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<title>Haaze.com / Sonia01 / Published News</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
<description>Test Web 2.0 Content Management System</description>
<pubDate>Wed, 23 Mar 2011 07:10:42 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Toshiba's R800 series priced' sequel to one of our favorite laptops]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=toshibas-r800-series-priced-sequel-to-one-of-our-favorite-laptops</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=toshibas-r800-series-priced-sequel-to-one-of-our-favorite-laptops</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 23 Mar 2011 07:10:42 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=toshibas-r800-series-priced-sequel-to-one-of-our-favorite-laptops</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Toshiba)One of our favorite laptops in recent memory (and giving rise to one of the most popular laptop reviews we published last year) was the Toshiba R705. This slim 13-inch laptop packed in tons of features and decent performance, all for around $800, and was one of the best Windows-based alternatives for those who like the general size and shape of MacBooks but need a Windows machine. But with the first few rounds of laptops featuring Intel's second-gen Core i-series processors hitting stores, the R700 series is a bit behind the times. Toshiba has mentioned the next version, the R800, a few times, but specs, prices, and actual availability information have been sketchy. Now detailed specs and prices are up on Toshiba's Web site (we spotted these via Engadget), and they run from the $889 Intel Core i3-2310M Portege R835-P50X to the $930 R835-P56X, which has a Core i5-2410M processor. All four models have 640GB hard drives and USB 3.0 ports. We were actually able to add one of the four R835 models to a shopping cart on the Toshiba site, with a shipping time of 1 to 2 days, but that appears to be a site error, as Toshiba says the U.S. versions of the R800 laptops haven't been officially announced yet. We screen-grabbed the page in case it gets pulled, so check out the different R835 models and their specs and prices below. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta to hit mid-April]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gears-of-war-3-multiplayer-beta-to-hit-mid-april</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gears-of-war-3-multiplayer-beta-to-hit-mid-april</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:10:49 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gears-of-war-3-multiplayer-beta-to-hit-mid-april</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Gears of War 3 creator Cliff Bleszinski, left, talks about his new game at the February Xbox Showcase event in San Francisco.(Credit:Daniel Terdiman/CNET)SAN FRANCISCO--Fans of the Gears, put a big circle around April on your calendars: the public multiplayer beta of Gears of War 3 will be opening up around the middle of that month.At Microsoft'sXbox February Showcase event here today, the company announced the timing of the Gears of War 3 beta opening, as well as a slew of other game-related new items. Among them: that on March 15, the Halo: Reach &quot;Defiant Map Pack&quot; would go on sale' the availability of Halo Waypoint, a mobile stat-checking feature for the mega-hit franchise that will be accessible online or forWindows Phone 7' new add-ons for Fable III' the March 22 release of Crysis 2 3D' and much more.Each year, Microsoft hosts a showcase event like this one to reveal the games and add-ons that it will be highlighting in coming months. With the Game Developers Conference set to start Monday here as well, one thing is clear: the video game industry is in full swing as winter fades away and spring gets ready to emerge.Although Microsoft has sometimes used the Xbox showcase event in the past to release news about the console itself, today's event was entirely about games.The Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta &quot;will give fans a chance to experience three new Versus Multiplayer modes on four new maps,&quot; Microsoft and Gears developer Epic Games said in a release. The full version of the game is expected to be released September 20 worldwide, except in Japan, where it will hit on September 22. And Microsoft and Epic said that fans of the game will get a chance to help decide which maps will appear in the beta. They can do so by visiting the Gears Facebook page.The Halo: Reach Defiant Map pack will introduce players to three new battlefields, the release said. &quot;Set in the heat of the legendary Battle of Reach, the three new warfronts--Condemned, Highlands, and Unearthed--are primed for nonstop action in Firefight and all competitive multiplayer modes.&quot;And since Halo is so crucial to the success of Xbox, Microsoft couldn't resist more news about the franchise. The Halo Waypoint will let players share all their game stats and let them &quot;compare against friends from the palm of your hand.&quot;Another big upcoming release is that of Lionhead Studios' Fable III, which will be available for PCs in North America on May 17. The game will bring players &quot;back to Albion.&quot;Other games and add-ons announced at the event included:&amp;149' Homefront, from Kaos Studios and THQ, which &quot;asks civilians to stand united, fight back, and defend their 'Homefront.&quot; The game and all add-ons will be available on Xbox Live and in stores on March 15.&amp;149' Child of Eden, from Q Entertainment and Ubisoft. This is a &quot;multi-sensory shooter from the mind of...Tetsuya Mizuguchi that will send players diving into a kaleidoscopic matrix of synchronized music and mind-bending visuals.&quot;&amp;149' Batman: Arkham City, from Rocksteady Studios, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, and DC Entertainment. Expected to be released this fall, the game follows on the original Batman: Arkham Asylum, &quot;sending players into Arkham City, the new maximum security home for all of Gotham City's thugs, gangsters, and insane criminal masterminds.