Word Games at any time, travel cards

Scrabble first demonstrated that it does not need the actual click tiles against an edge when it became popular on the computer about two decades ago. Now, the game has migrated to Smartphones, both through the game with trademarks and a similar game called words with friends.

In fact, words with friends, owned by Zynga, has stolen some Thunder Scrabble with his word formation game digital only. Ten million people have downloaded the iPhone app so far, Zynga says, and went live on Android systems this month.

Solitaire Scrabble is an option on computers and mobile phones, but many players prefer a human opponent. Scrabble mobile words with friends both allow social interaction through turns and a chat feature. "It feels like I am referring to my friends through the games I'm playing with them," said Paul Bettner, who developed the words with friends in 2009, together with his brother David.

On the phone, games can take days or even weeks to play, so that people often have different games going at once. (Can you cheat? The answer is Yes).

To add more drama to a game that is subject to breaks, the Bettners has increased scores on some letters — a c is four points instead of three, for example, and a j instead of 8-10.

They have also pushed the double and triple-number of squares closer together so that the big word scores were more likely. "What ends up happening is that you have these moments that are more explosive," said Paul Bettner. Incidentally, making the point values and board layout different from those of Scrabble avoids potential legal problems with Hasbro, which owns the American and Canadian rights to the game (Mattel owns the rest).

The first time, Stefan Fatsis, a competitive Scrabble player, searched words with friends, he said, he ended with a score of 626. His highest score after thousands of games of Scrabble was 603.

Mr. Fatsis, author of "Word Freak," the culture of Scrabble, said that the game Scrabble mobile via Facebook was clunkier and more "commercial" words with friends. While Hasbro digital strategy is improving, it has mostly played catch-up in the digital realm, he said, they take longer than expected to introduce new technologies and to iron out bugs in its games.

Consequently, more agile and more entrepreneurs have been able to come up with popular alternative, he said.

Mark Blecher, senior vice president for digital media and gaming for Hasbro, has denied that the company had been slow to embrace digital technology. "Hasbro innovates but we innovate when we know there is a real market," he said. Words with friends, he added, is not a substitute for Scrabble; missing the real rules and the real reason for the game.

Hasbro does not disclose the data to mobile users of Scrabble, who can access the game in several ways on their phones: through Facebook, through an iPhone app (Android soon) and through the site Pogo.com. Its digital games are developed by Electronic Arts.

Megan Lawless, 31, of Chicago, play Scrabble and words with friends on your mobile and said that he liked both as a way to connect with people near you. He learned to play Scrabble by his great-grandmother, who belonged to a League of Scrabble.

A day in 2009, no one knew was available to play with you, so hit the option on words with friends that allows you to play with a random opponent.

"It was quite out of character for me to do," he said. But the game went well, you could say that you and your opponent were evenly matched in terms of skills. His opponent has proposed a revenge and repeated games led to chat about their personal lives. Eventually, he discovered that his opponent was a man, Jasper Jasperse, and that he was a firefighter who has lived in Holland.

After they began e-mailing each other and talk on Skype, Mr. Jasperse asked if he could visit her in Chicago, "and we clicked immediately," said ms. Lawless. Now, they plan to marry in July, and he will move to Chicago.

The random function didn't work as well for Alex Alan, 31, of Brooklyn. For a while, "I was playing these anonymous people, seven or eight going on at once, and was getting out of hand," he said. He was playing words with friends, said, when he could have been talking to his girlfriend. So now he restricts its games to a small group of people I know in real life.

In an attempt to disconnect, Mr. Alan also tries to play with his friends to Scrabble about a backgammon, the kind that would be immediately recognized by Alfred Mosher Butts in New York, who invented Scrabble in the 1930s.

In fact, digital Scrabble's popularity has increased the sales of board game, Mr. Blecher said Hasbro. The company has sold four million branded Scrabble Games of physical variety in 2010, an increase of over 100% in a period of five years.

As Mr. Fatsis said: "the truth is, there's something really exciting about managing tiles and put them on a Board and having your opponent sitting across the table from you."

