Groupon Is Testing A New $30 Per Year VIP Service
Groupon is offering a new “VIP” service that costs $30 a year.
A reader forwarded us the email below, and we’ve confirmed that it’s real with Groupon.
What do you get for $30 a year? Early access to deals, and ability to buy old deals, and refunds for any Groupon at any time.
http://www.businessinsider.com/groupon-is-testing-a-new-30-per-year-vip-service-2012-2?op=1#ixzz1mZYgorf2
Pinterest’s Rite of Web Passage—Huge Traffic, No Revenue
If you haven’t heard of Pinterest, you likely will soon.
Traffic to the website—which lets users create online scrapbooks to share images of projects or coveted products—has grown tenfold over the past six months. In January, the number of visitors on Pinterest.com was almost a third of that on Twitter.com.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204792404577225124053638952.html
Facebook Launches Verified Accounts and Pseudonyms
Facebook, a service built on real names and real identities, will tomorrow start allowing prominent public figures to verify their accounts and then opt to display a preferred nickname instead of their birth name. Those with verified accounts will gain more prominent placement in Facebook’s “People To Subscribe To” suggestions.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/15/facebook-verified-accounts-alternate-names/
Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures slaps AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint with patent lawsuit
Intellectual Ventures, the patent holding firm operated by former Microsoft chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold, has filed a lawsuit against AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile alleging patent infringement.
“The wireless communications networks of AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile use a variety of important technologies covered by Intellectual Ventures’ patents,” said Intellectual Ventures’ Chief Litigation Counsel Melissa Finocchio in a statement. ”We previously attempted to discuss licensing options with each of these companies, but none were responsive. We filed a complaint for infringement today in the U.S. District Court of Delaware to get these three companies on a course toward compensating IV for the value of the inventions they use in delivering their wireless services.”
http://www.geekwire.com/2012/nathan-myhrvolds-intellectual-ventures-slaps-att-tmobile-sprint-patent-lawsuit
FBI Could Pull the Plug On Millions of Internet Users March 8
The Federal Bureau of Investigation may yank several crucial domain name servers (DNS) offline on March 8, blocking millions from using the Internet. The servers in the FBI’s crosshairs were installed in 2011 to deal with a nasty worm dubbed DNSChanger Trojan. DNSChanger can get an innocent end-user in trouble; it changes an infected system’s DNS settings to shunt Web traffic to unwanted and possibly even illegal sites.
http://www.betabeat.com/2012/02/15/fbi-could-pull-the-plug-on-millions-of-internet-users-march-8/
Music Industry Mulls Suing Google Over “Pirate” Search Results
The recording industry considers filing a lawsuit against Google for allegedly abusing its dominant market position to distort the market for online music. Industry groups including IFPI and the RIAA want Google to degrade links to “pirate” websites in its search results. IFPI has obtained a “highly confidential and preliminary legal opinion” to see if they can force Google to step up its anti-piracy efforts though a lawsuit.
http://torrentfreak.com/music-industry-mulls-suing-google-over-pirate-search-results-120216/
Lady Gaga, Then The World: Top Investors Join Social Media Site Backplane
The architects behind Lady Gaga’s social media campaign have raised around $4.5 million to scale The Backplane and accelerate its goal to become the world’s home page.
http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2012/02/16/lady-gaga-then-the-world-top-investors-join-social-media-site-backplane/
