Sunday, July 27, 2014

Top Internet Companies To Watch For 2014

Most smartphones today come with voice-recognition software: You speak a question into your phone and the results come back to you via the wireless web.

That's what Siri is - the first-ever "voice bot" launched in 2011 via the Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone 4S.

And now Microsoft has introduced "Cortana" - and let me tell you, she's awesome.

Cortana can search the Internet, set up reminders, shift calendar appointments, manage your mishmash of meetings, find restaurants, send text messages, and place phone calls. And she only seems to get better the more I deal with her.

Based on a 26th-century artificial intelligence (AI) character in the smash hit "Halo" videogame series, Cortana made her grand entrance as part of Windows Phone 8.1 - the key new update for Microsoft's mobile operating system (OS).

Microsoft's decision to enter the voice-recognition field means this technology has now passed the so-called "tipping point." By that I mean it's no longer just a cool "nice-to-have" feature - it's an integral part of personal computing.

Top 5 Asian Stocks To Own For 2015: IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI)

IAC/InterActiveCorp engages in the Internet business in the United States and internationally. The company�s Search segment develops, markets, and distributes various downloadable toolbars; provides search, reference, and content services through its destination search and other Websites, including Ask.com and Dictionary.com; and aggregates and integrates local advertising and content for distribution to publishers on Web and mobile platforms, as well as markets and distributes mobile applications through which it provides search and additional services. Its Match segment offers subscription-based and advertiser-supported online personals services through its Websites comprising Match.com, Chemistry.com, OurTime.com, BlackPeopleMeet.com, and OkCupid.com, as well as through mobile applications and Meetic-branded Websites. The company�s ServiceMagic segment offers Market Match service that matches consumers with service professionals; Exact Match service, which enables con sumers to review service professional profiles and select the service professional that meets their specific needs; and 1800Contractor.com, an online directory of service professionals. This segment also offers Website design and hosting services. Its Media and Other segment operates CollegeHumor.com, an online entertainment Website that targets young males; Vimeo, a Website on which users can upload, share, and view video; and Pronto.com, a comparison search engine. This segment also engages in the creation of video content for various distribution platforms; and operates as an Internet retailer of footwear and related apparel and accessories, as well as focuses on multimedia business. The company was formerly known as InterActiveCorp and changed its name to IAC/InterActiveCorp in July 2004. IAC/InterActiveCorp was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Monica Gerson]

    IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI) shares fell 14.51% to $49.50 in the pre-market trading after the company reported downbeat Q3 revenue.

    Posted-In: PreMarket LosersNews Movers & Shakers Pre-Market Outlook Markets

  • [By John Kell]

    IAC/InterActiveCorp(IACI). said its fourth-quarter earnings jumped 89% as the Internet firm managed to offset a decline in search and media revenue with cost cutting. Revenue missed estimates, sending shares down 5.6% to $65 in light premarket trading.

  • [By Chris Isidore]

    Newsweek, the news magazine whose print version was abandoned late last year, was sold in August by IAC (IACI) to another all-digital news company, IBT Media.

Top Internet Companies To Watch For 2014: Yahoo! Inc.(YHOO)

Yahoo! Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a digital media company that delivers personalized digital content and experiences through various devices worldwide. It offers online properties and services to users; and a range of marketing services to businesses. The company?s communications and communities offerings include Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, Flickr, and Connected TV, which provide a range of communication and social services to users and small businesses enabling users to organize into groups and share knowledge, common interests, and photos. Its search products comprise Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Local, available free to users to navigate the Internet and discover content. The company?s marketplaces offerings and services include Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Travel, Yahoo! Real Estate, Yahoo! Autos, and Yahoo! Small Business, which allow users to research specific topics, products, services, or areas of interest by review ing and exchanging information, obtaining contact details, or considering offers from providers of goods, services, or parties with similar interests. Its media offerings comprise Yahoo! Homepage, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance, My Yahoo!, Yahoo! Toolbar, Yahoo! Entertainment & Lifestyles, Yahoo! Contributor Network, and Yahoo! Pulse, which are designed to engage users with online content and services on the Web. The company also offers marketing services, such as display and search advertising, listing-based services, and commerce-based transactions to advertisers. In addition, it provides software and platform offerings for third-party developers, advertisers, and publishers, such as Yahoo! Developer Network, Yahoo! Open Strategy, Yahoo! Application Platform, Yahoo! Updates, Yahoo! Query Language, and Yahoo! Search BOSS. The company has strategic alliances with Nokia and ABC News, Inc. Yahoo! Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Californi a.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Chris Hill]

