And The Heavens Shall Tremble: Diablo 3 Confirmed

On the first weeks of June I've just read an article that diablo3.com was acquired by Blizzard. For those who doesn't know, this domain/site is only a diablo fan page. Obviously at that time I am searching if Blizzard had already announced it but unfortunately I got no info. Later this afternoon I've checked Blizzard's page and what interest me is that they are showing a splash screen (some sort of teaser) depicting protoss' eye since Starcraft 2 was already announced. We had a conversation with my friends and asked me if I've already watched the Diablo 3's trailer. I thought they were only joking but turns out that Blizzard had already announced it. As a fanatic on Blizzard games (especially on Warcraft and Diablo)... I'll be waiting for its release.

Yahoo! Philippines

Here's an article by Erika Tapalla taken from Inquirer.net regarding the opening of Yahoo!'s subsidiary here in Philippines. Original article can be found in this link. I've just checked the Asia page of Yahoo! but still the Philippine office is not yet included on the address list. Surely Quezon City to Taguig will be a long ride hehehe.

MAKATI City, Philippines -- After 120 days of local preparation, Yahoo! Philippines has finally established an office in Manila, becoming the Internet giant’s second 100-percent owned subsidiary in Southeast Asia after Singapore. The local Yahoo! office is looking at employing between 10 and 15 people, according to Jojo Añonuevo, General Manager of Philippine Operations for Yahoo! Southeast Asia. Añonuevo added that 20 percent of Yahoo! Singapore employees are Filipinos. The Yahoo! Philippines office is located at Fort Bonifacio Global City. Based on internal Yahoo! metrics and surveys, 85 percent of Filipinos in the Philippines use Yahoo! platforms. However, the company has not yet partnered with an independent research company to
calculate its traffic.

“We know a lot of Filipinos globally use Yahoo! content, but we are not able tobreak down the exact number of usage per market per country,” said Añonuevo. “We are still working with Nielsen Research to conduct research in the Philippines in conjunction with Internet associations in the Philippines to give us a third-party breakdown of these numbers.”

Añonuevo predicts a double-digit growth in the Philippines in terms of revenue. Yahoo! has three main objectives to generate revenue locally but is primarily banking on online advertising. The first of the three objectives is to make Yahoo! the starting point for most consumers so that the service would be top-of-mind in their every online experience. For example, Yahoo! has developed mobile services in partnership with Sun Cellular and Smart Communications for the Yahoo! oneSearch mobile application.

Due to the popularity of social networking in the Philippines, Yahoo! Philippines is also looking at partnering with social networking sites.

“We are already in discussions with Friendster and other social networking sites to merge Yahoo! Messenger functions in their pages. There are some functionalities in Yahoo! Messenger that a Friendster user would want," Añonuevo said.

The company’s second objective is to become a "must-buy" for most advertisers by providing various platforms that would be viable choices for advertising and campaigns. In connection with this, Yahoo! Philippines has come up with Yahoo!
Sponsored Search for Filipino businesses and advertisers. This advertising product enables small to large Philippine businesses potentially reach 53 million new customers in Southeast Asia.

The third objective is to become a "partner of choice" by providing favorable platforms for publishers and developers. For example, in April, the beta version of Yahoo! Philippine news was launched.