The Internet’s most powerful presence

I landed on a great story the other night about one of the most-used and most powerful search engines in the world.  CNBC reporter Maria Bartiromo took a look Inside the Mind of Google.  It started off briefly with the history of the now giant-sized company of casually dressed programmers and computer geeks started in 1998 by two Stanford graduate students, Sergey Brin and Larry Page.  Of course one can only assume that Google would employ some of the brightest minds on earth.  The company appears to be a great place to work with a lot of perks.  Some of these perks include Google taking care of mundane details for their employees like doing their laundry or sending buses to pick up their employees who happen to commute to work.  The story then covered many topics about Google such as their search engine security, Google Ads, and how they plan to expand the products they offer.

The Security
DID YOU KNOW.....

Today at the Microsoft MIX10 conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft introduced a new Netflix application for cell phones with the Windows 7 Series platform.  This will be the first application which offers the feature of watching Netflix movies and shows on a user's mobile phone.  If you already use Netflix as I do then you're familiar with its streaming capabilities on your PC or certain TV set-top boxes.  Mobile phone users can stream numerous entertainment programs from anywhere using wi-fi or the 3G network.

Just Me:  I always get nervous when I hear anything that has to do with Microsoft Windows but the Mix10 conference goers seem to be impressed with the new application.  For Netflix, this is a logical step in the right direction in giving consumers more ways to access the Netflix library.

Do you have a USB 3.0 flash drive?  And do you enjoy renting the latest movies and television shows?  Well an L.A.-based company called Digiboo LLC will be bringing these two things together.  Digiboo has created a new technology that will allow movie, television, and media consumers to rent films by plugging in their portable USB 3.0 flash drives into kiosks.  Their pilot program launches this January with digital kiosks placed in Hollywood Video and Movie Gallery stores.  If all goes well they will be expanding to airports, colleges/universities, and coffee shops.  

How it Works
You walk up to a Digiboo rental kiosks.  You pull out your trusty USB 3.0 flash drive, stick it in, select your movies, pay the money, and…….you’re DONE!!   The 8 GB flash drives can hold up to four movies.  The rental period expires after 3-days.   ATTENTION:  And for all you people who love to bootleg --- YES, the material is copyright protected by digital rights management technology.

Benefits

Babelgum.com is a free, Internet and Mobile television platform that began in 2005 by Italian media and telecommunications entrepreneur Silvio Scaglia. This site offers professional and semi-professional produced programming on-demand to a global audience. In doing this, Babelgum.com wants to essentially act as the international ‘glue’ or as they put it “like a modern-day Tower of Babel” for a global online audience. Babelgum.com currently has five dedicated channels: Film, Music, Comedy, Our Earth, and Metropolis.

What’s cool about Babelgum:

Technology
They have their own free application that delivers video via the 3G and Wi-Fi networks available on the iPhone, iPod touch, and some models of Nokia phones.

Talent Scouting
Babelgum has two online contests for promising filmmakers and music artists. There is the Babelgum Online Film Festival, chaired by award-winning director and producer Spike Lee and the Babelgum Music Video Awards, judged by acclaimed film and music video director Michael Gondry.

Independent Filmmakers
They welcome independent filmmakers to upload an unlimited amount of quality content. They also will partner with you to monetize your content…cha-ching…$$$$.