&quot;&amp;149' Age of Empires Online for Windows, from Gas Powered Games. &amp;149' Shift 2: Unleashed, from Slightly Mad Studios and Electronic Arts. This is the 17th game in the Need for Speed series, and according to Microsoft, this version features an all-new rendering engine as well as a full graphics overhaul. The game will launch on Xbox on March 29.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[HP Palm posts teaser video for Feb. 9 event]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=hp-palm-posts-teaser-video-for-feb--9-event</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=hp-palm-posts-teaser-video-for-feb--9-event</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Feb 2011 08:10:57 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=hp-palm-posts-teaser-video-for-feb--9-event</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I've got to give HP Palm credit. Even after Engadget seemingly spoiled the surprise of February 9 event with a story and photos of two WebOS-based tablets, the company shot back with a message saying, &quot;Think you saw the latest on Engadget Think again.&quot; It certainly piqued our interest and now, we're even more enthralled thanks to a new teaser video.The clip is brief and shows close-ups of a device from several different angles, but aside from a couple of buttons and switches, it's hard to determine what exactly you're looking at. Beneath the video on Palm's YouTube page, the description simply reads, &quot;Think big. Think small. Think ahead. Think beyond.&quot;Just last week, HP CEO Leo Apotheker dropped hints that we'd see WebOS smartphones andtablets at the event and said the products would ship just a few weeks after the announcement. Fortunately, we also don't have to wait too much longer, as the February 9 is just a few days away.The press conference kicks off at 10 a.m. PT, and of course, CNET will be there to bring you all the latest news live, so be sure to tune in then.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[eBay snags Bing's development manager, Facebook scientist]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ebay-snags-bings-development-manager-facebook-scientist</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ebay-snags-bings-development-manager-facebook-scientist</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 31 Jan 2011 08:10:32 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ebay-snags-bings-development-manager-facebook-scientist</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Prevost weighing in as a panelist during 2009&amp;39's Semantic Technology Conference.(Credit:Tom Krazit/CNET)Adding to the list of recent departures, Microsoft has lost the principal development manager of its Bing search engine to commerce giant eBay. According to All Things Digital, Scott Prevost who joined Microsoft as part of the Powerset acquisition in 2008, has left to become the VP of product management for eBay's search tool. He's joined by now former Facebook research scientist Dennis DeCoste, who will be eBay's director of research. Together, the pair are said to be working on improving the relevancy of eBay's built-in search tool. A Microsoft representative confirmed Prevost's departure and said &quot;we wish him well in his future endeavor.&quot;Prior to his two-year stint as the GM and director of product for Powerset, Prevost had been the CEO and CTO at the Animated Speech Corporation, which merged with educational software and research company TeachTown in 2006. As for DeCoste, he too had been a Microsoft employee, though he had worked as a principal scientist for the company following his stint as the director of research for Yahoo's Research group.Prevost joins a handful of recent departures from Microsoft's management and engineering ranks. Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that server and tools boss Bob Muglia would be leaving the company later this year. More recently, Brad Brooks, who served as corporate vice president in Microsoft's Windows Group, left the company to join Juniper Networks. Meanwhile, Matt Miszewski--the former general manager of Microsoft's government business--left Microsoft for Salesforce.com in late December, though he was temporarily blocked from taking his post as a VP due to Microsoft winning a restraining order based on non-compete and confidentiality agreements Miszewski had signed. There's also Johnny Chung Lee, theWii hacker Microsoft hired to work in its Applied Sciences group to develop Kinect algorithms, who jumped ship for Google earlier this month.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Microsoft hasn't ruled out Office for Mac App Store]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-hasnt-ruled-out-office-for-mac-app-store</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-hasnt-ruled-out-office-for-mac-app-store</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 28 Jan 2011 08:10:23 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-hasnt-ruled-out-office-for-mac-app-store</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Microsoft)Microsoft might not be selling Office in theMac App Store now, but that doesn't mean it never will.&quot;It's something we are looking at,&quot; Microsoft's Amanda Lefebvre told All Things Digital's Mobilized blog in an interview yesterday. &quot;It's something we haven't ruled out. We just have to see how that relates to our business.&quot;The Mac App Store, which launched earlier this month, could provide Microsoft with another viable outlet to profit on its productivity suite on the Mac. However, there would be consequences to such an action.For one, Apple currently takes a 30 percent share of all sales of paid applications in its marketplace, leaving the remaining 70 percent to developers. If Microsoft brought Office to the Mac App Store, it would effectively provide Apple--one of its top competitors--with a significant cut of its potential profit.It's also important to note that Microsoft currently only sells Office for Mac as a bundle featuring the company's many applications. Bringing Office to the Mac App Store could force Microsoft to offer its applications, like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, separately.Microsoft acknowledged that point in an interview with CNET last year. The company's Office boss, Kurt DelBene, said that offering individual applications in the marketplace would be &quot;a point of discussion with Apple.