The Key Ingredient to Effective Cancer Treatments

About 50 percent of cancer patients have tumors that are resistant to radiation because of low levels of oxygen?a state known as hypoxia. A startup in San Francisco is developing proteins that could carry oxygen to tumors more effectively, increasing the odds that radiation therapy will help these patients.

Last month, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) gave that startup, Omniox, $3 million in funding. Omniox is collaborating with researchers at the NCI to test whether its oxygen-carrying compounds improve radiation therapy in animals with cancer.

Most tumors have hypoxic regions, and researchers believe they have a significant impact on treatment outcomes in about half of patients. Tumor cells proliferate with such abandon that they outstrip their blood supply, creating regions with very low levels of oxygen. This lack of oxygen drives tumor cells to generate more blood vessels, which metastatic cells use to travel elsewhere in the body and spread the cancer.

Radiation therapy depends on oxygen to work. When ionizing radiation strikes a tumor, it generates reactive chemicals called free radicals that damage tumor cells. Without oxygen, the free radicals are short-lived, and radiation therapy isn't effective. "Radiation treatment is given today on the assumption that tumors are oxygenated" and will be damaged by it, says Murali Cherukuri, chief of biophysics in the Center for Cancer Research at the NCI in Bethesda, Maryland. "Hypoxic regions survive treatment and repopulate the tumor."

Since the 1950s, researchers have tried many ways to get more oxygen into tumors, without success. Having patients breathe high levels of oxygen prior to radiation doesn't work, and developing an agent to carry oxygen through the blood to a tumor has proved very difficult. Artificial proteins that mimic the body's natural oxygen carrier, hemoglobin, can be dangerously reactive?destroying other important chemicals in the blood. And other oxygen carriers tend to either cling to oxygen too tightly or release it too soon, before it gets to the least oxygenated regions of the tumor.

"We're hoping that since most tumors are hypoxic, we could improve the effectiveness of radiation therapy in a large number of people," says Stephen Cary, cofounder and CEO of Omniox. The company has developed a range of proteins that are tailored to hold onto oxygen until they're inside hypoxic tissue. These proteins are not based on hemoglobin, so they don't have the same toxic effects.

The company's technology comes from the lab of Michael Marletta, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. "Most blood substitutes have failed," says Marletta, because they were based on globin proteins, which includes hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is able to work in the body because it's encased in red blood cells. Unprotected, oxygenated globin proteins react with nitric oxide in the blood, destroying the oxygen, the nitric oxide, and the protein itself.

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G.O.P. Senators Detail Objections to Arms Treaty

In a memorandum to his colleagues, the senator, Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Republican in the upper chamber and his party?s point man on the treaty, called New Start, detailed his objections for the first time since declaring last week that there was not enough time to consider the treaty this year.

From the beginning, Mr. Kyl wrote, he has been clear that he ?could not support reductions in U.S. nuclear forces unless there is adequate attention to modernizing those forces and the infrastructure that supports them.? The administration has committed to spend more money for that purpose, but ?there remain a few substantial concerns about the adequacy of the proposed budget,? the memo said.

?Until these issues are resolved, it will be difficult to adequately assess the updated 1251 plan, despite the welcome increases in proposed spending,? the memo added, using a term referring to the modernization proposal. ?And as has always been clear, assurances from the appropriate authorizers and appropriators must be obtained to ensure that the enacted budget reflects the president?s request.?

The memo, circulated privately to Republican senators on Wednesday and obtained by The New York Times, was also signed by Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, another important figure in the debate. Mr. Corker voted for New Start when it was passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in September, but now agrees with Mr. Kyl that it should not come to a floor vote during the current lame-duck session of Congress.

The White House argued that the problem predated Mr. Obama?s time in office. ?We agree with Senators Kyl and Corker,? said Bob Jensen, a White House spokesman. ?Modernization is needed. As the paper notes, the weapons complex was underfunded? for the five previous years. ?It took several years of underfunding in the period before the president took office to get in this hole,? he said. ?President Obama has a plan to get us out of it.?