    In this installment, our analysts explain why they're watching Intel� (NASDAQ: INTC  ) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO  ) .

  • [By Travis Hoium, Sean Williams, and Alex Planes]

    In that spirit, we three Fools have banded together to find the market's best and worst stocks, which we'll rate on The Motley Fool's CAPS system as outperformers or underperformers. We'll be accountable for every pick based on the sum of our knowledge and the balance of our decisions. Today, we'll be discussing web pioneer�Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO  ) .

  • [By Eric Volkman]

    Continuing in its quest to become a leaner and more focused operation, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO  ) is axing a number of its less popular services. As detailed in a post on the official company blog by Jay Rossiter, executive vice president of platforms, the Internet giant will eliminate Yahoo! Deals, Upcoming, SMS Alerts, and Kids sites, in addition to older versions of its Mail service.

  • [By Steven Russolillo]

    Several Fidelity mutual funds cut their positions in Yahoo Inc.(YHOO) in February, before Alibaba�Group Holding Ltd. decided to start the process of listing on a U.S. stock exchange, according to the most recent data provided by Morningstar.

Top Internet Companies To Watch For 2014: Amazon.com Inc.(AMZN)

Amazon.com, Inc. operates as an online retailer in North America and internationally. It operates retail Web sites, including amazon.com and amazon.ca. The company serves consumers through its retail Web sites and focuses on selection, price, and convenience. It also offers programs that enable sellers to sell their products on its Web sites, and their own branded Web sites. In addition, the company serves developer customers through Amazon Web Services, which provides access to technology infrastructure that developers can use to enable virtually various type of business. Further, it manufactures and sells the Kindle e-reader. Additionally, the company provides fulfillment; miscellaneous marketing and promotional agreements, such as online advertising; and co-branded credit cards. Amazon.com, Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Tim Beyers]

    Image Comics is starting to look like the Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN  ) of the comic book publishing industry, says Fool contributor Tim Beyers in the following video.

    Specifically, Image has opened a DRM-free store for downloading digital issues of its comics to any electronic device. ComiXology, the industry's top digital distributor, could take a hit as a result.

  • [By Mark Kowalski]

    This decrease may be partially offset as Wal-Mart continues to roll out its new E-Commerce Expansion to compete with rival Amazon (AMZN). With the increase in online order fulfillment centers, and strategies are being tested involving using existing stores as fulfillment centers, Wal-Mart is developing a strong new potential to help push its U.S. sales base.

Top Internet Companies To Watch For 2014: eBay Inc.(EBAY)

