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Google-related ‘The Internship’ movie now calling for extras in San Francisco area

We first reported in July about an upcoming movie called “The Internship,” starring Hollywood actors Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as two 40-something Google interns attempting to find success.

BetaBeat (via AllThingsD) noted today that the film posted casting calls recently for extras and a stand-in for Wilson. According to Casting Networks, the stand-in gig calls for a 25- to 45-year-old Wilson look-a-like in the San Francisco area, and whoever lands the gig, whether SAG or non-union, will get $160.

OnLocationVacation further reported that the flick is filming at Stanford University today, while the final weeks of shooting wrap up in San Francisco.

According to IMDb, as seen in the image atop, Vaughn wrote the movie’s screenplay. Director Shawn Levy is also signed-on, while Vaughn, Wilson, and Rose Byrne take up the top three roles. Oh, and 21 Laps Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, and Wild West Picture Show Productions are just a few of the production houses on board.

“The Internship” is currently slated for a June 2013 premiere.


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Google buys social ad firm Wildfire for a reported $250M

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Google just acquired social media marketing company Wildfire.

AllThingsD reported “people familiar with the transaction” estimate Google bought the social ad business for $250 million, “plus earnouts, employment agreements, etc.”

Wildfire currently serves 16,000 customers, including 30 of the top 50 brands, and it reportedly raised $14 million since founding in 2008. Google will likely merge Wildfire into its ever-expanding social and advertising services to better entice marketers into buying either traditional or display ads for a variety of platforms— even direct rival Facebook.

Both companies took to their respective blogs today to confirm the buyout (below).


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Verizon to introduce shared data plans June 28, reflects reality of multiple device users

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According to a report from AllThingsD, Verizon Wireless will soon change the way it charges customers for cellular/data plans in a major way. Rather than charging customers for phones calls or messages sent, the report claimed Verizon would charge “almost exclusively based on how much data” is consumed. The new “Share Everything” plans will also be the first in the United States that allows users to share their data with up to 10 devices through a single account:

The plans, known as “Share Everything,” allow users an unlimited number of calls and texts and also allow data usage to be pooled among up to 10 devices on one account. With the move, Verizon becomes the first U.S. carrier to offer the ability for customers to share a bucket of data across multiple devices.

AllThingsD noted that AT&T also has plans for shared data options, but it did not provide more details. As for Verizon’s new plans, which will apparently kick-in June 28, the report explained the cost of the data plan and pricing metrics based on a per-device fee. In other words, you will have to pay roughly $40 per smartphone ($10 per tablet), and then opt for either a $50 1GB data plan or a $100 10GB plan. While the report claimed the new pricing should not impact the cost of plans for users who continue consuming the same amount of data, it is clear that those signing a new plan for a single smartphone are getting a bit less for their money:


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Meebo enters into acquisition agreement with Google

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Reports circulated last month that Google wanted to buy social messaging service Meebo for roughly $100 million, and now those stories have finally received official confirmation.

Meebo verified the news today in a post on the company blog (above):

We are happy to announce that Meebo has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Google!

For more than seven years we’ve been helping publishers find deeper relationships with their users and to make their sites more social and engaging. Together with Google, we’re super jazzed to roll up our sleeves and get cracking on even bigger and better ways to help users and website owners alike.

We’ve had a blast building Meebo so far and we’re really excited to start the next leg of our journey.

Thank you all for coming along for the ride!
Meebo Team

Meebo began in 2005 as a browser-based instant messaging program with support for Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, AIM, Facebook Chat, Google Talk, and others. The service now boasts mobile apps, and it features multi-user chat rooms, a content aggregator, and the ability for users to check-in and share media across popular social networks. It even offers APIs for developers.


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Google hires Digg founder Kevin Rose

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Hot off the wire from AllThingsD:

Rose’s mobile app incubator Milk yesterday announced it was shutting down its only product, Oink.

Google is not outright buying or “acqhiring” Milk, the sources explicitly said, but Rose and some others from the company have been hired. It’s not clear what will happen to Milk after Rose joins Google.

His social and more recent local background would seem to make him a natural at Google+. Rose is also an Angel investor having thrown in with Fab, Zynga, ngmoco, Foursquare, and Twitter.

Interestingly, Google was very close to acquiring Rose’s Digg four years ago, but the deal never went through.

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