Archive for 2010

A lot of hot air or is it the truth? For quite a few weeks now, there have been rumors that Groupon is being taken over by Google. And now, according to media reports on December 1st, Google offered the US market leader for online-couponing 5.3 billion dollars. With this kind of a deal, the search engine giant may become the leading provider for online and mobile deals. Read the rest of this entry »

Because some of the competition felt as if they were disadvantaged by list placement in searches, the European Commission has began investigating cartel allegations against Google. If the antitrust authority declares the search engine giant guilty of monopolistic practices and for breaking the European laws against cartels, Google may face a fine of up to ten percent of its profit. That would mean a penalty of 2.4 billion dollars. Read the rest of this entry »

Vodafone Ventures, the investment department of the cellular company, has given Qype a cash injection of 3.5 million Euro. An additional 3 million Euro is being given to the popular local recommendation portal by existing investors, Advent Venture Partners, Partech International, and Wellington Partners. Qype plans on working on its mobile applications from the whopping 6.5 million Euro. Read the rest of this entry »

The local internet platform from the Deutsche Post, allesnebenan.de, is on its way to mobile app: you can now get the gift certificates for the local search machine, which are localized according to providers, deals, catalogues, and coupons, is now available on the go.

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In mid-November, the internet giant Google launched a recommendation platform with its new service Hotpot. With the release, a wave of competition drive has swept over online networks. Hotpot highlights ratings from friends in localized searches, and is integrated with Google’s local directory service Places. Read the rest of this entry »

The internet giant has really put the pedal to the medal, taking panorama shots of cities all over Germany. At the beginning of November, the map service Google Maps posted the first 360 degree views of famous sights in five cities, ten soccer stadiums, and the neighborhood of Oberstaufen in Allgäu online (we report). Now, about two weeks later, the 20 largest cities in Germany are now viewable per Street-View. Read the rest of this entry »

The enchanting scents of cinnamon, cloves, roasted almonds and chestnuts are flowing from the Christmas markets in every town. Not only can you find them with the online directory dasoertliche.de, but you can also send your friends a virtual mulled wine. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, Nicaraguan soldiers began to excavate the Rio San Juan, to build a tent camp on the island of Calero, and to hoist the Nicaraguan flag because the island, according to the map data of Google Maps, clearly belongs to Nicaragua, which has rekindled a conflict between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Read the rest of this entry »

After testing the blog project Stadt Aktuell for four months, the city portal meinestadt.de has now released a city blog for the 200 cities in Germany with the largest population. Read the rest of this entry »

And yet another move in Google’s major offensive in local searching. One day after the Lat-Long Blog promoted the new ad feature Boost, Google launched the next coup: All available business photos are on Places. Read the rest of this entry »