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Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Google takes ad sales to print

Google takes ad sales to print | CNET News.com: "Google is quietly testing the print ad market in an attempt to capture traditional advertising dollars. The search giant recently began buying ad pages in technology magazines, including PC Magazine and Maximum PC, and reselling those pages.

The move is another significant step for Google toward becoming a one-stop shop for ad sales--whether online or offline. The trial also marks the first time the company has ventured offline with any of its products, according to industry watchers."

Google

Teleworking -- Is It Right For Your Enterprise?

E-Commerce News: Enterprise : Teleworking -- Is It Right For Your Enterprise?: "By Jay Lyman'

While companies can and do successfully assess how best to leverage telework scenarios where employees work from home offices, hotels or elsewhere, there is still apprehension on the part of some managers and executives who fear employees will not work to their full potential when not under the company's watch...

There's a sense that people who telecommute are more flexible,' said Interarbor Solutions principal analyst Dana Gardner. 'They can combine their home and work life, and they will go the extra yard when needed because they've been given the opportunity to better manage their time.'

Gardner stressed that teleworking is not right for all occupations; it certainly raises security issues for IT managers. Nevertheless, by using technology such as VPNs, encryption and keeping data on secured servers that telecommuters work on in remote sessions, Gardner said most of the security and clearance concerns can be addressed.

The analyst indicated the real challenge for companies, particularly human resources departments, is creating the right compensation and incentive structures for off-site workers.

"I have to think that many employers put the burden on an employee to make this work," Gardner said. "They say, 'You figure it out' ... whether it's IT [or otherwise], it's basically adopt to us, which I think is a little off the mark."

"Companies should ask themselves, what should we do?""

Google

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Internet Mergers: Who's Next?

Internet Mergers: Who's Next?: "As the Web matures, the pace of deals is picking up again, spurred by reasonable price tags on some of the smaller outfits

Dealmaking has returned to the Internet sector with an intensity not seen in years. Web companies have shaken off the stigma associated with the Nasdaq crash of 2000 and are attracting big buyers from both the on- and offline worlds"

Google

Q&A with AOL Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis

iMedia Connection: "Leonsis will present the keynote address, "Not New Media: THE Medium," at September's iMedia Brand Summit in San Diego.

Weeks: What is the future of content online? What are some of the newer forms of content delivery that you see taking hold in the industry, and what are the implications to marketers? How is this medium evolving? How will content formats evolve?

Leonsis: The great news about content online is that it will continue to proliferate and become more and more personalized and user-generated. Real Simple Syndication -- RSS -- is allowing everyone to become an editor; blogging and the ease of producing audio and video content are allowing everyone to become a publisher or performer.

Plus, as search becomes more and more powerful, it becomes both a form and an enabler of content. It will allow users to locate and download the information and entertainment they are looking for -- both produced and user-generated. Already, the web's versatility and capabilities are making it the hub for music and video entertainment, both live and recorded, video and audio, connected to home entertainment systems.

Weeks: What are the opportunities for marketers in the post button and banner online world?

Leonsis: The real opportunity for marketers can be described in one word: performance. CPM, CPC and CPA are coming together, and it's no longer about the form of marketing or the sheer number of impressions -- it's about results. The medium can now target ads based on response data including behavior, geography, time of day, the type of creative and more. We can instantly know what's working and make adjustments. And with increased bandwidth and the explosion in rich media, we can provide more creative approaches that capture attention and engage users.

Advertisers no longer have to echo the lament attributed to F.W. Woolworth -- "I know that half of my advertising budget is wasted. The problem is that I don't know which half." None of your marketing budget has to be wasted. It can go where you want it to go and achieve the results you want it to achieve.

Weeks: What's the best advice you can give a marketer for success in today's marketplace?

Leonsis: I would tell a marketer to stop thinking about the web as "new media." It's now the medium. Instead of making the interactive medium an add-on in your marketing spend, make us the first stop -- and spend the leftovers on the old media.""

Google

Early Look at Research Project to Re-engineer the Internet

Early Look at Research Project to Re-engineer the Internet - New York Times: "The National Science Foundation is planning an effort to fundamentally re-engineer the Internet and overcome its shortcomings, creating a network more suited to the computerized world of the next decade.

The new project, the Global Environment for Networking Investigations, was described for the first time by researchers and foundation officials at a technical meeting held in Philadelphia last week.

Mr. Kleinrock said it would be possible to design a network that was better able to handle traffic from the edge of the network, at the level of individual users. In the next decade, computer researchers expect an explosion of data from mobile and wireless devices as well as sensors that will vastly outnumber today's PC's.

The project described last week is an opportunity to work from a clean slate, according to several researchers involved in planning it.

"If you look at the Internet today, it does what it does really well," said David Clark, a senior research scientist at the Laboratory for Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It's profound, but we can look at it and see some things that aren't right. The most obvious is that there is no framework for security."

When the Internet was designed in the 1970's, its engineers did not expect that the project would have to be scaled to cover much of the world's population, and security was not an important consideration.

"The culture of the original Internet was one of trust," Mr. Kleinrock said."

Google

Monday, August 29, 2005

The $50 Million Giveaway

Want to start a company? We found 11 venture capitalists sitting on business ideas they're dying to bankroll. All you have to do is send them exactly the right business plan.

Business 2.0 - Magazine Article - Printable Version - The $50 Million Giveaway: "$3M SOCIAL NETWORKS MEET THE TOWN CRIER
WHO: Jim Lussier, Norwest Venture Partners, Palo Alto
WHO HE IS: A former exec at Accenture and Beyond.com, Lussier handles software and services for Norwest, which manages $1.8 billion in venture funds and won big with investments in PeopleSoft (PSFT) and Tivoli Systems. Lussier led recent deals with travel-services company G2 Switchworks and P2P radio broadcaster Mercora.
WHAT HE WANTS: A kind of souped-up Craigslist for every neighborhood, everywhere. Just type in a zip code, and this website will present not just garage sale listings and classified ads, but headlines and photos from dozens of local news sites run by busybodies willing to provide free content and keep it constantly updated.
WHY IT'S SMART: The idea taps into the same social-networking allure that helped make Flickr a $35 million Yahoo (YHOO) acquisition -- that is, user-driven content, organized so that all visitors get a slick stage to showcase their stuff. In this case, the stuff isn't just photos but local knowledge: updates on a rash of burglaries, say, or a ranking of preschools. (The most popular contributors might receive a small percentage of ad revenue.) The site could also offer a marketplace for everything from baby-sitting to tree trimming. Sure, a number of regional websites already offer something similar, but this site would aggregate the content under one umbrella and provide a platform to scale it across the nation. If all goes as planned, Lussier says, paid ads could bring in as much as $100 million a year.
WHAT HE WANTS FROM YOU: A website template finished within six months on a $500,000 budget. (Lussier estimates that a team of two or three can do the job.) If it sho"

Google

Weblogs, Inc. � THE PUBLIC BETA

Weblogs, Inc. THE PUBLIC BETA - The Weblogs, Inc. Weblog - corporate.weblogsinc.com _: "For bloggers looking to partner with usWeblogs, Inc. is currently looking for bloggers with industry expertise in the following industries: media, technology, business and life sciences.