&quot; He wouldn't say if Office would eventually make its way to the Mac App Store.If it does, it will be met with competition from Apple's iWork suite. The company currently sells Numbers, Keynote, and Pages separately in the marketplace.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA['Daily Show' coming back to Hulu]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=daily-show-coming-back-to-hulu</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=daily-show-coming-back-to-hulu</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 03 Jan 2011 08:10:45 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=daily-show-coming-back-to-hulu</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Is he coming back to Hulu(Credit:Comedy Central)&quot;The Daily Show&quot; and &quot;The Colbert Report&quot; could be on their way back to Hulu.Citing an unnamed source, The New York Times is reporting that Hulu and Comedy Central are in talks to bring the popular shows back to the video service. Although no deal has been struck, the Times claims, both sides hope to ink an agreement sooner rather than later.&quot;The Daily Show&quot; and &quot;The Colbert Report&quot; were removed from Hulu last March after the companies couldn't agree to a deal that would see the video service maintain the rights to offer them. They are still available to Web users, however, on their respective Web sites.When it announced the shows' departure from the service last year, Hulu made it clear that both it and Comedy Central benefited from the relationship. Hulu's Andy Forssell said at the time that the companies saw &quot;very strong results&quot; both from a revenue perspective and a viewership perspective. But even with that revenue opportunity, the Times claims Comedy Central wanted &quot;upfront payments&quot;--a request that Hulu balked at.Hulu did not immediately respond to request for comment.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Republicans slam White House over WikiLeaks response]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=republicans-slam-white-house-over-wikileaks-response</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=republicans-slam-white-house-over-wikileaks-response</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 30 Nov 2010 08:10:33 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Politics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=republicans-slam-white-house-over-wikileaks-response</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Congressional Republicans are starting to condemn the Obama administration for not doing enough to curb WikiLeaks.In a calculated affront to official Washington, WikiLeaks is dribbling out hundreds of thousands of confidential State Department cables at a leisurely pace, effectively ensuring that new embarrassing disclosures will appear every day.There's no &quot;sense of urgency&quot; from Attorney General Eric Holder to stop this, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said today. Holder told reporters yesterday that an investigation that's been in progress since the summer is still &quot;ongoing,&quot; but would not elaborate.&quot;To me this was a catastrophic event--and he was talking about it almost in a casual way considering how important the event was,&quot; King said on Fox News. &quot;Eric Holder, who was so quick to sue Arizona over the immigration law, who began investigations of the CIA interrogators, just seems to be treating this as another case.&quot; &quot;I've seen no evidence of anything substantial at all&quot; that's been done to cut off the flow of U.S. donations to WikiLeaks or indict editor Julian Assange on conspiracy to commit espionage, King said. As CNET previously reported, King wrote a letter on Sunday asking Holder to &quot;criminally charge WikiLeaks activist Julian Assange under the Espionage Act&quot; for conspiracy to disclose classified information. (Assange, an Australian citizen, is giving interviews from an undisclosed location, presumably in the United Kingdom.)King also asked the State Department to formally declare WikiLeaks a terrorist organization, a move that would make it a crime for U.S.-based programmers to aid the group and also cut off any donations from the United States. (WikiLeaks accepts PayPal, Visa, and MasterCard donations.)Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-S.C.) offered similar criticisms of the Obama administration, claiming that Democrats have been too slow to respond to the new threat posed by WikiLeaks' slow drip of disclosures.&quot;We're at war,&quot; Graham said yesterday. &quot;I hope Eric Holder, who's a good man, will start showing some leadership here and get our laws in line with being at war.&quot;And former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a Republican, has said in a Facebook post that &quot;the latest round&quot; of leaks &quot;raises serious questions about the Obama administration's incompetent handling of this whole fiasco.&quot;As CNET reported earlier today, the White House told federal agencies this week to review who can access classified material and limit use of USB memory sticks on classified computers. &quot;But why did the White House not publish these orders after the first leak back in July&quot; Palin wrote. &quot;What explains this strange lack of urgency on their part&quot;Even before this week's release, the Washington Times and a former Bush administration official proposed Wikileaks.org as the first public target for a U.S. government cyberattack, a Republican senator proposed a law targeting Wikileaks, and conservative commentators have called for Assange to be arrested.Now the rhetoric--and suggestions for how to dispose of Assange--have increased. A TownHall.com columnist has posted an article titled: &quot;5 Reasons The CIA Should Have Already Killed Julian Assange.