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News and Events for August 03, 2007 |
| Here is the list of News |
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UK
launches CO2 car rankings Web site
"Britain's Department of Transport has launched a Web site designed
to let new car buyers choose the most environmentally friendly
vehicle for their needs.The "Best on CO2" site uses a ranking
system devised with What Car? The site, on www.dft.gov.uk/ActOnCO2,
allows buyers to search models by category, transmission and
fuel type and to be given a list of the lowest CO2 emitting
models.By choosing the car with the most fuel efficient engine
in its class, drivers could reduce their engine CO2 emissions
by 24 percent and potentially save a quarter on fuel costs,"
said British Transport Minister Jim Fitzpatrick.
The rankings were developed using emissions data from the Vehicle
Certification Agency, the body responsible for conducting official
tests on CO2 emissions. The 14 car categories were developed
by What Car? magazine, based partly on groupings used by the
motor industry to classify cars and partly on reader research
about perceptions of the market. They are: Supermini, Small
family, Family, Estate, MPV, Compact Executive, Executive, Coupe,
Open-top, Hot hatch, Compact 4x4, Large 4x4, Luxury and Performance
Car" |
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Hummingbird Creative Group Receives American Corporate Identity
Award
"RALEIGH, N.C. – Wendy Coulter, president of Hummingbird Creative
Group, a Raleigh-based creative services firm, has announced
that the firm has received an American Corporate Identity Award
for their efforts in designing the Web site for The Castleton
Group, a full-service professional employer organization specializing
in human resources outsourcing. American Corporate Identity
is an annual design competition showcasing only the best work
in American identity graphics.
Hummingbird’s design will be featured in American Corporate
Identity 2008, a full-color, hardbound, 320-page book. Hummingbird
Creative Group is honored to receive this award,” said Coulter.
"We are humbled to be recognized amongst so many talented professionals
in the graphic design industry. About Hummingbird Creative Group:
Hummingbird is a creative services firm specializing in building
brand identities. The firm serves as a partner with their clients
to provide unique, award-winning design, advertising and marketing
services, including: logos, branding, marketing strategies,
advertising, web design, public relations, and promotions.
Since its establishment, the firm has repeatedly been recognized
as an industry leader. Most recently, Hummingbird was acclaimed
as a winner of the American Corporate Identity 22 Competition,
an annual award showcasing the best corporate identity design
in America today and two 2006 American Graphic Design Awards,
for promotional card and logo designs. For more information,
please call 919-854-9100 or visit the Web site at http://www.hummingbird-creative.com"
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Web Hosting Cluster Server Technology, Featured by Netfirms,
at HostingCon 2007
"Web hosting provider for small to medium-sized businesses (SMB),
Netfirms, at the recent HostingCon 2007 event held in Chicago,
hosted a major topic of discussion on clustered server (grid)
hosting, at the ''The Future of Service Enablement'' keynote.
The majority of the panel agreed that clustered technology is
the way of the future. Philbert Shih, Senior Analyst, Tier1
Research recognized Netfirms as a leader in clustered hosting,
during his HostingCon session titled ''Marketing Web Hosting
Services in a Rapidly Transforming Market.'' Tophosts.com also
recognized Netfirms as a leader in clustered server technology
during the event.
The article titled ''The Benefits of Clustered Web Hosting''
showcases the Netfirms clustered hosting platform. Jason Matheson,
Product Manager at Netfirms remarked, ''Clustered hosting is
better on all levels. It's faster to develop on, it's more reliable
because there's no single point of failure and it's going to
be up 100 per cent of the time. We offer clustered hosting because
it increases efficiency and reliability, two things our customers
expect from us.
It's only a matter of time before other hosts realize clustered
hosting is the way to go.'' Netfirms, Inc., founded in 1998,
provides web hosting solutions and technology to successful
small and medium-sized businesses, home office, entrepreneurs
and individuals worldwide. Netfirms hosts over 1,000,000 websites,
with offices in the U.S. and Canada. Netfirms was selected in
2006 as one of HostReview.com's Top 10 Fastest Growing Web Hosting
Companies" |
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Google Dumps The Supplemental Results Label
"Google has announced that it is dumping the supplemental result
label for pages listed within its supplemental index. Does that
mean the supplemental index has gone away? No. But Google promises
that being in the supplemental index versus the main index should
be less of an issue for site owners, going forward. More about
the change, below.
