Lawrence D. Wright's Blog (8)

On June 1, 2009 Microsoft launched their new 'Bing' search engine, or as they call it, 'decision engine.' Along with the new search engine, Microsoft unleashed a multi-million dollar advertising blitz. Microsoft is pushing Bing as a decision engine, that helps people avoid 'search overload'. Clearly they are making a run at Google's domina… Continue

Will Twitter Rule the World? Rising along side of the social networking revolution, Twitter, the short message and microblogging service, has become nearly as popular as social network sites like Facebook. With China blocking Twitter on the anniversary of Tienanmen Square, and Time magazine publishing a "how-to," it's fair to say that Twitt… Continue

According to a recent report from Advanced Interactive Media Group, Craigslist - the 'free internet classifieds site' - is poised to break the 100 million dollar mark for 2009. Yes, you read that right, they are projected to surpass 100 million dollars in revenue for 2009. Confused? How can a 'free classifieds' site make that much money with no obvio… Continue

With the recent release of the Palm Pre, reviewers are buzzing. Most of the reviews have been very positive, claiming that the Pre may be the iPhone killer. Or just a preview of what Apple needs to add to the next iPhone. There has been one complaint though… a very limited app store. It is clear that A… Continue

In working on our currently running eLab eXchange Newspapers Tournament, I became interested in the future of both online and offline media. It is clear that the internet has changed the way media outlets make money, and that many media outlets will have to adjust to survive. But how? Our focus with the tournament is making a profit with an online business model. But is it really time to abandon… Continue

With home loan interest rates at historic lows, and the government doing almost everything in its power to encourage lending, the real estate market appears to be moving in a slightly positive direction. The U.S. Census Bureau recently reported that new housing starts for February 2009 were up 22% over January 2009 (though still significantly down compared to February 2008). Recent news stories report that February sales in the Inland Empire of California, Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Gulf Coast o… Continue

YouTube has become the 8000lb gorilla of online video streaming, leaving their competitors scrambling to catch up. In April, Hulu made a push to become a major player in the online video marketplace. With the previous buy-ins from News Corp and NBC, Hulu has become the 3rd most popular U.S. video streaming site on the internet, behind YouTube and Fox… Continue

Will their growing pains be too much for the newspapers to survive? In the past year several major newspaper publishers have either filed for bankruptcy (e.g. L.A. Times) or closed down (e.g. the Rocky Mountain News). Some people have blamed the economy for poor print readership, others have blamed the Internet. Traditionally, newspapers relied on revenue from print ads, classifie… Continue