CHART OF THE DAY: Search Is Still The Main Source Of Mobile Ad Revenue
This post originally appeared at BI Intelligence, a new subscription service covering every angle of the mobile industry. Globally, mobile ad revenues were up an impressive 83% last year, according to a new report from IAB and IHS. But the bulk of mobile revenue is still being driven by a desktop-based innovation, the search engine. Search accounted for 53% of global mobile ad revenues in 2012. That share is actually up slightly from 51% in 2011. (On the desktop, search only accounted for a 46% share of ad revenue in 2012.) In some regions the share controlled by search is ... → Read More
Silicon Alley Insider - Thursday, July 11, 2013
The PC industry’s implosion continues. In the second quarter of the year, sales were down 10.9%, according to Gartner. This is pretty bad, but it’s slightly better than what happened in the first quarter of the year when PC sales were down 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. Also worth noting: When PC sales fell 11.2%, Microsoft’s Windows business didn’t shrink. It was flat on a year over year basis thanks to Surface sales. Gartner says tablets are killing the PC market, not Windows 8: “We are seeing the PC market reduction directly tied to the shrinking installed base of PCs, as ... 
Snapchat, the service that lets users send photos and videos that automatically delete themselves 10 seconds after a recipient opens them, is a surprisingly versatile tool for people willing to get a little creative with it. While it has a reputation for being used by teenagers for sneakily sexting each other, the app has found use as a way to discretely message coworkers and to create some really awesome artwork. Creating works of art This guy has some really fun drawings that he made within Snapchat. The best are him as the Statue of Liberty and his drawing of Squidward ... 
Pitchfork Media, the company behind the music site that all my cool friends used to read (I use the past tense because, like me, my friends have gotten old and uncool), just launched a new property — The Dissolve, a site that’s all about movies. When I loaded up The Dissolve earlier today, my first feeling was one of familiarity. That’s usually not something you want in a new property, but in this case, it was good thing — I was happy to see the bylines of several writers I used to read at one of my favorite arts and ... 
Excel is the best piece of software ever made. We’ve talked a lot about basic formulas and advanced tricks that will make you way better at the program, but we’ve been remiss and forgot about our beginners. Excel is a powerful, daunting program, and a lot of people barely know where to start. We’re here to help. If you’ve never used Excel before and want to, or if you’re just starting out and want to make sure you’re going on the right track, we’ll show you some of the most fundamental concepts and ideas to get you well on your ... 
Brad Garlinghouse, the former Yahoo exec famous for his “Peanut Butter Manifesto” that said Yahoo was spreading itself too thin, is generally a Marissa Mayer fan. But he’s not convinced that buying Tumblr for $ 1.1 billion was the best move the Yahoo CEO could have made. “I’m probably a little more skeptical than many about the Tumblr acquisition,” he told Wall Street Journal reporter Rolfe Winkler during a video interview. Although Garlinghouse left Yahoo in 2008, he’s got deep roots in the Valley and the Internet business. He’s currently CEO of cloud storage company Hightail (formerly YouSendIt), and an angel ... 
Apple’s icons and designs are a big deal. Apple defines itself as a design company, for instance. It prides itself on making the most beautiful as well as the most functional products. Part of Apple’s design philosophy is to keep things simple: The company believes that users shouldn’t need instructions on how to operate its gadgets, it should just be obvious. One way Apple has achieved that is by using a series of longstanding icons that we’ve all come to recognize. These symbols are so familiar, we don’t need to be told what to do. Apple has mostly followed a ... 
Reportedly seen leaving the scene of the accident. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) You’ll all no doubt be relieved that the dangerous antitrust wizards at Apple have been stopped… from encouraging anyone else to jack up their ebook prices. Reuters reports that a judge has ruled that the company conspired with five publishers to drive up prices on ebooks. Not exactly the most thrilling case of collusion the law’s ever seen, but you know, these are tough times for the book business and they don’t have the appetite for shenanigans they once did.
YouSendIt has changed its name to “Hightail,” and is now offering unlimited cloud storage for $ 16 a month. It’s an interesting choice. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary it means: “to move at full speed or rapidly often in making a retreat.” It’s usually used in the phrase “hightailed it” which refers to the way some animals, such as horses and rabbits, raise their tails high when fleeing danger, says the Free dictionary. As CEO Brad Garlinghouse explains in a blog post, the one thing the company didn’t want to do was become another box (Dropbox, Box) or another “sync” (SugarSync). ... 