Back in September 2003, Google unveiled the supplemental index
as a way for it to index more pages from the web but not get
bogged down actually searching through those billions and billions
of them unless necessary. By and large, it was less important
pages that ended up in the supplemental index. If Google's main
index containing what it considered the best or most important
pages -- didn't seem to have a match, then Google would look
to the supplemental index for listings.
Pages in the supplemental index could, did and do rank -- but
only generally if there's not much to be found in the primary
index. As a result, site owners who discovered that many of
their pages were in the supplemental index would worry. They
interpreted that as a sign that Google saw much of their content
to be not as important. And that was a fair enough interpretation.
The pages really were "second class" in the sense of being listed
only if the main index had nothing gripping plus the fact that
Google might not revisit pages in the supplemental index for
months" |
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Is
Yahoo`s Smart Ads a Smart Idea?
"In Yahoo’s current “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”
situation, one can wonder about the timing for trotting out
Smart Ads. Is it a real advance in search advertising? And even
if it is, will it save the search engine? In this article, I’ll
look at Smart Ads and consider it in the context of where search
is, and where it’s going.Smart Ads takes advantage of the fact
that Yahoo has a huge audience – it’s one of the most-visited
sites on the web – and that this audience checks out various
areas of Yahoo’s site. It’s easy enough to start by checking
your Yahoo Mail, cruise over to Yahoo News, find out the forecast
in Yahoo Weather…you get the idea.
Users have cookies that follow them around, which is how Yahoo
knows about its visitors.So how does this play into Yahoo Smart
Ads? Let’s look at the example that Yahoo gives in its demo
of the technology. Joe User lives in Los Angeles, but loves
his online casino sites. One day he searches for Las Vegas deals,
perhaps dreaming of a visit to Sin City. Later, when he’s looking
up Yahoo Weather, he sees a display ad that plays to this interest,
telling him about cheap flights to Las Vegas.
This is behavioral targeting, also known as behavioral advertising;
I’ve discussed it before on SEO Chat. It can be very effective
and perhaps relatively cheap for advertisers. According to Yahoo’s
press release, the SmartAds platform “allows advertisers and
agencies to design a single set of individual creative components,
provide Yahoo! with the artwork and a feed to their entire database
of offers, then allow Yahoo!’s SmartAds technology to automatically
generate the hundreds – if not thousands – of unique ad combinations
based on those components.
So you can not only appeal to Joe User with dreams of a Vegas
vacation, but also Ellie who wants to escape Seattle for sunny
Florida, Arthur from Idaho who’s curious about New York’s big
city lights, Martin from Minnesota who’s always had a hankering
to play cowboy in Texas…you get the idea. I’m using the travel
examples mainly because Yahoo is starting its roll out of Smart
Ads with its travel industry advertisers in the U.S. It’s not
a bad place to start; I just hope the search engine is prepared
to address some possible glitches in the approach to be obvious
at first glance" |
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Google-eBay
Rivalry Heats Up
"Many analysts were all but cackling over the recent
exchange of blows between eBay and Google. It can be funny to
see two large companies acting like a pair of schoolyard bullies
to each other. But this isn’t elementary school, it’s business
-- and warrants closer examination. It was pretty amazing, first
to see eBay get all huffy about Google trying to steal its thunder
by holding a party in the same town at the same time, and second
to see Google blink in response to what eBay did about it. But
there’s a lot more going on here; this rivalry has a long history,
so to understand the current moves, we need to take a closer
look and even go back in time.
As you’ll see, if eBay and Google were two people instead of
two e-commerce companies, a psychologist might go crazy trying
to figure them out. To start with, let’s go all the way back
to 2002. Relatively new search engine Google was cool then,
but barely a contender when compared to its current position
in the market. Online auction site eBay, on the other hand,
was already known as the place to go for, well, just about anything;
people called it the world’s biggest garage sale, for a good
reason. The only problem was that most garage sales only take
cash; how do you pay for something online when the seller can’t
accept credit cards? At that point, there were a number of online
payment services ready and waiting to fill in the gap. The most
prominent was PayPal, but eBay came late to the game with its
own, which it tried to promote.
