Google is looking to expand its social networking service which could see the Internet search giant taking the social networking giant, Facebook, on in what will be titanic battle of the Internet giants. Google has been enlisting the help of various developers in looking to build a social gaming service which would see the search giant capturing some ad money from the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

The game developers involved

Photo: Zynga

Google, who recently acquired a stake in Zynga Game Network Inc, are looking to work with game developers such as Playdom Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc.’s Playfish. Though from this info we can tell that they are working on something to do with gaming, the finer details remain undisclosed, as Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt declined to say anything on the matter when interviewed earlier this week. Schmidt look to squash the rumour that Google would be developing a Facebook rival, but did, however, say, ’the world doesn’t need a copy of the same thing’.

A growing market

Photo: Facebook

Analysts do believe that Google is looking to capture the revenues which have been produced by social games with the social gaming market standing at an estimated $700 million in 2009. These games also have a large support base, with games such as Farmville on Facebook having more than 60 million active users. However, making money on games like these is another story and as the situation currently stands, ‘Game developers pay Facebook 30 per cent of the earnings from virtual-goods purchases in their games’. This is, however, where Google possesses a significant advantage over Facebook, given that it’s Checkout online payment system would make it easier for active users to complete transactions over their social games.

Facebook continues to grow and recently announced that they had reached 500 million users, making them the biggest social networking platform. Google is looking to compete with Zuckerberg and Co. through social gaming. However, whether they will actually follow out their plans remains a mystery and we’re all just waiting to see what comes from the Internet search giant.

Facebook now seems to be getting greedy with the Internet pie from which it holds a slice of 500 million subscribers. Zuckerberg & Co. are looking to harness the wisdom of crowds from the Facebook community they possess through launching Facebook Questions. Like Yahoo Answers, users will type questions into forums which will be answered by the greater Facebook community. It sounds all very simple and easy, but for some it’s an old idea and they’re not expecting that much success.

Why now?

The reasoning behind Facebook Questions according to the press release is that, ‘Millions of people ask their friends questions on Facebook every day. What new music should I listen to? Where’s the best sushi place in town? How do I learn to play the piano?” But now Facebook is taking it one step further and instead of leaving a users pool of friends to provide the answers to the questions which they may ask daily, users can now ask the greater Facebook community.

Facebook believes that, ‘With this new application, you can get a broader set of answers and learn valuable information from people knowledgeable on a range of topics’, which is true. The new ‘Yahoo Answers’ from Facebook is currently in the testing phase and only a few users can use the service.

How it will work

Photo: Stock.Xchng

When Facebook Questions is fully functional, Facebook users will be able to use the service through typing their questions into a new the ‘Ask Question’ box. Also in improving the response times and getting more knowledgeable answers, tagging the questions with specific words such as cycling or hiking will have Facebook draw its answers from the pool of Facebook users who have listed those activities as one of their interests or so on.

In theory it is evident how this new features is different from users asking questions in their status updates. However how Zuckerberg will convince users to really take advantage of the feature is another question all together.

Apple is currently sitting on a big pile of money, all thanks to the phenomenal demand it has had for the Apple iPad, which continues to increase even today. However, it seems that not everyone is impressed with what is now the ‘Apple tablet empire’, and RIM is looking to take a piece of the cake away from Apple. Though we haven’t had official word of the BlackBerry tablet which supposedly under R&D, Research in Motion (RIM) has acquired the domain BlackPad.com which has got the rumour mill stirring with news of an Android tablet to come from the smartphone maker.

The new RIM domain

The breaking news comes from MobileCrunch, who reported that RIM has acquired the BlackPad domain from a previous owner. The identity of the domain’s previous owner is, however, unknown and the amount paid for the Internet site has also not been revealed. The domain was officially handed over to the BlackBerry makers on 8 July 2010 and expires on 8 September 2011.

Speculation is rife that RIM may merely be protecting any future plans they may have for a possible tablet name, given that it’s not the first time that a large corporation has a registered a domain to protect the brand. Another angle which some folks have taken on the registration of the domain is that they are looking move attention away from other products which they may be developing and looking to get a sneaky chess move ahead of the competition.

The tablet war

Photo: Apple

One cannot, however, dismiss the fact that the tablet war is running wild, and with the success the Apple iPad is receiving, it would be silly for RIM not to try take on the big bad iPad wolf which has seen a number of other large device makers looking to churn out their tablets soon.

