Virgin Media brings TiVo back to the UK While Google To Track ads On TiVo in The US

, the personal video recorder (PVR) company as ubiquitous in the US as its UK equivalent Sky+, is coming to the UK, the company andVirgin Media announced this week.

According to the TiVo and Virgin announcement, TiVo will product the interface of Virgin's next-gen set-top boxes. The boxes will provide a converged digital high-definition (HD) TV and broadband experience. The first co-branded product is expected in 2010.

TiVo president and CEO Tom Rogers said he envisaged the deal as a "long-term, strategic partnership with Virgin Media."

"TiVo will offer Virgin Media's nearly four million UK customers TiVo's advanced television software and user interface on both its traditional and DVR set-top boxes, including TiVo's broadband to the television capabilities," added TiVo also announced a partnership with Google to track viewing habits in the US.

The Google-TiVo ad data deal means TiVo will share anonymous viewing trends collected from its base of subscribers with Google. Google will use that data to help its advertisers understand who they're reaching - and who they aren't - when buying television ads through the company's AdWords TV Ads system.

"None of this is being used to actually target an individual," explains Google spokesperson Eric Obenzinger. "It's more about delivering more accurate reporting back to advertisers so they can inform their future budgeting decisions."

So what does the data actually include? First and foremost, absolutely nothing about who you are.

"When we say that this is all anonymous data, we mean that it is literally anonymous in the strictest definition of the term," says Todd Juenger, vice president & general manager of TiVo Audience Research & Measurement. "We don't collect anything about where it came from."

What TiVo does collect is a log of what commercials you watched and what commercials you skipped. It's like an advanced ratings system, taking TiVo's DVR functionality into account.

"We know that some set-top box out there pressed play on a certain network at a certain time - then we know they hit fast-forward, hit pause, and hit play," Juenger says. "You do that across a million and a half set-top boxes, and you get a collective picture of what percentage of people were watching a certain commercial at a given time."Read Morehttp://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/news/index.cfm?newsid=27857&pagtype=allchandate

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MSI Layoffs Rumoured

If you thought the tech sector was finally out of the woods and recovering from the global spending slowdown, think again: hardware manufacturer MSI could be about to lay off up to 20 percent of its staff early next year.

According to industry sources quoted by DigiTimes - via Maximum PC - MSI is looking to counter the spending slowdown by trimming staff in its netbook, notebook, and graphics card departments.

For those fond of MSI's motherboards, there is good news - that particular business unit is apparently safe from the cuts, which will see no fewer than 10 percent and up to a maximum of 20 percent of the overall workforce fired.

Interestingly, the industry sources claim that MSI isn't actually making the posts redundant: instead, the company is concentrating on removing under-performing workers from inefficient business units, meaning that at least some of the posts will be open for new applicants to boost the workforce back up again.Read Morehttp://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2009/11/26/msi-layoffs-rumoured/1

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How To Look For Lucrative Online Business Ideas Fast

 entrepreneurs and business owner like you and I, business ideas are what breathe you and your business life. In webpreneurship, the importance of business ideas is magnified.

Wepbreneurship or online entrepreneurship differs itself from the general entrepreneurship. The online business world changes rapidly, and losing your grip on the changes will suffer you and your business badly.
I have made several mistakes in making web property acquisition decisions that result me in both financial and opportunity losses. Some of my wrong decisions result in total business failure, while some others can be recovered – painfully.
My mistakes are due to my inability to spot opportunities and/or ideas that are in trend, with high demand and with relatively low (or manageable) competition due to resource constraints.
Like I have always said, failure is your best teacher; I learned from my mistakes that in web property investing and online business ownership, you must keep your eyes on the trend. Some trend last for years, some last for a few months. The key is to enter and exit at the right time to maximise your online business value.Read Morehttp://www.noobpreneur.com/2009/11/26/how-to-look-for-lucrative-online-business-ideas-fast/

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