If youre interested in partnering with us email us with the vertical you would like to launch and your basic qualifications."

Google

The Weblogs, Inc. Weblog - weekly best_

The Weblogs, Inc. Weblog - corporate.weblogsinc.com _

Google

Timely Warnings...Blogging Can Get You Sued! : SEO Book.com

Blogger sued over comments left on Blog The Blog Herald: more blog news more often: "The guru behind SEO Book Aaron Wall (who for the record is also advertising here with BlogAds) is being sued by Traffic-Power.com in relation to comments left on his blog by other people. "

Timely Warnings...Blogging Can Get You Sued! : SEO Book.com

NOTICE! YOU HAVE BEEN SUED : SEO Book.com: "Traffic Power just filed a civil lawsuit against me.

I looked at many of the sites that were referenced in my comments, and it looks as though many of them were forced to remove their comments / content by Traffic Power, or decided to remove it on their own. A couple examples are SEO Consultants Traffic Power section and & SE Roundtable's post located here http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/000596.html

As far back as June 4th, 2004 I removed a comment that I thought was offensive, and I thought generally I was keeping the content in bounds of any sort of legal limit. It is ok to have an opinion. It is ok for others to post their opinions. Since the initial time someone cold called me stating they were from Traffic Power the content has aged over a year and never once has Traffic Power attempted to contact me outside of blog comments, a cease and desist, and a lawsuit.

Could you imagine being a client for a company that communicates like that?

Had at any point in time Traffic Power made ANY LEGITIMATE ATTEMPT to tell me what specifically I or my site did wrong, I probably would have promptly removed it.

Imagine if your company had trade secrets disclosed on a website that got around 100,000 pageviews a month. Would you wait a year to sue for trade secrets being disclosed? Would you fail to point them out specifically so that they may be quickly removed if they were legitimate trade secrets?

Their lawyer has sorta gave me an ultimatum. Verbally he stated that if I removed ALL content related to Traffic Power from SEO Book.com that they would drop the suit. Currently I am drafting a request for a written statement, since verbal agreements do not override papers, and they already filed papers on me.

I have not decided whether or not it was in by best interests to fight this yet. I have a bit of money, but not tons. I have a bit of time, but not tons.

As far as potential upsides to proceeding with the legal ordeals:


It would preserve the content others have wrote on my site. I would not go mangling the content of those who aided in making this site more complete and / or more useful.

It would teach me a good amount about the legal system at a fairly young age.

Few people heavily rely upon me and I have minimal living costs, so I have little to lose on that front. Especially since I am young enough and quick learning enough to where even if I had nothing I could still do well in a year anyhow.

I hate to admit it, but I have for some odd reason always been more motivated to take action by negative influences such as incidents like this.

It would be an ego stroke to win, although I am not sure what legitimate value that has, and there are much better and cheaper ways to get a good ego stroke.

My posts rank well in search results, and it probably drives significant traffic to my website. That, in turn, may save a good number of businesses a significant amount of money.

I already rank second for their lawyer's name, and if I beat them I am certain I could easily boost that ranking to #1.

Others who were sued (it looks as though 5 people and 5 companies - although many of them might be people who commented on my site) would not need to go it alone.

Traffic Power would probably realize that bullying and intimidation are not the solution to bad PR. The real solution is fixing the problems that cause the bad PR. Even if my site has it's information taken down there are plenty of other sites that have similar information posted to them. Unless their business model or client communications strategy change I can only guess that other sites will continue to post bad stuff.

Since there is no specific information in the lawsuit it would probably get thrown out of court the first day.

There are still blatently defamatory forums created about me. It seems a bit stupid for me to give in because they hired a lawyer when it is obvious that someone out there is doing far worse to me, and that anonymous third party promotes Traffic Power and lies blatently about me.

I may be able to countersue, but I hear it is hard to sue companies working out of Las Vegas. That is the reason many telemarketing type companies are located in Nevada.

I have some friends who are far richer than I who stated they may be willing to help cover associated legal costs.

As far as potential downsides to proceeding with the legal ordeals:


It would eat time that I could use to focus on productive and useful ideas, tools, marketing methods, and learning.

There may be something worth suing for in the posts or comments. I am rather naive to the laws that govern such behavior. I do know that by me deleting and annotating the deletion of that one offensive post it shows that my intent was not purely evil or negative. It also helps show that if Traffic Power made any legitimate attempt to tell me specifically what was wrong they may have got a solution prior to them needlessly spending money talking to a lawyer.

The lawsuit would eat money that I could invest, give to charity, or spend on better things.
The Traffic Power story has died down, and it may make me look like a lamer to keep being involved in that story.

When I asked for more information or specifics Max D. Spilka told me it was too volumous to state. Some of my legal friends have stated that too volumous usually means there is nothing there.

Some of the opinions are fairly harsh, with some people stating things like:


In my opinion, all trafficpower.com is is just a bunch of cheep everyday crooks. They should all be in jail.

traffic-power.com called me today at 4:34am in the morning!!! What the F*@k ! They do not even check the time zones of who they are calling? I line in Hawaii .. Can anything be done to stop these people?!?!

I also left the posts that were pro / for Traffic Power as well, while also noting that none of them ever listed a specific URL.

For those who want to dig through the archives:


here is the initial post I made about the time I was cold called by a person who stated they were representing Traffic Power.

that post may have led to me being included in the bogus defamatory hate forums I noted here

on this page, someone asked me why I am not suing them over the content which is on the fake forums

this post notes that they may have changed names, as originally referenced by an SEO Consultants page that was later taken down.

here I cover what I thought was a fake press reference to the situation

recently they sent me a cease and desist order

they also recently sued Traffic Power Sucks

I am fairly certain I am probably just going to pull the content. Not so much for the legal reasons, but more for karma related ones, sorta like Nick's reasonings here.

