IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 24 June
24-06-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
New directory inquiry service launches | EI commercialisation fund to open in July
The Irish Times reports that a new telephone directory inquiry service has been launched. Aimed at both the domestic and corporate customer, 11827 Directory Heaven is Irish-owned and based in Dublin and Galway. The company will employ up to 50 people over the next 18 months. Calls to the service cost EUR1.03 for the first minute and EUR0.22 a minute thereafter.
The paper also says that scientists who want to turn their research into a business can start applying for Enterprise Ireland funding from next month. The agency's commercialisation fund will make EUR10 million available after a four-month delay in the support due to uncertainty over government funding. Enterprise Ireland executive director Feargal O Morain said the commercialisation fund would open for applications in mid-July. Researchers can bid for financial support to help bring discoveries to market. O Morain also said he expected there would be two more funding rounds later in the year.
In other news of Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Examiner reports that a researcher at NUI Maynooth who is developing a revolutionary treatment for tinnitus has won the Enterprise Ireland "One to Watch" Award 2010. Minister for State Conor Lenihan presented the award to Dr Ross O'Neill at the Enterprise Ireland Applied Research Forum. "This award recognises the commercial potential of government-supported projects, through Enterprise Ireland, that have the capacity to make a major social or economic impact once brought to the market-place," said the minister.
The Irish Independent notes that Independent Digital is launching a new site called www.independentwoman.ie. The site will feature sections on fashion, beauty, celebrity gossip, love and sex, and health and fitness.
According to the Financial Times, Facebook is looking to China, Russia and Japan for its next phase of expansion as overall growth begins to wane. Founder Mark Zuckerberg said that with almost 500 million members, Facebook was finding it impossible to maintain its breakneck growth. Zuckerberg told an audience of marketers at the Cannes Lions advertising festival on Wednesday that after relying largely on organic growth, Facebook would soon begin to make its first strategic local moves. "We are down to four countries that we are not the leading social network in," he said, naming Japan, Russia, China and South Korea. "Now for the first time we are focused on doing some specific things in specific countries."
The paper also says that Viacom has lost its long-running USD1 billion lawsuit against YouTube owner Google, after a New York judge said the internet giant had not infringed the media company's copyright. The owner of MTV Networks and the Paramount film studios sued Google and YouTube in 2007 for "massive" copyright infringement after discovering that "tens of thousands" of its video clips had been uploaded to YouTube without its permission. Louis Stanton, a US district judge in a federal court in New York, said the online video service had not been in violation of legal provisions that protect internet services providers from recourse since it had removed the items after being alerted. Viacom vowed to appeal the decision.
The Wall Street Journal reports on the forthcoming launch of a new system to police privacy abuses by companies that track consumers' web-surfing habits for online ad targeting. The system, which will be launched in coming months, is backed by internet companies such as Yahoo and Microsoft and advertising companies like WPP. The system is part of a broader push by the advertising and internet industries to develop stricter self-regulation, in part to protect consumers' privacy online. The self-regulatory push is aimed at warding off federal regulation of the online advertising industry.
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