Internet sales tax bill passes Senate, awaits House approval
The Marketplace Fairness Act — which will force online merchants to collect tax on behalf of other states — passed the Senate on Monday. Read more »
eBay shows the world how to measure MPG for data centers
eBay has released a trove of information about the efficiency of its data centers, and plans to do so quarterly as part of a mission to continuously track computing resources and tie them to bigger business goals. Read more »
Amazon, eBay privacy lobbying sparks cut-and-paste crowdsourcing drive
How do you highlight examples of big corporations’ lobbying proposals being copied, word-for-word, into proposed laws? For EU privacy activists, the answer lies in many eyes. Read more »
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How consumer media will change in 2013
Many of the biggest stories in the connected consumer space occurred mostly offstage in 2012, from Apple’s new media services to policymakers in Washington. Overall, the past 12 months have laid important groundwork for significant advances in the connected consumer space. The year 2013 should be eventful. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A huge fuel cell park planned for the power grid in Connecticut
An east coast power company and a Connecticut utility have signed onto a large fuel cell project that will be built in the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut, using fuel cells from FuelCell Energy. The move is rare for a utility in the U.S. Read more »
Why Facebook will start serving ads on Instagram soon
photo: Muellek Josef/Shutterstock
When we think about data privacy, we normally think about a company giving or selling our info to a third party. But a single company can also circulate around our information among its various units in ways that raise similar privacy concerns Read more »
Amazon enjoys big etail lead as Cyber Monday hits
photo: Flickr / Shlomi Fish
New Deepfield analysis out just after Black Friday and in time for Cyber Monday shows (spoiler alert!) Amazon is by far the most popular online retail site. But there are some surprises as well. Read more »
10 things to be thankful for this year in cleantech
photo: Flickr/ VincciWincci
Despite the difficult year in cleantech, there’s quite a few things that excited me this year. Here’s 10 things to be thankful for in cleantech. Read more »
Dell has shipped 1M webscale servers in five years to arm the cloud
photo: Shutterstock / Oleksiy Mark
Dell’s Data Center Solutions group recently shipped its 1 millionth server just five years after coming into existence. It’s proof of how important webscale buyers have become to the server market, as well as how different their demand are than those of traditional IT buyers. Read more »
What eBay’s bet on fuel cells means for the modern data center
EBay’s decision to install 6 megawatts of fuel cell capacity at its Utah data centers marks a shift in thinking toward on site power generation for the modern data center and using the grid as backup power. Read more »
PayPal’s reorganization costs: 325 layoffs, $15 million
photo: PayPal
PayPal is letting go of 325 full time employees and 120 contractors as part of its restructuring under new CEO David Marcus. Marcus has been trying to make PayPal a more nimble organization built around mobile. Read more »
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Social third-quarter 2012: analysis and outlook
Social media technologies continue to permeate marketing and enterprise collaboration, even if investors felt let down in the third quarter by their consumer-facing businesses like Facebook, Groupon, and Zynga. So B2B technology offerings in support of marketing and collaboration will soon steal all the social tech attention. This quarterly wrap-up analyzes these events, and provides a near-term outlook for trends, technologies and companies to watch in the next 18 to 24 months. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
EBay updates site to be more personal, Pinterest-like
eBay has redesigned its core shopping experience with a new Pinterest-style home page, better product pages, search functionality and faster payments. The idea is to make the eBay experience more personalized for consumers. Read more »
AT&T doubles down on Bloom Energy fuel cells
AT&T is now Bloom Energy’s largest corporate customer and has doubled its previously announced fuel cell deal. The news is the latest win for Bloom Energy as it continues to brings in tech customers that want to power facilities and data centers. Read more »
With data centers, web giants have great eco-responsibility
photo: WCNC-TV
Much of the data center industry is upset about a recen report exposing some wasteful energy practices. However, eBay’s Dean Nelson says the data center industry isn’t perfect and it’s up to companies like his to lead the charge on bringing everyone else up to speed. Read more »
Want a Tesla Model S? Try eBay
Want to get your hands on an early Tesla Model S electric car next month, but haven’t gotten in the reservation line? Try eBay. There’s one starting at $145,000 on the online auction site. Read more »
Will Microsoft’s data centers be backed up by Bloom fuel cells?