Since Mr. Kyl?s statement last week, the White House has mounted a high-profile campaign to press the Senate to approve the treaty before the end of the year, making it a signal test of President Obama?s political strength at home after an election that cost his party control of the House as well as his credibility abroad as he tries to rebuild the relationship with Russia.

In an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said that the stakes for the treaty were high. ?Our uniformed military supports it,? he wrote. ?Our European allies support it. Our national security interests are at stake. It is time for the Senate to approve New Start.?

The White House has been working with Mr. Kyl for months and contends that it has gone out of its way to address his concerns about modernization. It had already proposed spending $80 billion over 10 years on the nuclear complex and added $4.1 billion on Nov. 12 and a little more last week. White House officials felt blindsided by Mr. Kyl?s statement that not enough had been done to assuage him on the treaty.

In their seven-page memo on Wednesday, Mr. Kyl and Mr. Corker said they welcomed the administration?s effort, but wanted further assurances. For one thing, they wrote, the vast bulk of the original $80 billion would have been spent anyway, just ?keeping the lights on? at nuclear laboratories and plants for safety, security, upkeep and routine warhead maintenance. Only $10 billion was new money for weapons activity, they wrote, a point the administration disputes. The latest administration plan, delivered Nov. 17, increased the total 10-year plan to between $85.4 billion and $86.2 billion.

Most of the new money would go to designing and building a new plutonium processing plant at the Los Alamos complex in New Mexico, and a new uranium processing plant at the Oak Ridge complex in Tennessee. The new facilities would replace buildings left over from the Manhattan Project era, when the first nuclear bombs were developed.

But while the facilities would begin partial operations by 2020, they would not be fully functional until 2023 and 2024. ?Additional funding could be applied to accelerate the construction of these facilities to ensure on schedule completion,? the Republican memo said.

Moreover, the new facilities would not have the capacity to produce enough weapons for a larger arsenal should the international political situation demand a renewed buildup, the memo said. And it said the administration should be more clear about its vision for the nuclear triad, meaning the bombers, missiles and submarines that make up the nation?s nuclear force.

The White House played down the differences. ?To the extent there are concerns outlined in the paper, they are about details of the plan,? Mr. Jensen said. ?We can discuss those with the Congress and will continue to do so.?

The memo did not address the treaty?s merits or urge its rejection. Instead, it compared the nation?s nuclear laboratories to a rundown garage trying to maintain Ferraris that have sat in storage for 30 years: ?This is the state of our nuclear deterrent today, except we?re dealing not with cars, but with the most sophisticated and dangerous weapons ever devised by man.?

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Video: Darth Vader hangs out with the Galaxy S in Japanese commercial [TNW Mobile]

Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo has been making a big deal of offering the Galaxy S in iPhone happy Japan (DoCoMo rival Softbank has the iPhone), and has reached out to another kind of galaxy (as in the far, far away kind) for help, bringing in a popular ringer to help it promote the Android phone:

Darth Vader.

Ok, so you?re probably thinking ?Droid? here ? i.e. since Verizon has already paid up for the rights to use the Droid name from Lucas Films, maybe DoCoMo is just going with the whole Star Wars thing right? Well, no, that doesn?t seem to be the case. Neither does Luke?s father (sorry if we spoiled that for you) go around causing havoc with his lightsaber either ? DoCoMo has made him into a kind of silent, laid-back companion in the commercial below.

The Wall Street Journal says that:

A NTT DoCoMo spokeswoman said the company started featuring Lord Vader in commercials this summer along with famous Japanese actor Ken Watanabe to play the human representation of customizable DoCoMo phones. When the carrier started selling Galaxy phones in the autumn, featuring Darth Vader in the new ads happened to be a perfect fit.

Here?s the subtly funny commercial:

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2010/11/26/video-darth-vader-hangs-out-with-galaxy-s-owners-in-japanese-commercial/

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Nokia?s Ovi Suite version 3 reaches beta, integrates with Ovi Music [TNW Apps]

Nokia have released a beta of version 3 of their flagship Ovi Suite.  Ovi Suite allows Nokia handset owners to sync their data between their computers and their telephone.

