The simple banner ad: Those tiny little slivers of real estate on tiny little cellphone screens produce the same level of brand recall as a 30-second television commercial, a Verizon Wireless ad exec said last week. Speaking at a wireless ad conference in Los...
THE GROUND CONTINUED TO SHIFT in the tumultuous mobile virtual network operator space this month as one player announced plans to call it quits, another explores a potential merger and a third prepares to morph into a reseller of wireless services.Embarq Holding Co. L.L.C....
Virgin Mobile USA Inc. expanded its Sugar Mama program with a new application for Facebook users.The mobile virtual network operator unveiled "Fund My Phone," a feature that allows users to earn up to 75 minutes of calling time per month by viewing pitches and...
You may not have noticed last week's news that Verizon Wireless is being sued by the parents of a 14-year-old girl who claims she was sexually assaulted by a man she met through a mobile social-networking service. But the case is likely a little...
You know that contest where a person stands in a glass booth and tries to grab dollar bills as they fly around? That's sort of like the mobile social networking space. Except there are dozens of players. And nobody knows how much money is...
Crush or Flush members can now give advertisers a thumbs-up or thumbs-down -- just like they do with each other.IceBreaker Inc's mobile social networking site added Golden Ticket, a component that allows advertisers to create profiles for their wares, just as members create profiles...
Blake Krikorian is CEO of Sling Media, purveyor of the SlingBox, which allows users to stream content from their home television to either a laptop or mobile device.Q: Mobile television and video services have continued to grow in scale and quality over the past...
CARRIER DECKS AND AGGREGATOR STOREFRONTS are so last year. Because application developers are quickly discovering that the hottest places to showcase their wares are the top social networking sites.Facebook last year opened its platform to third-party developers, spurring a flood of applications that users...
AOL L.L.C. last week became the latest Internet player to bet big on social networking, agreeing to plunk down a whopping $850 million for Bebo.com. But turning Bebo's impressive online and mobile traffic into dollars could be a challenge.While MySpace and Facebook have drawn...
AOL is the latest Internet giant to buy its way onto the online and mobile social networking field.The Time Warner Inc. subsidiary said it will shell out $850 million to acquire Bebo, a U.K.-based outfit that boasts more than 40 million users worldwide. Bebo...
LinkedIn unveiled a Web-based mobile application that allows mobile members to search user profiles, research mutual contacts and receive updates about connections. LinkedIn is an online networking site designed for businesspeople.The beta site, m.linkedin.com, is available to LinkedIn's 19 million users in English, Chinese,...
Don't be fooled by the flow of VC funding or the fact that Google Inc. and MySpace are in on it. The truth is, mobile social networking is not as cool as its fixed Internet brethren. An obsession with user-generated content, coupled with the...
In the small world of mobile gaming, Trip Hawkins looms large. Hawkins designed his own major in applied game theory at Harvard University, and in 1982 founded Electronic Arts Inc., which continues to dominate console- and computer-gaming spaces. He launched Digital Chocolate Inc., a...
You may have never heard of it, but Google Inc. is behind it. So are AOL, Microsoft Corp., and Yahoo Inc. With that kind of support, OpenID may soon be coming to mobile in a big way.Designed as a standardized platform for online authentication,...
Sun Microsystems Inc. raised eyebrows and garnered splashy headlines when it announced plans to acquire MySQL Inc. for $1 billion. But what the deal means in mobile - or just about anywhere else, for that matter - is far from clear.A Swedish outfit with...
Like L'Oreal, Sony and Toyota before it, T-Mobile USA Inc. is back for second helpings of user-generated ad spots from the contributors at Current.com.The mobile-network operator posted its program Jan. 7 on Current.com to help promote its two Sidekick handset products, the LX and...
Editor's Note: Welcome to Reality Check, a feature for RCR Wireless News' new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile content industry to give their insights into the marketplace. In the coming weeks...
Advertising.com co-founder John Ferber has joined the ad-subsidized content playground.Ferber unveiled Cellware.com, a site that hopes to offer both user-generated content and professionally produced offerings from partners including 4INFO, Arphiola and Hanaho Games. The site, which is currently in testing, uses advertising revenue to...
ONLINE ADVERTISERS ARE INCREASINGLY LOOKING to deliver highly targeted come-ons to consumers on their cellphones.Indeed, the wireless advertising market is expected to explode in the next few years as marketing firms learn how to address the mobile market. But all that prosperity will come...
A San Francisco-based startup is hoping to cater to on-the-go cellphone users who, um, need to go.Yojo Mobile unveiled MizPee, a wireless Internet-based application that provides information on public bathrooms in 16 U.S. cities. Users can enter addresses or intersections to access directions to...
Wireless carriers and mobile marketers are very much in the dark about how to approach consumers on their phones, but Facebook's Beacon has helped light the way. The way not to go, that is.The oh-so-cool social-networking site managed to enrage thousand of its members...
Editor's Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News' weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.--ABC News announced...
Editor's Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News' weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.--NBC Universal said...
Editor's Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News' new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we'll review a new wireless application or service from the user's point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works...