&quot; And Tony Shaffer of the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, told Fox News that he would like to see military action against Assange: &quot;I would look at this very much as a military issue. With potentially military action against him and his organization.&quot;James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says the problem was that there were insufficient controls in place at the time the classified files were sent to WikiLeaks. &quot;Broad access is good, but the part that has to accompany this is tighter internal controls,&quot; Lewis says. &quot;The technology is there to let the network alert you when somebody attaches a storage device, somebody puts in a disk, or somebody downloads a zillion files. Information sharing and access has to be accompanied by internal controls. The U.S. should have done both simultaneously.&quot;For its part, the administration defends itself by saying that, in the last week, the State Department severed the connection between its database of diplomatic cables and an unspecified classified network.&quot;We're not going to let what WikiLeaks has done undermine the global cooperation that is vitally important to resolving regional and global security challenges,&quot; State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said today. He referred questions about the investigation to the Justice Department.But Crowley did rule out more aggressive action against WikiLeaks. When asked &quot;is any action going to be taken that could involve&quot; an &quot;extra-legal process such as renditions or a one-way trip for Assange to Guantanamo Bay, Crowley replied: &quot;No.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Nintendo sells 1.5 million Wii, DS units in a week]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nintendo-sells-1-5-million-wii-ds-units-in-a-week</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nintendo-sells-1-5-million-wii-ds-units-in-a-week</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 29 Nov 2010 08:10:33 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nintendo-sells-1-5-million-wii-ds-units-in-a-week</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Nintendo)Nintendo enjoyed an exceptionally strong past week.The game company announced today that it sold 900,000 DS units and 600,000Wii consoles in the U.S. from November 21 to 27, according to internal estimates. Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said that such success means U.S. consumers &quot;bought about 9,000 Nintendo hardware systems non-stop for every hour of every day during the week of Black Friday.&quot;Nintendo's announcement is an important one, considering the issues it has been experiencing over the past few months.Last month, Nintendo reported a disappointing six-month period from April to September with a loss of $24.6 million. It sold 6.69 million DS units during the period, down from the 11.7 million it sold during the same time last year. It sold 4.97 million Wii units between April and September, representing a decline from the 5.75 million Wii units it sold in 2009.In response, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata said in an interview with the Associated Press that his company was &quot;not thinking of [a Wii price cut] for the near future.&quot; He went on to say that the company's plan was to offer bundles to ramp up demand for its products.The company currently offers a &quot;Mario-red&quot; Wii option for $199.99, as well as a red Nintendo DSi XL bundle for $179.99. It also sells orange and green Nintendo DSi bundles for $149.99.Nintendo was quick to point out that its decision to offer such bundles helped spur sales last week.Although its past week's sales are impressive, the company didn't provide any indication on how its hardware performed for the rest of November. And it will have some work cut out for it to match last year's hardware sales.Last November, Nintendo sold 1.26 million Wii units and 1.7 million DS units, according to market research firm NPD.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Guide for teen-proofing Facebook released]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=guide-for-teen-proofing-facebook-released</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=guide-for-teen-proofing-facebook-released</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 08 Nov 2010 08:10:32 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=guide-for-teen-proofing-facebook-released</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:ConnectSafely.org)If you are a parent and you want your teen to be able to use Facebook without either of you having to worry that your child is sharing too much personal information, there's a new resource that can help. A &quot;Parents' Guide to Facebook,&quot; being unveiled today, offers hands-on, step-by-step instructions and illustrations, as well as information on safety, privacy, and reputation protection' and it covers the use of Facebook on computers and cell phones. It also offers specific recommendations for configuring privacy settings, noting that the default Facebook settings are not as privacy protective as they should be, even for adults.  The guide is being debuted at the fourth annual Family Online Safety Institute conference by the iKeepSafe Coalition and Connect Safely, a project of the nonprofit Tech Parenting Group. (CBS.com contributor Larry Magid of SafeKids.com is a co-director of that group.) Facebook also has its own Safety Center, launched earlier this year, that provides information geared toward parents and teens. The guidance will no doubt be a welcome resource for parents who have trouble keeping up with their teens' activities, both online and offline. A recent survey found social networks are not doing enough to protect teens' privacy. The guide may even help teens avoid the mistake one girl made recently when she accidentally invited thousands of strangers to her private house party. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Blekko launches the biased search engine]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=blekko-launches-the-biased-search-engine</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=blekko-launches-the-biased-search-engine</comments>
