attention: By turning us into advertisements. The latest experiment in micro-monetization is putting a &quot;Like wall&quot; between readers and content. The New Yorker tried a single-article trial last week for nonpaying readers' it made an essay by Jonathan Franzen available for &quot;free&quot; to those who would &quot;Like&quot; the magazine on Facebook. As Mashable notes, Self Magazine, Jennifer Lopez, and Lil Wayne have also put content behind Like wallsYou must also Like to get the product news.(Credit:Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET) There are other pieces of content like this. Electronics manufacturer Denon is coming out with new models. The company promises Facebook users a peek at the new gear, but only if they &quot;Like&quot; Denon's page. The reputation site Honestly.com has an A/B test running (in other words, not all users see it), where registered users don't see their own ratings until they &quot;Like&quot; the site. The idea, in these and other tests, is obviously to get people to tacitly recommend products on Facebook, in exchange for access to the online services. In some cases (like Denon), users are asked to Like something without fully knowing what it is. Call it the clueless vouch. It's got to stop, for two reasons. First, it's bad for Facebook and its users. It cheapens the Like. People are going to start mistrusting their friends' recommendation since there is a growing likelihood that a Like for a product was given in consideration for some online trinket.  Second, it's unfair. The value of a Like is a highly variable form person to person. My Like may be worth a bit to a marketer, given that I have a few hundred Facebook friends in a nice demographic. Other users are worth considerably more. And some much less. So how come I have to give up the same piece of my integrity as everyone else Shouldn't I be able to Like something in proportion to my worth as a shill And how would that work (Answer: It wouldn't.) I know there are thousands of marketers trying to figure out how to get their services to &quot;go viral.&quot; Everyone wants their service to spread like FarmVille invitations. But forcing virality on online users could devalue the whole system. Not only that, but as Honestly CEO Peter Kazanjy told me, &quot;Facebook controls the social distribution channels, so...they're the central bank.&quot; Do you really want to give Facebook more control over your message There's a place for honest Likes. People should be able to Like a product the same way they voluntarily wear a brand T-shirt. But let's try to avoid turning people into cheap billboards for fake recommendations. It will not end well.Honestly is experimenting with putting a Like wall between you and reviews of you. The CEO said he&amp;39'll add a bypass button soon.(Credit:Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[On the GreenBeat: Geothermal wins $96.8M loan guarantee, ethanol could suffer in national budget cuts]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=on-the-greenbeat-geothermal-wins-96-8m-loan-guarantee-ethanol-could-suffer-in-national-budget-cuts</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=on-the-greenbeat-geothermal-wins-96-8m-loan-guarantee-ethanol-could-suffer-in-national-budget-cuts</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>meganiggas</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=on-the-greenbeat-geothermal-wins-96-8m-loan-guarantee-ethanol-could-suffer-in-national-budget-cuts</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Here&amp;'s the latest action we&amp;'re following today on the GreenBeat:Oregon geothermal project wins $96.8 million loan guarantee &amp;8211' The Department of Energy has finalized a loan guarantee to a project sponsored by U.S. Geothermal. The funds will go to back the construction of a 23 megawatt geothermal power project in southeastern Oregon, known as Neal Hot Springs.Germany cuts solar subsidies by 15 percent &amp;8212' The cuts came six months earlier than planned, according to Reuters. The solar industry has long been jittery about German plans to reduce subsidies. Its generous incentives for solar project allowed the country to make up nearly half of last year&amp;'s global demand for photovoltaic panels.HelioVolt could be acquired &amp;8212' The venture-backed thin-film firm based in Austin, Tex. is &amp;''in discussion to be acquired,&amp;'' according to a company executive who spoke with Greentech Media. The executive, Iga Hallberg, referred to Fortune 100 companies that are interested in buying HelioVolt and said they expect to make an announcement in &amp;''a matter of weeks.&amp;'' The company recently raised $8.5 million through the sale of debt securities and was looking to raise another $1.5 million, according to SEC filings.First Solar looks for growing markets &amp;8211' The company released its fourth quarter 2010 earnings yesterday that showed declining sales and said it was looking to expand to new and developing markets like India, China, Australia and the Middle East, Earth2Tech writes. Demand in Europe has been expected to slow this year due to cutbacks in government subsidies that previously drove demand, though some have argued stronger than expected demand in the U.S. and Italywill make up for it, at least for the first quarter of the year.Ethanol support could fall in national budget cuts &amp;8212' Ethanol supporter and congressman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said he would be willing to &amp;''bite the bullet&amp;'' and allow ethanol supports to fall if it was necessary to cut down the national deficit. In particular, a bill circulating the Senate would bar the EPA from increasing the percentage of ethanol in gasoline and offering subsidies for gas stations retrofitted to sell E15 (15 percent ethanol), Autoblog Green writes.Next Story: Watch out, Tesla and Fisker! More luxury carmakers go electric Previous Story: Do CFL lights suck &amp;8216'Save the light bulb&amp;' campaign has Ron Paul on boardPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: biofuels, ethanol, Geothermal, SolarCompanies: DOE, EPA, First Solar, HelioVolt, US GeothermalPeople: Chuck Grassley, Iga Hallberg          Tags: biofuels, ethanol, Geothermal, SolarCompanies: DOE, EPA, First Solar, HelioVolt, US GeothermalPeople: Chuck Grassley, Iga HallbergIris Kuo is the VentureBeat's lead GreenBeat writer. She has reported for The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong, Houston Chronicle, the McClatchy Washington Bureau and Dallas public radio. Iris attended the University of Texas at Dallas and lives in Houston. Follow Iris on Twitter @thestatuskuo (and yes, that's how you  pronounce her last name). Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
</item>

</channel>
</rss>