If you bring enough negative crap into your life then eventually you can't help but become it.

Also, if Traffic Power did not exist, some other company would take that market position. This blog can not really help those people because I can't keep giving extended coverage to everything I do not think is good or my blog will just become a rant blog or whinge blog.

I tried creating something that was free and more of a bottoms up thing for SEO when I was a bit more naive than I am today, but if fell flat on it's face because some people claimed it was a self promo maneuver, even though I registered it by proxy and tried to remove much of my personal bias from my writing.

Ultimately though I am just an exceptionally small voice in an exceptionally crowded field. Recently O'Reilly even mentioned that one of my affiliates was a deceptive advertiser because they bought a link next to his cuban cigar link and had a footer affiliate link on their site.

Danny Sullivan is one of the few people in this industry that has a credible voice outside of this industry. He is probably one of the few people who can set initiatives, bring things together, and change things. I am still a bit too young, naive, and not-so-business-savvy to pretend that what I do can in any way fill that sort of a role. I really don't think me actively highlighting one or a few specific companies really makes anything better in the grand scheme of things.

If you posted comments to any of the prior posts please make sure you keep a copy for yourself if you want it, as the posts may be taken down soon.

If you post comments to this page make sure you also post them on your own blog or website, as this post may be taken down soon.

In the extended portion of the post is a rough copy of the "NOTICE! YOU HAVE BEEN SUED" notification. I am interested in your thoughts and comments.

-------------------------------------------------------

Software Development and Investment of Nevada d/b/a Traffic Power.com., a Nevada corporation,
Plaintiff
vs.
Aaron Wall, an individual, d/b/a SEO Book.com, and DOES I through X; and ROE CORPORATIONS I through X, inclusive,
Defendants.

CASE NO.: A508400
DEPT NO.: V

SUMMONS - CIVIL

NOTICE! YOU HAVE BEEN SUED. THE COURT MAY DECIDE AGAINST YOU WITHOUT YOUR BEING HEARD UNLESS YOU RESPOND WITHIN 20 DAYS. READ THE INFORMATION BELOW.

TO THE DEFENDANT(S): A civil Complaint has been filed by the Plaintiff(s) against you for the relief set forth in the Complaint.

Aaron Wall
SEO Book.com
144 Dahlia Drive
State College, PA 16803

1. If you intend to defend this lawsuit, within 20 days after this Summons is served on you, exclusive of the date of service, you must do the following:

a. File with the Clerk of this Court, whose address is shown below, a formal written response to the Complaint in acordance with the rules of the Court, with appropriate filing fee.

b. Serve a copy of your response upon the attorney whose name and address is shown below.

2. Unless you respond, your default will be entered upon application of the Plainiff(s) and this Court may enter a judgement against you for the relief demanded in the Complaint, which could result in the taking of money or property or other relief requested in the Complaint.

3. If you intend to seek advice of an attorney in this manner, you should do so promptly so that your response may be filed on time.

4. The State of Nevada, its political subdivisions, agencies, officers, employees, board members, commission members and legislators, each have 45 days after service of the Summons within which to file an Answer or other responsive pleading to the Complaint.

Submitted by
____________
Max D. Spilka, Esq.
Neveda Bar No.: 4388
8330 W. Sahara Ave, Ste. 290
Las Vegas, Nevada 89117
(702) 933-5400
Attorney for Plaintiff

SHIRLEY B. PARRAGUIRRE, CLERK OF COURT
By: PATRICIA BOGGESS AUG 11 2005
Deputy Clerk Date

Clark County Courthouse
200 South Third Street
Las Vegas, Nevada 89155


-------------------------------------------
MAX D. SPILKA, CHTD.
Nevada Bar No. 4388
8330 W. Sahara Ave., Suite 290
Las Vegas, Nevada 89117
Telephone:(702)933-5400
Facsimile:(702)227-0799
Attorney for Plaintiff,
Software Development and Investment of Nevada
dba Traffic-Power.com., a Nevada Corporation,

DISTRICT COURT
CLARK COUNTY, NEVADA

Software Development and Investment of Nevada d/b/a Traffic Power.com., a Nevada corporation,
Plaintiff
vs.
Aaron Wall, an individual, d/b/a SEO Book.com, and DOES I through X; and ROE CORPORATIONS I through X, inclusive,
Defendants.

CASE NO.: A508400
DEPT NO.: V

COMPLAINT FOR DAMAGES
Arbitration Exemption Claimed: Injunctive Relief (exraordinary relief)

Plaintiff, SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT OF NEVADA dba TRAFFIC-POWER.COM., a Nevada corporation, ("Plaintiff"), by and through its attorney MAX D. SPILKA, ESQ., for its causes of action against the Defendant, AARON WALL, an individual d/b/a SEO BOOK.COM ("Defendants"), and each of them, complaints and allegations as follows:

GENERAL ALLEGATIONS

1. Plaintiff is a corporation duly organized and validly existing in the State of Nevada doing business as Traffic Power and is in the buisiness of internet advertising and internet placement optimization..

2. Upon information and belief, Defendant AARON WALL is an individual residing in Centre County, State of Pennyslvania, and doing buisiness as SEO BOOK.COM.

3. Defendants DOES I through X, and ROES Corporations I through X, are individuals and entities of unknown form whose names and capacities are unknown to the Plaintiff who, therefore sues said Defendants by the ficticious names. The Plaintiff is informed, believes, and thereon allege, that each of the Defendants designated as DOE or ROE, is in some manner responsible in whole or in part for the transaction and occurences alleged herein and through their negligent, intentional or reckless conduct caused damages to the Plaintiff as set forth more fully below. The Plaintiff will seek leave to amend this Complaint to intert true names and capacities of DOES I through X and ROE Corporations I through X when Plaintiff ascertains them.

4. Plaintiff is informed, believes, and thereon alleges that at all times relevant, that Defendants, and each of them, including the ficticiously named DOE or ROE, were the agents of the other and in doing the things alleged herein, were acting within the course and scope of such agency and with the consent and permission of the co-defendants. For ease of reference, the named Defendants may be referred to collectively in the singular as "Defendant", and reference to one shall constitute reference to the others as well.

5. The actions complained of herein arose out of the conduct of the Defendants, and each of them, regarding Defendants' misappropriation of Plaintiffs trade secrets and Defendants' defamation of Plaintiff.

