Author: JD Rucker

A year ago, Google announced something that made the real journalists and publications on the internet cheer and sent shivers of fear down the spines of spammer and content farmers. The “Panda Update” was designed to take low-quality, “thin” content that is often found on sites like HuffPo and eHow and reduce the rankings (and therefore the traffic) that Google gave them. Those who were unaffected rejoiced. Those who were hit cried fowl. Google went through several iterations and course corrections with some sites getting vindicated, but it hurt many beyond repair. Yahoo was one who was notably…

It doesn’t take a political pundit to know that the Solyndra scandal has hurt the energy industry’s credibility. Investors are wary, but the same may not be true for direct consumers. One Block of the Grid compiled data from 45,000 solar estimates and put together a visualization that depicts from state to state how much it costs to “go solar” for homeowners. The interest is likely spurred by increased utility prices more than just a desire to be eco-friendly; do-it-yourself energy at the home tends to pay for itself in less than 2 decades. In Louisiana, for example, the cost after state, regional,…

It may not be the first time Microsoft has tried to use humor and aggressive attacks to go after Google, but this time it hits a little closer to home than they’ve done in the past. In attacking Google Apps as a work productivity tool, Microsoft invokes Wave, Gears, and Buzz as examples of how Google has completely abandoned projects in the recent past. This time, they’re going to try to help this particular Google product out the door before it can be successfully integrated into business. Playing on the word, “moonlighting”, this video tries to point out that Google Apps aren’t ready for the business…

Four Twitter accounts critical of French President Nicolas Sarkozy were suspended yesterday, just a week after the many started his own account to help with his re-election efforts. The accounts, satirical in nature based upon their Tweets, were allegedly reported by Sarkozy or someone acting on his authority according to Kaboul.fr who operated @_nicolassarkozy who contacted Twitter about the incident. There’s only two possibilities here. Either Sarkozy or his team contacted Twitter about the accounts and had them removed for impersonation violations, or someone else contacted Twitter…

When we first covered Ericsson’s Networked Society Project, we called it beautiful and terrifying. Their latest video shows that beauty can prevail when technology inserts itself into our lives with positive motives in mind. The concept centers around Information and Communication Technology (ICT). As cities continue to grow at a rate of 200,000 new people born into or moving to an urban area every day, ITC integration is essential. Thankfully, the technology is growing just as quickly, if not faster. It isn’t just about people having access to information. It’s about the city itself having…

If you torture numbers long enough, you can make them say anything. In this case, it’s Chitika, Techcrunch, and others who are raising alarms about something that’s relatively meaningless, particularly to Microsoft. The title of the Chitika post is “Demise of the PC? Windows Web Browsing Market Share Declines by 10% in Six Months”. Their data is solid and appears to be completely accurate. The conclusion, resounding what has been spoken many times by many experts, is that the PC is dying a slow death.. No. It’s not. The rise of mobile devices and the popularity of Apple products has clearly opened…

It has been just over 4 months since Steve Jobs died. Since then, Apple continues to head in the right direction financially and has seen very little in the way of slowing down its development of products. Tim Cook, the CEO, has not had many public appearances since then and the ones he has had have been short, but that changed yesterday during an engagement at a Goldman Sachs conference. Cook, who has been handling investor-relations for a long time due to Steve Jobs’ desire to not engage with (or talk to, or be associated with, or be in the same room with) the people with money who relied on Apple to make…

Pinterest is starting to enter into the social media in ways that most sites only dream about. Other than Google+, it’s the fastest growing social site in the last year with 329% growth in the last 4 months of 2011 alone. We get more questions on our social media podcast about Pinterest the last month than we get about Facebook. Why is the spotlight shining so brightly on this relative-newcomer to the social world? The answer is pretty simple. With a base target audience of 25-45 year-old women, the site is a mecca for things like fashion, recipes, and male pectorals. This exposure has gotten the attention…

The Potter-era may be over in Hollywood, but those who want to reminisce without sitting through 16 hours of film can get their fix in under 15 minutes with this epic fan-made homage titled, “Harry Potter: A Tribute to the Magic”. There are spoilers, of course, so only watch it if you have either already seen the whole series or never plan to (but want a Cliff’s Notes version). Compiled beautifully by YouTube user themanbatman, this video takes us through on a chronological journey through the world of wizards as defined by J.K. Rowling in her 7-book/8-movie master series. As the description says,…

Nearly a year ago, Corning put out a video called “A Day Made of Glass.” In it, they showed a future that was enhanced by the use of touchscreens and other variations of glass products that seems less like “Minority Report” and more like a not-so-distant reality. This week, they’ve added to the video by releasing another titled “A Day Made of Glass 2: Same Day. Expanded Corning Vision.” First, here’s the original video: It was inspiring to see the potential, but didn’t quite take the world to the next level that many of these technologies promise. Now, their most recent video finishes the job with kid-attacking…