There may be a BlackPad tablet on the way, or RIM may be pulling everyone’s chain. There has been no response from the BlackBerry makers on the newly registered domain.

The car stereo gets little attention in tech publications, particularly outside of satellite radio. But the reality is many people in the developed world spend an inordinate amount of time in their motor vehicles. A motor industry-meets-technology alliance, Genivi, has selected MeeGo – and, by extension, Intel Atom CPUs – to power their upcoming in-car stereo system.

Car alliance wants MeeGo

The folks over at Cnet Crave ran a story about Genivi, a motor industry-meets-technology alliance that includes the BMW group, PSA Peugeot Citroen and GM, having selected the MeeGo OS – which runs on Intel Atom CPUs, of course – as the framework for the group’s upcoming IVI system – the obtusely named in-vehicle infotainment system.

What else is known

Beyond the fact that MeeGo and Intel Atom chips are making their way into vehicles, few specifics are known. Which vehicles will get them, how they will work, how they will be priced, etc., are as yet undisclosed.

Worrying about the wrong things?

Photo: anw.fr / Flickr

When Nokia and Intel first announced MeeGo, the companies went to great pains to explain that this platform would go beyond mobile phones and netbooks. True to form, word of a MeeGo tablet emerged and this unexpected MeeGo-powered digital car stereo is yet another example of this.

But, even then, we still fear Intel and Nokia are worrying about the wrong things. Nokia clearly need to get back to basics with its mobile phones business, as well as invest in engineering talent to get its smartphones to a comparable level to market leaders. Intel, on the other hand, are performing extremely well – better than ever, in fact – but he company still does not have a clear roadmap in the high-growth smartphones and smart devices market. And with ARM doing as well as it is, this could over time turn into a two-horse race.

Or we could be dead wrong, and considering how many vehicles are on the roads today, this alliance could see Intel Atom chips regain a foothold against ARM processors, as well as MeeGo getting invaluable face time. We won’t lie, Intel Atom powered digital car stereos is a very interesting prospect.

Famed video games soothsayer Michael Pachter believes that a Call of Duty subscription service is inevitable, if not imminent, and he believes that up to 5 million gamers will sign up for the service. Cue the Call of Duty MMO calls again.

Soft software sales a concern

NPD numbers for June showed software sales declining 15 per cent over sales during the same period last year. This marked more than three consecutive months in 2010 where less software was sold than in the prior year, prompting analysts and executives at gaming companies to rethink their sales strategies.

Call of Duty subscription a necessity

Michael Pachter, the famous Wedbush Morgan gaming analyst, puts these depressed sales figures down to multiplayer games, which lead to people buying fewer games because they keep playing the same one.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

He believes this reality should force Activision Blizzard to release Call of Duty with an add-on subscription service. In an advisor’s note, he says: ‘We estimate that a total of 12 million consumers are playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 for an average of 10 hours per week on the two platforms’ respective networks’, [Xbox Live and PSN] and that this ‘has sucked the available time away from what otherwise would be spent playing newly purchased games’. Pachter then added that they (Wedbush Morgan) think this is a bad thing, and that publishers must figure out a way to recapture revenue from these lost players.

Michael Pachter adds that, ‘We think that it is incumbent upon Activision, with the most popular multiplayer game [Call of Duty], to take the first step to address monetization of multiplayer (gaming)’. He has a point, considering the runaway success the company has with World of WarCraft.

While he readily admits he’s not sure how Activision would go about this, it is clear that the folks at Activision Blizzard are thinking about the problem, too. We’ve wondered if a Call of Duty MMO was on the cards previously, too, considering others rake in the money from Call of Duty online play.

We’ll see.

British processing company ARM, is really beginning to flex its muscle in the mobile devices processing space, with their impressive Q2 results showing just how well the once spunky upstart is doing in closing the gap with, believe it or not, Intel of all companies.

The numbers

Off the back of the explosive growth in the smartphone market recently, steady netbook performance and the early days of the tablet market that could one day be a massive part of computing, ARM posted Q2 revenue of £100 million, up 50 per cent from the same time last year. What’s more, the company’s profit grew a mind blowing 167 per cent to reach £43.5 million.

