Google has announced that it will be holding its second large-scale web conference in South Africa. The event, called "G-South Africa" aims to provide "training on web and mobile tools to spur innovation, business growth and local internet economy".The internet giant claims the event will see “Over 800 business people, marketers, entrepreneurs, engineers, and web developers, together with over 30 Google experts from around the globe,” gather to “discuss the future of online business and web application development, and ...

According to Silicon Valley super-star Sean Parker, for Google to take the title of leading social network, Facebook would have to blunder in a big way.During an interview to open the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Parker said, "Facebook would have to screw up royally and Google would have to do something really smart."Parker's profile in Silicon Valley comes from his co-founding of controversial music-sharing service Napster.Parker was also featured in the Academy award-winning film chronicling the ...

The Blackberry software developer’s conference begins today and RIM faces the difficult battle of gaining traction in light of its global BBM blackout.App developers will be given training sessions during the Blackberry DevCon which takes place in San Francisco. RIM filled the conference with seminars, informative sessions and discussions which are aimed at rebuilding the status of Blackberry’s applications on its Playbook tablet and smartphones.Co-founder of RIM, Mike Lazaridis opened the conference for the developers, mobile partners and "passionate enthusiasts" ...

Chinese internet giant Alibaba says that it will delay a fee hike for some sellers on its online shopping site after a storm of protest over the planned rise.The group also announced that it will invest 1.8-billion yuan (US$284-million) in its Taobao Mall site. This as the firm looks to help disgruntled small vendors.The announcement came after tens of thousands of users attacked big brands on the site, threatening to place massive orders online and immediately cancel them in ...

Online auction giant eBay is mourning the loss of Chinese customers as it was recently revealed that the East Asian country is now banning foreign internet users from selling goods in China.Chief executive of eBay, John Donahoe spoke of the ordeal during the Web 2.0 Summit. "The domestic China market for internet-based service is, in essence, closed. The Chinese government is not going to allow a non-Chinese Internet company to succeed in China...it is a weapon in national security," ...

For most of us, going a day without using a Google product is unimaginable. The internet giant serves up our news, email and maps. It gives us the internet on a platter, all from a single domain. Occasionally you'll use it to do something you'd never thought of before and you'll think you’re pretty damn clever. Chances are, though, you never thought of using a Google tool to track a deadly disease in a remote mountain kingdom.That’s precisely ...

Stephen Birrell, a 28-year-old man, has been jailed for eight months in Glasgow Scotland after pleading guilty to posting hate-speech statements on Facebook.According to media reports, Birrell made multiple posts on a Facebook page titled, "Neil Lennon Should be Banned". Neil Lennon is the current manager of Glasgow football club Celtics FC.The first post to garner notice said, "Hope they (Celtic fans) all die. Simple. Catholic scumbags ha ha". The second employed regional slurs for Catholics, and stated, "Proud to ...

If you are a BlackBerry user you're probably quite aware of the BlackBerry Crash that crippled millions of phones across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. For three whole days BlackBerry Internet Service died and many people were out of touch with their emails and their sacred BBM.As an iPhone user I chuckled away at the poor misfortune of the BlackBerry user (as one is wont to do at such troubling times), but as reality set in (after the second ...

When I was a kid, you could give me a stick and a puddle of mud and I would be entertained for hours. In fact, one of the most beautiful things about the world I grew up in, was that we were positively encouraged to use our imaginations and to invent our own games.Nowadays, kids seem to compete for the latest and greatest toys, and these toys are getting increasingly hi-tech, which begs the question "are modern toys teaching our ...

Today's B2B and B2C communicators are subject to a daily digital bludgeoning of email queries. In the years before email became popular, senders shouldered the burden of mail. The writing and mailing of a letter was a lot of work, and each new addressee meant more postage; so businesses and individuals needed to be more thoughtful and specific about whom to send things to.Since cost-effective sending to an infinite number of people is now a reality, every little impulse ...