It couldn’t forbid its customers from using PayPal because too
many customers were using it already. By 2002 eBay finally took
to heart the old saying “If you can’t beat them, buy them,”
and purchased PayPal, quietly retiring its own online payment
service. Let’s take a quick look at eBay and PayPal today, because
you’ll need to understand the latter’s importance to the former
to get the most out of this trip down memory lane. PayPal now
boasts 143 million user accounts throughout the world -- there
are still some countries in which you can’t use PayPal, but
not very many, and I wouldn’t be surprised if plans to bring
those countries into the fold are solidly in the works. PayPal
brought in $1.4 billion in revenue for eBay last year, making
up more than 20 percent of the $6 billion the online auction
giant made in 2006" |
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Google-eBay
Rivalry Heats Up - EBay Strikes, Google Blinks
"In retaliation, eBay pulled all of its advertising
from Google. While eBay refused to admit that it was doing that
specifically because Google was throwing that party, Hani Durzy,
an eBay spokesman, did say that “We didn’t think it was the
way for one partner to treat another.” And then an amazing thing
happened: Google blinked. At the last minute, it canceled the
party. The official Google blog entry announcing the reversal
said in part that “EBay Live attendees have plenty of activities
to keep them busy this week in Boston, and we did not want to
detract from that activity. After speaking with officials at
eBay, we at Google agreed that it was better for us not to feature
this event during the eBay Live conference.
” Nobody is fooled into thinking that eBay pulled the ads for
any reason other than as a reaction to Google’s attempt to put
pressure on them with this party (eBay has tried to claim that
it’s an “experiment”). Nor is anyone fooled into thinking that
Google’s response was due to the search engine suddenly having
an attack of good taste. With those fig leaves removed, what
can we take home from this? First of all, we now know that large
companies are still capable of acting like middle school students.
Here’s a nice article that makes that point. More importantly,
despite providing Google with a relatively small fraction of
its revenue, eBay is strong enough to make it blink; some of
us were beginning to wonder whether that was even possible.
If others take that lesson to heart, Google may find itself
ducking more blows in the future. But most importantly, eBay’s
move may give others in the game something to think about: there
is life beyond Google. If eBay sincerely wants to characterize
this move as an “experiment” to see how well its advertising
is spent, it is going to have to go through with it. What kind
of return will it see by investing the advertising dollars originally
earmarked for Google with Yahoo, Microsoft, and Ask? I suspect
a lot of people would like to learn the results of that experiment"
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Gphone:
Google's Latest Play for Global Domination
"Google's mysterious poking around in the wireless
communications space is spawning rumors of an advertising-supported
smartphone carrying the Google brand. The rumors have been given
some support, however, by a Wall Street Journal article that
says the search and advertising giant is courting wireless service
providers for the would-be device. For its part, Google is saying
very little,The persistent rumors surrounding a Google (Nasdaq:
GOOG) "Gphone" have been stoked again, this time by a Wall Street
Journal article that reports that Google is courting wireless
operators to provide an ad-supported mobile phone service to
Google-customized handsets" |
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eBiz News: PayPal Deferral
Plan, Site Engagement Metrics
"PayPal offers a deferral payment plan, LinkShare
begins testing a new protocol designed to improve search engine
rankings, WebTrends rolls out a new metric to measure online
engagement as opposed to just page views and Actinic launches
a business division. Also in headlines this week: Global Sources
announces plans for a sports equipment B2B Web site to debut
this fall. Shop Now, Pay Later Paypal Pay Later is a new service
that allows e-tailers to offer promotional financing.
Buyers that choose the promotional offer can defer payments
for purchases on participating merchant Web sites. The new plan
allows online merchants to offer a transactional credit account
with flexible financing options to buyers at check out — even
if a buyer doesn't have a PayPal account. Financing options,
such as no payments for 90 days, give Web shop owners another
marketing method for attracting online shoppers. According to
a study conducted by Northstar Research Partners and commissioned
by PayPal, 56 percent of PayPal users are more likely to purchase
from a site if a PayPal deferred payment option is available.
