YouTube Upgrade Includes Sharing Videos with Twitter

YouTube users can now share videos on Twitter feeds, along with choices for Facebook, MySpace, Digg and Hi5. Earlier, YouTube owner Google integrated Twitter with Google Friend Connect, and it has introduced new features for Google Reader. YouTube also enhanced support for mobile browsers, and YouTube EDU provides education content.

The ability to share Twitter feeds is among the latest batch of changes unveiled this week at YouTube, which Alexa, a Web traffic analyzer, ranks as the world's third most popular Web property after Yahoo and Google.

Given that so many people are on Twitter these days, YouTube said it has added Twitter to the share options so users can easily send a video into their Twitter streams. Other YouTube video-sharing options include Facebook, MySpace, Digg and Hi5.

When users click to share with Twitter, a pop-up window opens that routes users to their twitter accounts and formulates a Tweet telling recipients to "check out this video," with the title and URL added to the message.

"This was a big internal request, but we know many of you asked for it, too," YouTube's development team said. "We don't currently shorten the video URL automatically, but hope to get to it down the road."

By Mark Long
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65602

Google Slashes About 200 Jobs in Sales and Marketing

Google has slashed about 200 more jobs, this time in sales and marketing. Vice President Omid Kordestani admitted to staffing mistakes as Google grew rapidly by acquiring other companies. In January, Google reassigned engineers and let 100 recruiters go. Since 2001, Google has acquired 53 companies, and continued buying last year.

Google has announced another round of layoffs, this time for about 200 people in sales and marketing. The move comes two months after the search giant said it would scale back hiring of recruiters.

"Just under 200 were affected with about half those working in North America," said Matt Furman, a Google spokesperson. "Everyone affected was told yesterday. Each person will be given a chance to find another job at Google and if they can't or they choose to leave, they will be given severance."

The company also offered the affected employees outplacement support.

By Patricia Resende
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65598

Make Money With Adsense: How to Uncover Red Hot Niches in Minutes!

Make Money With Adsense: How to Uncover Red Hot Niches in Minutes!

Hold the Phone! Game Developers See iPhone Potential

The Game Developers Conference got an eye-opener as ngmoco CEO Neil Young outlined the gaming potential for Apple, Inc.'s iPhone. Young said Nintendo's handheld DS outstripped Sony's PlayStation Portable because it had more functionality. Apple's iPhone, Young said, has so many features that it's growing "way faster than the DS."

Tuesday's session of the Game Developers Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco opened with a provocative topic: Why the iPhone Has Changed Everything. For an industry that has long regarded Apple as an afterthought when it comes to serious gaming, it was an eye-opening presentation.

The talk was delivered by Neil Young, founder and CEO of ngmoco, one of the leading developers of games for the iPhone and the iPod touch. Among the company's titles are the popular Word Fu, Rolando, Topple, Dropship, and Dr. Awesome, Microsurgeon M.D.

By Frederick Lane
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65525

Lenovo Puts Supercomputing on the Desktop

Lenovo's new ThinkStation S20 and D20 can be configured to function as desktop supercomputers. Due later this month starting at $1,070, an optional Nvidia Tesla C1060 GPU adds more than $2,000 but boosts power for complex calculations. Both the Lenovo ThinkStation S20 and D20 have Intel's Turbo Boost technology and a green design.

 Lenovo has unveiled two new workstations for professionals in specialized fields such as computer-aided design, game development, and digital content creation as well as oil and gas exploration.

Lenovo's ThinkStation S20 and D20 can be configured to function as desktop supercomputers. Adding the Nvidia Tesla C1060 GPU platform to the workstations, Lenovo said, offers 240 additional cores of dedicated math-processing power to speed up complex calculations.

"Designers, engineers, developers and scientists require the highest levels in computing performance to help them produce breakthrough innovations," said Tom Tobul, Lenovo's executive director of enterprise, software and peripherals. "The new ThinkStation workstations deliver not only the utmost in performance, but also a user-centric design with an emphasis on quiet operation, even during heavy processing."