Warren East, who is ARM’s CEO, said that the company was ‘pleased to report strong underlying revenue and profit performance in the first half, in improved trading conditions compared with one year ago.’ Strong underlying performance? That’s surely a euphemism, considering that ARM processors are seeing explosive growth in what isn’t exactly a growth industry anymore.

Who is driving this growth?

East also took the opportunity to explain that the company’s strategy, saying that ‘growth in mobile, non-mobile and new technology outsourcing’, would continue unabated. The latter of those three moves – ‘new technology outsourcing’ – has been very rewarding for ARM of late, wherein they signed on Microsoft and others as partners.

For the future

Photo: ARM

ARM is currently the leader in processing for mobile devices, with the company spreading its tentacles and leveraging its competitive advantage at a dizzying pace. If the global adoption of smart devices is anything like it was a short while ago for personal computing, ARM may find itself in a position to compete with and, potentially, beat Intel all in all.

Can you imagine that? The great Intel unseated was once unthinkable. It’s still a way off, but it isn’t impossible, especially if ARM processor adoption continues at this rate. Unreal.

And if you don’t think it is indeed impossible, think of the smartphone you’re holding. It likely uses an ARM processor. What of that iPad you love so much? Yep, ARM architecture is licensed there, too. Netbook owner? Yeah, they have a significant presence there, too. The company is slowly beginning to find itself everywhere. Intel should at least be uneasy, if not nervous.

HTC is noted for having among the most gorgeous displays in all of the smartphone industry. That’s been partly attributed to the HTC OLED displays the company has used in its high-end phones. HTC has now had its hand forced by an OLED display shortage and will now make all its displays with an SLCD screen.

Why the  shortage?

The problem with OLED display is it is notably more expensive than LCD displays. And, more importantly, only Samsung, LG and CMEL supply it. Add this limited supply chain to the growing demand for this technology – spearheaded by Samsung growth and HTC’s unbelievable performance – HTC has been forced to search for alternate solutions.

What does this mean?

In short the incoming crop of HTC smartphones will use SLCD dispalys in lieu of the HTC OLED displays it has in its current crop of top-notch smartphones like the HTC Desire and the Google Nexus One. HTC puts the switch down to better battery life performance and more accurate contrast levels, but the company’s CEO makes it clear this has all got to do with product volume. In a press release,Peter Chou says that “HTC is experiencing high demand for many of our phones, specifically our phones with 3.7-inch displays,” before adding that “The new SLCD display technology enables us to ramp up our production capabilities quickly to meet the high demand.” High demand is certainly a nice problem to have.

What’s the difference?

The big question, of course, is whether there is a significant difference in display quality and imagery. In words, little is different if you aren’t searching for disparities. The differing screen types have strengths ands weaknesses, as is the case with anything, but the quality concession isn’t huge. The people over at Mobile Tech World have done a video comparison covering the various forms of display technology to show exactly.

In short, there’s nothing to see here, really. While the HTC OLED display is slightly superior to SLCD display, HTC fans have nothing to worry about.

The iPad still dominates public conversation, where the mere sight of pulling one out still draws ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ and leaves people gushing. It also dominates the media with people fussing over what it all means.

More importantly, the iPad dominates sales, with PC World writing an intriguing piece on how the iPad’s early success is already killing the iPad killers before they even arrive.

Sale explosion

The iPad sold an impressive 3.27 million units in its first quarter of official tracking. Analysts now forecast the Apple device will move over 13 million units this year alone. Naturally, this is great news for Apple, and equally good news for its component providers, to an extent.

Sales explosion = components shortage

LG, who manufacture the impressive screen on the iPad, recently announced that they were struggling to keep up with demand for the Apple tablet PC. Kwong Youn-soo, LG Display CEO, recently said: ‘Demand (from Apple) keeps growing and we can’t meet it all. Apple may have to delay launches of the iPad for some countries due to tight component supplies and strong demand.

‘We are considering increasing production lines for iPad products but overall supply is likely to remain tight until early next year.’

Not only are tablet PC displays being produced at a pace that cannot keep up with iPad demand, the same problem is being experienced in the SSD components space, too, leading to companies like SanDisk building new factories to try stay ahead of the curve.

So what if components are locked up?

Photo: Apple

What you need to understand is that if there aren’t enough components for Apple, there likely aren’t any components for anybody. The needs for a tablet PC are highly specific, so much so that there are very few components manufacturers to choose from. Resultantly, components manufacturers produce for whomever they have really good relationships with, or whoever is the sure bet for repeat sales purposes. The iPad, right now, is the sure bet.