<pubDate>Sun, 31 Oct 2010 07:10:01 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=blekko-launches-the-biased-search-engine</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ You know how you always slow down to rubberneck when you pass acar wreck on the freeway I'm that way with new search engines. I slow down, I look for the pool of blood, and then I resume my normal Google speed and forget the twisted metal in the rear-view. Previous wrecks include Cuil, Hakia, Powerset (wrapped into Bing), Clusty, and RedZ--each had a special trick, but they've all faded from memory, some after crashing in flames, some after making their founders rich. And some still plod along in the breakdown lane, while the real traffic blasts past them. But wait, here's another: Blekko, whose name means, according to CEO Rick Skrenta, Our naming firm sucked, so we went with this instead.  Blekko's technology is quite clever, and the economics of search are such that it might actually work as a business and pay back the $24 million that's been invested in the company so far. Blekko's challenge is not to unseat Google but to simply not fade into obscurity.Blekko returns refreshingly different results than Google. Sometimes better -- but not always.(Credit:Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET) Here's how Blekko will try to do that: this search engine keeps lists of categorized sites that can be applied to queries. For example, if you're searching for medical information, your query can either automatically or manually be restricted to just sites that are actual, bona fide sources, not just spam farms. Blekko has seven main categories (health, automotive, lyrics, colleges, personal finance, recipes, and hotels), and users can also create their own. If you search for &quot;cure for headaches,&quot; for example, Blekko gives you a good set of results from WebMD, the NIH, etc. Google's results, in comparison, are less focused. However, that's a query that Blekko provided to me. On some others (try, &quot;Boxer's fracture&quot;), I found Blekko no better than Google. You can also tilt your search results in the direction you like by using a category of bias, like &quot;liberal&quot; or &quot;conservative.&quot; Categorization lists are applied by appending a &quot;slashtag.&quot; The query, &quot;climate change /conservative&quot; will give you politically slanted results, for example. &quot;Climate change /science&quot; will restrict your results to hits from scientific Web sites.  Users can also create their own slashtags, and other users can contribute to those lists, if their creators allow. Blekko is potentially a great search engine for curators and researchers. (This has been done before, though: See Rollyo.)  One very cool part of the Blekko technology is that it uses spam as a signal of significance. If a result returns a lot of hits from known automatic linkfarms or spam sites, the Blekko engine uses this data as an indicator of the importance of the query and aggressively filters out the less-than-useful returns.  As a business, Blekko is no Google, and Skrenta has no illusions that it will put a dent in it. He says, &quot;We'd like to be the No. 3 search engine,&quot; and believes that the site could be profitable with 1 million to 2 million queries a day (out of the over 1 billion now done on the Web). The site's not running any monetization schemes or advertising at the moment.  Blekko may in fact win enough repeat users to make it a going business, but it won't have a real, Web-wide impact unless its concept--that bias is good and more aggressive search filtering is needed --gets some traction. There's nothing to stop Google from becoming more Blekko-like and starting to return results even more user-specific and location-specific than they already are. Until then, though, Blekko is a solid alternative to Google and Bing for anyone, and more importantly it's got great potential for researchers, librarians, journalists, or anyone who's willing to put some work into how their search engine functions in order to get better results. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Clustrix picks up $12M from Sequoia to treat database upgrade headaches]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=clustrix-picks-up-12m-from-sequoia-to-treat-database-upgrade-headaches</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=clustrix-picks-up-12m-from-sequoia-to-treat-database-upgrade-headaches</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=clustrix-picks-up-12m-from-sequoia-to-treat-database-upgrade-headaches</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Clustrix, a provider of database software for storage nodes, announced today that it has raised $12 million in its second round of funding led by Sequoia Capital.The core part of the product is the software that is slapped onto third-party storage node appliances. It&amp;'s designed to let users install additional nodes without having to rewrite their database software or deal with any other changeover headaches like outages.The company is also in a good position to move into the cloud with its storage software that will prevent its users from having to rewrite their database code when they purchase additional storage space on public cloud servers, said Dan Liddle, director of marketing and business development for Clustrix.&amp;''When you exceed the performance of your big piece of iron that you lease in the cloud or your in-house databases, you have to do a wholesale change to your software architecture,&amp;'' Liddle said. &amp;''We can allow them to avoid having to ever shard their environment.