Google released this video touting Google Apps Team Edition, its new branding for Google Apps as a collaborative work product. The idea with Team Edition is that you sign up with your work or school email address, instead of the IT admin having to set it up, and then you invite co-workers or classmates to collaborate.
Ask has launched a new news site, called Big News, that uses a complex algorithm to rank news, then displays it in a bold, modern interface. Big News ranks stories according to a “Big Factor“, a ranking score that takes into account how fresh the news is, the amount of links it has in articles, multimedia and blogs, the amount of rich content in the article (images and video), and the amount of discussion the story is getting on social sites.
The site was developed at least partly as a partnership with Digg, though that is not immediately apparent when using Big News. The amount of Diggs and comments a story has on Digg is a factor in the Big Factor algorithm, and the bottom of the homepage contains a Digg footer. Half the footer shows the current top five stories on Digg, the other half contains the top five Big News stories that have not been Dugg yet, inviting the user to be the first to Digg them.
The site strikes the right balance of using Digg without copying Digg or trying to co-opt Digg’s community. It allows Digg some more publicity, as well as giving Diggers some ideas of stories to Digg, and leverages Digg’s data for a better news ranking algorithm. The design is bold and fun to use, not being too boring or too cutesy. The story selection seems varied and well-chosen. Looks like Ask has launched a solid site here, hopefully one that will find an audience.
Time Warner announced it is planning on splitting apart and selling its AOL division in multiple parts, getting rid of all or most of the ISP/internet portal/software/communications company. First to be sold will likely be AOL’s online service, the ISP that used to be king of the internet access world. Many are theorizing that once unburdened by AOL’s past, AOL’s search and portal might be served up as an acquisition target for Google.
Should Google buy AOL, if offered at a decent price? Probably not, unless we’re talking super cheap, like under $3 billion. Otherwise, AOL would be a better fit being bought by IAC. AOL Search could be redirected to Ask Search, and AOL.com could become the portal of IAC/Ask. AOL has a lot of properties IAC could use a lot more than Google, if IAC has the cash to go for it.
photo of the Time Warner Center, another beautiful photo by wallyg under CC license
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