Google Buys Mobile Social Network Zingku, Acquisition of the mobile
networking start-up is the search company's latest move to provide more services
through mobile phones.
Zingku aims to make it easier for people to share photos, send invitations or
conduct polls among friends via mobile phone. It also provides a way for
businesses to send "mobile flyers" to customers advertising products and
services.
Zingku was started in 2005 and the service has been in testing with a limited
number of users in the U.S. New account sign-ups have been frozen following
Google's acquisition, according to Zingku's Web site. Existing accounts will be
transferred to Google unless they are cancelled by Oct. 4.
Detailed terms of the acquisition weren't provided and Google didn't return
calls seeking comment. The company has confirmed that it bought "certain assets
and technology of Zingku," according to the Google Operating System blog, which
first reported the deal, and is not owned by Google.
Zingku's service is free for end users and aimed at teenagers and people in
their 20s. It uses standard text and picture messaging features on mobile
phones, and a browser on the Web, so no special software has to be installed.
"Our service is designed from the mobile phone, outward, allowing you to create
and exchange things of interest ranging from invitations to 'mobile flyers' with
friends in a trusted manner," the company said. Users can share content with an
"inner circle" of trusted friends, and with friends-of-friends when they want
to. They can also subscribe to blog feeds which are delivered via text message.
"With Zingku, things you wish to promote or share can easily be created and
fetched via mobile, instant messenger, and web browser," the company says on its
site. "Our service integrates your mobile phone with a personalized web site so
that you can easily move (zing) things back and forth between the web and your
mobile as well as powerfully connect with friends and optionally their friends."
The service also has a "shameless commerce" aspect, as Zingku calls it.
Merchants can send an access code to customers who can then download a mobile
flyer and share it with friends.
The acquisition will fuel the speculation that Google is developing its own
mobile phone, although Zingku wouldn't necessarily help it to do that. Rather,
it's a service that will allow Google to reach more people on their mobile
phones, which are emerging as a new medium for advertising.
It's not the first such investment that Google has made. In 2005 it bought
Dodgeball.com, another mobile service that shares information about a user's
location and helps them find friends in their local area. Google did little to
promote the service, however, and Dodgeball's founders left Google earlier this
year complaining that it wasn't investing enough resources in the service.
One thing is for sure about Zingku: it professes the kind of whacky, Web 2.0
culture that Google likes to associate with. It's privacy policy begins: "The
success of our business depends on maintaining your privacy. Also, our mothers
brought us up properly so even if our business didn't depend upon protecting
your privacy, we would STILL protect it because we would experience extreme
guilt if we didn't."
Apple has posted a fix on its Web site for a serious problem that causes its
Macintosh computers to seize up when users attempt to upgrade to the company's
new Leopard operating system.
"It may be necessary to perform an Archive and Install installation of Leopard,"
Apple says in the support bulletin, which appeared over the weekend.
The workaround moves existing files on a user's computer to a folder named
Previous System, over which the new software is installed. "Applications,
plug-ins, and other software may have to be reinstalled after an 'Archive and
Install,'" Apple warns.
Apple launched Leopard -- officially known as OS X 10.5 -- on Friday amid
considerable hype. The operating system offers numerous graphical and security
enhancements designed to entice computer users away from Microsoft (NSDQ:
MSFT)'s Windows Vista. Within hours of the launch, however, users were reporting
the so-called 'Blue Screen of Death' problem on the company's online support
forums.
"I was so excited to get my hands on this software and momentously disappointed
with the results," said a post from 'Christian Jones1' of North Wales, U.K.
Jones said his Mac froze up after the Leopard installation process was only 5%
complete.
Thousands of similar posts indicate the problem is widespread.
For its part, Apple says software on users' machines that may not be
Leopard-compatible is to blame. "You may have third-party 'enhancement' software
installed that does not work with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard," the company said in
its support post.
Some on the Apple forum said the problem was due to a glitch in a third-party
program called APE (Application Enhancer), created by developer Unsanity. "It
looks like Application Enhancer is NOT compatible with Leopard," wrote poster
'Jon Thornburg.'
Leopard's 'Blue Screen of Death' troubles could prove particularly embarrassing
for Apple, which prides itself on offering a simpler, more user-friendly
alternative to Microsoft's computing environment. Now, as Apple aims for a
bigger chunk of the OS market, its customers are encountering a problem all too
familiar to Windows users.
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