Ecommerce

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.)

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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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.

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.

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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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.

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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Few breakthroughs promise to revolutionize business and the Internet as much as advances in translation services. Vast new networks of people and content sources can be unlocked with such changes. Moreover, trends in technology are expected to continue to improve translation in the years ahead. While human translators will continue to remain important, there is sometimes value in a quick, rough translation that may not not 100% perfect or accurate.

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Richard MacManus has a post on 10 future web trends. You can check it out here.

I have been interested in, and following, a number of trends for a while. These include: augmented reality, cyborgs, machine intelligence partnerships on the Internet, rapid advanced translations, globalization, web services/APIs, and a number of other interesting possibilities. Some material is also mentioned in an earlier book.

There has been a lot of speculation that Google could be entering the phone marketplace.  One interesting article that tries to  envision how such a Google phone might look like is here.

Stephan Spencer offers 12 useful tips to search engine optimize (seo) your blog posts here.   You can also watch a video on seo using whitehat techniques.

This article discusses some interesting developments occurring with Google maps.  (For example, maps will soon be embeddable like youtube videos.)

Google also appears to be using paid “crowd sourcing” type techniques to build its map related databases. See here.

Previously, EMI had entered the foray with some digital music without drm.  ( This post has some thoughts on that topic.)  Now, Universal, is floating a 6 month trial of drm-free music.  (This other post however suggests that Universal may still watermark its drm-free music.)  Interesting developments in the field…

More ad dollars are moving online. While tv, newspapers and radio ads are experiencing some difficulties, online ads are continuing to grow rapidly. See details here.

Other resources:
In related news, this  article discusses  a four-year study, conducted by Nielsen/NetRatings on how people are spending their time online.

Want your blog posts to rank better in the results returned by the search engines? Matt Cutts talks about whitehat seo techniques for bloggers at WordCamp 2007 in this video. (Matt Cutts works in Google at the quality group, and specializes in search engine optimization issues.)

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In the “Ecommerce Well” paperback, it is mentioned that with the introduction of revolutionary new technologies and the Internet, changes to the field of intellectual property may occur. One such innovation is the introduction of the creative commons license. What is the creative commons idea? Since a picture is worth a thousand words ….

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The paperback book, Ecommerce Well, has a short section on the variety of business models proliferating in ebusinesses and the internet. Why are business models so important? Why was it worth a few pages in the book? An example may be worth a thousand words.

Yesterday, Prince sent shock waves through the music industry when he challenged the prevailing business model in the music industry with a disruptive business model - clearly showcasing the power of this technique.

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Google and Yahoo both allow one to build custom search engines. Google recently also opened what was a manual (wizard or xml file driven) process by releasing an api.  (A brief introduction to mashups and APIs was given in the “Ecommerce Well” paperback.)

As mentioned in this ecommerce well book excerpt (on market segmentation), despite the advent of the age of the internet

it does not necessarily follow that entities like “traditional” TV stations will become less profitable. After all, the “traditional” movie business did not have to become less profitable with the advent of the video cassette tape. “Entertainment” has been around for a long time, and people have always found ways to monetize it.

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