This new version tightly integrates Nokia?s Ovi Music application with the suite for the first time, bringing it more into line with the competition, Apple?s iTunes.  Ovi Suite benefits over Apple?s software in its ability to download maps direct to the handset saving space and reducing precious mobile bandwidth.

According to Nokia?s betalabs site, users will see the following changes in Ovi Suite v3.

  • quick access to  content and sync
  • a view of recommended apps and games from Ovi Store
  • a view recommended music from Ovi Music
  • update notifications
  • ability to connect to the internet through the mobile device
  • full control of music playback on the handset
  • drag and drop access to the phone

Nokia, once the dominant player in the mobile market (and still the overall leader in market share) has been struggling to compete with Apple and Android smartphones in the last couple of years but is hoping that recent releases will be able to help them reverse that trend.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2010/11/26/nokias-ovi-suite-version-3-reaches-beta-integrates-with-ovi-music/

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U.S. to Drop Color-Coded Terror Alerts

There goes another punch line.

The Department of Homeland Security is planning to get rid of the color-coded terrorism alert system. Known officially as the Homeland Security Advisory System, the five-color scheme was introduced by the Bush administration in March 2002.

Red, the highest level, meant ?severe risk of terrorist attacks.? The lowest level, green, meant ?low risk of terrorist attacks.? Between those were blue (guarded risk), yellow (significant) and orange (high).

The nation has generally lived in the yellow and orange range. The threat level has never been green, or even blue.

In an interview on ?The Daily Show? last year, the homeland security chief, Janet Napolitano, said the department was ?revisiting the whole issue of color codes and schemes as to whether, you know, these things really communicate anything to the American people any more.?

The answer, apparently, is no.

The color-coded threat levels were doomed to fail because ?they don?t tell people what they can do ? they just make people afraid,? said Bruce Schneier, an author on security issues. He said the system was ?a relic of our panic after 9/11? that ?never served any security purpose.?

The Homeland Security Department said the colors would be replaced with a new system ? recommendations are still under review ? that should provide more clarity and guidance. The change was first reported by The Associated Press.

?The goal is to replace a system that communicates nothing,? the agency said, ?with a partnership approach with law enforcement, the private sector and the American public that provides specific, actionable information based on the latest intelligence.?

The department has already begun working toward the goal of providing more specific alerts.

After a Nigerian citizen, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was accused of trying to bring down a Detroit-bound plane last Christmas with explosives, the department issued new guidelines to airports and airlines without raising the threat level.

While the system may have had limited usefulness for the American people, it proved to be comedy gold for late-night shows.

Conan O?Brien joked, ?Champagne-fuchsia means we?re being attacked by Martha Stewart.? Jay Leno said, ?They added a plaid in case we were ever attacked by Scotland.?

Meanwhile, critics of the Bush administration argued that the system was a political tool.

And even Tom Ridge, the secretary of homeland security under President George W. Bush, has raised questions. In his memoir, ?The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege ... And How We Can Be Safe Again,? Mr. Ridge said Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, pushed for an elevated terrorism level in October 2004 after a threatening tape from Osama bin Laden was revealed.

Mr. Ridge wrote that after ?a vigorous, some might say dramatic, debate, I wondered, ?Is this about security, or politics?? ? While the security level ultimately was not raised, he said the incident helped him decide that it was time to leave the government in February 2005.

Amy Wax, president of the International Association of Color Consultants North America, said ? perhaps not surprisingly ? colors could be an effective part of a warning system if tied to specific action. ?How are we going to take those instructions and apply it to our lives?? she said. ?Are we going to go to the airport, or not go to the airport??

She said the agency?s use of ?childish? primary colors like red, yellow and blue might have diluted the impact. ?Purple, orange and magenta might create a sense of something that would get attention,? she said.

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Are Security Scanners Safe?

As millions of U.S. travelers get ready for the busiest flying day of the year, scientists still can't agree over whether the dose of radiation delivered by so-called backscatter machines is significantly higher than the government says. This is despite months of public debate between the White House, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and independent scientists.

