Ever wanted to go face-to-face with the world’s leading search engines? This Tuesday night could be the next best thing to doing just that as Vanessa Fox, the creator of Google Webmaster Central and Nathan Buggia head of Microsoft’s Webmaster Central, host a Developer get-together at the Solo Bar, 200 Roy Street starting at 6pm. The event is part of a leadup to the first-of-its-kind Developer Day at the upcoming Search Engine Marketing Expo Advanced at the Bell Harbor Conference Center June 3rd and 4th. Come learn about how a search engine works and get tips about search-friendly design patterns. See Calendar for more SMX preview events.[24×7]
Vint Cerf Makes Disclosure at Seattle Alliance Event
How far has the computer industry come in the past 30 years? Keynoting this year’s Seattle Technology Alliance annual luncheon, Google’s vice president and chief Internet evangelist put it purely in economic terms.
Cerf noted that he recently purchased two terabytes of storage for $600. Just for curiosity sake, he calculated how much a terabyte of disc memory would have cost in 1979. The price tag: $100 million.
“If I had $100 million in 1979, my wife would not have let me spend it on disc storage,” said Cerf who is optimistic about the growth potential of Internet capacity yet untapped. Even with video increasingly coming online “we have barely scratched the surface of optical capacity,” Cerf said.
What does the future hold in store? In 10 years, Cerf estimates there will be nearly 10 billion more mobile devices online. (Yes, that’s more people than devices.) Translation: we will all have mutiple access points. [24×7]
RealNetworks to Spin Off Casual Games Business
RealNetworks Chairman and Chief Executive Rob Glaser has called the casual-games business his company has built “an incredible entrepreneurial success story.”
Now, Glaser plans to spin the business off as an independent, public company — a move that could help it focus on the fast-growing market and add credibility to the region’s already strong casual-games industry.
RealNetworks on Thursday announced plans to distribute shares in the new company to its current shareholders. But it could make an initial public offering, selling up to 20 percent of the shares, with the remainder going to existing investors.
RealNetworks plans to make a decision and file paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission by the end of this year. Lehman Brothers is advising.
The new company has not been named; it’s expected to stay in Seattle. [24×7]
