In a push to expand its digital advertising empire to cellphones, Google has agreed to acquire AdMob, a fast-growing mobile advertising start-up, for $750 million in stock, the companies said.
AdMob is one of the top sellers of banner ads on iPhone applications and Web pages that can be retrieved from mobile phones. The acquisition could help establish Google as an early leader in the small but rapidly expanding mobile phone advertising business.
The deal shows that Google is serious about becoming a major player in the mobile advertising ecosystem, said Neil Strother, an analyst with Forrester Research. It puts Google in the front-runner position.Strother and other analysts said that position could prove tenuous. The mobile advertising business, which has long been hailed as the next big thing, remains embryonic.
Agencies
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Accenture on a hiring spree in India; To hire 8,000 by 2010
Global technology and consultancy firm, Accenture has said that it is going to add around 8,000 people in India by the end of next year taking its total employee base in the country to 50,000.
"We are 42,000 right now and we imagine we will be about 50,000 by the end of 2010," said Accenture Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, William D Green on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit. Indicating a recovery from the global downturn, Green said the company will continue to focus in India, specially in the areas of analytics, reports a media.
Accenture's focus in India is going to be the analytics space, which will help its clients in converting information into insights for better yields. Green added, "We believe that analytics is going to be an important trend that our customers are going to demand from us. We think India is going to be a great place for us. We have some core centres of excellence in the analytics space in the country."
Accenture, which has annual revenue of $21.58 billion for fiscal 2009, will strengthen its focus on clients in pharmaceutical, telecommunications and energy in the country.
Agencies
"We are 42,000 right now and we imagine we will be about 50,000 by the end of 2010," said Accenture Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, William D Green on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit. Indicating a recovery from the global downturn, Green said the company will continue to focus in India, specially in the areas of analytics, reports a media.
Accenture's focus in India is going to be the analytics space, which will help its clients in converting information into insights for better yields. Green added, "We believe that analytics is going to be an important trend that our customers are going to demand from us. We think India is going to be a great place for us. We have some core centres of excellence in the analytics space in the country."
Accenture, which has annual revenue of $21.58 billion for fiscal 2009, will strengthen its focus on clients in pharmaceutical, telecommunications and energy in the country.
Agencies
Sunday, November 8, 2009
By 2010 Indian cos to see 20-30% pick up in hiring
Riding high on a six to seven per cent expected economic growth and with the global economy gradually bouncing back, India Inc is likely to hire 20-30 per cent more talent in CY 10, a top industry official said.
"In 2010 (January-December), I envisage atleast 20-30 per cent increase in recruitments by companies," recruitment consultancy firm, Fun & Joy At Work's Chief Executive Officer, R L Bhatia, told the media here.
This would be over and above the 30 per cent dip in hiring that was witnessed last year, Bhatia said.
Fun & Joy At Work is a nine-year-old recruitment firm with offices across Mumbai and Singapore. The company claims providing talent consultancy to a host of Indian companies across sectors.
BPOs, bio-technology, media, telecom and finance are some of the sectors likely to witnessing higher hirings, Bhatia said.
The Indian economy would clock around six to seven per cent growth and substantial investments into India is in the offing, Bhatia said, adding, "this will trigger an increased hiring."
Bhatia said that despite the the slowdown, companies did hire, though less in number.
"Maybe they hired less, but they hired nevertheless," he said.
His own firm had some 30 companies which have plans to hire around 20,000-30,000 personnel, he said.
"Industry is exercising caution now. As a result, companies are investing only when and where it is necessary. They are sensibly investing in people or human resources," he said.
Agencies
"In 2010 (January-December), I envisage atleast 20-30 per cent increase in recruitments by companies," recruitment consultancy firm, Fun & Joy At Work's Chief Executive Officer, R L Bhatia, told the media here.
This would be over and above the 30 per cent dip in hiring that was witnessed last year, Bhatia said.
Fun & Joy At Work is a nine-year-old recruitment firm with offices across Mumbai and Singapore. The company claims providing talent consultancy to a host of Indian companies across sectors.
BPOs, bio-technology, media, telecom and finance are some of the sectors likely to witnessing higher hirings, Bhatia said.
The Indian economy would clock around six to seven per cent growth and substantial investments into India is in the offing, Bhatia said, adding, "this will trigger an increased hiring."
Bhatia said that despite the the slowdown, companies did hire, though less in number.
"Maybe they hired less, but they hired nevertheless," he said.
His own firm had some 30 companies which have plans to hire around 20,000-30,000 personnel, he said.
"Industry is exercising caution now. As a result, companies are investing only when and where it is necessary. They are sensibly investing in people or human resources," he said.
Agencies
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Intel to partner with telecom major ITI
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is planning to participate in bids invited by Indian state-owned telecom equipment maker ITI Ltd to set up joint ventures, the Business Standard reported on Friday.
ITI intends to be a minority partner in the proposed joint ventures with a 26 per cent stake according to the bid proposals, the newspaper said.
It said Intel was interested in making the hardware and consumer premise equipment around WiMAX technology, which provides for wireless transmission of data up to 75 megabytes per second.
