For 
the advertising and marketing industries, the Internet of Everything can’t come soon enough.
As details about our personal lives become more public, businesses will be better able to narrowly target ads and offers, boosting their bottom lines in the process. That sort of openness might raise concerns for some people, though. After all, the marketing world already knows an awful lot about our online habits. Do we want to share our offline ones with it as well?
Amazon’s 
interest in the video game world is taking a huge step forward with Monday’s $970 million deal to buy game streaming service Twitch Interactive.
The all-cash deal, which came out of the blue after months of unconfirmed reports that Google’s YouTube unit was about to buy the company, will give Amazon an extraordinarily popular streaming video arm—one that could actually rival YouTube. It also continues the company’s ongoing efforts to assume a significant role in the gaming industry.
The 
“Madden” football franchise may not be the crown jewel at Electronic Arts anymore, but it still shines pretty bright. And this year, EA is counting on that shine to help it launch the company’s boldest digital push to date.
“Madden 15,” the 26th installment in the long-running series, officially hits store shelves on Aug. 26, but superfans of the game were able to start playing on Aug. 21 by subscribing to EA Access, a just-launched Netflix-like service that lets fans play back catalog EA games and get early looks at new titles for $5 per month or $30 per year.
Six 
months after pulling down his phenomenally successful app “Flappy Bird” from app stores, the Vietnamese developer behind the viral hit has a new hit game in stores—and there are signs it might be every bit as addictive to gamers as his first.
“Swing Copters” hit both the Apple and Google app stores Thursday morning and is already garnering high praise from critics and players. It’s moving up the charts at a phenomenal pace, too. As of 2 p.m. ET, the game was already the 47th most popular app in all of Apple’s store—and the 12th most popular game.
Google 
is undeniably a big deal, and analysts believe it’s only getting bigger. Ten years after it went public, the search and advertising giant has become an indispensable part of many people’s daily lives.
With a healthy cash stockpile on hand, an active venture capital arm and a cache that’s unrivaled in the online world, Google should be able to not only maintain its king of the hill status, but expand upon it over the next decade, analysts say.
In 
the 10 years since Google’s IPO, there has been a lot of coming and going among the company’s executive ranks.
Some senior staff members, wealthy from their stock options, decided the time was right to take a chance on a new venture. Others were lured to new positions, where they saw the chance to lead an Internet powerhouse—something they’d either never get to do at Google or would have to wait most of their career for the opportunity.
The success rate of Google’s executive defectors has been phenomenal, however. Here’s a look at where nine of the most notable have landed.
Crowdfunding 
has resulted in some terrific new products that might never have seen the light of day. But for every Pebble Watch and Oculus Rift, there’s a very weird counterpart.
Indeed, people support not only the ingenious items on sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo but also often gravitate toward the unusual ones, many of which defy logic and reason but astonishingly meet or even exceed funding goals.
Sometimes it’s a joke that goes viral. Sometimes it’s a legitimate product or campaign that may not make a lot of sense to most people. And sometimes there’s just no explanation for the appeal. Here’s a look at 10 of the oddest crowdfunding projects that have actually struck a chord with backers.
Kickstarter 
has raised a lot of money in its short history. Over the past five years, contributors to the crowdfunding site have pledged more than $1.2 billion, successfully funding more than 65,000 projects.
Most of those projects raised $10,000 or less, but every now and then there’s a true breakout—something that goes viral and collects substantially more. We’ve already run down the top money earners for you, but what happened after the campaign ended?
Here’s a look at what has happened after backers gave their money, along with some important lessons—both good and bad—that crowdfunding hopefuls can learn from Kickstarter’s 10 biggest success stories.
Despite 
what your parents and teachers might have told you, you can make a living playing video games – and you don’t have to be a professional-level player to do so.
Quality assurance testers – QA, for short – are the unsung heroes of the industry, putting games through their paces for months to catch bugs, hiccups and other annoyances before you get your hands on the title. It’s not an easy job, and you’ll have to make an effort to get it. But if you’re looking to get into the games industry, QA is the front door.
Social 
media is an essential part of business today, but it’s one that should come with a warning label.
Interacting with customers and fans of your company can be a tremendous marketing tool. It can also be a recipe for disaster. One slipup—or, in countless cases, a social media manager accidentally tweeting to the company account instead of their own—can make companies accidental laughingstocks (like the time in 2011 when the American Red Cross Twitter feed announced “When we drink, we do it right #gettngslizzard”).
Chris Morris: Journalist 