Tech news from around the web:
Twitter has acquired Bagcheck, a service that allows users to create, discover and share lists, for an undisclosed price, The Next Web reports. Co-founder Sam Pullara will be joining the Twitter engineering team as part of the acquisition.
Less than a month since launching in the US, Spotify has 1.4 million registered users in the US says a source familiar with the company’s operations, AllThingsD reports.
Tech news from around the web:
Google has announced that it is to use its own data to detect malware viruses targeting its users, Techcrunch reports. From today, the online search giant will use Google Search results pages to warn users if their computers are infected with a specific form of malware.
Chinese search engine Baidu has launched an internet browser designed to compete with Internet Explorer and Chrome, The Wall Street Journal says. The program’s home page will display links to software applications and popular websites, such as the Weibo microblog service.
Act one of Google’s spat with the Chinese authorities over censorship and government-backed hacking closed last year with Google partially retreating from the world’s most populous nation.
There was, however, still the unresolved issue of Google Maps, and act two of Google versus China may now be beginning with Google having submitted an application to Beijing to allow the service to remain in China.
Tech news from around the web:
Groupon competitor LivingSocial is considering a $1bn initial public offering, according to PaidContent. The IPO could value the social shopping site, which expects to generate $1bn in revenue this year, at $10bn-$15bn.
Hewlett-Packard’s chief executive officer Leo Apotheker has said the computer manufacturer is in talks to license its WebOS mobile software, says Bloomberg. WebOS would give hardware makers a choice beyond Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows software as they seek to challenge Apple’s hold over the smartphone and tablet markets.
Google’s mission falters on health, energy
Google’s grand design to organise the world’s information crumbled at the edges on Friday as it announced the abandonment of services that stored users’ health and energy consumption data.
The forthcoming closure of Google Health and PowerMeter represents a considerable narrowing of ambitions for a company that has reached for the stars and supported missions to the moon.
For Microsoft, a handset deal looms larger
How long should Microsoft sit by while Research in Motion and Nokia burn?
That question has become increasingly urgent amidst the stock market meltdown of the one-time smartphone leaders. With nearly enough cash parked outside the US to buy both companies outright – and the risk that rivals will pounce – Microsoft may finally have to make some sort of move.
Microsoft creates a return path for TV ads with Kinect
Could it finally be time to wave goodbye to passive TV advertising?
A year ago at the Cannes Lions advertising festival, Microsoft demonstrated the first in-game ads to use Kinect, its motion-sensing Xbox 360 controller. It was rudimentary but there was clearly huge potential for advertisers in having a camera, microphone and internet connection plugged into the TV.
This week, back in Cannes, Microsoft took a big step forward to unlocking that potential with “NUads”.
Microsoft makes new E3 Kinect-ions
Microsoft kicked off this week’s E3 video game trade show in Los Angeles with its usual eve-of-show press conference, where the emphasis seemed to be on consolidating its place in the living room rather than making any ground-breaking announcements.
While Sony is expected to reveal more details on its next-generation portable device coming later this year at the show and Nintendo is due to unveil its successor to the Wii, Microsoft confined itself to touting the success of its Kinect motion controller and revealing new features and games that would take advantage of it.
Yahoo talks up video, content strategy
Yahoo executives meeting with investors and analysts on Wednesday did what they could to assuage concerns about the company’s minority investments in China and Japan before moving on to the sunnier topics of a surge in display advertising and the big potential for video.
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