b2b news - Wal-Mart Stores is taking another swing at the online movie business with the acquisition of Vudu.

b2b news - You're not alone. Beginning Saturday morning, users in the U.S. and other countries reported problems. While some users could not log in, others said the site was unusually slow and glitchy.

b2b news - Microsoft Corp. takes another step toward turning Outlook, its desktop e-mail program, into a place for information from popular social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

b2b news - Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary, has found a new way to communicate directly to people - through Twitter.

On Saturday, President Barack Obama's chief spokesman ventured into the Twitter world with his first 'tweet' on his official White House account. Gibbs wrote: "Learning about 'the twitter' - easing into this with first tweet - any tips?"
 
Gibbs later told The Associated Press: "I opened it today. I was watching a twitter feed while the President visited the briefing room last week." He said he "thought it was fascinating to watch and see what people were thinking, doing and writing." Gibbs was referring to Obama visiting the press room Tuesday after a bipartisan meeting with leaders of Congress.
 
Gibbs wrote: "Seemed like adding our voice to that is a good thing."
 
On Saturday, Robert Gibbs had attracted more than 6,200 followers within hours of that first post.
But fellow Tweeters: be mindful of what you say because Gibbs' account was set up through the White House. His Twitter page notes that comments and messages received through such pages are subject to the Presidential Records Act and may be archived.
 
This is just another way for White House officials to get their message directly to people. People can already sign up on the White House Web siteto get messages straight from top administration officials. Obama also did a YouTube interview a couple of weeks ago and is ramping up histown hall meetings.

b2b news - According to new research, since August 2009 the number of tweets has increased 100%, and January's figures show no sign of a decline in growth any day soon.


Royal Pingdom has reported that 1.2 billion tweets were made on Twitter in January, 2010, or 40 million each and every day. That's more tweets per day (39.5 million) than the whole of September 2008.


January's total is an increase on the milestone-breaking 1 billion tweets recorded the month before and, if the growth rate stays constant, this month 1.4 billion tweets will be made.

"Twitter had a mixed 2009 to say the least," writes Tech.Blorge's Dave Parrack. "The first half of the year saw the social networking site explode in popularity, entering mainstream consciousness in a huge way. But things slowed down in the second half of the year, leading some to ponder whether Twitter had peaked."

It hadn't.

On January 12, Twitter CEO, Evan Williams, acknowledged the heights the micro-blogging site was attaining with his jubilant tweet, "Across all metrics that matter, yesterday was Twitter's highest-usage day ever. (And today will be bigger.)"

b2b news - When it comes to online marketing there are many metrics firms, an overflow of data and an almost never-ending stream of consumers. Still, many online marketers are off consumers' radar because their efforts aren't quite good enough. Better use of personalization tools is the key for marketers to do better in this economy, according to a new Coremetrics study