Travel deal Google faces regulatory turbulence (AP)

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE and JOELLE TESSLER, AP Technology writers Michael Liedtke and Joelle Tessler, Ap technology writers – 1 HR 57 min ago

SAN FRANCISCO – Google wants to become the hub of online travel, promising opportunities and better convenience by fusing wizardry of the Internet search leader with top Web fare tracker, ITA Software.

That has existing online travel sites such as Kayak, Expedia and Travelocity worried that they don't stand a chance to compete, a scenario that could lead to higher prices.

The Department of Justice of the United States is expected to soon decide whether to let Google Inc. buy IT for $ 700 million. The deal would give Google control over the software that has helped power systems, reservation of the major U.S. airlines and a fleet of fare-comparison services online over the past decade.

The review of Government could serve as a proof of how aggressively U.S. antitrust regulators intend Google police how the company uses the wealth and influence gained since its dominance in Internet search to expand into more profitable markets. The u.s. market for online travel bookings amounted to approximately 80 billion per year, according to Forrester research.

Google says IT owns, the brainchild of computer scientists specializing in artificial intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, would lead to lower prices and most convenient ways to purchase tickets on the Internet. For example, travelers could tell Google what they could afford to spend a warm place to visit on certain dates and the search engine would turn into a tourist guide.

But critics argue that Google would be able to interfere with other travel services to bury them in its search results or denying their latest technical innovations of the ITA. Google has promised only honour all contracts in progress of ITA, which expire in the next few years.

"Google will leverage over the entire flight online industry," said Thomas Barnett, a former head of the antitrust Division of the Department of justice. A lawyer in private practice, Barnett has become Expedia Inc., who banded with services such as Microsoft Corp. 's online travel. Bing, Travelocity, Kayak Software Corp. and Farelogix Inc. oppose the deal ITA.

Google has promised not to sell tickets or make other travel arrangements on its own site. Rather, Google sends people elsewhere to purchase the tickets and reservations for hotels and car rental. These sites are earning commissions.

But competitors say there is no guarantee about who would get the traffic. Google, for example, you may simply send visitors directly to the selected airline or hotel and ignore the existing referral and reservation services, denying their commissions.

Online travel companies also fear that Google would place its recommendations for travel on top of its search results page, influential, put them in a situation of disadvantage.

Google has already been accused of promoting their services — such as mapping, video and finance — in its search results. The company says that users prefer these services. But European regulators and the Attorney General of Texas have opened investigations for Google's business practices.

As a sign of his influence, Google already many fields travel requires that its search engine represents an estimated 30 percent of traffic to travel sites. ITA technology could allow Google to attract a greater share of travel research.

Google, however, it seems less interested in doing commissions. Rather, it seems to want to improve the results of the trip, so that I can keep users and sell more ads. According to some estimates, travel advertisers account for about 10 percent, or nearly $ 3 billion, Google's annual revenue.

The fear is that if Google Gets a larger share of searches, it would be better placed to command higher ad rates from airlines, hotels, rental car agencies and other leisure facilities.

Top searches for fares would even Google spend additional insights when people are planning to travel and how much money you are willing. What about data that the company could sell advertisers, said Forrester Research Analyst Henry Harteveldt travel.

Not all opponents of the agreement are based on ITA. Expedia, for one, uses its own software, while the other two services companies, travel and Hotwire, TripAdvisor depend ITA. Other important services that have no need of ITA include Travelocity, which uses the Sabre system and Priceline.

Google believes that these alternative tools show there would still be a large competition if it takes control of ITA.

But IT is the most comprehensive database because of its links with most major U.S. airlines, said Robert Birge, chief marketing officer of Kayaking. ITA also has the best system to track the most recent changes as regular carriers tariffs, tracking Birge said.

"Having access to data that no one else has, ' he said. "Know which airline seats are available for what price right now."

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Tessler reported from Washington.

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Online:

Google topics for approval:

http://www.Google.com/Press/ITA

Opposing the deal sites travel: http://www.fairsearch.org