Full-body scanners have been installed at many U.S. airports. The machines use either low-energy, millimeter wavelength radiation, which is harmless, or X-rays, which can potentially be hazardous. X-rays can ionize atoms or molecules, which can lead to cancerous changes in cells. Even if the government has significantly underestimated the dose of radiation delivered by an X-ray scanner, it is likely to be relatively small.

The low-energy X-rays emitted by the second type of scanner?also known as a backscatter machine?can pass through clothing but not skin or metal. This makes it possible to spot concealed weapons or explosives, although it also reveals a person, essentially, in the nude. To address this, the U.S. Transportation Security Agency is working on software that converts an image of person into a stick figure, or a blob, without obscuring objects that might pose a security threat. Passengers can also opt to be frisked instead of scanned.

In April, four scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, wrote a public letter to the White House warning that the government may have underestimated the dosage of ionizing radiation delivered to a person's skin from a backscatter machine by one or two orders of magnitude. The scientists, who have expertise in biochemistry, biophysics, oncology, and X-ray crystallography, pointed out that the government's estimate was based on radiation exposure for the entire body. During scanning, the majority of radiation will be focused on the surface of the body, meaning a more concentrated dose of radiation is delivered to the skin.

The Health Physics Society has worked with the FDA to determine the safety of backscatter machines. Spokeswoman Kelly Classic says a dummy made of acrylic is used to measure exposure to ionizing radiation. Sensors attached to the surface of the dummy determine the dose of radiation a person would get from the machine.

The FDA asserts that its method is correct. "This is how we measure the output of X-ray machines and how we've done it for the past 50 years," says Classic.

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The Key Ingredient to Effective Cancer Treatments

About 50 percent of cancer patients have tumors that are resistant to radiation because of low levels of oxygen?a state known as hypoxia. A startup in San Francisco is developing proteins that could carry oxygen to tumors more effectively, increasing the odds that radiation therapy will help these patients.

Last month, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) gave that startup, Omniox, $3 million in funding. Omniox is collaborating with researchers at the NCI to test whether its oxygen-carrying compounds improve radiation therapy in animals with cancer.

Most tumors have hypoxic regions, and researchers believe they have a significant impact on treatment outcomes in about half of patients. Tumor cells proliferate with such abandon that they outstrip their blood supply, creating regions with very low levels of oxygen. This lack of oxygen drives tumor cells to generate more blood vessels, which metastatic cells use to travel elsewhere in the body and spread the cancer.

Radiation therapy depends on oxygen to work. When ionizing radiation strikes a tumor, it generates reactive chemicals called free radicals that damage tumor cells. Without oxygen, the free radicals are short-lived, and radiation therapy isn't effective. "Radiation treatment is given today on the assumption that tumors are oxygenated" and will be damaged by it, says Murali Cherukuri, chief of biophysics in the Center for Cancer Research at the NCI in Bethesda, Maryland. "Hypoxic regions survive treatment and repopulate the tumor."

Since the 1950s, researchers have tried many ways to get more oxygen into tumors, without success. Having patients breathe high levels of oxygen prior to radiation doesn't work, and developing an agent to carry oxygen through the blood to a tumor has proved very difficult. Artificial proteins that mimic the body's natural oxygen carrier, hemoglobin, can be dangerously reactive?destroying other important chemicals in the blood. And other oxygen carriers tend to either cling to oxygen too tightly or release it too soon, before it gets to the least oxygenated regions of the tumor.

"We're hoping that since most tumors are hypoxic, we could improve the effectiveness of radiation therapy in a large number of people," says Stephen Cary, cofounder and CEO of Omniox. The company has developed a range of proteins that are tailored to hold onto oxygen until they're inside hypoxic tissue. These proteins are not based on hemoglobin, so they don't have the same toxic effects.

The company's technology comes from the lab of Michael Marletta, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. "Most blood substitutes have failed," says Marletta, because they were based on globin proteins, which includes hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is able to work in the body because it's encased in red blood cells. Unprotected, oxygenated globin proteins react with nitric oxide in the blood, destroying the oxygen, the nitric oxide, and the protein itself.

