PaidContent

paidcontent.org — It’s a little stunning to contemplate how wrong things have gone for Google (NSDQ: GOOG) in just the first month of 2012, as the company hopes to put a disastrous January in the rear-view mirror with perhaps another tear-jerking Super Bowl ad this Sunday.

paidcontent.org — About.com is in free fall. The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) revealed yesterday that its network of information sites suffered a 67% drop in profits and that revenues had fallen by a quarter. The new figure comes at a time when the New York Times Company is trying to forge a digital strategy based on high quality content and the prestige of its flagship brand.

paidcontent.org — Even if you throw the exploding tablet market in with the staid PC market, shipments of smartphones surpassed those of "client PCs" in 2011, a milestone for the computer industry. New data released by Canalys shows that smartphone vendors shipped 488 million smartphones during 2011, a 62.7 percent jump compared to 2010.

paidcontent.org — The U.S. government likes to do things its own way. Along those lines, it has decided to embrace Android as a smartphone platform for soldiers and other government employees because of the control it can exert over the software, which in turn underscores how much control Android partners have over the software.

paidcontent.org — Books-A-Million-the nation's second largest bookstore chain after Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS)-announced today that, like B&N, it will not carry Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Publishing titles in its stores. Publishers Weekly reports, "Books-A-Million has joined with Barnes & Noble and will not carry Amazon Publishing titles, including those published under Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's New Harvest imprint."

paidcontent.org — Much has been made of the mobile risks that Facebook laid out in its S-1 IPO filing earlier this week. Essentially, it’s seeing/pushing massive growth in mobile, but it still hasn’t tried out advertising, its most effective route to revenues, on this platform. That’s not to say it won’t.

paidcontent.org — Random House is now the only big six publisher to allow unrestricted access to all of its e-books in libraries-and it said yesterday it will continue to do so, though it is raising prices. Random House met with the American Library Association in New York on Tuesday.

paidcontent.org — A New York Times (NYSE: NYT) executive said on an earnings call today that the company would enhance its technology and health blogs. The move is part of the NYT’s larger digital strategy, which has been buoyed by subscriber increases but that is also being dragged down by problems at its About.com unit.

paidcontent.org — Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) in the last 24 hours has been dealt not one but two blows in court cases involving Motorola (NYSE: MMI) and patents in Germany, one involving IP licensing on older iPhone models (not the 4S) and one involving iCloud. Apple has already told paidContent that it will be appealing in both cases.

paidcontent.org — Microsoft's plan for Windows Phone 8-which appears to be moving in step with its overall Windows 8 launch strategy-has been leaked, and the company is planning to take some big steps forward in terms of overall performance, mobile payments, and voice calling.

paidcontent.org — Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has a dilemma when it comes to the Android Market: its permissive no-review-necessary policy means that anyone can write nearly any kind of application for the platform, including malware. The company is introducing a new service Thursday that attempts to strike a balance between protecting Android users from malware while still offering developers more freedom than Apple’s app review policy.

paidcontent.org — Do Kindle Fire owners still like their devices now that they’ve had a few months to kick the tires? A new survey indicates that for the most part, they’re more pleased with their purchase than those who bought other Android tablets last year but less satisfied than iPad owners.

paidcontent.org — Feb 2, 2012 9:25 AM ET Hoping to tap into India's rapidly growing e-commerce market, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is launching Junglee.com in the country today. Feb 2, 2012 9:20 AM ET Mobile advertising may not yet be something that Facebook has explored in its strategy to monetize its massive user base, and given the growth we've seen in the space, you can argue that it might be missing a trick.

paidcontent.org — Hoping to tap into India's rapidly growing e-commerce market, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is launching Junglee.com in the country today. Junglee.com is not another "international Amazon" like Amazon.fr or Amazon.de. Rather, it is a marketplace that aims to connect buyers with online and offline retailers. The site offers 12 million products from 14,000 brands.

paidcontent.org — It was five years ago that Nokia (NYSE: NOK) executives brushed off the idea of Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) as “not a threat” to Nokia’s top position in mobile sales. After all, Apple was only making smartphones and Nokia was still leading in that still-niche category, as well as mobiles overall.

paidcontent.org — Facebook has made a $3.1 billion business from a social advertising sector many, even it, concede is experimental and unproven. Now it must find that proof - but experimenting on Wall Street, as well as Madison Avenue, could prove challenging. "Our advertisers typically do not have long-term advertising commitments with us," Facebook's S-1 warned.

paidcontent.org — The Village Voice is giving up on a scheme to force rivals to pay for permission to use the phrase "best of." The one-time counter culture icon set off snorts of derision in November after it sued weekly magazine Time Out New York over its annual ‘best of' issue.

paidcontent.org — In a lawsuit that could shake the publishing industry, a Brooklyn woman is claiming Hearst Corporation owes wages to her and others who interned at Harper's Bazaar and other magazines since February of 2006. In a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, Xuedan Wang says she was not paid for working 40-55 hours per week during 2011.

paidcontent.org — It took the whole day, but Facebook finally—as many expected—filed its S-1 with the Securities Exchange Commission for its long-awaited IPO. While guesstimates for how much Facebook would try to raise ranged from $5 billion to $10 billion, in the end, it was the lower of that range: $5 billion.

paidcontent.org — The rush of content announcements from video companies in recent days, from players like YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) and Hulu, has caused a number of people to suggest that internet video has reached a new tipping point with consumer and advertiser adoption. But if it has, it doesn’t appear to coming at the expense of traditional TV.

paidcontent.org — Research in Motion (NSDQ: RIMM) will be pinning its comeback hopes on the first generation of BlackBerry phones to run its BlackBerry 10 operating system, and it seems to have settled on a design. Leaked media images to a friendly outlet suggest that RIM wants to borrow cues from the Playbook tablet when it releases those handsets later this year.

paidcontent.org — Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is purchasing display ads on websites like the Washington Post, an unusual move that is part of the company's strained efforts to define its privacy policy before its opponents can define it instead. The ad purchase is a pivot in Google's recent "Good to Know" marketing campaign for which it is reportedly spending tens of millions on newspaper and billboard ads.

paidcontent.org — Facebook’s 185-page S-1 filing appears to have crippled the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Edgar website with the mass of people going there to take a peek at the social network’s numbers. That traffic may well be matched by the weight of numbers in the filing itself. Here’s a look at some of them.

m.paidcontent.org — Ingrid Lunden Feb 1, 2012 4:51 PM It took the whole day, but Facebook finally-as many expected-filed its S-1 with the Securities Exchange Commission for its long-awaited IPO. While guesstimates for how much Facebook would try to raise ranged from $5 billion to $10 billion, in the end, it was the lower of that range: $5 billion.

paidcontent.org — About half an hour before Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) announced Q4 earnings this afternoon, Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) released a statement saying it will not carry titles published by Amazon-including the Amazon titles that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is selling in print-in its "store showrooms." Businessweek reporter Brad Stone, who is working on a book about Amazon and recently published an article on Amazon Publishing, first posted Barnes & Noble's statement to his Google+ account this afternoon.

paidcontent.org — What do The Great Gatsby, To Kill A Mockingbird, A Wrinkle in Time and Little House on the Prairie series have in common, besides being beloved? None of them are available legally as e-books. A new site aims to make these and other e-books available to the public (and in libraries), as Creative Commons works and without DRM, via a crowdfunding approach.