Google's Knowledge Graph Gets Smarter, Adds Statistics And 4 New Languages
Amit Singhal, Google’s senior VP of search, today announced that Google’s Knowledge Graph will start exposing a number of statistics as graphs on the search results pages today. Google is also adding Polish, Turkish, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese to its lineup of supported Knowledge Graph languages. With regard to the statistics, Singhal said the system will also try to predict what your next question will be and add related statistics to the graphs. Say you want to know more about the people who live in India, Google may also show you stats for China. Singhal also recapped a number of Knowledge Graph features that expose users personal information – the kind of information Google Now would usually expose, too. These are currently available in beta and uses can sign up for it here. The Knowledge Graph, Singhal said, has enabled Google to move beyond keywords. “It allowed us to answer questions we couldn’t previously answer.” Clearly, Google has been investing heavily ...
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Zoobean Grabs $500K From Kapor Capital & Others For Its Handpicked Kids' Books Subscription Service & Online Shop
A number of startups have been trying their hand at subscription-based children’s books services, or something like a “Netflix for kids’ books,” so to speak. Today, another entry called Zoobean joins the flock, with the debut of its own handpicked catalog which parents can either subscribe to, or choose to just shop online like a standard e-commerce website. The company was co-founded by Jordan Llyod Bookey, Google’s head of K-12 Education Outreach, and her husband Felix Brandon Lloyd, who is a former Washington, D.C. Teacher of the Year. Like the founders of similar services in this space, including the recently launched Sproutkin and The Little Book Club, for example, the founders are also parents themselves. “About a year ago, when our daughter was born, we were looking for a book for our son that would help him understand what it would mean to be a big brother. And in this particular case – we’re a multi-racial family – we were looking for something that might have ...
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Alibaba Group's New Stake In Sina Weibo May Help Its Nascent Smartphone OS Gain Traction Against Android & iOS
Pouring $586 million in Sina Weibo gives Alibaba Group several perks, including an inroad into social media and access to the microblogging platform’s data. Not only that, but its new 18 percent stake in Sina Weibo may also give Alibaba Group a leg-up as it seeks to promote its own smartphone operating system Alibaba Mobile OS (AMOS) as a rival to Android. As the Wall Street Journal writes, Alibaba Group’s investment in Sina Weibo means that it now has access to data generated by the platform’s 46.2 million daily users. This is on top of the 500 million registered users on Taobao, one of Alibaba Group’s e-commerce sites. “If you are a big Internet company and you are ambitious enough in the mobile space, you have to do more than apps. Otherwise, you are just a small species in an ecosystem controlled by others,” Alibaba chief strategy officer Zeng Ming told WSJ. Zeng said that Alibaba Group’s target for AMOS is to power 10 percent of all smartphones shipped in China, an ambitious ...
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Baidu, Hillhouse & GGV Reportedly Invest $57M In Qunar As The Chinese Travel Site Weathers A Boycott
Baidu, Hillhouse Capital, and GGV Capital have invested a total of $57 million in Chinese travel site Qunar, according to a report by First Financial Daily (link via Google Translate). The news comes as Qunar weathers a boycott by third-party service providers triggered by a change in its operational and pricing policies. South China Morning Post writer Doug Young speculates that Qunar might have hiked its prices in a bid to increase revenue and profits before making its first public filing for an offering.
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Lenovo May Produce A Think-Brand Smartphone, Says ThinkPad Business Unit's VP
In an interview today with Sina Tech (link via Google Translate), Dilip Bhatia, vice president and general manager of Lenovo’s ThinkPad Business Unit, said that the Chinese tech company may build a Think-brand smartphone. If Lenovo does come out with a Think-brand smartphone (a ThinkPhone?), it would be inline with the company’s growth strategy. Lenovo is currently the world’s second largest marker of PCs behind HP, but is eager to diversify its core businesses by aggressively growing its mobile unit. Bhatia told Sina Tech that the company wants the Think brand, which includes ThinkPad laptops, to gain higher name recognition and desirability among younger consumers. Lenovo has already fared well with its current suite of smartphones: in Q42012, its smartphone business grew 216 percent year-over-year, shipping 9.5 million units and moving into the top five smartphone vendors in the world for the first time, according to data from Canalys. Much of that growth has been fueled, however, ...
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