How then will everybody who is yet to get a foothold in this space going get that foothold if they don’t have the raw tablet PC parts they need to even give it a go?

The PC World article makes for interesting reading and is well worth checking out.

A hugely significant KPMG survey has somewhat conclusively confirmed what we have long known – people are not prepared to pay for web content. More specifically, Brits, more than other nations, are particularly in opposition to the idea. This may give some indication as to how successful pay walls for news sites will actually be.

Four out of five say no way

The KPMG survey, which had 5,627 respondents from 22 different countries, found UK citizens the most unwillingly to pass over their hard-earned pounds for news content. Of the Brits quizzed, 81 per cent said they would not shell over money for web content.

What were the findings?

Speaking to The Telegraph, Tudor Aw, who heads up technology at KPMG Europe, explained that: ‘UK consumers still haven’t come around to the idea of paying for digital content and are clear that they will move to other sites if pay walls are put up.’

He went on to explain that customers have, however, become receptive to the necessity of advertising models and in allowing sites to track their user profiles (presumably for hyper-specific ad targeting). But what Mr. Aw did not explain is that the average cost advertisers pay per impression has dropped notably in recent years, and that most newspapers cannot sell out their advertising capacity, making a certain percentage of these ‘free viewers’ worth nothing to the news publications.

Times paywall under the spotlight

This KPMG finding and Mr. Aw’s assertion is of great significance to the global newspaper industry, and more specifically Great Britain, with Rupert Murdoch’s Times Online recently going behind a pay wall. As an immediate effect, the publication has seen what all know to be a massive drop off in subscriber numbers, but what the media industry waits with baited breath to see is whether revenue is greater as a result of the paid subscribers.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

It’s the newspaper business making the switch from its reliance on impressions and advertising to subscription and charging users. This has worked for highly targeted financial publications like the WSJ, but whether it will work for a generalist site like Times Online remains to be seen.

Focus on delivery platforms, not content monetisation

Some publications have attempted to mitigate the challenges of online monetisation by introducing different delivery methods to new platforms. Dedicated magazine apps have propped up all over the iPad, for example, with some companies heralding their existence as a major success since they charge users for the app and the service. How is the iPad, or any tablet or eBook delivery platform different from the web? Well, firstly, it isn’t really – the content you get is often times identical, but it’s that tablets can ‘simulate’ the magazine and newspaper ‘feel’ that make people feel comfortable dealing with the ‘mobile’ pay walls.

Whether this trend continues remains to be seen, but the great pay wall experiment lead by Times Online is in full swing, and there’s not a soul in the media world not anxious to see how it will pan out.

As the web continues to grow, various sites become more and more dependent on each other to disseminate information. As such niches within niches get built to act as alternatives to generalist sites. Below are our top three favourite video games sites on the web.

Eurogamer.net

Founded by a young Brit at the then-tender age of 17 twelve years ago, Eurogamer.net has become the pre-eminent voice in video gaming journalism. Its reviews are the equivalent of gold dust, with a high review meaning a game truly is best-in-class and likely to sell bucket loads. It may not be the absolute biggest in the world in terms of traffic, but it is certainly by far the most respected, with some of the best writers on the planet, bar none. And we don’t mean gaming writers only. We mean writers. Period.

Game politics

Gamepolitics.com is a highly specific, super-niche site that caters to gamers interested in the politics surrounding video games, This form of video gameing journalism is part consumer activism, part whistle blower, and part policy explorer, and is notable for being at the centre of every major gaming controversy for the last five years. Whether it is the politics of a gaming tax break in Britain, or Germany’s ongoing gaming censorship, Gamepolitics.com is central to keeping information regarding the video gaming industry free.

Gamesindustry.biz

Gamesindustry.biz is the industry man’s video games site. If ever you, as a gamer, were interested in the finance behind the industry or which franchises spin the most money and how, Gamesindustry.biz has the best industry-related video gaming journalism.

The site has recently switched to a free subscription model so that it is better able to tap into the knowledge of its reader-base, and is better able to figure out what the readers want relative to who the audience is, which is a genius move, considering its growing industry-wide importance.

Keeping in mind we know we left some major sites off the list (in terms of traffic), which video games site do you feel deserves to be on this list and which others do you frequent?