6. Plaintiff undertakes rigorous and extensive measures to safeguard information about its business. Internet placement optimization is a highly competitive business, and if Plaintiff's trade secrets are revealed competitors can gain a prejudicially unfair advantage over Plaintiff. Accordingly, Plaintiff's trade secrets are provided to a limited number of people, only on a need-to-know basis and subject to strict confidentiality agreements.

7. An unidentified individual, acting alone or in concert with others, has recently misappropriated and disseminated through web sites Plaintiff's confidential information. This information could have been obtained only through a breach of Plaintiff's confidentiality agreement. The unauthorized use and distribution of this information violates Nevada's trade secrets statue and has caused irreparable harm to Plaintiff.

8. Information concerning Plaintiff's trade secrets is not commonly known to the public or to others who can obtain economic value from their disclosure or use. The secrecy of this information provides Plaintiff a substantial business advantage.

9. Plaintiff competes in the highly competitive markets for internet advertisers and internet placement optimization. To succeed, Plaintiff must develop innovative market strategy and bring that strategy to the market before its competitors.

10. If Plaintiff's competitors became aware of Plaintiff's trade secrets, those competitors could benefit economically from that knowledge by directing their own market development and strategy to frustrate Plaintiff's plans. This strategic advantage to Plaintiff's competitors could, in turn, irreparably harm Plaintiff. Consequently, Plaintiff maintains such market strategy and development as trade secrets.

11. Plaintiff invests significantly in advertising and promotional activities surrounding its market strategy and development. The unautorized disclosure of Plaintiff's trade secrets causes Plaintiff to lose control over such information. Accordingly, Plaintiff protects such information as a trade secret.

12. Plaintiff takes reasonable steps under the circumstances to maintain confidentiality of its trade secrets. Plaintiff has established trade secret policies for its employees and requires all employees to execute strict confidentiality agreements.

13. Further, during their employment, Plaintiff's employees are reminded repeatedly that information learned durring the course of their employment is confidential. Moreover, when employees leave Plaintiff's employment, those employees are required to return all property belonging to Plaintiff. Plaintiff's information subject to its confidentiality agreement constitutes "trade secrets" under NRS 600 A. 030.

14. At unknown date or dates, Doe I, alone or in concert with Does I through X, began disseminating Plaintiff's trade secrets to the public, with such information now available on various web sites. Among other things, Defendant or Defendants posted proprietary relating to Plaintiff's solicitation, procedures on publicly accessible areas of the internet.

15. Also at unknown date or dates, Defendants maliciously published or caused to be published false and defamatory information over the internet concerning Plaintiff and Plaintiff's business.

16. Pursuant to Defendant's malicious intent, the publication has been read by the public.

17. The false and defamatory matter is calculated to damage Plaintiff's reputation, and at the time Defendants published or caused to be published such false and defamatory information about the Plaintiff over the internet, Defendants knew that the information published was false and defamatory and making such defamatory publication, Defendants acted with malice toward the Plaintiff.

18. Plaintiff has always enjoyed a reputation for honesty and truthfulness.

19. As a direct and proximate result of the breaches set forth herein, Plaintiff has been damaged in a current amount in excess of $10,000.00, plus costs, disbursements, and interest in an amount to be determined.

20. It has been necessary for Plaintiff to retain the services of an attorney to prosecute this action and Plaintiff is entitled to an award of reasonable attorney's fees and costs.

I.
FIRST CLAIM FOR RELIEF
(Misappropriation of Trade Secrets)

21. Plaintiff repeats the allegations contained in Paragraphs 1 through 20, as though fully set forth herein.

22. Defendant Doe I, alone or in concert with Defendants Does I through X, misappropriated Plaintiff's trade secrets by:

a. Acquiring those trade secrets by improper means such as theft, bribery, misrepresentation, breach or inducement of a breach of a duty to maintain secrecy, and/or espionage (hereinafter, "Improper Means");

b. Acquiring those trade secrets by Improper Means and disclosing them to the public without Plaintiff's express or implied consent;

c. Disclosing those trade secrets to the public without Plaintiff's express or implied consent and with the knowledge or reason to know that the trade secrets were derived from or through a person who had acquired them by Improper Means;

d. Disclosing those trade secrets to the public without Plaintiff's express or implied consent and with the knowledge or reason to know that the trade secrets were acquired under circumstances giving rise to a duty to maintain the secrecy or limit the use of those trade secrets;

e. Disclosing those trade secrets to the public without Plaintiff's express or implied consent and with the knowledge or reason to know that the trade secrets were derived from or through a person who had a duty to Plaintiff to maintain the secrecy or limit the use of the trade secrets; and/or

f. Disclosing those trade secrets to the public without Plaintiff's express or implied consent, without a material change in Doe I's position, and with the knowledge or reason to know that the trade secrets were in fact trade secrets and that knowledge of those trade secrets had been acquired by mistake or accident.

23. As a direct and proximate result of the breaches set forth herein, Plaintiff has been damaged in excess of $10,000.00, plus costs, disbursements, and interest in an amount to be determined at trial.

24. It has been necessary for Plaintiff to retain the services of an attorney to prosecute this action and Plaintiff is entitled to an award of reasonable attorney's fees and costs.

II.
SECOND CLAIM FOR RELIEF
(Defamation / Liable Per Se)

25. Plaintiff repeats the allegations contained in Paragraphs 1 through 24 as though fully set forth herein.

26. As provided earlier, Defendants published over the internet false and defamatory information regarding the Plaintiff and the Plaintiff's business with the intent of causing substantial injury to Plaintiff's reputation.

27. At the time Defendants published or caused to be published the false and defamatory information about the Plaintiff and the Plaintiff's business, Defendants knew that the published information was untrue.

28. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants' actions set forth herein, Plaintiff has been damaged in an amount in excess of $10,000.00, plus costs, disbursement, and interest in an amount to be determined at trial.

29. It has been necessary for Plaintiff to retain the services of an attorney to prosecute this action and Plaintiff is entitled to an award of reasonable attorney's fees and costs.

III.
THIRD CLAIM FOR RELIEF
(Injunctive Relief)

30. Plaintiff repeats the allegations contained in Paragraphs 1 through 29 as though fully set forth herein.

31. Plaintiff is informed and believes that Defendats are continuing and will continue to misappropriate Plaintiff's trade secrets. By reason of that ongoing misappropriation, Plaintiff will suffer severe and irreparable harm and damage, which damage will be difficult to ascertain, and Plaintiff will be without an adequate remedy at law.

