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Social Media Agency Spring Creek Group Acquired by Mediabrands
Seattle social media agency Spring Creek Group has been acquired by Interpublic Group’s Mediabrands unit last month for an undisclosed price. The move means Spring Creek will fall under the Mediabrands’ umbrella along with Interpublic global media agencies Universal McCann and Initiative. Spring Creek name is retained, and its 35 employees are all moving to...
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LBi Acquires Social Media Agency Mr Youth
Largest independent global marketing and technology agency LBi taps social media agency Mr Youth to strengthen its social media marketing offerings. Amsterdam-based LBi provides a combination of insight, media, creative and technical expertise from operations in sixteen countries. Its services include analytics, direct marketing and digital competences to help companies attract, engage and manage their customers....
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Stop. Hammer Time: M.C. Hammer Working on His Own Search Engine
There was an unlikely guest among the techpreneurs at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco: M.C. Hammer. He made an appearance at the conference not as a celebrity in parachute pants, but as the brains behind the up-and-coming Web search service called WireDoo. The rapper-turned-entrepreneur described this new service as a search engine that provides a “deeper...
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Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam Establishes Its Own Digital Agency
Global ad agency Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam has launched its first digital agency, The Dam Armada. This new unit will sit within W+K Amsterdam and comprises developers and designers who will develop digital products and run digital campaigns. The Dam Armada team was created and will be led by Jordi Martinez, W+K creative technology director. It’s about proactively...
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Dish Outbidding Everyone Else For Hulu
After video-streaming site Hulu put itself up for sale last month, six companies including Google, Yahoo! and Amazon reportedly have submitted their initial bids. Yahoo!, whose interest first led Hulu to consider a sale, remains an eager bidder, but the Sunnyvale-headquartered corporation could be outbid by Google or Amazon. Rather surprisingly, however, none of them emerged as the highest bidder....
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Jeff Lanctot Returns to Digital Agency Razorfish
Former Microsoft exec Jeff Lanctot has rejoined the digital agency where he spent 10 years as an employee, Razorfish. The move ends a two-year dalliance with Microsoft, where Lanctot stayed after its 2009 sale of Razorfish to Publicis Groupe. Mr. Lanctot will serve in the newly created role of Chief Media Officer, reporting directly to Razorfish...
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The Biggest Acquisitions Made by Google Over the Recent Years
Last week, Google acquired Zagat as part of the company’s strategy to improve its location services and reviews, which have always been the tough nut to crack for the search engine giant. The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but it’s safe to say that Zagat is one of the largest acquisition made by Google. And...
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Secure Your .xxx Domain Before It’s Too Late!
We are about three months away from the grand opening of the somewhat controversial .xxx top-level domain, and ICM Registry, the company administrating the launch, is understandably busy doing some prep work for that special event. After the sunrise period of the TLD launch officially started yesterday, interested parties have begun pre-registering or restricting their brands...
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Just Another Milestone: Instagram Hits 150 Million Uploaded Photos
Back in June, Instagram hit a milestone of 5 million users, and when it did, the total number of photos shared on the service was 95 million. Given the rate of growth, this number was expected to pass 100 million shortly. Though Instagram’s 4-person team missed pointing out that milestone, on Wednesday they announced that Instagrammers have now uploaded...
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Study: Individuals with Low IQ Use Internet Explorer
A Canadian psychometric consulting company, AptiQuant, recently released a report on a study it conducted to measure the effects of cognitive ability on the choice of web browser. The Vancouver-based AptiQuant offered free online IQ tests to over a 100,000 people and then plotted the average IQ scores based on the browser on which the test...
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Twitter Adds A Feature For Flagging Offensive Tweets
Twitter Platform Team announced on late Thursday that there’s a new field in the Twitter streaming API which will show up whenever a tweet contains a link, serving as an indicator that the URL contained in the tweet might be too sensitive for the workplace, or too gory for the faint-hearted. This new feature, however, is...
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Windows Phone 7 “Mango” in RTM Stage
Microsoft announced yesterday that the newest version of the Windows Phone 7, code-named “Mango,” has reached the release to manufacturing (RTM) stage. The RTM stage marks the end of Microsoft’s development of the mobile OS. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can now start incorporating the mobile operating system update into their new smartphone products. “Here on the Windows Phone...