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Nokia?s Ovi Suite version 3 reaches beta, integrates with Ovi Music [TNW Apps]

Nokia have released a beta of version 3 of their flagship Ovi Suite.  Ovi Suite allows Nokia handset owners to sync their data between their computers and their telephone.

This new version tightly integrates Nokia?s Ovi Music application with the suite for the first time, bringing it more into line with the competition, Apple?s iTunes.  Ovi Suite benefits over Apple?s software in its ability to download maps direct to the handset saving space and reducing precious mobile bandwidth.

According to Nokia?s betalabs site, users will see the following changes in Ovi Suite v3.

  • quick access to  content and sync
  • a view of recommended apps and games from Ovi Store
  • a view recommended music from Ovi Music
  • update notifications
  • ability to connect to the internet through the mobile device
  • full control of music playback on the handset
  • drag and drop access to the phone

Nokia, once the dominant player in the mobile market (and still the overall leader in market share) has been struggling to compete with Apple and Android smartphones in the last couple of years but is hoping that recent releases will be able to help them reverse that trend.

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T.S.A. Chief Visits Airport to Buck Up Employees and Defend Tactics

Well, sort of.

Mr. Pistole, the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, has become the unwitting face of everything Americans hate about airport security in a post-9/11 world, the most recent outcry being the agency?s new pat-down procedure, which many passengers say feels invasive and inappropriate.

He has been maligned on Twitter ? ?I won?t fly in the U.S. again until John Pistole and TSA are eliminated,? reads one message ? and Democrats and Republicans alike have criticized his agency?s new security measures.

But Mr. Pistole, 54, said that while he had been surprised by the ?fullness of the public reaction,? he was happy to take the heat if it meant keeping travelers safe.

?My hope is that, whatever people want to call me, they recognize that we?re simply doing everything we can to work with people to provide the best possible security,? Mr. Pistole said. ?I have to try to assess what are the risks being posed and what steps we can take to provide the best possible security, while recognizing the privacy issue.?

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, he was greeted in the airport by T.S.A. employees, whom he fist-bumped and thanked for their hard work, and who beamed and thanked him back. ?Thank you for standing behind us,? said the woman checking IDs. Later, two young T.S.A. officers approached him to say, ?Thanks for everything you?re doing for us, dealing with all this media stuff.?

In person, Mr. Pistole ? 6-foot-3 with pale blue eyes and a slow, Indiana timbre ? can seem folksy and warm; he is the son of a Church of God minister, and members of his staff mention his dry sense of humor.

Though he has experience and seems comfortable testifying before Congress, as he did last week, his background is in national security and counterterrorism. He joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1983 and rose through the ranks, serving in Minneapolis and New York before supervising the organized crime section out of the bureau?s Washington headquarters. In 1999, he helped lead the inquiry into the EgyptAir Flight 990 crash off Nantucket, Mass., and in 2004 became the No. 2 F.B.I official. He was President Obama?s third-choice pick to head the T.S.A., a post Mr. Pistole assumed in July, filling an 18-month vacancy.

?He?s somebody who has always impressed me, as well as others, for being exceptionally unflappable, a straight talker, a clear talker and someone who will focus on the objectives and what needs to get done,? said John O. Brennan, Mr. Obama?s top counterterrorism adviser. ?His understanding of the nature of the threat that we face, the evolving nature of it and the creativity these terrorist groups bring to the effort, allows him to understand what we need to do to guard against it.?

Government investigations had already exposed vulnerabilities in the air travel security system, and Mr. Pistole said that after last year?s unsuccessful Christmas Day bombing attempt, when a would-be terrorist boarded a plane with a bomb sewn into his underwear, ?it was an easy decision? to establish more rigorous pat-down procedures. More aggressive pat-downs were already in place in two airports, and the failed Yemen cargo plot last month further illustrated their importance, but when they were recently carried out nationwide, a public uproar ensued.