Will Microsoft be the latest Internet company to buy fuel cells from Bloom Energy to provide power for its data centers? Microsoft says it is looking for backup power sources that could use natural gas and could replace its diesel generators. Read more »
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The economics of clean-data-center innovation
photo: Facebook
Data centers consume around 1.5 percent of total electricity demand, a figure that’s expected to increase significantly. To cut power and costs tech titans like Google, Apple, and Facebook are cutting electricity use by greening their data centers. But do energy-efficiency gains justify huge capital outlays? Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Bloom Energy says it’s half way to break even
Bloom Energy, a Valley startup that makes fuel cells, says it’s about half way to reaching profitability, and is doubling its installed units and revenues every six months. How long until the company makes it to break even? Read more »
AOL building refrigerator-sized data centers
AOL is taking its flexible infrastructure strategy to a whole new level of flexibility by building data centers that are about the size of French door refrigerators. Now, AOL will be able to deploy infrastructure where needed with little more than an electrical outlet required. Read more »
eBay to build huge Bloom Energy fuel cell farm at data center
eBay just one-upped Apple’s data center fuel cell farm. On Thursday the commerce giant announced that it is building additional capacity at its data center in Utah and it plans to power that new capacity with 30 fuel cells from Bloom Energy. Read more »
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Cloud computing infrastructure: 2012 and beyond
Discussions about the cloud now involve more than just the IT department. New developments in hardware architectures, more-energy-efficient data centers, regulatory concerns and simplifying analytics are all discussions currently circling through the industry. Here’s what to consider when thinking about your business in the cloud. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Introducing a farm tech to reduce water and energy needs
As the planet reaches 9 billion people by 2050, technologies that reduce energy and water needs for farming will become increasingly important. A Silicon Valley startup called mOasis is working on materials that can help farmers produce more crops with less energy and water. Read more »
PayPal forms alliance with Softbank to launch PayPal Here in Japan
PayPal is forming a joint venture with Softbank Corp. to help launch its small business mobile payment product PayPal Here in Japan. The joint venture, called PayPal Japan, will help PayPal target PayPal’s $1.7 trillion dollar retail market, which is made up of mostly small businesses. Read more »
Big Apple – the new Big Data Central?
photo: Pinar Ozger
When it comes to NYC’s tech scene, digital media and commerce companies get all the attention, but city’s big opportunity could very well be as the hub for the “data centric” economy. From startups to web giants, many are making a beeline for the Big Apple. Read more »
EBay puts down roots in NYC with data-focused tech center
EBay is putting down roots in New York and has bought up a 35,000 square foot space. The retailer is announcing that it has purchased an entire floor in the Flat Iron district where it will house 200 people in a new technology center of excellence. Read more »
EBay puts WHERE to work as PayPal Media Network
A year after eBay bought mobile ad network WHERE, it’s ready to show how it will put the Boston startup to work. WHERE will become PayPal Media Network, as it moves beyond serving location-based mobile ads to offering inventory across eBay’s different online properties. Read more »
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Social media in Q1: commerce and discovery dominated
Media issues like advertising and discovery along with commerce dominated the activity in social and real-time Web technologies during the first quarter. Google raised some hackles, Facebook responded to demands from traditional advertisers, and Yahoo got a new chief executive. Read more in the full report. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Facebook, eBay win awards for data center efficiency
eBay and Facebook are among the winners of this year’s Green Enterprise IT Awards, which the Uptime Institute doles out for advancements in the world of energy-efficient data centers. eBay won for its Project Mercury data center, while Facebook scored with its Open Compute Project. Read more »
Amazon, eBay add tiny Pinterest buttons
Pinterest users can now pin Amazon and eBay finds to their boards directly from product pages. Read more at paidContent »
eBay covers Utah data center roof with solar panels
Internet e-commerce company eBay has covered the roof of its data center (called Topaz) in Utah with solar panels. Read more »
Making the web more efficient, a thousand servers at a time
In a webscale data center, peak efficiency feels like a blast furnace. I stepped into the hot aisle of Dell Modular Data Center and 1,920 servers blasted 115-degree air right in my face. If eBay’s Dean Nelson has his way, that was just the beginning. Read more »
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Hyperlocal: opportunities for publishers and developers
Hyperlocal mobile advertising is at a critical juncture: Leading analysts predict that mobile ad spending will increase by more than five times between 2011 and 2015. But what are the forces at play, and how effective are HyLoMo ads? Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Sources: PayPal to launch Square competitor
PayPal’s plans to announce a solution for small businesses at an event this Thursday includes a mobile payment dongle that would compete against Square and others, according to sources we’ve talked to. The dongle will allow small business owners to process credit card swipes. Read more »
10 ways to resell, recycle, reuse iPad 2
While you’re waiting to see if iPad 3 will get LTE capability or not, I thought I’d put together these 10 ways you can resell, recycle or resuse that aging iPad 2. Read more »
Looks like Bloom Energy is behind Apple’s massive fuel cell farm
I’ve heard from a couple sources that fuel cell maker Bloom Energy is the supplier behind Apple’s planned massive 5 MW fuel cell farm to be built at its data center in Maiden, North Carolina. Read more »
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Opportunities and challenges for mobile deals
Mobile deals combine location-aware discounts with mobile marketing campaigns. What are the largest pitfalls in this promising space, though? Privacy and security issues must be addressed to assure consumers their purchases are secure and their location is being closely guarded. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Selling an iPad? 10 minutes could fetch an extra $100
Best Buy is offering Apple’s tablet for $50 less this week, and iPad and iPad 2 values are dropping in anticipation of the iPad 3 announcement in March. But with a little bit of effort and searching, you could find a deal that puts extra money in your pocket. Read more »
WePay updates payments platform, adds ultra-easy invoicing
Online-payments processor WePay has added a new feature to enable its users to quickly and easily create invoices to bill clients. With its “commerce-in-a-box” platform, WePay claims it can help businesses start creating and sending invoices in under a minute. Read more »
Ingk Labs buys payment platform ORCA to create PayPal rival
Exclusive: Ingk Labs, an IP accelerator in New York City, has purchased payment platform ORCA Inc. and will use it to power a new PayPal competitor called Payz. Ingk Labs is ramping its efforts to rescue and accelerate IP and put it to work in start-ups. Read more »