32. As a direct and proximate result of the Defendants' actions set forth herein, Plaintiff has been damaged in an amount in excess of $10,000.00, plus costs, disbursements, and interest in an amount to be determined at trial.

33. It has been necessary for Plaintiff to retain the services of an attorney to prosecute this action and Plaintiff is entitled to an award of reasonable attorney's fees and costs.


IV.
FOURTH CLAIM FOR RELIEF
(Punitive Damages)

34. Plaintiff repeats the allegations contained in Paragraphs 1 through 33 as though fully set forth herein.

35. Defendants' conduct described herein was done with a conscious disregard for Plaintiff's rights, and with intent to vex, injure, or annoy Plaintiff, so as to constitute oppression, fraud and malice under Nevada law, entitling Plaintiffs to punitive damages in an amount appropriate to set an example of or punish Defendants.

36. As a direct and proximate result of the Defendants' wrongful conduct, Plaintiff is entitled to punitive or exemplary damages in an amount in excess of $10,000.00, plus costs, disbursements, and interest in an amount to be determined at trial.

37. It has been necessary for Plaintiff to retain the services of an attorney to prosecute this action and Plaintiff is entitled to an award of reasonable attorney's fees and costs.

WHEREFORE, for all claims and causes of action as alleged herein, Plaintiff demands judgement against the Defendants, and each of them, as follows:

1. For an amount exceeding $10,000, plus interest and costs, in an amount to be determined at trial;

2. For a Preliminary Injunction restraining the misappropriation of Plaintiff's trade secrets;

3. For an Injunction permanently restraining the misappropriation of Plaintiff's trade secrets;

4. For a judgement awarding punitive damages;

5. For interest on all claims from the date of damage;

6. For attorney's fees and cost; and

7. For such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper in the premises.

Dated this 11 day of August, 2005.

_______
MAX D. SPILKA, CHTD.
Nevada Bar No. 4388
8330 W. Sahara Ave., Suite 290
Las Vegas, Nevada 89117
Software Development and Investment of Nevada
dba Traffic-Power.com., a Nevada Corporation,

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Marlon\Traffic Power - Wall\Complaint.wpd"

Google

Friday, August 26, 2005

Yahoo! Revamps Web Hosting For Small Business

MediaPost Publications - Yahoo! Revamps Web Hosting For Small Business - 08/26/2005: "HOPING TO ENCOURAGE MORE BUSINESSES to start their own Web sites, Yahoo! has redesigned its hosting service for small businesses.

Until now, merchants were given two generic checkout pages to choose from. Now, each is encouraged to customize their checkouts with the same tools they used to design the rest of their sites--controlling the font, colors, and button appearance, as well as the content displayed in designated navigation areas across their sites, from initial browsing to checkout.

The new service also allows businesses to choose between single- and multi-page checkout options, whether to include shipping and billing information on one page, and the use of an order review page. These options give businesses the ability to streamline consumers' shopping experiences--and, one hopes, boost conversion rates."

Google

How Blogs Pertain to You

iMedia Connection: How Blogs Pertain to You: "Ezra Palmer recognizes the power of the blogger, and how you can use him to your marketing advantage. "

Google

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Blog Traffic Rises

Blog Traffic Rises: "Two new studies report rapid traffic growth in the Blogosphere. comScore estimates that about 30% of US Internet users visited blogs in the first quarter. Nielsen//NetRatings says the top 50 blog sites, including blog hosts, draw about 20% of active Internet users"

Google

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Masters Of Information

Forbes.com These eight data miners are sparking the next Internet boom.

"In our seventh annual E-Gang, we present the Masters of Information--those entrepreneurs and companies figuring out how to separate the gold from the gravel on the Web. Search technology has grown so broad and deep that it is the basis for a range of new businesses, delivering intelligence via computers, cell phones and other smart devices."

Profiles: The Dealmaker: Barry Diller
Profiles: The Shutterbugs: Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, Flickr
Profiles: The Watcher: Jeffrey Jonas, IBM Entity Analytics
Profiles: The Finder: John Markus Lervik, Fast
Profiles: The Keyword Keeper: Ellen Siminoff, Efficient Frontier
Profiles: The Machinist: Peter Norvig, Google
Profiles: The Answer Man: Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia
Poll: What is most frustrating about searching the Internet?
Poll: What would you most like to Google?

Google

Media Maze: Blog Blots

iMedia Connection: Media Maze: Blog Blots: "Media Strategies Editor Jim Meskauskas wonders about the role of blogs in the modern marketer's media buy.

If search has been the king of online advertising these last few years, for the last two years the "blog" (short for “web log”) has been its assumed crowned prince.

Blogs are going to be a permanent tool in the marketing kit. They can provide marketers with a way into audiences that may not be efficiently or effectively reached any other way. But they provide no more marketing pixie dust than any of the other myriad tools marketers have at their disposal: better for some products and objectives, worse for others."

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Entrepreneurship: The Founding CEO's Dilemma: Stay or Go?

HBS Working Knowledge: Entrepreneurship: "The Founding CEO's Dilemma: Stay or Go?" "Bill Gates and Larry Ellison are rare birds. In this interview by HBS senior lecturer Mike Roberts for New Business, professor Noam Wasserman explains how and why many founding chief executives find themselves replaced...

Objectively, many founders might agree that the CEO's job will require skills they don't have, but emotionally, they are very attached to the companies they started..."

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The Hard Work of Failure Analysis

HBS Working Knowledge: Organizations: The Hard Work of Failure Analysis: "We all should learn from failure but it's difficult to do so objectively. In this excerpt from 'Failing to Learn and Learning to Fail (Intelligently)' in Long Range Planning Journal, HBS professor Amy Edmondson and coauthor Mark Cannon offer a process for analyzing what went wrong...

Lastly, the value of the learning that might result from analyzing and discussing simple mistakes is often overlooked. Many scientific discoveries have resulted from those who were attentive to simple mistakes in the lab. For example, researchers in one of the early German polymer labs occasionally made the mistake of leaving a Bunsen burner lit over the weekend. Upon discovering this mistake on Monday mornings, the chemists simply discarded the overcooked results and went on with their day. Ten years later, a chemist in a polymer lab at DuPont made the same mistake. However, rather than simply discarding the mistake, the Dupont chemist gave the result some analysis and discovered that the fibers had congealed. This discovery was the first step toward the invention of nylon. With similar attention to the minor failure in the German lab, they might have had a decade head start in nylon, potentially dominating the market for year.8

These first two sections have dealt with inadvertent failures. If a firm can identify and analyze such failures, and then learn from them, it may be able to retrieve some value from what has otherwise been a negative "result." But failure need not always be considered from a "defensive" viewpoint. Our third section describes an "offensive" approach to learning from failure—deliberate experimentation. The three activities presented in this article—identifying failure, analyzing failure, and deliberate experimentation—are not intended to be viewed as a sequential three-step process, but rather as (reasonably) independent competencies for learning from failure. They can be sensibly examined alongside each other, since each is easily inhibited by social and technical factors."

