Yahoo To Take On Twitter

After closing the social network platform SpotM, Yahoo has launched Meme, in English, to take on microblogging site Twitter. The company had launched this service in Spanish and Portuguese languages earlier this month.

Meme is currently in an invite-only mode, similar to few microblogging services like Tumblr, Twitter, Pownce and others. After creating the account, users get a blank blog for micro-sharing text, images, music, videos or mash up of all these things.It also offers the facility to add new friends by searching the internet, which is quite similar to Tumblr and Twitter.

The company’s previous efforts to capitalize on the social networking domain kept failing in spite of repeated attempts. The recently launched ‘Know Your Mojo’ also failed along with the Indian social network, SpotM, which was closed down less than a year after its launch.

Meme does not allow much in terms of customization. The users cannot customize the themes with background images and custom CSS to style the text, as this facility is available with Twitter and Tumblr. Both these services have a rich faux-cabulary, which defines how a person uses the service. Meme does not lend on a particular vocabulary. The setting panel has minimal options like Meme title, 100 character description, avatar/photo and notifications. It also shows the comments posted by the users recently.

Yahoo Meme can have a big advantage over Twitter in terms of reliability. Twitter’s image has suffered for frequent service outages, with its “Fail Whale” graphic appearing whenever the site is overloaded, emerging as the company’s unofficial logo.

Several technology sites like TechCrunch and paidContent are not pleased with Yahoo’s move, they said, “Meme seems to lack in its features and in potential to surpass its competitors.” They also pointed out that the company has a spotty record with Mash and SpotM.

Ford India Uses EcoBoost

Ford India, is looking to introduce its EcoBoost engine technology in its new cars that the company claims will raise fuel mileage

by 20%. EcoBoost, which uses gasoline turbocharged direct-injection technology, has already been launched by the US-based parent, in its compact cars and large trucks sold in the American market.

Ford claims the new engine also lowers carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 15% compared to the conventional petrol and diesel engines and will help the company meet future emission norms. Michael Boneham president and MD Ford India said, “Initially, we will go for the regular technology to develop 1.2-litre petrol and 1.5-litre diesel engine to benefit from government’s policy of lower excise on such engine sizes and introduce the much expensive EcoBoost engines in the long-term.”

Ford India has set up a new engine plant at Chennai and is also doubling its plant capacity to two lakh cars as part of its $500 million fresh investment in the country announced earlier. This is part of the plan to develop Chennai as a strategic production hub to produce cars and engines for Ford’s global operations at competitive costs. The company is looking to save 15-20% on engine costs by going for high localisation after developing a local vendor base at Chennai.

The plant currently makes 1.6 Duratec petrol engines and 1.4 Duratorq diesel engines currently strapped in its Ikon and Fiesta sedan besides the Fusion hatchback.

TCS To Hire 25,000

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced that it will hire 25,000 people globally in 2009 with 90% of them in India alone. With this TCS also planning to expand its presence in tier-II cities in India. Following this hiring spree, the total manpower of TCS would go up to more than 1.8 lakh. This will put the IT services provider among large private Indian employers like Tata Steel, which has the total employee strength of two lakh. Going forward, the company, which has an estimated 32 percent market share, plans to cash in on the Indian government’s plan to invest Rs. 40,000 crore on IT services.

Currently, 70 percent of the IT segment’s revenue is from India, while the rest comes from the U.S., Latin America, Africa and South East Asian countries. However, the revenue contribution from Indian government businesses to the total company revenue of $6 billion is less than five percent, which the company intends to increase to more than 10 percent in the next three years.

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