Equifax Inc. (EFX) recently launched Equifax Social Influencer, a customer acquisition solution enhanced with the use of social media, in association with StrongMail Systems, Inc., a leading provider of online marketing solutions for email and social media.   This new solution introduced by Equifax presents a combination of StrongMail’s Influencer viral marketing solution and strategic services with Equifax's data services and analytics expertise, so that marketing through E-mail reaches a greater number of customers across different demographic profiles and socioeconomic status.   With Equifax Social Influencer, marketers can now use the contacts of their most influential and highly valued customers to increase the possibility of a favorable business outcome. This will enhance the network of direct customers and motivate existing customers to share their network through email, blogs and popular social networks like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.   We believe that in this time of economic and financial ...

Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) last Thursday charmed investors when it revealed its Cliq smartphone, which will compete head on with Apple Inc.’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone and Research in Motion Ltd.’s Blackberry.

Motorola’s stock is up nearly 12% since the announcement, as investors are hoping the new phone will be enough to win back some of the company’s lost market share.

However, saving Motorola’s mobile division – which the company plans to spin off – is a daunting task. The company – which invented the cell phone, as well as a plethora of other communication devices used by police and military – has seen its global market share of wireless phones fall to 2% in its second quarter this year from 31% in 1995. Mobile phone sales accounted for 33% of Motorola’s second-quarter revenue, down from 41% a year ago.

Motorola

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The UpTurn Inc. is developing an innovative online real estate matchmaking exchange and social networking site where real estate market participants are matched with each other, based on their individual profiles and intended roles in the market. The company’s site serves would-be buyers and sellers, real estate professionals, and others.

The UpTurn was started by M.I.T. Sloan Business School graduate Jeff Eckman. Mr. Eckman founded Blue Green Ventures in 2008 after 15 years of experience in the technology, media, and healthcare industries. This groundbreaking venture – The UpTurn – has established a Web 2.0 real estate business model. The company is moving to become a key player in this rapidly growing industry, which has been in part fueled by the housing crisis.

The UpTurn does face competition in this rapidly-growing sector. However, the company’s competitors do not offer the match component of social networking that

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Online social networking has been the buzz word for the last 5 years with the birth of MySpace and Facebook which were later followed by LinkedIn and Twitter. The Trinity as I call it, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have ascended to the forefront of talks regarding the future of this business. Rumors have surfaced over the past month that Twitter was being eyed by the likes of Google [GOOG: 403.47, 0.00 (0.00%)] and Apple [AAPL: 132.50, 0.00 (0.00%)]. I believe that it is time that I now offer my perspective on the issue as these companies continue to mature at a rapid pace and permeate the lives of people worldwide.The Trinity has several choices when analyzing the future of their businesses. The two that have been on the minds of investment bankers and venture capitalists is

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - April 27, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. (DO), Marriott International (MAR), BJ's Restaurants Inc. (BJRI), News Corporation (NWS) and CEMIG (CIG).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=4579.

Here are highlights from Friday's Analyst Blog:

Diamond Offshore Glitters

Deepwater drilling powerhouse Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. (DO) reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and announced another special dividend. We see few signs of the downturn in oilfield activity levels in Diamond's quarterly report -- a trend that we see continuing for many quarters to come.

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More Management Changes at NewsCorp Since posting a weaker than expected 2Q09 financial result on February 5, 2009, the year so far for News Corporation (NWS) has been marked by a number of key personnel changes. Commencing with the stepping down of long-time employee, President and Chief Operating Officer and CEO of the Fox Group Peter Chernin, followed by the appointment of former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller to the position of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Digital Media Group and Chief Digital Officer for News Corporation.Finally, on Tuesday of this week,  the company announced that MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe would not be renewing his contract and stepping down in the near future. However, Mr. DeWolfe would remain on the board of MySpace China and continue to act as strategic advisor to the company.In the company's 2Q09 conference call, Chairman and CEO Rupert ...

As experts speculated if News Corp. (NWSA) would be the next media giant to succumb to the global recession, Rupert Murdoch's company announced a major management shake-up that ousted founders of MySpace from their current positions.

Chief Executive Chris DeWolfe and President Tom Anderson, who founded the social-networking website, are soon expected to step aside "by mutual agreement". While DeWolfe's exit is involuntary, Anderson is in talks about a continued role with MySpace. DeWolfe, whose contract was not due to expire until October, will remain on the board of MySpace China.

According to the Wall Street Journal, DeWolfe is likely to be replaced by former Facebook Chief Operating Officer Owen Van Natta. MySpace was the world's largest social networking website before Facebook claimed that position in 2008. Van Natta left Facebook early last year and is currently the chief executive at a digital music startup called Project Playlist.

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We are incredibly excited and proud to officially launch Emerginvest at the Techcrunch 50 conference in San Francisco, California. Emerginvest was selected as one of the top 50 web startups in the world from a field of over 1,000 competing companies, hailing from 49 different countries. So far, we are even more proud to say that we seem to be one of only two companies from the Boston area. Techcrunch is one of the premier web startup events of the year, bringing together hundreds of startups, venture capitalists, and 300+ members of the international press. The event is attended by some of the most influential VC’s and entrepreneurs the world has to offer, many of whom Emerginvest has had the pleasure to meet. The notable attendees include: Marc Andreessen, founder of Ning, Marc Benioff, chair and CEO of Salesforce.com, Mark Cuban, ...

CrowdGather (CRGW) is an Internet company that operates Web forums, message boards and other social outlets that link people together in a similar fashion to that of larger rivals Facebook.com and Myspace.com. The company will be launching an online search engine as one of its primary lines of business. CrowdGather is also developing a Centralized ID Management Tool designed to link topical forums in a central location. The California-based company’s revenues and profits will be primarily generated through online advertisements.

CrowdGather’s management team has extensive experience in online and traditional media, with current executives having logged time at media giants such as LionsGate, Playboy, Yahoo! and America Online. The company went public in April of this year and currently has about 5,000 shareholders. CrowdGather was formerly known as General Mayhem LLC and was founded in 2004. Currently, there are nine full-time employees.

It is speculated that CrowdGather’s unique technologies could be a

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eDoorways Corporation is the owner of a unique website that will incorporate the features of a social networking site, a search engine, a directory, a professional network, an encyclopedia and even a consumer rating services. The site is not meant to duplicate other existing websites like eBay, MySpace, Wikipedia or Google, but to improve upon all of these services and bring them together in one easy-to-use marketplace. However, by providing similar services to all of these websites, eDoorways will have to compete either directly or indirectly with several well known giants of the World Wide Web.

Despite lacking in size and cash flow compared to its competitors, eDoorways plans to offer a superior product compared to websites such as CraigsList.com, YellowPages.com, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Google, MySpace, eBay, About.com and Ask.com. CraigsList receives over 4 billion page views per month and is designed for

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