Stumbled across this video of today’s kids being introduced to yesteryears video games and technology (in french with English subtitles). Warning: if you are afraid to feel old, do NOT view the below video.

Little late to the punch on this one, but in mid January, the largest search engine in China (the country which currently has the largest internet population on earth with 420MM people), launched an English version of their blog, seemingly to  generate awareness among the western hemisphere of their existence and potentially to make inroads on Google’s coveted paid search turf.

Purported as “a window [into] the Chinese Internet” for “English-speakers”, Baidu Beat offers readers “a peek into what Chinese Internet users are looking for online: Who they’re fascinated with, what they’re fighting about, who’s making them laugh, and what’s making them cry”.

The “tag cloud” is fun to play with too.

Read more…

Rebuffed by Groupon, Google, which bid $6B for the daily deals site, is wasting little time churning out a cloned deal offering of its own, the website Mashable, recently reported.

“‘Google Offers is a new product to help potential customers and clientele find great deals in their area through a daily email,” the fact sheet says.

Google Offers looks and operates much like Groupon or LivingSocial. Users receive an e-mail with a local deal of the day. They then have the opportunity to buy that deal within a specific time limit (we assume 24 hours). Once enough people have made the purchase, the Google Offer is triggered and users get that all-too-familiar $10 for $20 deal for that Indian restaurant they’ve never tried.”

ComScore released its December installment of the US search engine market share report, with Google Sites leading the U.S. explicit core search market with 66.6 percent market share (up 0.4 percentage points), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 16.0 percent and Microsoft sites with 12.0 percent (up 0.2 percentage points). Ask Network accounted for 3.5 percent of explicit core searches.

Google and Microsoft sites noticed a slight bump over November in their share of US searches, while Yahoo seems to have absorbed these respective increases, by dipping .4% compared to last month.

In a move rarely seen in Silicon Valley, Google’s CEO since 2001,  Eric Schmidt, will hand back the reins of the chairmanship to Larry Page.  Page ran the company prior to Schmidt’s arrival in 2001, and noted that “One of the primary goals [he has] is to get Google to be a big company that has the nimbleness and soul and passion and speed of a start-up.”

Schmidt will remain executive chairman of Google, valued at $200 billion as of Thursday’s market close.  The company is considered by many to have lost “its entrepreneurial culture and [has] become a slower-moving bureaucracy” says nytimes.com.  It is also no longer considered the Holy Grail and destination for top engineers and business professionals.  This recent shake-up at the Google helm is intended to bring back some of that pre-IPO magic that has made Google the biggest destination on the internet.

Insiders note that Schmidt may have been “nudged”, but was not necessarily asked to step down.  This combined with Page’s enthusiasm to regain the top position seems to have put the wheels in motion.  Schmidt, quoted as saying “…a decade is a long time to be a C.E.O., and Larry will discover this”, may have simply tired of the management responsibilities.

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There’s a new addictive toy to play with at work, home, or even on the streets. It’s called TankBot, an  Apple invention that can be controlled by your iPhone, iPod, or iPad via a downloadable app that comes with the product. The TankBot functions like a remote controlled toy car, except it’s a robot tank whose remote is an Apple device. This toy is packed with infrared technology, which allows the  TankBot to roam around freely while avoiding disastrous obstacles, such as walls, tables, chairs, and the like.  It’s so much fun that it can be used for “chasing pets and scaring old people.” This toy is not out in stores yet, but it looks awesome and it can be viewed at  New York’s Toy Fair held in February.

For the full story by CNET writer Matt Hickey, click here!

Starbucks recently debuted its new Mobile App, allowing members of their Rewards’ program the ability to register their cards, check their balances, find nearby stores (which shouldn’t be too difficult even w/out an app), and also track the progress of accumulated “Stars” en route to free beverages and perks, all from the convenience of their Blackberry smartphones (currently, this app is only available for Blackberry models, with additional devices to be made available in the near future).

On the surface this is nothing spectacularly out of the ordinary…new apps are released everyday.  However, in a somewhat unprecedented move, Starbucks has taken one small step for retail-kind by incorporating a feature enabling users to pay for their drink directly from the app.  Simply enter the card number and the device will display a barcode one can use as his/her Starbucks Card to make purchases.

So, is it feasible to think that in the future consumers will no longer have a unique credit card or reward card for every one of their favorite retail outlet(s), but a unique mobile app?

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According to a study by Bytemobile 40% of mobile data traffic in 2010 was video traffic. However, only about 10% of the mobile-using public in the U.S. were accessing some form of video content on their handsets.  Based on usage trends, mobile video is going to grow and grow fast as technology improves and more people get smart phones.  Bytemobile believes that in the next year 60% of mobile traffic will come from mobile video.  Can networks support such a large increase in mobile video traffic?  Bytemobile says maybe not.

Read more here.

TargetCast employees, clients and colleagues gathered at the Yale Club January 11th to accept the award for Independent Media Agency of the Year. Pictured above are our Co-Founders Steve Farella and Audrey Siegel who proudly accepted the award.

Kelly Samardak from MediaPost reported the following from the event:
“TargetCast tcm not only won the Independent Media Services award, but also the informal “largest entourage” award. You couldn’t swing a loose subway rat around without hitting someone from TargetCast! The posse included Beth Storms, Errol “Do I have turkey in my teeth” Firestone, Steve Farella, Mickey Parent, Lynn Harris, Lisa Spielman, and Bruce Fagerstrom.”

To view our full story and other winners please click here.

We access our email, Facebook and Twitter to the point where they become an integral part of our daily lives, but what happens to our accounts after we pass away?

It may be a grim thought, but companies such as Legacy Locker have built their businesses on handling people’s digital assets when they die. In other words, they offer services to Internet users who might want to bequeath their social network identities, blogs, email accounts and other websites when they die.

Anyone who isn’t concerned about their “digital afterlife” should be; failure to implement an online post-death plan could mean things like valuable web addresses,  access to online bank accounts and even posted photos may be lost for good, experts say.

While the concept of “afterlife websites” have received quite a bit of buzz, business has been slow but steady. Entrustet is a website that allows customers to appoint a digital executor to handle the fate of the deceased’s web accounts, business is growing at a healthy but modest rate.

Both the founders of Entrustet and Legacy Locker agree that their potential customers need to overcome a mental barrier before they take the plunge and set up an account. The hesitation could come from people not wanting to face or make decisions about death.

According to Legacy Locker founder Jeremy Toeman, “I’m very happy with our progress, but if I’ve learned anything about human psychology, it’s people don’t actually want to face or make decisions about death in any way that they don’t have to.”

Check out the full article here.