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Sunday, August 21, 2005

WorldCom's Failure: Why Did It Happen?

E-Commerce News: Legal : WorldCom's Failure: Why Did It Happen?: "WorldCom's Failure: Why Did It Happen? A "major factor driving this fraud was Bernie Ebbers' very apparent desire to build and protect his personal financial condition. For this reason, he had to show continually growing net worth in order to avoid margin calls on his own WorldCom stock that he had pledged to secure loans.

Make Your Company Transparent
You can avoid the pitfalls that plagued WorldCom by choosing a corporate culture which would insure that a similar situation doesn't happen to your company. Two sources of information on how to do this include the articles entitled "Your Corporate Culture: A Boon or a Bane?" and "Choosing Your Board of Directors."

You should never have to fear what regulators or other government officials would uncover if they were to take a good look at the workings of your company. Transparency can bring you safety. It's a great way to get a good night's sleep!"

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Blogger Buzz: Word Verification for Comments

Blogger Buzz: Word Verification for Comments: "We've just introduced the option to require word verification for comments. This option (off by default) gives bloggers a tool to prevent the automatic creation of comments by nefarious ne'er-do-wells (e.g. spammers)."

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Saturday, August 20, 2005

Is Your Boss a Psychopath?

Is Your Boss a Psychopath?: "Intriguingly, Babiak believes that it's extremely unlikely for an entrepreneurial founder-CEO to be a corporate psychopath because the company is an extension of his own ego -- something he promotes rather than plunders. "The psychopath has no allegiance to the company at all, just to self," Babiak says. "A psychopath is playing a short-term parasitic game." That was the profile of Fastow and Dunlap -- guys out to profit for themselves without any concern for the companies and lives they were wrecking. In contrast, Jobs and Ellison want their own companies to thrive forever -- indeed, to dominate their industries and take over other fields as well. "An entrepreneurial founder-CEO might have a narcissistic tendency that looks like psychopathy," Babiak says. "But they have a vested interest: Their identity is wrapped up with the company's existence. They're loyal to the company." So these types are ruthless not only for themselves but also for their companies, their extensions of self.

The issue is whether we will continue to elevate, celebrate, and reward so many executives who, however charismatic, remain indifferent to hurting other people. Babiak says that while the first line of defense against psychopaths in the workplace is screening job candidates, the second line is a "culture of openness and trust, especially when the company is undergoing intense, chaotic change."

Europe is far ahead of the United States in trying to deal with psychological abuse and manipulation at work. The "antibullying" movement in Europe has produced new laws in France and Sweden. Harvard's Stout suggests that the relentlessly individualistic culture of the United States contributes a lot to our problems. She points out that psychopathy has a dramatically lower incidence in certain Asian cultures, where the heritage has emphasized community bonds rather than glorified self-interest. "If we continue to go this way in our Western culture," she says, "evolutionarily speaking, it doesn't end well."

"

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Thursday, August 18, 2005

Travel search engine Qunar.com UK launch Sept

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis: "Travel search engine Qunar.com is set to spread its wings. Qunar.com Information Technology Co. Ltd, which had launched its Chinese language offering earlier this year, is planning to launch its English version in two weeks time, in September."

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Olympics 2012 | Olympics bill comes under attack

news.bbc.co.uk: "Olympics bill comes under attack"

"The Olympics Bill sets out strict rules to combat use of Games-related words and images by non-official advertisers.
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising says that will prevent most companies benefiting at all from 2012....

"The London 2012 website has already posted a warning listing a string of Olympic-related words and images that are off limits to all but official sponsors. And advertisers' representatives have criticised the new Olympics bill because they believe it will make it almost impossible for most companies to even acknowledge that the Games are happening without getting into trouble.

the new bill will make it illegal to combine words like "games", "medals", "gold", "2012", "sponsor" or "summer" in any form of advertising.

Breaches can be punished by fines of up to £20,000, or unlimited fines in more serious cases.

The IPA argues that this will rule out any sort of 2012 "halo effect" for businesses in the UK.

"You won't even be able to say 'come to London in 2012' because it will infringe the act," said Palomba.

And a DCMS spokesman said speculation on what the new rules would and would not allow was "premature", with businesses to be given two years' notice before the laws were brought in.

He added: "The idea is to protect the Olympic brand and ensure that we meet the criteria of the IOC.

"We will do that, and we won't go any further than we need to go, or any less far than we need to go." "

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Sunday, August 14, 2005

SES San Jose 2005 Reports

Quick SES San Jose 2005 Session Coverage Recap links to: "a quick recap of all the sessions we covered over at Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2005 at the Search Engine Roundtable.
- Mobile Search
- Search Algorithms: The Patent Files
- Weird Science: The Next Generation in Media Planning and Buying
- Earning From Search & Contextual Ads
- Eye of the Storm: Lessons from Large Search Marketers
- Searcher Behavior Research Update
- Search APIs
- Personalized Search & Search History
- Vertical Creep Into Regular Results
- From Broad to Specific: Capitalizing on vertical search and other niche publishing opportunities.
- Competitive Research
- Keynote Conversation with Ask Jeeves's Steve Berkowitz
- RSS, Blogs & Search Marketing
- Fun with Dynamic Sites
- Ad Management: Do Humans matter?
- Should You Chase The Algorithm?
- Link Building Basics
- Landing Page Testing & Tuning
- Ad Reps: Friend or Foe? - How to Handle Situations with Search Engines Going Direct to Your Clients
- Indexing Summit 2: Redirects, Titles & Descriptions
- Search Engine Advertising Forum
- Converting Visitors Into Buyers
- Local Search Marketing Tactics
- Executive Roundtable with Search Engine Executives
- Advanced Linking Strategies
- Site ECG
- Buying and Selling Links
- Usability Clinic
- Search Engine Q&A On Links
- B2B Tactics
- Organic Listings Forum"

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Of Avatars and Mob Justice: Invasion of Privacy, or Just Desserts?