Though interested parties have been asked to participate before Jan 29, 2010, the telecoms ministry is holding a pre-bid conference before selecting them, the paper said.
Other global players that have showed interest include Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent, Samsung and Hitachi, the paper said.
A spokeswoman for Intel in India could not immediately respond to the report.
Agencies
ITI intends to be a minority partner in the proposed joint ventures with a 26 per cent stake according to the bid proposals, the newspaper said.
It said Intel was interested in making the hardware and consumer premise equipment around WiMAX technology, which provides for wireless transmission of data up to 75 megabytes per second.
Though interested parties have been asked to participate before Jan 29, 2010, the telecoms ministry is holding a pre-bid conference before selecting them, the paper said.
Other global players that have showed interest include Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent, Samsung and Hitachi, the paper said.
A spokeswoman for Intel in India could not immediately respond to the report.
Agencies
Friday, November 6, 2009
JavaScript programming tools now from Google
With a project called Closure Tools, Google plans to start helping developers who aspire to match the company's proficiency in creating Web sites and Web applications. Google is a strong proponent of using JavaScript to write Web-based programs, which is a part of its Web-centric ethos, reports CNET News.
Indeed, the company has pushed the language to its limits with services such as Gmail and Google Docs, and it developed its Chrome browser in part to enable JavaScript programs to run faster. But writing, debugging, and optimizing heavy-duty JavaScript can be difficult - in part because a given JavaScript program sometimes works differently on different browsers. Google's open-source Closure Tools project is an attempt to help with some of these challenges.
The first in the suite of tools is the Closure Compiler, a software package designed to boil down a JavaScript program so it's smaller and runs faster. Along with the compiler come some extra tools that run in the Firefox browser. One, Closure Inspector, is an extension for Firefox's Firebug add-on designed to help programmers understand and debug the rewritten JavaScript. Another add-on for the Google Page Speed extension lets programmers see how much the compiler helped.
Google also plans to make the compiler available as a Web application hosted on its Google App Engine service. The second element is called the Closure Library, a collection of pre-built JavaScript codes that lets programmers handle relatively sophisticated technology - arrays and string manipulation, for example. Last are Closure Templates, more pre-written codes to ease creation of JavaScript and HTML user interfaces.
In an earlier era, programming tools were expensive packages bought by a select few, but open-source software, new marketing strategies, and new business methods have made that approach the exception rather than the rule these days. Now programming tools are often a means to another end - encouraging programmers to produce the software that will make Windows or the Palm Pre useful and therefore popular.
Agencies
Indeed, the company has pushed the language to its limits with services such as Gmail and Google Docs, and it developed its Chrome browser in part to enable JavaScript programs to run faster. But writing, debugging, and optimizing heavy-duty JavaScript can be difficult - in part because a given JavaScript program sometimes works differently on different browsers. Google's open-source Closure Tools project is an attempt to help with some of these challenges.
The first in the suite of tools is the Closure Compiler, a software package designed to boil down a JavaScript program so it's smaller and runs faster. Along with the compiler come some extra tools that run in the Firefox browser. One, Closure Inspector, is an extension for Firefox's Firebug add-on designed to help programmers understand and debug the rewritten JavaScript. Another add-on for the Google Page Speed extension lets programmers see how much the compiler helped.
Google also plans to make the compiler available as a Web application hosted on its Google App Engine service. The second element is called the Closure Library, a collection of pre-built JavaScript codes that lets programmers handle relatively sophisticated technology - arrays and string manipulation, for example. Last are Closure Templates, more pre-written codes to ease creation of JavaScript and HTML user interfaces.
In an earlier era, programming tools were expensive packages bought by a select few, but open-source software, new marketing strategies, and new business methods have made that approach the exception rather than the rule these days. Now programming tools are often a means to another end - encouraging programmers to produce the software that will make Windows or the Palm Pre useful and therefore popular.
Agencies
Retail sector to grow at 28% during 2008-12 in India
During 2008-2012, the IT market in the Indian retail sector is likely to grow at an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23 percent; reaching $1.4 billion by 2012, says a report. According to the report titled as 'IT in the Indian Retail Industry: Emerging Trends and Market Opportunities' brought out by Springboard Research; software is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 28 percent for the period under review, while hardware will grow at 19 percent.
Springboard Research is an IT market research and advisory firm. The firm has brought out this report after interviewing leading IT vendors operating in the retail sector and 152 Chief Information Officers from both large and mid-sized retail companies across India. According to Nilotpal Chakravarti, Senior Research Analyst, Springboard Research, although the recession has affected retailers' profitability, it opens a window of opportunity for IT vendors as retailers turn to technology to address the challenging economic scenario. "Many retailers are eschewing curtailing their long-term IT projects, while they remain cautious with short-term IT spending and new investments," he added.
Nearly half of the CIOs in the retail sector interviewed, indicated large format stores/hypermarkets as the top business opportunity in the sector, while competition is named as the biggest business challenge by a majority of the CIOs. Inventory management has emerged as the top strategic IT focus areas for the CIOs, followed by supply chain management (SCM). Enterprise resource planning (ERP) topped the list of business applications in terms of actual deployments in the last 24 months.
