Google's Billions Don't Sway Groupon

The rumor mill was churning last week, with most of the focus on Google's potential buyout of social buying site Groupon.

The blogosphere was buzzing with articles and posts pondering the impact the move would have and what it would mean for Groupon. However, all of the prognosticating and predictions were for nothing with the news over the weekend that Groupon turned down Google's $5.3 billion offer.

A lot of people couldn't comprehend Groupon's decision to turn down $5.3 billion for a startup reportedly bringing in $500 million annually. Financially, it's a valid argument...unless those earnings figures are wrong (and luckily for Groupon, they are). There have been reports coming out recently that Groupon is actually making $2 billion annually.

There are arguments to be made about possible non-monetary reasons behind Groupon saying no to Google, but I honestly think that this was simply Google making what would have been a nice offer for a company that was doing well (but not spectacular). Unfortunately for Google, the earnings numbers they probably based their offer on were off and Groupon is obviously looking to greener pastures.

Microsoft Shows No Dis-Kinect with Consumers

Way back in June, I questioned whether or not the gaming industry was on its deathbed after being pushed further and further into anonymity with the rise of smarthphones and social gaming.

In that post, I noted that Microsoft was going to unveil its controller-free game system at the E3 Conference. And while I didn't say how I felt about Microsoft's controller-free approach in the article, to be honest I felt it was fairly gimmicky.

Boy, was I wrong. Microsoft has announced that its Kinect system has sold 2.5-million units in the 25 days since its public launch. To put that number in perspective, the iPad (you know, the device that has been called the fastest-selling device of all time), took twice as long to surpass the 2 million mark.

In my opinion, their success boils down to two things. One, the much-lower price point compared to the iPad is always conducive to higher sales. Secondly, Microsoft has been very upfront with their support for developers hacking their Kinect for other purposes.

It was an ingenious move on Microsoft's part, because people have pondered the potential outside of gaming, and dreamed of Minority Report-like computer navigation and web-browsing since the system's unveiling.

I don't believe the Kinect will kill off the Nintendo Wii, although I wonder what effect it will have on the Playstation Move's sales. However, the public has obviously latched on to the idea of controller-free gaming and the Kinect's success should boost a struggling gaming industry.

Video Post: State of E-Reader Report

With the holiday shopping season in full swing and rumors of an upcoming e-bookstore from Google, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at the current e-reader market to see what options are out there. Tablets also get looked at, on the heels of a recent report on the iPad's impact on the e-reader market.

The 140-Character Future of RSS Feeds

I admit it. I was a bit late to the Twitter party, just getting into the tweeting game a few months ago. And although I've fully embraced it now, it took me a month or so to figure out how to get the most out of it.

Starting out, I (like many others) used Twitter as a sort of RSS feed for news or sports. Apparently, the discussion forum Quora has latched on to the idea as well. Since it's early days, Quora has allowed users to follow topics on the site to view new or edited questions relevant to them as they appear.

But now, Quora has created Twitter accounts for nearly all of their topics. There are accounts for very broad topics like "social media" (@q_socialmedia) or "science" (@q_science) and brand specific accounts like "Nikon" (@q_nikon). If you already have a Quora account, the accounts for the topics you follow show up here.

Now it's not exactly a true Twitter account, because the @QuoraQuestions account tweets out any questions and, if the question is about the topic you subscribe to, retweets it to the topic-specific feed.

It may be a modified Twitter account or it may be a new form of RSS feed, but either way it's still an intriguing method of sending out data and good for Quora users who spend way more time on Twitter than in their email inboxes.

The Missing Link?

As the guy who has taken over programming and web design duties for Daily Axioms the last few months, I've had to make decisions about different sharing features, most important of which have been about what sharing buttons to put up on our site.

What was once an easy decision (one Share This/Add This button and you're done) has been expanded to Facebook buttons, TweetMeme buttons, Twitter buttons, Evernote buttons, and scores of others that I can't rattle off the top of my head. 

Now LinkedIn has added to the mix with a sharing button of their own. That in itself isn't necessarily newsworthy, but what it means for the future of LinkedIn is. 

LinkedIn has achieved rare success and become a part of that pantheon of social media elite along with the likes of Facebook and Twitter. It's carved out and dominated its niche as a professionals' network, steady progressing and evolving along the way.

That's why this new button worries me. Yes, there has always been (and will always be) link-sharing with large social networks, including LinkedIn. The issue is that the entire concept of sharing buttons is predicated upon making link-sharing as fast and easy as possible, which is perfect for networks like Twitter and Facebook.

But LinkedIn isn't meant to be a barrage of links. Users, myself included, enjoy LinkedIn because you aren't inundated with links. And while I understand the reason for posting the occasional story to LinkedIn because it pertains to your industry or has some relevance to your professional life, LinkedIn may be opening the flood gates to overwhelming users with pointless links that other users have no interest in.

Of course, all of this depends on web developers actually implementing it into their sites, which has yet to be seen. And maybe I'm off the mark with how LinkedIn users will receive this new sharing button, but I for one don't believe LinkedIn should try to be something it's not and should stick to being the professionals' network that made it successful in the first place.