TECH CHRONICLES / A daily dose of postings from The Chronicle's technology blog (sfgate.com/blogs/tech)

sfgate_get_fprefs();
Chinese networking land site diggings Digg

One of the many, many, many, many, many societal webs in People'S Republic Of People'S Republic Of China - did we advert there are many societal web clons in China? - CityN, which was released last month, is taking a page from San Francisco's Digg and introducing some Digg-like features.

Naturally, it is tweaking the service for its immature Chinese users. Because Chinese Internet users don't necessarily lend to the Web and submit news articles, CityN takes attention of pulling together the news stories, said CityN co-founder St Simon Chan.

But at the same time, Chinese Internet users like to share their taste sensations by vote and leaving comments. On CityN, they can assist rank the most popular articles and show their friends what they're reading.

Microsoft To Acquire Mobile Software Maker Danger - InformationWeek

Microsoft on Monday said it have agreed to get Danger, a shaper of mobile software system and services, as well as the youth-oriented Sidekick smartphone sold by radio bearer T-Mobile. Financial footing were not disclosed.

In purchasing Danger, Microsoft would acquire an operating system that powerfulnesses some of the most consumer-friendly phones for accessing the Internet. Danger OS-driven information services include Web browsing, e-mail, instantaneous messaging, games, multimedia system applications, and easy entree to online societal networks, such as as MySpace. Sharp and Motorola are manufacturing spouses for Danger-powered devices.

Microsoft bes after to add Danger's trading operations to its amusement and devices division headed by Robbie Bach. Products under the division include the Xbox, the Zune, Windows Live, and the Windows Mobile River platform for handsets.

"The improver of Danger functions as a perfect complement to our existent software system and services, and also beef ups our dedication to improving mobile experiences centered around people and what they like," Johann Sebastian Bach .

Microsoft claims Windows Mobile River is available in more than than than than 160 telephones made by more than 50 hardware manufacturers, which sell the devices to more than 160 mobile operators worldwide. Nevertheless, Microsoft-powered telephones dawdle in the emerging smartphone market, which grew by 60% last twelvemonth over 2006, according to marketplace research worker Canalys. The devices were one of the fastest growth sections in the engineering industry.

The concerted marketplace share of all the sellers making smartphones powered by Windows Mobile River in the 4th one-fourth of 2007, less than Apple's 28% share from the iPhone, which launched in late June. The leader was blackberry shaper Research In Motion, which had a 41% share. Apple was 2nd in the U.S. market.

Danger, based in Palo Alto, Calif., was co-founded in 1999 by Andy Rubin, who is now in complaint of Google's mobile platforms. The company in December filed for an initial populace offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A day of the month and terms scope for the offering was not released, but the company planned to raise as much as $100 million on the Nasdaq, The New House Of York Times reported.

As of Sept. 30, Danger had 923,000 endorsers to its information services. The company's investors include Redpoint Ventures, August F. Mobius Technology Ventures, Motorola, and T-Mobile.

Revolution Online Money Transfer Service Pits Itself Against paypal - InformationWeek

Startup Revolution Money, an online payment service that's up against EBay's popular PayPal, launched on Thursday as a new option money-transfer service.

The company's Revolution Money Exchange service enables subscribes to shift money from their depository financial institution business relationships to each other. People interested in the service, which is available at no charge, must subscribe up through

Revolution Money an investing company formed by Steve Case, AOL co-founder and former president and CEO. The subordinate trusts to attain immature grownups on the Web who are active in societal webs and other online communities.

"We desire to go for societal webs what PayPal is for EBay," Teddy Boy Leonsis, president for Revolution Money, said last calendar month at the Web 2.0 Acme in San Francisco.

The company have recently launched a RevolutionCard recognition card that the payment service is selling as a more than unafraid option to traditional recognition card game from MasterCard or Visa.

"First, the card itself is anonymous, so it doesn't have got the cardholder's name
on the card," Jason Hogg, chief executive officer and laminitis of Revolution Money, told InformationWeek in a recent interview. "Nor makes it incorporate any information about the cardholder in the magnetic stripe."

In addition, the card cannot be used without knowing the user's personal designation number, and it exposes what the company phone calls a "disassociated business relationship number," which intends that the figure on the card is not the existent business relationship number.

Revolution Money trusts to involvement merchandisers with an interchange fee of 0.5%, which is considerably less than the 1.9% charged to merchandisers by other recognition card companies. The company's initial statistical distribution platform is AOL's blink of an eye messaging waiter AIM. A nexus to Revolution Money is available through the purpose client.

In trying to catch a piece of the online payment market, Revolution Money is competing against far bigger players. EBay-owned PayPal is the dominant service with 143 million user business relationships worldwide.

Google have an online payment service called Google Checkout, launched about a twelvemonth ago. That service, however, have yet to do any headroom against PayPal.

In addition, Google with the U.S. Patent and Hallmark Office for a mobile payments service that would let users to do payments at retail stores using their mobile phones.

InformationWeek editor at big Seth Thomas Claburn contributed to this story.