According to Springboard's data, POS (Point of sales) is the top preferred store solution that Indian retailers have deployed in their stores. CIOs revealed that a large number of retailers mentioned price as a key determinant in external IT vendor selection, while strong service and support came in the second place on the list of priorities. Other influencers like vendor reputation and existing relationship rank much lower in the priority hierarchy. Springboard also found that local IT vendors have a sizeable foothold in the retail space because they provide low-cost, industry-specific solutions.
According to Springboard's data, SAP, Microsoft and Oracle hold the largest market share in the Indian retail sector, while HCL is the leading local vendor in the retail space. IBM is also named as among the leading vendors in this space.
"Best-of-class retail solutions like RFID, intelligent shelves, and kiosks still remain out of reach for the Indian market because of their high cost. IT vendors should look to address this gap by rationalizing costs, along with clearly defining ROI benefits for clients," said Chakravarti.
Agencies
Springboard Research is an IT market research and advisory firm. The firm has brought out this report after interviewing leading IT vendors operating in the retail sector and 152 Chief Information Officers from both large and mid-sized retail companies across India. According to Nilotpal Chakravarti, Senior Research Analyst, Springboard Research, although the recession has affected retailers' profitability, it opens a window of opportunity for IT vendors as retailers turn to technology to address the challenging economic scenario. "Many retailers are eschewing curtailing their long-term IT projects, while they remain cautious with short-term IT spending and new investments," he added.
Nearly half of the CIOs in the retail sector interviewed, indicated large format stores/hypermarkets as the top business opportunity in the sector, while competition is named as the biggest business challenge by a majority of the CIOs. Inventory management has emerged as the top strategic IT focus areas for the CIOs, followed by supply chain management (SCM). Enterprise resource planning (ERP) topped the list of business applications in terms of actual deployments in the last 24 months.
According to Springboard's data, POS (Point of sales) is the top preferred store solution that Indian retailers have deployed in their stores. CIOs revealed that a large number of retailers mentioned price as a key determinant in external IT vendor selection, while strong service and support came in the second place on the list of priorities. Other influencers like vendor reputation and existing relationship rank much lower in the priority hierarchy. Springboard also found that local IT vendors have a sizeable foothold in the retail space because they provide low-cost, industry-specific solutions.
According to Springboard's data, SAP, Microsoft and Oracle hold the largest market share in the Indian retail sector, while HCL is the leading local vendor in the retail space. IBM is also named as among the leading vendors in this space.
"Best-of-class retail solutions like RFID, intelligent shelves, and kiosks still remain out of reach for the Indian market because of their high cost. IT vendors should look to address this gap by rationalizing costs, along with clearly defining ROI benefits for clients," said Chakravarti.
Agencies
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Will the Web run out of address space?
The world could well run out of internet addresses next year, unless urgent action is taken to switch to a new generation of net addresses, the European Commission has warned.
According to the commission, businesses urgently need to upgrade to internet protocol version six or IPv6, a new version of the web’s addressing protocol, which will hugely increase the number of available addresses.
The IPv6 system has been ready for over a decade and is providing 340 trillion web addresses. But, not many companies are actually ready to migrate to the new platform.
A survey, conducted by the commission, found that few companies are prepared for the switch from the current naming protocol, IPv4, to the new regime, IPv6, the Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday. The IPv4 and IPv6 protocols refer to the way in which addresses are created and assigned. Each website has a unique IP address, represented by a string of numbers, such as 192.168.1.1, which are then given a user-friendly web address to make them easier to remember.
The IPv4 protocol uses 32-bit addresses, which enables the web to support around 4.3 billion unique addresses while IPv6 uses 128-bit web addresses, creating billions of possible new web addresses. The EC survey found that of the 610 government, educational and other industry organisations questioned across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, just 17% have upgraded to IPv6.
Detlef Eckert, director in commission’s information society and media directorate-general, said: “Only by ensuring that all devices connected to the internet are compatible with IPv6 can we stay connected and safeguard sustainable growth of the internet.”
Agencies
According to the commission, businesses urgently need to upgrade to internet protocol version six or IPv6, a new version of the web’s addressing protocol, which will hugely increase the number of available addresses.
The IPv6 system has been ready for over a decade and is providing 340 trillion web addresses. But, not many companies are actually ready to migrate to the new platform.
A survey, conducted by the commission, found that few companies are prepared for the switch from the current naming protocol, IPv4, to the new regime, IPv6, the Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday. The IPv4 and IPv6 protocols refer to the way in which addresses are created and assigned. Each website has a unique IP address, represented by a string of numbers, such as 192.168.1.1, which are then given a user-friendly web address to make them easier to remember.
The IPv4 protocol uses 32-bit addresses, which enables the web to support around 4.3 billion unique addresses while IPv6 uses 128-bit web addresses, creating billions of possible new web addresses. The EC survey found that of the 610 government, educational and other industry organisations questioned across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, just 17% have upgraded to IPv6.
Detlef Eckert, director in commission’s information society and media directorate-general, said: “Only by ensuring that all devices connected to the internet are compatible with IPv6 can we stay connected and safeguard sustainable growth of the internet.”
Agencies
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