Of Avatars and Mob Justice: Invasion of Privacy, or Just Desserts? The Perverted-Justice Web site baits would-be pedophiles by posing as minors in chat rooms. But increasingly, legal and law enforcement professionals are expressing concern over the group's tactics: the group uses anonymous online personas, then publicly exposes suspects' private information for purposes of harassment, without any benefit of due process.

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Saturday, August 13, 2005

Tech stocks fall as Dell sinks after results, outlook

Silicon Stocks: "Technology stocks faltered on Friday as disappointment over Dell Inc.'s quarterly sales and outlook sent its shares tumbling and record oil prices again dented sentiment."

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Internet Daily: Blog readers young and well off, study says

Internet Daily: " New research suggests advertisers may ignore Web logs at their own peril. ComScore Media Metrix researched readership among its study panel of consumers and reported 1 out of 6 Americans read a blog in the first quarter of the year...

Politics/News sites account for 43 percent of blog readers, ComScore reported, followed by "Hipster" (17%), Tech (15%),Women (8%), Media (8%), Personal (6%), and Business (3%).

In Denton's analysis, he noted that sites with "reader engagement" have a higher frequency of visits and faster growth rates. He conceded his company's tech/gadget blog was quickly overtaken by WeblogsInc.'s competitor, which allows reader feedback. "I might have to rethink my rather snobby aversion to comments," he wrote."

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Friday, August 12, 2005

Berners-Lee on the read/write web

BBC NEWS | Technology | Berners-Lee on the read/write web: "In August 1991, Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the first website. Fourteen years on, he tells BBC Newsnight's Mark Lawson how blogging is closer to his original idea about a read/write web"....

"The idea was that anybody who used the web would have a space where they could write and so the first browser was an editor, it was a writer as well as a reader. Every person who used the web had the ability to write something. It was very easy to make a new web page and comment on what somebody else had written, which is very much what blogging is about.

For years I had been trying to address the fact that the web for most people wasn't a creative space; there were other editors, but editing web pages became difficult and complicated for people. What happened with blogs and with wikis, these editable web spaces, was that they became much more simple.

When you write a blog, you don't write complicated hypertext, you just write text, so I'm very, very happy to see that now it's gone in the direction of becoming more of a creative medium...."


in 30 years...."the web will be, hopefully, will be something which is sunk into the background as an assumption. Now, if as technologists develop, we've done our job well, the web will be this universal medium, which will be very, very flexible. It won't, itself, have any preconceived notions about what's built on top.

One of the reasons that I want to keep it open like that, is partly because I want humanity to have it as a clean slate. My goal for the web in 30 years is to be the platform which has led to the building of something very new and special, which we can't imagine now..."


SIR TIM BERNERS-LEE

Born in London in 1955
Read physics at Queen's College, Oxford
Banned from using university PC for hacking
Built own computer with old TV, a Motorola microprocessor and soldering iron
Created web in late 1980s and early 1990s at Cern
Offered it free on the net
Founded World Wide Web Consortium at MIT in 1994
Named by Time magazine as one of the top 20 thinkers of the 20th century
Knighted in 2003

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Sex differences matter on web page design

USATODAY.com "A study conducted at Glamorgan University Business School in Wales found that men tend to prefer Web pages designed by men and women prefer designs by women. In addition, researchers found that men prefer dark colors and moving objects, while women respond to colored type and backgrounds. "

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Global E-Commerce

Line56.com: Global E-Commerce by Tom Kaneshige and Leila Zwelling: "Our first reflections about the e-commerce readiness and culture of various countries; with Yahoo going big in China, expect a resurgence of interest in global e-marketplaces..."

Article provides an interesting romp through cultural differences..

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Unhappiness drives open source adoption

Computer Business Review: "A common reason why more governments and enterprises around the world are moving to open source software is unhappiness, it was revealed during a panel discussion at the LinuxWorld Conference in San Francisco yesterday.
AdvertisementGoogle Inc open source programs manager Chris DiBona said the search giant has stuck with Linux throughout the company's life, in part, because it was unhappy with the terms of another software company.
For instance, DiBona pointed out that if Google used Windows, or any other non-open source software program, to make changes to that system he would be required to essentially ask permission from that vendor. 'Why should we hand over the control of our software support to another company?'"

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Thursday, August 11, 2005

New Flights: Durham Tees Valley Airport to Bristol International Airport

eastern airways.com "A new air service linking County Durham and the Tees Valley region with South West England and South Wales will be launched by Eastern Airways.

The airline, which is one of the UK’s fastest growing regional operators, will provide regional business travellers with an excellent business led schedule with three flights each week day from Durham Tees Valley Airport to Bristol International Airport. A Sunday service will also operate.

Services start from 24 October and will take 70 minutes. Weekday flights will depart from Durham Tees Valley at 6.45am, 1.30pm and 5.15pm, arriving at Bristol at 7.55am, 2.40pm and 6.25pm respectively. Return services will leave Bristol at 8.25am, 3.10pm and 6.55pm, landing in Durham Tees Valley at 9.35am, 4.20pm and 8.05pm respectively.

Sunday services will take off from Bristol at 3.50pm arriving in Durham Tees Valley at 5pm with return flights departing at 5.30pm and landing in Bristol at 6.40pm.

Return fares start from £99 including taxes.

Eastern Airways also operates from Durham Tees Valley Airport to Aberdeen and from Bristol to Aberdeen and the Isle of Man."


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Spammer agrees to pay US$7m to Microsoft

Taiwan News Online: "A man once accused of being one of the world's top three spammers has agreed to pay US$7 million in a settlement with Microsoft Corp., the software maker announced yesterday.
The money from Scott Richter and his company, OptInRealBig .com, will be used to boost efforts to combat the illegal sending of unsolicited and misleading e-mail known as spam and other computer misuse, said Microsoft's chief counsel, Brad Smith.
The company pledged to use the money to enhance Internet safety partnerships with governments worldwide."

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The Hub 100 - About Us

The Hub 100: "Companies are carefully selected to join the Hub 100, based on their potential for growth. The area for the first Hub 100 is centred around Brighton & Hove, runs from Newhaven to Shoreham, and includes Lewes.

Selection is carried out by the Hub team in partnership with the accountancy firm Baker Tilly. Companies, and their CEOs, are:
Focussed on growth.
In a variety of industries.
At different stages of development

This mix of industries and stages has proven to be a huge benefit, meaning that discussions tend to focus on business rather than industry related topics, and allowing learning from one industry to reach another. In addition, some companies are also forming special interest groups within the Hub 100 along industry or other lines.

