Yahoo and Microsoft seal the deal

Yahoo and Microsoft have made their deal official. It's probably easily summed up by this quote from the MS press release:
"In simple terms, Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers."

There's not much more to say other than this is a 10 year agreement. Read below for full details.


Gigaom have got an updated blog post with the details of the deal:
http://gigaom.com/2009/07/29/yahoo-microsoft-ink-search-deal/

Yahoo and Microsoft have created a site to celebrate their deal. It's got some hilarious corporate clip-art too.
http://www.choicevalueinnovation.com/thedeal/Default.aspx

Microsoft Press Release:
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/jul09/07-29release.mspx

Surrogates page takeover

Check out this pretty awesome page takeover that's been done for Surrogates. I love the way it spills out and becomes a proper experience. And the fact that the leaderboard and MPU ads only change occasionally - giving more impact when they do.

http://www.vidiia.com

Government Guidelines on Twitter

Whitehall has released a 20 page document on government use of Twitter. It's all seems like sensible advice, if a little lengthy. Precautions are taken to avoid government gaffs, and the use of a proper tone with Twitter is mentioned, which I think is key to successful tweets.


The 20 page document:
http://blogs.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/digitalengagement/

Guardian article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/27/twitter-socialnetworking

Yahoo goes Bing!

What is it about these exclamations eh? YAHOO! BING! Now Yahoo search may be powered by Bing does that make it YABING? or BINGHOO?
Well whatever people are exclaiming, we've got to wait until next week to have this confirmed.

Read more:
http://www.marketingvox.com/bing-may-power-yahoo-search-044724/

Spotify iPhone App is finally here (almost)

Spotify have released a video of their iPhone app. Apparently a few reporters have been able to see the app in action as well. It will be available to all Spotify Premium users for free.
The key to the app is the that you will be able to play songs offline, so you can use the app at home, on the train and even on the underground with no connection.

http://www.spotify.com/blog/archives/2009/07/27/spotify-for-iphone/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/jul/27/spotify-digital-media


EDIT:
A more in-depth review:
http://sharemyplaylists.com/spotify-iphone-app-in-depth-review/

Facebook Connect in many languages

Facebook connect is now available in 64 languages. This means your facebook connect applications will now be easily accessible to people all over the world!

http://mashable.com/2009/07/21/facebook-connect-adds-foreign-language-support/

Ads you can share

This is an interesting article about shareable banner ads. We've been experimenting with this here at Jollywise, by trafficking our widget as an ad.

http://digital-examples.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post.html

Would you pay for it?

Company bosses disagree about whether people will pay for content online. Disney boss Bob Iger reckons they will, I think they won't. It seems there is an even split across the two camps. Only time will tell to see who's right!

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-sunvalley8-2009jul08,0,6252478.story