A round-up of other technology stories in brief.
StatCounter has grown 50%
Irish owned StatCounter, which provides tools for analysing traffic to websites, has grown 50 per cent in the last year and had 1.5 million members at the end of June.
StatCounter had 50 million page views in the first half of the year making it one of the most visited sites in the US ahead of big brands such as Adobe, Dell and Fox News, according to Amazon subsidiary Alexa.
Limerick firm opens in Mexico
Limerick-based software firm Tango Telecom has opened a support and sales office in Mexico City to expand into the Latin American market.
The company, which provides messaging software for telecoms operators, has already won business with Mexican mobile operator Iusacell and America Movil, the firm controlled by Carlos Slim Helú, recently revealed to be the world's richest man.
Tango says the office will initially employ local and Irish staff but it plans to increase the local employee base significantly in the next year.
Cork seminar on Second Life
Dublin consultancy and design firm V Rising will hold a seminar on "Building Your Business in Second Life" in Cork's Clarion Hotel on Thursday, September 13th. www.digitalmediaforum.net/virtualworlds
Guinness centre in €1m
The Guinness Enterprise Centre (GEC) in Dublin's Liberties has invested €1 million in upgrading its technology infrastructure. The centre, which is home to a number of high-tech start-ups, can now provide tenants with a 30Mbit/sec broadband connection, video conferencing and voiceover IP facilities.
The GEC has also partnered with HP to offer early stage entrepreneurs with restricted funding, IT training to help them grow their business. A new website for the incubation centre has been launched at www.gec.ie.
Rabodirect gets makeover
Online bank Rabodirect has given its website a Web 2.0 makeover and is now offering podcasts from financial experts. The site makes extensive use of RSS feeds so that customers can be automatically updated when content in areas of interest to them is added to the site.
The podcasts can be accessed on the Rabodirect website or through iTunes and provide financial commentary around savings, investments and effective money management from experts such as economist Dr Clare McAndrew and Joe O'Dwyer of Oppenheim Investment Managers.
Conference on acquisitions
Irish technology companies are struggling to grow beyond annual revenues of €25 million, but if they are really to compete on the international stage they need to grow their revenues to €100 million plus.
That's the message from Mark Fenelon, a director of Whitebridge Capital which will host a conference on international acquisitions, Creating Scale Through Acquisition, at the Four Seasons Hotel, Dublin on September 18th .
