Internet Explorer market share falls below 60 percent for first time, according to NetApplications originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 May 2010 19:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Slashdot  |  Conceivably Tech  | Email this | Comments

• “WiFi On Steroids” Is A Go. Now Google (Or Someone) Just Has To…
• “Ask A VC” Guest Swap: Kopelman Out; Hirshland In

The online advertising industry saw growth accelerate in the first quarter, with the combined advertising revenues of the four largest players (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL) jumping almost 15 percent to $8.8 billion. This compares to 10 percent annual growth in the fourth quarter, and negative growth the first two quarters of last year (aka, the Great Advertising Recession of 2009).

Overall growth would have been even stronger if AOL didn’t have such a rough quarter. It was the only one of the four companies to show a decline in advertising revenues, down 19 percent. Google’s ad revenue was up 21.5 percent, Microsoft’s was up 8.8 percent, and Yahoo’s was up 3 percent (although the display portion was up 20 percent). As a result of AOL’s poor showing, the combined $8.8 billion total was down 2.6 percent from the fourth quarter’s $9 billion

I keep track of these numbers every quarter for these four companies, which turns out to be a good proxy for overall online advertising revenues since they represent a majority of the industry’s revenues. The numbers represent global advertising revenues, and include network revenues paid to affiliates through AdSense and Yahoo’s ad network. Google’s licensing revenues for Google Enterprise Apps have been stripped out. For Microsoft and AOL, I include only the advertising portions of their online revenues as reported in their quarterly earnings statements.

Below is a table with all the numbers:

Online Advertising Revenues (in millions)

• Yahoo BOSS To Survive Microsoft Deal In Some Form; Details Still Hazy
• Which Search Engine Do You Choose In The Blind Test?

Nokia this morning announced that it has acquired MetaCarta, a privately-owned geographic intelligence company, for an undisclosed sum. Nokia says it will use MetaCarta’s technology in the area of local search and other services.

MetaCarta was founded in 2001, is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and employs over 30 people.

MetaCarta’s solutions enable companies to bridge the gap between content and maps. Its products fall into four major categories: the MetaCarta Platform, Geographic Data Modules, GeoWeb Applications, and Hosted Content Collections.

To see an example of what MetaCarta’s technology is capable of, see NewsMap, a hosted map mashup / extension that enables Web publishers to dynamically display maps that show the places mentioned in their news articles. Or check out its GeoSearch News service, which aggregates news from thousands of sources and displays a map of the locations mentioned in stories.

MetaCarta also has a partnership with Microsoft in place to provide its Geographic Search and Referencing Platform to deliver map-based local news within the Microsoft Vine service.

For Nokia, this is the second small acquisition in two weeks – it recently picked up mobile Web browser company Novarra. Its purchase of MetaCarta is another testament to the Finnish mobile giant’s focus on location and navigation-based services for its wide range of handsets that find their way into the hands of customers all over the globe.

• “WiFi On Steroids” Is A Go. Now Google (Or Someone) Just Has To…
• “Ask A VC” Guest Swap: Kopelman Out; Hirshland In

Wi-LAN, a Canadian company founded in 1992 to commercialize wireless networking technology, a couple of years ago decided to refocus its business on “developing, protecting and monetizing patented inventions” when it was facing a fast-approaching bankruptcy.

According to its website, its portfolio today includes more than 800 patented inventions, either developed in-house or acquired or licensed from third parties.

This morning, Wi-LAN announced that it is suing just about every mobile phone and laptop maker in the world in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleging that these companies are infringing Wi-LAN’s U.S. Patent No. 5,515,369 by making and/or selling various products enabled with Bluetooth technology.

The list of companies that Wi-LAN is targeting is long, but just to give you an idea: it includes corporations like Apple, Sony, Toshiba, Dell, LG, Intel, Texas Instruments, Acer and Motorola.

Wi-LAN will be represented in this action by law firm McKool Smith, the same firm that got VirnetX a $105.75 million patent infringement verdict in its lawsuit against Microsoft a couple of weeks ago. It’s also the same firm that in May 2009 helped i4i win a $200 million lawsuit against Microsoft (the awards were later lifted to $290 million after review).

We’re trying to obtain more details about the case, but here’s the summary description of the patent, which is titled “Method for frequency sharing and frequency punchout in frequency hopping communications network”, for starters:

In a wireless packet communication system having a plurality of nodes, each having a transmitter and a receiver, the receiver at each node is assigned a seed value and is provided with a channel punchout mask. A node uses its seed value and punchout mask to generate a specific randomly ordered channel hopping band plan on which to receive signals. A node transmits its seed value and punchout mask to target nodes with which it wants to establish communication links, and those target nodes each use the seed value and punchout mask to generate the randomly ordered channel hopping band plan for that node. Subsequently, when one of the target nodes wish to transmit to the node, the target node changes frequency to the frequency of the node according to that node’s band plan.

Click here for the entire document (PDF).

• “WiFi On Steroids” Is A Go. Now Google (Or Someone) Just Has To…
• “Ask A VC” Guest Swap: Kopelman Out; Hirshland In