Facebook buys startup Tagtile owned by Indians in US Posted by MOHAMMED ABDUL HAMEED on 12:47 AM

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook has confirmed that it bought a San Francisco startup that helps merchants court shoppers with rewards for checking in with smartphones during visits.

Facebook's acquisition of Tagtile for an undisclosed sum came on the heels of a billion-dollar deal to acquire the startup behind wildly popular smartphone photo sharing application Instagram.

"We're happy to confirm that Tagtile's founders are joining Facebook, and that Facebook is acquiring substantially all of the company's assets," the world's leading social network said in reply to an AFP inquiry. "We've admired the engineering team's efforts for some time now."

Tagtile was created by former VMware engineer Abheek Anand and one-time Google engineer Soham Mazumdar. The entrepreneurs created a system that lets customers use iPhones or Android-powered smartphones to check in at shops and get rewarded with discounts, coupons or loyalty points.

To check in, customers need only to tap smartphones on small white cubes that swap information with handsets using sensors. "We started Tagtile with a simple goal, to help local business owners build better relationships with their best customers," the founders said in a post at the company's website.

"We are happy to announce that we are joining Facebook," they continued. "It is an opportunity for us to take our goal and do it on a much bigger scale than we could have on our own."

Facebook has been building its mobile services and capabilities as lifestyles increasingly revolved around smartphones and tablet computers. More than 10 million Instagram applications tuned to Apple or Android-powered gadgets have been downloaded since the acquisition by Facebook was announced on Monday, raising the total number of users to about 40 million.

Facebook in February filed for a stock offering and could raise as much as $10 billion in the largest flotation ever by an Internet company on Wall Street. Facebook, the leading social network in all but six countries, notably China and Russia, claims more than 845 million users. Facebook's value has been estimated at between $75 billion and $100 billion.

Facebook Buys Instagram for $1 Billion Posted by MOHAMMED ABDUL HAMEED on 11:36 AM

You know what’s cool? Buying Instagram for a billion dollars.


Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced today, via Facebook of course, that the social networking giant is purchasing Instagram, the very popular photo sharing company. According to a press release put out by Facebook, it paid $1 billion for the company.


“For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. “Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.”


While Facebook is expected to integrate Instagram more closely with its web and app offerings, Zuckerberg also says that it will build and grow the Instagram app independently. “Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.”


Instagram, which was released for Android smartphones just last week, allows users to apply filters to images and then share them with others on the network and other social networks, including Twitter. Facebook stressed that it wouldn’t remove the feature that allows for sharing across other social networks. Instagram currently has only nine employees.


The acquisition is the Facebook’s biggest yet, but Zuckerberg says these types of deals won’t be frequent. “We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all,” he added.

Google Cloud Computing is the way to go! Posted by MOHAMMED ABDUL HAMEED on 2:08 AM

About two decades ago, if any one would have mentioned the term “cloud computing” people would have considered it Greek or Latin. But today almost all businesses irrespective of the size are relying on it for getting reliable tools to help them grow and expand in a sustainable manner. Of all the providers out there in the market, Google Cloud Computing is considered the best not for one but many reasons. The primary reason for people’s preference of Google’s applications is the fact that many of them have been integrated together in a very seamless and flawless manner making things really easy for getting the job done.

For instance, Gmail, Google Docs, AdWords, Maps, Picassa all can be accessed easily using one email id. This makes the entire operation easier and also highly affordable. If one had to get some software coded to meet all these purposes, it would have cost millions of dollars. Moreover, the time spent on developing the same and maintaining it would also be substantial. Let us now take a detailed look at what all services Google Cloud Computing has on offer.

Google Mail (Gmail) – The most commonly used service of Google. Though it does not come directly under the purview of cloud computing, one needs to have a Gmail account in order to use the other services. Gmail was one of the first mail servers to have an integrated chat applet. This applet was even able to store conversations automatically in the form of an email.


Google Docs – In simple words Google Docs is Microsoft Office online. You can create all the documents such as work sheets, documents and even presentations online and store them on Google’s server. Moreover, since the files are store on a remote server you can virtually access them from any place in the world that has an internet connection which makes them very handy. At the same time you do not need to worry about the security of the files as they are encrypted with advance technology and only people whom you permit can access them.


Google Analytics – using Google’s Analytics tool you can monitor the entire traffic come on to your website with data being updated hourly. This way you make decisions after being well informed about the situation and modify or update your sites accordingly.


Google AdWords and AdSense – Once you have got to know your target audience, you can use these revolutionary advertising tools to get the most value for every cent you spend on advertising. With AdWords, your message is sure to reach the precise target you intend to communicate with and thus get good returns. The best part is that data from any of Google’s other cloud computing applications can be integrated with each other and you will not have to rephrase the same.

Picasa – This is one of the best and most interactive applications in the Google Cloud Computing bouquet. For those who intend to sell physical products online, Picasa is a great way of uploading photographs and images of your products and exhibit them to clients. This application again can be integrated with your site.

Cloud computing to create 2 million jobs in India by 2015, says study Posted by MOHAMMED ABDUL HAMEED on 11:37 PM

HYDERABAD: Cloud computing will generate some 14 million new jobs worldwide by 2015, and India alone will create over 2 million, predicts a study commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC).

Pointing out to a strong linkage between cloud, innovation and entrepreneurship, the study said most companies look at migration to cloud computing as a way to free up existing resources and work on more innovative projects. Freeing up budget allows organisations to shift some of their legacy work to the cloud and invest such freed budget in IT innovation that supports business innovation and in turn create new jobs.

Cloud Computing By Muhammad Abdul Hameed Posted by MOHAMMED ABDUL HAMEED on 12:52 AM