This popped up in a few places yesterday – TweetDeck is slated to release a version of the Twitter client that shows updates in real time. That doesn’t sound particularly impressive until you actually see it in action. Take a gander. The functionality is soon to be available in a few other clients as well, according to various comments I’ve read about it today. Tweetdeck, so far, has the only demonstration up on the web of what it looks like. If you want in on this, you’ll need to sign into the site with your Tweetdeck username and password and get on the “private beta whitelist.”

There’s nothing like bringing back a classic, something that Democrat senators Jay Rockefeller and John Kerry are trying this week at online privacy hearings this week in the Senate. I almost missed the news, but caught the recap this morning from Frank Reed over at Marketing Pilgrim: Don’t think that just because Facebook has managed to not completely trample people’s privacy as of late that there is not more activity around the subject. In fact, forces in Washington, this time the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), are speaking at ‘hearings’ that are looking into this issue right now with talk of a “do not track” list. This is not the first time the subject has been raised (2007 it got some attention) but in light of re

Part of the Google mobile display ad network? You now have an option of making your business localized. This means your pin-pointed business will show up in local mobile ads, giving a reported 8% increase in click-throughs. AdMob discusses the new AdSense features: This new ad format is available on mobile devices with full Internet browsers and allows you to expand your advertising campaigns to reach highly engaged mobile users with relevant local information as they use their favorite apps or websites to check the weather, read the news, play games or pursue other mobile interests. Advertising with location extensions on mobile devices is also great value because you’re only charged when a user clicks to call the business or

Microsoft is holding its annual Financial Analyst Meeting (FAM) today, offering some mid-year insight to its performance and goals for 2010. So far, one of Microsoft’s big announcements is its new cloud computing customers, which include Dow Chemical, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts and the University of Georgia. From the event, “The Microsoft cloud services ecosystem creates new opportunities for our customers,” Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner said. “It opens up new markets for businesses, improves operational efficiency and productivity, and transforms what IT can deliver to advance business goals.” There are plenty of businesses that already use Microsoft products, but today’s announcement indicates the

Amazon’s revealed two new Kindle devices this week, for $139 and $189. The less expensive version is wi-fi only, but this third generation release of Kindle has brought some new features as well. Storage capacity has been increased to 4GB, new custom options for readers have been added (such as line-spacing), and a WebKit-powered browser--the same rendering engine used for Safari and Google Chrome on many mobile devices. Another important feature is excerpt-sharing, which lets you post interesting bits on Facebook and Twitter. Passages shared by your friends are aggregated in the Popular Highlights section, adding a distinctive social layer to your reading experience. Given Amazon’s delve into the social networking world for

Millennial Media has released its SMART report this week, offering some insights to the U.S. mobile marketing economy for the month of June. The SMART report, which stands for the Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting, breaks down Millennial Media’s network activity across several demographic groups, advertising verticals and methods used. Among the major findings was the influence of the entertainment industry in mobile marketing. The significance around this vertical as far as mobile advertising is concerned, was the creative ways in which campaigns were created around the channel. This has resulted in innovative leads in mobile advertising as a whole. More specifically, Millennial Media noted a 300% increase

A note for web publishers and designers: Google’s launched a new feature for its font directory. A previewer has been added, so you can immediately see how your fonts will display on your website. The previewer acts as a segue for the Google Font API, allowing you to find, test and apply fonts to your website. From Google's blog, Now, whenever you visit the font family page of any of the fonts, you will see a link saying “Preview this font” that will load your font selection into the font previewer. Here you can edit the text, change its size and line height, and add decorations and spacing among other things. You can even apply text shadow to your text. The previewer will generate the corresponding code for you so a

Millennial Media, the mobile ad network, has been growing quietly over the past few years, making it to one of the top spots as far as its industry is concerned. With its competitors AdMob and Quatro having been snapped up by Google and Apple to run their mobile ads, Millennial Media is left at the top of the independent food chain. Right now, that’s a great position for the ad company to be in. Leena Rao sat down with Millennial Media CEO and co-founder Paul Palmeri, going over the company’s beginnings, growth and future. The success story, which took Palmeri from Advertising.com during the first bubble to mobile ads on earlier mobile devices during the second wave, is a fascinating one. However, it’s Millennial Media’s curre

It sounds like a Fellowship of the Ring for the internet age – a carefully chosen alliance of technology warriors, safeguarding a mythical key that could one day shut down the internet. According to yesterday's news reports, these keyholders will share responsibility for "rebooting the web" in the event of a catastrophic global meltdown. Bath technologist Paul Kane – one of the individuals in the "chain of trust" – spent about 15 minutes revelling in his new-found fame before having to set the record straight. "It's just not as sexy as that," he says, in between TV interviews and a chat with Eddie Mair on Radio 4. Kane, who is chief executive of a Bath-based tech firm called CommunityDNS, is part of

SAP, Europe's largest software company, posted strong revenues and earnings for its fiscal Q2. The results bode well for US IT spending. SAP also said it had completed its acquisition of Sybase. Eric Savitz at Barrons reports: SAP (SAP) posted Q2 revenue of 2.894 billion Euros, up 12%, or 5% in constant currencies, and ahead of the Street consensus at 2.75 billion. Software revenue at the German software giant was up 17%, or 5% in constant currencies, while software and software related services revenue was up 16%, or 8% in constant currencies. EPS of 46 Euro cents was one cent below the Street, as operating margin of 27.8% came in about a point below expectations. The company's results showed strength in the U.S., with software a