Mr. Pistole acknowledged that his agency failed to get out ahead of the story ? a conscious security choice on his end, he said ? and he has spent the past week playing catch-up, bouncing from the Sunday news shows to quick nightly news and cable hits to conference calls with reporters.

?We didn?t come out with a tutorial or a demonstration,? he said. ?That?s one way to educate the public, but it?s also one way to educate the terrorists.?

Touring Reagan Airport on the crest of the holiday crush, Mr. Pistole marveled at the short lines, and passed through a modified version of the security screening, which he said was standard procedure when visiting the departure gates.

?Are you going through the famous AIT machine?? asked Ebony James, a security officer, referring to the full-body scanners. ?Step on down and stand on the yellow footprints.?

Mr. Pistole received a modified pat-down, but said he had experienced the real thing, both before he approved the procedure and as a traveler. ?It is effective,? he said. ?It is thorough in the way it?s designed to be, to detect those types of devices that can bring down an airplane.?

So is it something he would want his wife to undergo?

?You say, do I want?? asked Mr. Pistole, who has no Thanksgiving travel plans other than to maybe visit another airport. ?In an ideal world, nobody would need to undergo a pat-down because our technology would be so precise and our intelligence about how we are identifying travelers so informed that nobody would need a pat-down. But that?s not the world we live in.?

Standing before Gate 17, as a plane boarded, Mr. Pistole scanned the crowd and described what he and fellow T.S.A. employees look for.

?Where the groups of people are, are there any people who appear out of normal in any type of way, are there any anomalies from that perspective?? he said. ?And then, do we have some security officers down here who are doing gate checking??

He pointed to a pair of agents, who were doing additional ?random and unpredictable? screening at the gate, and said they also had a behavior detection officer looking for people who might be acting suspiciously ? going out of their way to avoid a bomb-sniffing dog, for instance.

Back outside the screening area, a news anchor was doing a breathless live stand-up: ?... the controversy of tough new screening procedures ...? she intoned.

?We?re not doing that one, are we?? Mr. Pistole asked, laughing and shaking his head as he passed by.

No, his press person, Kristin Lee, affirmed. She pulled him aside for a quick briefing on two breaking items ? a suspicious package had forced the evacuation of the cargo area at Logan International Airport in Boston, and a loaded gun magazine had been found on a Southwest flight ? and Mr. Pistole nodded calmly, before continuing to the other end of the terminal, where a half-dozen camera crews were waiting for him.

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Groupon UK exec comparing Groupon to Adwords: ?we are very cheap?, more effective [TNW Industry]

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Groupon?s UK managing director Chris Muhr (Groupon is called MyCityDeal in the UK) said that Google and Yahoo have shown interest in Groupon because, ?It seems to me if you tap a new market the opportunities seem to be endless.?

?I think the main reason is that we have something that Google does not have and no one else has and that we have really tapped a new market,? said Muhr, before comparing Groupon to AdWords, saying;

Think about Google Adwords ? if they had local business for example. Type in a keyword in Google, say ?bar?. You find a bar in your area. Google then puts up this kind of bubble box that says this is the business and here is the address. But that is it. It does not have direct contact with the business. The business does not come back and say I want to attract customers via that search. Most of the time the customer does not convert from there into an actual customer?You have to factor in the [search engine] optimisation work you have to undergo to benefit from [Google] Adwords and if you do that we are very cheap.

Muhr also said that Groupon should keep high margins for a least the next few years saying, ?As the industry grows and ages the margins could come down. But I?m fairly confident about the next few years.? Of course, Muhr is a Groupon executive and we?re imagining a shareholder, so not too surprising that he would be bullish on Groupon, both now and in the future, but this is certainly an interesting look at how at least one high level manager at Groupon thinks about how the company fits into the advertising ecosystem, especially compared to Google.

Do you agree with Muhr?s assessment of Groupon?s value proposition, especially compared to AdWords? Please let us know in the comments.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/industry/2010/11/26/groupon-uk-exec-comparing-groupon-to-adwords-we-are-very-cheap-more-effective/

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