&amp;''Salesforce, a large provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software, also recently announced a cloud-based storage service called database.com. The basic idea is to bring down costs of databases by allowing companies to spin up nodes whenever they need them, rather than having to install new ones. It&amp;'s also part of a fundamental shift to the cloud for most companies, even those reluctant to make the move for security and performance risks.But many larger companies that were initially on the cloud have had to come back to physical hardware for a number of security reasons and to help improve their performance. Companies that don&amp;'t need massive levels of storage that the cloud could provide are also a potential target, because they typically begin their company&amp;'s life off the cloud, Liddle said. That&amp;'s an area Clustrix will capitalize on for the time being until it readies its software for public cloud providers.The company was able to close its second round of funding rather quickly and had a large number of offers, but went with its existing investors in Sequoia Capital, U.S. Venture Partners and ATA Ventures.The most recent round of funding brings Clustrix&amp;'s total funding up to $30 million.The San Francisco, Calif.-based company has 35 employees and came out of stealth mode in May.Previous Story: Abound Solar to compete on cost after closing on a sunny $510 millionPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Companies: Clustrix, salesforcePeople: cloud computing, database          Companies: Clustrix, salesforcePeople: cloud computing, databaseMatthew Lynley is VentureBeat's enterprise writer. He graduated from University of North Carolina, where he studied math and physics, in May 2010. He has reported for Reuters. He currently lives in San Francsico, Calif. You can reach him at mattl@venturebeat.com (all story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com), and on Twitter at @logicalmoron.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Merry Christmas, Zynga: CityVille eclipses FarmVille as the world&'s biggest game]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=merry-christmas-zynga-cityville-eclipses-farmville-as-the-worldrsquos-biggest-game</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=merry-christmas-zynga-cityville-eclipses-farmville-as-the-worldrsquos-biggest-game</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=merry-christmas-zynga-cityville-eclipses-farmville-as-the-worldrsquos-biggest-game</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In just 22 days, Zynga&amp;'s CityVille has eclipsed FarmVille as the world&amp;'s biggest game.Today, CityVille added an astounding 6.9 users to end the day at 61.7 million monthly active users, compared with 56.8 million for FarmVille, according to stat collector AppData. Before today, FarmVille, also made by Zynga, was the biggest social game on Facebook, and it also happened to be the biggest game on any platform in terms of the sheer volume of users.Now the challenge will be to make money from all of those users. If Zynga hangs on to them, it stands a chance of becoming a far bigger player in social games than it already is.When CityVille took off shortly after its launch on Dec. 2, it was clear that its growth path was going to break all records. We knew this would happen, but it&amp;'s still pretty astounding. It&amp;'s going to be a pretty Merry Christmas for Zynga. Zynga&amp;'s traffic on Facebook has now soared to 261.6 million monthly active users, which is probably near its all-time peak. In November, Zynga had around 198 million monthly active users.Zynga actually hit its peak in the spring, about the time when Facebook cracked down on game communications that were perceived as spam-like. That meant that it was harder to make games take off in a viral way, without spending money on advertising. Zynga&amp;'s growth plummeted and it hasn&amp;'t replaced those lost users until now.The turnaround is remarkable and shows what can happen when you have a good game. CityVille is a city simulation like SimCity, but far simpler and more social. For instance, you can open a chain of stores and operate them as franchises in your friends&amp;' towns. Mark Skaggs, head of the team that built the game, told us in an interview that the concept was to create a game that felt like you were playing it in real time.The game also benefits from Zynga&amp;'s usual advertising on Facebook and its ability to cross-promote the game to its other Facebook users. The questions now are, will users will stick around and will they will spend money Zynga&amp;'s games are free-to-play, where users can play for free and spend real money on virtual goods such as tractors in FarmVille.Founded in 2007, Zynga has become one of the largest gaming companies, with more than 1,300 employees. Legendary investor John  Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp;amp' Byers said Zynga was easily the best investment that his firm has ever made. The social networking game maker is already the largest app developer on Facebook. And some recent valuations show thatZynga is actually valued above $5 billion, larger than Electronic Arts, one of the largest video game publishers in the world.Zynga is trying to build up its user numbers by expanding to new  platforms such as mobile games in Japan. It is also expanding its social  games to non-Facebook web sites and translating its games into other  languages. The company has been buying about a company a month to get  more talented game developers. But the No. 1 thing it has to do to keep  growing is commission new games like CityVille.Next Story: Pruning rotten apples from your company Previous Story: Solve Media makes Captchas easier on your eyes with video adsPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: CityVille, FarmvilleCompanies: ZyngaPeople: Mark Skaggs          Tags: CityVille, FarmvilleCompanies: ZyngaPeople: Mark SkaggsDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[John Doerr: &''Bigger than Billion-Dollar Greentech IPOs in 18&nbsp'Months&'']]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=john-doerr-8220bigger-than-billion-dollar-greentech-ipos-in-18nbspmonths8221</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=john-doerr-8220bigger-than-billion-dollar-greentech-ipos-in-18nbspmonths8221</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=john-doerr-8220bigger-than-billion-dollar-greentech-ipos-in-18nbspmonths8221</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In the peak of the Internet bubble, a company&amp;'s valuation&amp;8211' and press attention&amp;8211' would soar simply by whispering the words &amp;''John Doerr is an investor.