eBay Inc. provides online platforms, services, and tools to help individuals and merchants in online and mobile commerce and payments in the United States and internationally. Its Marketplaces segment operates ecommerce platform eBay.com; vertical shopping sites, such as StubHub, Fashion, Motors, and Half.com; and classifieds Websites, including Den Bl�Avis, BilBasen, Gumtree, Kijiji, LoQUo, Marktplaats.nl, mobile.de, Alamaula, Rent.com, eBay Anuncios, eBay Kleinanzeigen, and eBay Annunci, as well as provides advertising services. The company?s Payments segment offers payment and settlement services for consumers and merchants on and off eBay Websites and other merchant Websites. This segment operates PayPal, which enables individuals and businesses to send and receive payments online and through mobile devices; Bill Me Later that enables the United States merchants to offer, the United States consumers to obtain, credit at the point of sale for ecommerce and mobile tra nsactions; Zong, which allows users with mobile phones to purchase digital goods and have the transactions charged to their phone bill; and BillSAFE that enables customers pay for purchases upon receipt of an invoice. Its GSI segment offers an ecommerce services suite for enterprise clients that operate in general merchandise categories, including apparel, sporting goods, toys and baby, health and beauty, and home; and marketing services comprising full-service digital agency, enterprise email marketing, mobile advertising, affiliate marketing, advertisement retargeting, and in-depth analytics services. The company also offers X.commerce platform that provides software developers access to the company?s applications programming interfaces to develop functionality for various merchants; and Magento Connect, which allows developers to market and sell add-on functionality and solutions to merchants that use a Magento storefront. eBay Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquarter ed in San Jose, California.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Evan Niu, CFA]

    PayPal is eBay's (NASDAQ: EBAY  ) growth star these days. Total payments volume was up 21% last quarter, with revenue jumping 18%. In dollar terms, that's still less than the core marketplace business, but it's growing much faster. With that rising payments volume comes increasing responsibility over account security, particularly since payments are quickly shifting toward mobile platforms.

  • [By MONEYMORNING.COM]

    The CEO of e-commerce giant eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY), John Donahoe, told CNBC last week he doesn't necessarily see Bitcoin as a threat to the company's PayPal service.

  • [By Dan Caplinger]

    On Wednesday, eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY  ) will release its latest quarterly results. The key to making smart investment decisions on stocks reporting earnings is to anticipate how they'll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise.

Top Internet Companies To Watch For 2014: Google Inc.(GOOG)

Google Inc. maintains an index of Web sites and other online content for users, advertisers, and Google network members and other content providers. It offers AdWords, an auction-based advertising program; AdSense program, which enables Web sites that are part of the Google Network to deliver ads from its AdWords advertisers; Google Display, a display advertising network that comprises the videos, text, images, and other interactive ads; DoubleClick Ad Exchange, a real-time auction marketplace for the trading of display ad space; and YouTube that provides video, interactive, and other ad formats for advertisers. The company also provides Google Mobile that optimizes Google?s applications for mobile devices in browser and downloadable form; and enables advertisers to run search ad campaigns on mobile devices, as well as Google Local that provides local information on the Web; and Google Boost for small businesses to participate in the ads auction. In addition, it offers And roid, an open source mobile software platform; Google Chrome OS, an open source operating system; Google Chrome, a Web browser; Google TV, a platform for the consumers to use the television and the Internet on a single screen; and Google Books platform to discover, search, and consume content from printed books online. Further, the company provides Google Apps, a cloud computing suite of message and collaboration tools, which includes Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Sites; Google Search Appliance that offers real-time search of business and intranet applications, and public Web sites; Google Site Search, a custom search engine; Google Commerce Search for online retail enterprises; Google Checkout to make online shopping and payments streamlined and secure; Google Maps Application Programming Interface; and Google Earth Enterprise, a firewall software solution for imagery and data visualization. Google Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

