Valentine's Day from Hertz

A great viral video from Hertz for Saint Valentine's Day. Basically just a slide show of funnily named places in the UK.

Facebook goes after Nokia

It has been reported by The Wall Street Journal that Facebook has aggressively upped it's plans to forge a strategic relationship with a mobile phone manufacturer. Present talks are with Nokia, who are the worlds largest mobile phone maker. The goal would be to have Facebook allowed to embed degrees of Facebook functionality into a range of Nokia handsets.

It's believed that this could be anything from simple contact information merged with Nokia's address book, to more in-depth interactions such as the ability to scroll through a mobile interface to see if Facebook friends were logged in and then messages them or post to their Wall.

According to The Journal these talks have been pending for months but no financial terms have been disclosed. It is suspected that the delay in an agreement being reached is due to Nokia's uncertainty about whether to develop it's own Social Network or utilise Facebook's already developed network.

Google Maps Set To Pass MapQuest

Without doubt MapQuest is still the front runner in the online map world but it's future may not be so bright. Google Maps has been creeping up on MapQuest for some time now and it's poised to leap ahead. Over a year ago in January 2008, Google Maps had just over 20% of market share while MapQuest was some way ahead with a huge 50% share.

However a lot can happen in a year, and as of February 7 of 2009, Google has managed to nearly double it's market share to 36%, while at the same time MapQuest has dropped to 39%.

With the two services now basically side-by-side, what does the future hold? MapQuest seem to have adopted a strategy of adding "features" to the site that allow you to easily search for hotels, restaraunts and other aminities. At the same time Google have expanded the channels through which Google Maps can be accessed and have further developed the integration of Google Maps and Google Search. In truth I think the two approaches are exactly the same - introduce ad streams to increase revenue. Unfortunately it only seems to be working for Google.

Greenest Mobile Phone Ever!

Mobile phones just got a whole lot greener. Samsung's new Blue Earth may just be the greenest phone ever thought up. Made from PCM, recycled plastic, the phone also has an "eco" mode that adjusts screen brightness, backlight and Bluetooth to conserve power. On top of that a built in "eco walk" application (pedometer) will tell you how much CO2 emissions you've saved by walking. And finally, on top of all that....... I told you it may be the greenest phone ever...... it has a solar panel across the entire back of the phone that will charge it enough to make a phone call any time the sun is out. Nice.

The Aviva Stadium

It was reported back in January that the refurbished and rebuilt Lansdowne Road stadium would become known as the Aviva Stadium, following an estimated €40m sponsorship deal. The deal was hottly contested and is believed to cover a 10 year period.

Today sees another landmark in the story, with the launch of the Aviva Stadium website. Live today from 2.30pm, the site offers news of the stadiums development, press coverage, details of the new facilities available at the site and a competition with great 6 Nations, World Cup Qualifier and helicopter tour prizes.