&amp;'' But in early Web 2.0 days, the once-everywhere venture capitalist seemed to fall off of the tech press&amp;'s radar, at least when it came to Internet investing.But boy, has Doerr made up for lost time this year: Keynoting both of our Disrupt conferences, holding press conferences at Facebook, and generally leading the charge on the messaging that Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp;amp' Byers is serious about investing all over this mobile-social wave of digital innovation. The lastest move was his signing of Wall Street analyst Mary Meeker as a Kleiner Perkins partner&amp;8211' a deal he personally negotiated with Meeker, according to an interview we did with both of them this morning.So I had to ask while I had him on the phone: Whatever happened to Doerr&amp;'s belief that cleantech was the next big thing Don&amp;'t worry tree huggers, Al Gore and concerned climate change watchers, he still believes. And like some other VCs, Doerr says that 2011 will be the year believers start to get rewarded. &amp;''We still believe there are enormous opportunities in green technologies,&amp;'' he said. &amp;''There will be bigger than billion-dollar IPOs in the next 12-to-18 months. But what&amp;'s going on in the Internet is tremendously exciting too. We can walk and chew gum at the same time.&amp;'' (Meeker laughed and asked whether she was supposed to have done that during the interview process. There&amp;'s an all-hands investor retreat for the firm this week. I&amp;'m betting Meeker gets a case of gum from someone&amp;8230')Kleiner&amp;'s clean tech portfolio is here,a4sand it includes a range of big bets like Tesla-competitor Fisker Automotive, regenerative fuel cell makera4sBloom Energy,a4slow-cost solar film maker Miasole, and smart-grid technology company Silver Spring Networks.When I tried to press Doerr on which of these two opportunities he was more excited about, he wriggled out by saying he was most excited about working with Meeker. Yep, looks like the master of working the late-1990s media is back.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Android Market To Show Content Ratings. Devs: Get Them In Or Be Labeled&nbsp'&''Mature&'']]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=android-market-to-show-content-ratings--devs-get-them-in-or-be-labelednbsp8220mature8221</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=android-market-to-show-content-ratings--devs-get-them-in-or-be-labelednbsp8220mature8221</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=android-market-to-show-content-ratings--devs-get-them-in-or-be-labelednbsp8220mature8221</guid>
<description><![CDATA[As Apple CEO Steve Jobs like to point out, the Android Market is great for users who want to find porn. While that may not be exactly true, other Android-based stores are trying to make it true. And perhaps perception was getting too close to reality, as today, Google has announced that in the next few weeks, they&amp;'ll be showing content ratings for all apps listed in the Market.While Android has previously had a content rating policy, prior to this, these ratings were not surfaced to users. Nor does it seem like they were strictly enforced. As a result, it was difficult to distinguish an app with mature content from those that were meant for kids.&amp;nbsp'Now, all apps in the Market will be required to show one of four content rating levels: All, Pre-teen, Teen, &amp;amp' Mature, Google&amp;'s Eric Chu writes today.Starting next week, Android developers are going to be required to submit new or updated apps with one of these ratings if they want to be included in the Market. Developers not doing updates or new uploads are also being asked to add a rating to their app, and they&amp;'ll have &amp;''several weeks&amp;'' to do so. But be warned: those that do not will find their apps default to the &amp;''Mature&amp;'' rating.&amp;''This new capability will provide users with additional information to help them select the best applications for them,&amp;'' writes Chu.CrunchBase InformationAndroidInformation provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Hi, Mom. Welcome To&nbsp'1995]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=hi-mom--welcome-tonbsp1995</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=hi-mom--welcome-tonbsp1995</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=hi-mom--welcome-tonbsp1995</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Hey Dad, will you please print this out for Mom Thanks.I remember the first time I fired up Netscape on a computer in the library of the law firm I had just started working at in 1995. I think I went to Yahoo and clicked on some things, and called it a day. For the next year the Internet was mostly about receiving and forwarding email jokes. Some of my friends were really excited about being joke &amp;''hubs.