Recent studies indicate 70% of Twitter members joined the service this year, and 35% have 10 or fewer followers. An estimated 5,000 to 10,00 new accounts are being opened daily, according to a HubSpot study. Principle medium for Twitter is mobile devises, supporting texting. The snippets are posted both to mobile as text messages and online for select readers or public  to view.

Example usage is tweets between virtual work group members, allowing members to keep in contact throughout the day with immediate messages received by mobile. The messages are also posted and retained online, like a blog, so may be reviewed, as needed, by those with access.

Twitter Continues to Gain Momentum - MediaPost (free membership required) >>

Good explanation on “cloud computing” on Website Magazine, today. A large shared network of servers allows expandability without the restraints of partitioning.

We’ve seen the biggest advantage of cloud computing for our users who are storing their growing library of email on their webserver rather than locally on their computers, eventually taxing server resources. A partitioned system requires that when a growing business’s online data system reaches capacity, it either be moved or provided with additional resources under separate logins, fractionating resources.

Cloud computing allows massive amounts of online data to be kept together under the appearance of one resource with seemingly infinite capacity for expansion.

Example of this is Google services including Google Mail, Google applications — all provisions that are widely distributed across multiple servers located around the world.

If you’ve considered backing up your business data, off-site, by subscribing to automated online storage services, cloud computing technology comes into play. Equitable online storage providers are well-versed in cloud computing and offer the best prices if their cloud computing systems are already solidly in place. Google, Amazon, AOL, Windows Live all use cloud computing for their primary services and as a result can offer online terabyte storage subscriptions to individuals and small business, at the best prices around.

Disadvantage at the individual level is that you need decent bandwidth depending on the applications you are using. 10 Mb minimum, in many cases. As bandwidth continues to get faster for the average user, we expect cloud computing will grow exponentially. Couple that with decreased storage costs, and bingo!, we’ll all be moving to online storage. Contrast this to the 1980s when desktop computers first hit the market, taking data storage away from the expensive mainframes that ran IT. And, as with the 1980s and shared services, privacy returns as the issue des jour.

Website Magazine — Good Cloud Definition >>

“Google’s Cloud Looms Large“  by Kate Greene in Technology Review published by MIT>>

Gosh, I hope Yahoo! stays around. I love My Yahoo! homepage. Lists all the RSS feeds and blogs I follow, with summary statements and click-thrus to the sites for detail. Can drag and drop sections of My Yahoo! home page to organize the display. So easy. I can see in an instant what my LinkedIn buddies are doing. Such a busy bunch!!

I like the tag suggestions Yahoo! gives in Wordpress, through the Wordpress plug-in, Tag Warrior (author Christine Davis). Very nice, automatic.

From Smartbrief on Social Media: (sign-up here: http://www.smartbrief.com/socialmedia/)

Layoffs at Yahoo! Leave a trail of Tweets.
As expected, about 1,500 workers at Yahoo! lost their jobs as part of cost-cutting moves designed to save the portal about $400 million in annual operating expenses. Some laid-off and remaining Yahoo! workers blogged about the experience via Twitter or left comments on industry site Silicon Alley Insider. Yahoo! co-founder and onetime Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang announced the move on the company blog.

http://ycorpblog.com/2008/12/10/tough-times/

Research and Markets LTD surveyed over 1400 companies about global market valuations and strategies through 2012. Their study confirms that the G-apps type environments with file sharing, staff shared calendars, and large disk space are the wave of the future. Here their findings. Complete summary is purchasable on their website:

Key Findings:

- High-definition and file-based workflows will continue to be the key market drivers over the forecast period

- IP infrastructure has started to have a major impact on video transfer and storage, with hard disc storage now significantly undercutting tape storage

- Growth peaked in 2007-2008 and is expected to slow in most markets through 2009 and 2010 before picking up again

- Emerging markets in China, Eastern Europe, India, Latin America and the Middle East will continue to experience double digit growth to 2012

- China now dominates the Asia-Pacific market with a larger market than Japan

- Broadcasters are starting to make purchase decisions based on operational functionality rather than technology, opening the market further for complex ’solution’ provision and third-party service providers

- Services have become an increasingly important portion of the market as broadcasters disassociate risk and supplement project decisions with consultation for more complex workflow and cross-platform transmission

- New buyers are entering the market from other industries, such as publication, online, mobile, government,
corporate and faith, utilising professional video equipment. In addition, new applications for profession technologies such as digital signage and digital cinema offer new market opportunities

- New vendors are following these major trends, especially taking advantage of IT trends and the movement towards cheaper (and often more open) software platforms for multi-channel and low-end video delivery

Research and Markets LTD.: MORE>>

DNForum.com and DNJournal.com report these new domain name sales during the Thanksgiving short week:

1. Kredit.de €892,500 = $1,169,175 - Sedo
2. Loto.com $91,331 - SnapNames
3. Vida.com $50,100 - NameJet
4. ABL.com $50,000 - Sedo
5. Glow.co.uk = $31,015 - Sedo
6. Internet.eu $26,250 - Sedo
7. Haarverlaengerung.de
(”hair extensions” in German) = $26,200 - Sedo
8. Lets.com $25,700 - NameJet
9. Mijn.nl €19,500 = $25,545 - Sedo
10. EverestBets.com €18,500 = $24,235 - SedoTechnorati Tags: domain name registration, domain name investments, selecting your company name wisely