    Achmad Ibrahim/APBlackBerry CEO John Chen speaks at the launch of the new Blackberry Z3 smartphone in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Tuesday. BlackBerry (BBRY) launched a low-cost touchscreen device in Jakarta, the Z3, as the embattled smartphone maker looks to revive sales in emerging markets like Indonesia where its once-fervent following has shriveled. The handset, unveiled at a glitzy launch event in the Indonesian capital Tuesday, is the first in a line of devices being made with FIH Mobile, a unit of the giant Taiwanese Foxconn Technology Group best known for assembling gadgets like iPhones and iPads for Apple (AAPL). The success of the handset retailing for less than $200 could well decide the outcome of both BlackBerry's tie-up with the contract manufacturing giant and its own future in smartphones. The Z3 Jakarta Edition will hit store shelves on May 15. "If this device allows them to grow again, even if it's just small, steady growth, that's a success in itself. That says there is still room for BlackBerry in Indonesia," said Ryan Lai, market analyst at consultancy IDC. The Z3 is the first phone to be launched by BlackBerry since new Chief Executive Officer John Chen took the helm late last year. After Indonesia it will be gradually introduced in six other countries including the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Malaysia. Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry hopes that the device and others to follow will help it claw back some of the collapse in its market share, ceded to Apple's iPhone and Samsung Electronics' line of Galaxy devices powered by Googles (GOOG) Android operating system. "If the market doesn't receive this product well, then we definitely have some negative issues to deal with," Chen said at the launch at Jakarta's Ritz-Carlton hotel. BlackBerry said it doesn't have an official sales target for the device, but Chen said he expects to sell millions of Z3 handsets around the world, without disclosing further details. Market-Share Slide

  • [By Anders Bylund]

    But there's a new game afoot. Earlier this year, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) introduced a similar sign-in program for its Google+ service -- and wrapped it in search-results incentives that Facebook has no way to match. If you want a top listing in Google results, you'd better allow Big G's sign-in method as well. That's a hugely important factor for modern Web designs, as Google drives enormous amounts of site traffic.

  • [By Sue Chang]

    Google (GOOG) �is likely to post earnings of $6.35 a share in the first quarter. Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald on Monday reiterated the stock�� buy rating and price target of $650.

Top Internet Companies To Watch For 2014: Symantec Corporation(SYMC)

Symantec Corporation provides security, storage, and systems management solutions internationally. The company?s Consumer segment delivers Internet security, PC tune-up, and online backup solutions and services to individual users and home offices. Its Security and Compliance segment provides solutions for endpoint security and management, compliance, messaging management, data loss prevention, encryption, and authentication services to large, medium, and small-sized businesses, as well as offers solutions through its software-as-a-service (SaaS) security offerings. This segment?s products enable customers to secure, provision, and remotely manage their laptops, PCs, mobile devices, and servers. The company?s Storage and Server Management segment provides storage and server management, backup, archiving, and data protection solutions across heterogeneous storage and server platforms, as well as solutions delivered through its SaaS offerings to large, medium, and small-s ized businesses. Symantec?s Services segment offers implementation services and solutions, including consulting, business critical services, education, and managed security services. The company also provides various enterprise support offerings, such as annual maintenance support contracts, including content, upgrades, and technical support. It sells its products through its eCommerce platform, as well as through distributors, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, system builders, ISPs, and retail locations worldwide. Symantec markets and sells its products through distributors, retailers, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, original equipment manufacturers, system builders, and Internet service providers; and its e-commerce channels, as well as direct sales force, value-added and large account resellers, and system integrators. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Traders Reserve]

    For some reason, certain companies can attract buyers no matter the circumstance. I would put Symantec (SYMC) in that category. Shares have gained nearly 20% this year even as Symantec�� prospects deteriorated.

  • [By Tom Taulli]

    In a sudden move, Symantec (SYMC) has terminated its CEO, Steve Bennett. And Wall Street is definitely concerned, as SYMC stock is off about 12% in today�� trading.

  • [By Amanda Alix]

    Of course, banks can't know when an attack is merely disruptive, and when it may be covering for criminal activity. Security company Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC  ) has commented that these assaults have become a way for hackers to distract banks while funds are illegally withdrawn. Though most of the thefts have occurred in Europe, where attacks have progressed from website outages to actual bank heists, at least one U.S. bank, Citigroup, disclosed some losses due to cyber thievery earlier this year.

  • [By Anora Mahmudova]

    Symantec Corp. (SYMC) slid 13% after the security-software maker fired Chief Executive Steve Bennett late Thursday and replaced him with board member Michael Brown.

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