&amp;'' Thank God that&amp;'s all history. Jokes are rarely forwarded by email any more. It&amp;'s been replaced with spam.Anyway, back to my mom, who occasionally shows up here in a cameo appearance. Until this year the Internet was a theoretical thing for my mother. If she needed something from it she&amp;'d use a verbal query, something like &amp;''Jack (my dad), will you look up Oprah Winfrey&amp;'s tv schedule for me&amp;'' Or whatever. If I wanted to send her an email I&amp;'d send it to my dad and he&amp;'d print it out for her and then type back whatever she said after reading it. I honestly considered getting her one of those ridiculous Presto printers. Instead I bought her an iMac and my dad showed her how to do email. She&amp;'s now proudly in control of a very nice comcast.net email address.And since then, for months and months now, I receive an email a day from my mom with a 1995-era joke, usually of the sickeningly cute variety. Or an email admonishing me to &amp;''be nicer to people in your posts.&amp;'' Like these (all actual emails from my mom):andandOf course I&amp;'ve shared this with the TechCrunch team internally as a sort of cathartic exercise. Apparently I&amp;'m not the only one with relatives living in another era:What to do Never let her find out about Twitter and Facebook, that&amp;'s what. I love you, Mom, I really do. I&amp;'ve never once hit &amp;''report spam&amp;'' on one of your emails, and I save them all. Just&amp;8230'please&amp;8230'stop.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Giant-screen social games for crowds at large events - Springwise]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=giant-screen-social-games-for-crowds-at-large-events---springwise</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=giant-screen-social-games-for-crowds-at-large-events---springwise</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=giant-screen-social-games-for-crowds-at-large-events---springwise</guid>
<description><![CDATA[There''s no doubt sports matches and other large events offer advertisers the potential of an engaged, enthusiastic crowd of consumers' how to make the most of that potential, however, is much less clear. Finnish Uplause has developed a series of social games for use on giant stadium screens that aim to entertain and engage participants while conveying positive brand impressions.Uplause games can be shown on-screen during breaks in the action at any game or large event. Shouting, waves and other crowd favorites are included among the games on offer, as are games that challenge the audience to battle for a better score in volume, rhythm and more. One game, for example, requires the audience to clap together at specific times in order to match the rhythm of the song, a4AWe will rock you.a4 At least as important as the entertainment value, however, is that sponsorship can be inserted in a matter of minutes, Uplause says. The technology''s in-game ad system lets event organizers earn additional revenues by selling product placement to partners and sponsors. The games can also be used to move large crowds of people, such as over to the bar, Uplause says. Operated for event organizers by the Uplause team, the system was already used in Finland''s SM-Liiga Ice Hockey Play-Offs this spring' a YouTube video demonstrates the technology in action.There''s little doubt that content has become far more effective than advertising when it comes to engaging individual consumers, so it only makes sense that the same would be true on a crowd level. Uplause aims to expand internationally with its licensing-based business model, according to a report in ArcticStartup' one to partner with toward that end...Website: www.uplause.comContact: veli-pekka.marin@uplause.comSpotted by: Jan Ameri <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[AdMob investor backs mobile ad startup MoPub]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=admob-investor-backs-mobile-ad-startup-mopub</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=admob-investor-backs-mobile-ad-startup-mopub</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=admob-investor-backs-mobile-ad-startup-mopub</guid>
<description><![CDATA[AdMob was one of the big success stories in mobile advertising, at least from a venture capital perspective. Now a team of former AdMob and Google employees are launching a new mobile ad startup called MoPub, and theya4a4ve raised seed funding from AdMob investor Accel Partners.Chief executive Jim Payne, who focused on metrics at AdMob (more recently, he worked on Google Maps Premier and various monetization initiatives), compared MoPub to online ad server DoubleClick and to AdWhirl, the mobile ad aggregator acquired by AdMob. Both services are now owned by Google, which purchased both DoubleClick and AdMob.Payne said MoPub addresses a need that he and his cofounders saw at AdMob &amp;8212' specifically, a need for a service that allows mobile application developers to serve ads directly (rather than going through a network), as well as aggregate ads from multiple ad networks. AdMob would probably have built a service like this if it hadna4a4t been acquired, he said.MoPub is currently in private beta testing and plans to launch to the public in late January, though Payne said the team is already working to a4Aaggressivelya4 move anyone who asks for an invitation off the wait list. One of its big customers is Booyah, which published MyTown and other social apps. Therea4a4s a lot of interest in a &amp;''next generation AdWhirl&amp;'' that isna4a4t owned by a specific ad network, Payne said.MoPub currently supports iPhone/iPad and Android applications. Payne said it offers the exact same features on both devices. It will add support for mobile websites soon, he added.The size of the funding was not disclosed. Harrison Metal Capital and AngelPad (where MoPub was incubated) also invested in the round.Next Story: The Crunchies are back: Nominate your favorite startups! Previous Story: Are hybrid clouds the path to cloud-computing nirvanaPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: ad serving, mobile adsCompanies: Accel Partners, AdMob, AngelPad, Harrison Metal Capital, MoPubPeople: Jim Payne          Tags: ad serving, mobile adsCompanies: Accel Partners, AdMob, AngelPad, Harrison Metal Capital, MoPubPeople: Jim PayneAnthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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