The PayPal Pay Later service is issued by GE Money Bank, one
of the world's leading providers of consumer credit. PayPal's
new deferred payment option is currently available to consumers
and select merchants in the U.S." |
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Kodak
Sees Q2 Profit, Continues Transition to Digital
"After beginning a major company overhaul in 2003,
Kodak is moving into the profit zone, reporting a second quarter
gain of $592 million, versus a $282 million loss a year ago.
The company's strategy is to become a digital heavyweight in
photography and commercial printing by 2008.
Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) swung to a second-quarter profit Thursday
despite lower sales and hefty restructuring charges as the company
continues its painful transition to digital photography. Kodak
earned US$592 million, or $2.06 a share, in the April-June quarter,
versus a loss of $282 million, or 98 cents a share, a year ago,
when it also took large one-time charges tied to a massive four-year
overhaul.Shares jumped $1.60 in early trading Thursday, more
than 6 percent, to $27.15". |
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Tech
Industry Sounds Battle Cry for Fair Use Rights
"Overly aggressive copyright protectors are getting
a little push back from the CCIA, which contends consumers'
fair use rights are being violated. Every time an American consumer
opens a book, plays a DVD or watches a wide range of broadcast
programs, he or she is confronted by strong language warning
of what they are not allowed to do with that product," reads
its complaint to the FTC,A tech association representing such
industry stalwarts as Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Microsoft (Nasdaq:
MSFT) is taking aim at what it sees as a stealth campaign to
intimidate consumers from exercising their fair use rights with
respect to copyrighted material.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association has filed
a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission stating that such
organizations as Major League Baseball, the National Football
League and NBC/Universal, to name just a few, have been misleading
consumers for years about their rights under the fair use doctrine
in copyright law. "Every time an American consumer opens a book,
plays a DVD or watches a wide range of broadcast programs, he
or she is confronted by strong language warning of what they
are not allowed to do with that product," the executive summary
of the complaint reads.
"By design or effect, many of these warnings are misleading
and harmful to millions of American consumers, customers and
businesses," it continues. In fact, these statements grossly
misrepresent federal law, which allows use of this material
in certain circumstances, the CCIA contends." |
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Lawson Software's Harry Debes: We're the Anti-SAP
"After beginning a major company overhaul in 2003,
Kodak is moving into the profit zone, reporting a second quarter
gain of $592 million, versus a $282 million loss a year ago.
The company's strategy is to become a digital heavyweight in
photography and commercial printing by 2008.
Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) swung to a second-quarter profit Thursday
despite lower sales and hefty restructuring charges as the company
continues its painful transition to digital photography. Kodak
earned US$592 million, or $2.06 a share, in the April-June quarter,
versus a loss of $282 million, or 98 cents a share, a year ago,
when it also took large one-time charges tied to a massive four-year
overhaul.Shares jumped $1.60 in early trading Thursday, more
than 6 percent, to $27.15". |
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Lawson
Software's Harry Debes: We're the Anti-SAP
"Right now, there are a lot of media representatives
and analysts telling the customer community, 'Here's the deal:
You can have two wines. One's a California red, and the other's
a German white, and that's it. Which do you like?' The customer
doesn't want just one flavor of red or white -- they want the
pinot and the zinfandel too. The customer wants a choice. The
CEO of Lawson talks about ERP (enterprise resource planning)
on-demand, market consolidation and playing the role of the
anti-SAP.
Harry Debes took over as CEO of Lawson Software (Nasdaq: LWSN)
in June 2005, just as the company was acquiring Sweden-based
Intentia International, a deal that would make Lawson one of
the top ERP vendors in size behind SAP (NYSE: SAP) , Oracle
(Nasdaq: ORCL) Lawson now faces a market dominated on the one
hand by much larger players and, on the other, by smaller agile
companies, such as Salesforce.com and NetSuite , that offer
hosted applications" |
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