Ecommerce

Wondering which languages are popular? You can check out a resource like this.

Knol recently launched. Competes against places like wikipedia. Details are available at this article.

Facebook has just launched what it calls “social ads”. Details are available at this Forbes article and at this facebook page.

There have been many media rumors about “gphone”, Google just announced Android, an open platform for mobile phones as its answer to media rumors about “gphone”. More details. (Also see this.)

Google announced common standards for accessing  “api platforms” available across several companies called opensocial.

Resources:

NYT article

If one generates a lot of content on websites and blogs one may find the following article interesting.

Alex Iskold writes about an emerging Internet trend: the seeds of a semantic web. For example, he talks about the shift from pure html to a new emphasis on “xml” type information.

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Publishers (e.g. websites, bloggers) can now get video content for their website and monetize it.

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This article provides interesting perspectives in the future of web startups.  The post is at PaulGraham.com. Paul Graham is one of the partners at Y Combinator.

If you are a US non-profit organization (IRS-certified 501(c)(3)) you may be able to receive donations without incurring any payment collection fees, by using Google checkout. The offer is good till the end of 2008. Check here for details. You might also be able to use youtube to build a cobranded type opportunity and get some exposure in the “promoted videos” areas. Click here for more information.

Glenn Kelman, of Redfin  (online real estate broker)  offers a few actual numbers involved in their startup at this Guy Kawasaki blog. California and Seattle numbers. Details here.

Marc Andreessen, offers his entrepreneurial oriented (less traditional) take on career planning, in this post of his. Some may find it interesting.

Kevin Kelleher, at GigaOM, lists 5 Tips to Spot a Hot (or Not so Hot) IPO. Interesting reading whether you are assessing an IPO, doing an IPO, or merely interested in the topic. Quick read.

The New York Times has an article by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg detailing the rise and trajectory of the best selling book “Eat, Pray, Love”.   May be of interest to book publishers.

Tim Nash on the venture skills blog has an interesting post speculating on the algorithm used to calculate the stumbleupon “juice” a stumbler has. They claim to have empirically tested their theories using a few volunteers.

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Raph Koster is planning to introduce Metaplace, through his new startup, Areae. It is generating a lot of buzz for a variety of reasons. One, is that Ralph Koster has excellent credentials. Among other things, he has been formerly involved with Sony Online and directed the Star Wars Galaxies MMO.

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Google just announced the release of Presently, a direct competitor to Microsoft PowerPoint. This rounds out Google online office suite competitor offerings. (Previously, Google had developed word processor and spreadsheet online programs.)

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Marc Andreessen, of Netscape fame, has written an interesting post on Internet platforms.  His analysis of Internet platforms suggests there are three types of platforms, which he refers to as Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3.

He refers to platforms like paypal and flickr as level 1 platforms with their “access” and REST interfaces.  He categorizes platforms like facebook’s popular platform, as level 2 (or “plug-in” type) platforms.  Finally, he mentions level 3 platforms like ning, saleforce and amazon where the apps run on the host platform.

He predicts an increase in level 3 Internet platforms.  It is an interesting read and available here.

Internet platforms are increasingly important in ecommerce.   In this previous post on making web services/API profitable, incentive schemes to promote platforms are also mentioned.

Forbes has an interesting article on click fraud. Andy Greenberg from Forbes speaks with Shuman Ghosemajumder, Google’s senior product manager and resident click-fraud czar about click fraud, in this Forbes article.

There are some interesting statistics, insights and responses in the article.

Update:
There is value in hearing two sides, so here is the other side. (Tom Cuthbert, Click Forensic’s chief executive, speaks with Forbes.com)

Josh Catone has a nice post at Read/WriteWeb called non-profits web tool kit detailing various tools and resources available online for non-profits.

IBM has spoken words being converted into sign language. The sign language can be handled by animated characters.

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Microsoft is about to offer  a great deal for students and Microsoft Office 2007.  At $59.95! (in 49 minutes from the time of this post).

Check it out here.  Microsoft press release here has more details.

Large companies recognize the enormous marketing and profit potential from encouraging adoption of their web services and APIs by developers. Smart ones, are not leaving such adoptions to chance, and working to sweeten the pot.

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