For more information please contact The Hub 100 directly on 01273 311220 or at Info@TheHub100.com."

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The CEO's Secret Handbook: Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management

Business 2.0 : "It started decades ago as flashes of insight scribbled on loose scraps of paper. Then it morphed into a PowerPoint presentation that distilled years of business wisdom into a handful of easy-to-remember aphorisms. Last year it became a 76-page spiral-bound booklet clad in a plain gray cover. Eventually, Warren Buffett received a copy -- and liked it so much that he asked for dozens more to give to his CEOs, friends, and family.

The tiny handbook has become an underground hit among senior executives and management thinkers. Written by Bill Swanson, CEO of aerospace contractor Raytheon Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management is part Ben Franklin and part Yogi Berra, with a dash of Confucius thrown in...

You can't polish a sneaker.

Learn to say "I don't know." If used when appropriate, it will be used often.

You remember 1/3 of what you read, 1/2 of what people tell you, but 100 percent of what you feel

Look for what is missing. Many know how to improve what's there; few can see what isn't there.

Never direct a complaint to the top; a serious offense is to "cc" a person's boss on a copy of a complaint before the person has a chance to respond.

Treat the name of your company as if it were your own.

Have fun at what you do. It will be reflected in your work. No one likes a grump except another grump!

When faced with decisions, try to look at them as if you were one level up in the organization. Your perspective will change quickly.

If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.

When something appears on a slide presentation, assume that the world knows about it and deal with it accordingly.

A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter -- or to others -- is not a nice person. (This rule never fails.)

When facing issues or problems that are becoming drawn out, "short them to ground."
"

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Why Yahoo Bought Konfabulator

Why Yahoo Bought Konfabulator: "Yahoo's recent purchase of Pixoria, developer of the quirky but seriously cool Konfabulator platform, has many pundits scratching their heads—what on earth would a web search company want with all of those software widgets?

Pixoria describes Konfabulator product as "a JavaScript runtime engine for Windows and Mac OS X that lets you run little files called Widgets that can do pretty much whatever you want them to."...

Yahoo has been pushing forward on several fronts to ease access into the company's vast storehouses of content and services. For example, Yahoo APIs are available for developers to build their own Yahoo-centric search applications. Other APIs allow developers to build applications on top of Yahoo maps, music and Flickr services, and to integrate Yahoo content into web sites via RSS feeds.

Within days of acquiring Konfabulator, Yahoo had provided links within the Yahoo Developer Network directly to Konfabulator's developer documentation and forums.

Currently, developers can create Widgets that tap into just about any open data source on the Web. Rose is emphatic that Yahoo maintain this open access going forward. He also said that we'll soon be seeing a whole slew of Widgets that expose parts of the Yahoo network that are relatively hidden away....

According to Rose, Yahoo has dismissed the idea of delivering advertising via Widgets. While this is a laudable goal in the short run, allowing users to get comfortable using Widgets, there's nothing stopping third-party developers from inserting ads in the Widgets they create. And for many applications, Widgets provide a clear contextual framework that would be ideally suited to serving highly-targeted ads. So we'll see.

To me, Yahoo's acquisition of Konfabulator makes perfect sense, and between Yahoo's own engineers and everyone else who gets the urge to mess around creating Widgets, I think we're going to see an explosion of seriously cool new tools and gateways into Yahoo emerge during the next year.'"

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Yahoo to buy 35% of Alibaba for $1 billion - Internet Services - Internet - M&A

Net Stocks: "Yahoo is expected to spend $1 billion to buy a 35% stake in Alibaba, a leading Chinese auction and marketplace operator."

Google

Monday, August 08, 2005

Mapping the Map Sites

Mapping the Map Sites: "Apparently Internet users don't like to get lost. Looking up maps and directions is among the most common online activities.
According to data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, about 85% of Internet users in the US have searched for maps or driving directions online.

Getting directions or finding maps was the second most popular online activity for which US adult Internet users use search engines, according to a study conducted by Harris Interactive for iCrossing. Fully 75% of respondents reported engaging in this activity, second only to the 88% who were 'researching specific topics.'"

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ChangeThis :: Bet This! A Gambler's Guide to Leadership

ChangeThis :: Bet This! A Gambler's Guide to Leadership: "Eileen Shapiro thinks that betting is a part of everyday life. Check out her four tests (and one proxy) for action-based leadership."

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Blogs become mainstream

Net Stocks: "In the annals of Internet history, the word 'blog' may be viewed as one of the most democratic innovations to give the masses a voice, and marketers to target."

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Friday, August 05, 2005

Slashdot | Cisco Warns of Stolen Web Site Passwords

Slashdot | Cisco Warns of Stolen Web Site Passwords: "An anonymous reader writes 'Cisco warned customers today that someone had broken in and stolen an untold number of passwords and usernames that its customers and employees use to login at Cisco.com, according stories at News.com and Washingtonpost.com. Cisco says the problem is unrelated to flaws in its hardware, but both stories note that Cisco's latest troubles are likely fallout from their legal battles with researcher Mike Lynn, who last week revealed major flaws in Cisco routers. There is also a growing thread at Nanog where network admins are complaining of not being able to get new passwords.' "

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Thursday, August 04, 2005

Simply Fired | If You Don't Laugh, You'll Cry

Simply Fired | If You Don't Laugh, You'll Cry Web Site Devotes Itself to Strange Firings....

Firing Announced to the Whole Company via E-mail

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few years ago I was fired from an Internet startup in a very public way. The CEO of the company had evidently been having a conversation via e-mail with one of the VPs about letting me go. The VP mistakenly posted his response to this very private thread to the whole company. As I checked my e-mail the following morning, I read about my impending firing along with all my fellow employees. So it wasn't a big surprise when I received a call a few hours later from the CEO breaking the already broken news... along with an apology for "the VP’s stupidity."

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Monday, August 01, 2005

Revenge of the Nerds -- Again

www.businessweek.com: "By Ben Elgin

Google and Yahoo! are hiring away hundreds of top engineers from high tech's most prestigious firms. Some call it the 'giant sucking sound' emanating from Silicon Valley. For others, it's a migraine in the making. But whatever they're calling the hiring binge at Google (GOOG ) and Yahoo! (YHOO ), just about everyone is a bit astonished at the fearsome force swallowing up some of tech's best and brightest."

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