5.7 billion page views registered by AOL’s MediaGlow

This article on the Ecommerce Journal refers to news that both ComScore Media Metrix and Nielsen Netratings, trusted stewards of such analysis, have reported growth in the AOL [wiki] MediaGlow platorm. You may remember that MediaGlow as the Content Publishing devision is one of AOL's three business pillars with Platform A being another, itself focusing on the advertising business.

Comscore cites a 5.7 billion page view figure by February 1st, representing a 21% year-on-year increase, with total minutes on the site increasing 22% to 4.2 billion. A recent report from Nielsen is also cited, reporting that the amount of time AOL users spent on its sites or applications hit its peak in February 2009, exceeding three hours and forty-five minutes. Apparently MediaGlow plans to launch 30 targeted sites this year.

With AOL's legacy dial-up and ISP subscriber base having dwindled consistently in recent years, down from a peak of approximately 30 million globally, many felt the company would struggle to maintain visitor numbers to their main portal, AOL.com. Afterall, once the subscribers who count it as their homepage depart from your once walled garden party, you need a compelling content portfolio to attract new visitors. However, we learn than page views on aol.com have increased by a healthy 5% year-on-year and unique visitors are up 6%, with the total minutes spent on the site up 32%. AOL News is particularly singled out as being the largest with 30.7 million unique visitors in February, with AOL music up 7% from a year ago on 22.2 million unique visitors.

One could be forgiven for interpreting these as positive numbers for incoming Chief Exec Tim Armstrong who, it was announced last week, will succeed Randy Falco in the post. Armstrong, 38, leaves the role of Google's President for the Americas region and was warmly welcomed at an AOL All Hands meeting at Dulles yesterday, with former yet ever symbolic AOL Execs Steve Case and Ted Leonsis.

In a related development, AOL has announced the end of their agreement with Google's DoubleClick to serve their ads and will adopt their own platform acquired under the AdTech deal.

Flying Car

Here's an article from the Register citing the world's first true flying car which looks likely to be genuinely suitable and endorsed for both air and road use by the relevant authorities. It provokes some interesting scenarios for commuting!

PortableApps.com - Applications on a USB flash drive

I came across this article on Lifehacker covering GUI enhancements to the "Portable Apps" package which essentially creates a consolidate suite of applications configured to run, self-contained, from a USB flash drive, thus making them portable from one Windows PC to another.

Not that I had been familiar with its predecessor, the latest version apparently sports a crisper menu and new applications. We also learn that the next version will be released in around 2 weeks time and will support skinning with custom themes.

Applications visible from the screenshot include OpenOffice, allowing you to go to any PC regardless of whether MS Office is installed and fire up your suite, Putty the SSH client, VLC media player, Pidgin IM client, and a BitTorrent client to name the main selection.

Lifehacker: PortableApps.com Suite 1.5 Improves Menu Looks, Customization

Fresh Targets Added to ‘The Wheel of Cisco’ - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

This article looks at the rumour mill reaching fever pitch on which companies may be acquisition targets for Cisco.

I've written before to cite an article on the "Bank of Cisco" being an alternative focus for their cash pile and recent bond issuance, and given CEO John Chambers reiterating that the San-Jose based Tech bellweather is not looking at large scale or high profile targets, I am discounting recent rumours about Sun Microsystems, Skype and EMC. My jury's out on VMware though. Of course, the piece of VMware not owned by Cisco, that is, the larger part, is owned by EMC themselves.

For me though, the interesting paragraph is this one, reminding us of Cisco's forthcoming foray into the server space:

Meanwhile, the launch of Cisco’s first server product draws ever closer. The day of reckoning, when Cisco officially declares war against Hewlett-Packard, I.B.M. and Dell, will take place on March 16, according to people familiar with Cisco’s plans. Here's an article detailing a media event which Cisco has indeed scheduled for March 16.

Fresh Targets Added to ‘The Wheel of Cisco’ - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

In an InternetNews article today, some further rumours have been circulated about Cisco's forthcoming blade servers. This article is well worth the read, with specs such as 384 GB of RAM (versus a common 128GB ceiling today), and 32Gbps throughput (versus a common 1.6Gbps today).

Here's a recent article looking at IBM's response to Cisco's server entry.

Google's Android OS to appear on desktops?

According to this ComputerWorld article, Google's Android Operating System, currently running its mobile phones, may make an appearance on Asus Netbooks by the end of 2009. I'll leave you to read the details on the original article.

Computer World: Opinion: Google's Android OS is coming to the desktop this year

Prediction: Snow Leopard release date is June 8

According to a prediction made on David Zeiler's Baltimore Sun Blog, Apple a Day, Apple's latest OS X release could make an appearance on June 8th. Many have rumoured that it may be eas early as Q1 2009 but since we're into our last 3 weeks of that period, we assume those rumours are unfounded.

Per a related note on The Register, "Zeiler then checked Moscone West's schedule - the annex where WWDC is held - and there he found a listing for a seven-day "Corporate Meeting" from June 6-12. Considering that June 6 is a Saturday, and giving Apple two days to set up - including hanging their usual giant banners - the time-honored Monday-morning keynote taking place on June 8 seems a realistic possibility."

Slash open your Mac mini

Here's an interesting article from Reg Hardware on how to approach opening your Mac mini, be that for curiosity purposes, or for upgrade purposes!

Slash your way inside Apple's Mac Mini

...and here's another article on the same topic, perhaps the original source.