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Thursday, July 21, 2005

Are YOU Headed For Burnout?

WorkZ : "Many executives and entrepreneurs claim to thrive on stress. What they're enjoying is the physiological excitement from an adrenalin high.

But the truth is, adrenalin highs are designed to prepare your body and mind to either fight or run. They are a key component of the stress response.

During an adrenalin high your higher thinking centers close down, and older, more primitive portions of your brain prepare you for emergency. Over a period of time this leads straight to stage 2 burnout and serious mental and physical exhaustion. And if you think YOU are immune, you're seriously kidding yourself.

Stress occurs when the demands being placed on you exceed your capacity to meet them. The four major factors involved stress overload include:

Time pressures
Excessive responsibility or accountability
Lack of adequate support
Excessive expectations by yourself and/or those around you

The Stages of BurnoutBurnout is a process that progresses through stages of stress overload. With some self-monitoring, you have the opportunity to take steps to stop the process at any stage. The three stages of burnout include:

The stress arousal stage
The low energy stage
The exhaustion stage"

Google

eBay's Earnings Climb 53 Percent

Update 1: eBay's Earnings Climb 53 Percent - Forbes.com: "EBay Inc.'s second-quarter profit eclipsed analyst expectations as the online auction leader brushed aside worries that it may be losing its competitive edge amid strident complaints about everything from rising fees to the fraud controls in its e-commerce clearinghouse. "

Google

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Microsoft sues over Google hire

CNET News.com: "Microsoft on Tuesday sued the search giant and a former Microsoft executive who has been tapped by Google to run its China operations.

"Accepting such a position with a direct Microsoft competitor like Google violates the narrow non-competition promise Lee made when he was hired as an executive," Microsoft said in its lawsuit, which was seen by CNET News.com. "Google is fully aware of Lee's promises to Microsoft, but has chosen to ignore them, and has encouraged Lee to violate them."

In the suit, Microsoft seeks monetary damages as well as an injunction upholding the noncompete clause and other provisions of Lee's contract, including terms barring him from sharing Microsoft trade secrets. "

Google

Monday, July 18, 2005

Google investors find new project

CNET News.com: "Google rainmakers and venture capitalists John Doerr and Ram Shriram are pinning their hopes--and millions--on yet another Stanford University spin-off with a nonsensical name.

Doerr and Shriram, whose early investment in search giant Google paid off in spades, have invested $16 million in Menlo Park, Calif.-based Zazzle, a 2-year-old online marketplace where people can buy and sell artwork in the form of customized gifts, T-shirts, stamps, posters and prints...

"Zazzle represents a significant breakthrough in e-commerce and is the ideal advocate for every individual who wants to create products that are as unique as they are," Doerr said in a statement.

Zazzle's online store taps into the notion of mass customization, in which people can be the creative force in tailoring goods to buy. Billed as a cross between auctioneer eBay and PC manufacturer Dell, the service combines a buyers and sellers' marketplace with customized manufacturing of prints, apparel and gifts.

Previous Next Zazzle draws on the creative works of community members and more than 10,000 contributing artists, along with images from partners like Walt Disney and the Library of Congress and others. People can search for and choose an image and then augment it with online design tools before ordering it as a T-shirt, framed canvas, or other item. In turn, Zazzle pays a royalty fee to the artist or content partner."

Google

The Importance of RSS

particletree The Importance of RSS: "explanation for Googles foray into personal portal pages, but morphed into a comprehensive breakdown of the state of RSS, taxonomies, advertising, and how it relates to the future of Google. What follows is the result of several months of observation, notes and contemplation..."

Concludes:"I think RSS has a very promising future and Google is going to make sure they do everything in their power to be the ones to usher it in."

Google

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Michael Geist - Working Group on Internet Governance Releases Report

Michael Geist - : "The Working Group of Internet Governance has released its final report

The report identifies four options for the thorny Internet governance issue:

Option #1 , ICANN stays but the governmental role changes through the creation of a Governmental Internet Council. The GIC replaces the GAC and assumes the role currently held by the U.S. Department of Commerce in ICANN oversight. There are advisory roles envisioned for the private sector and civil society.

Option #2 ,No need for oversight organization. Stronger GAC and creation of international forum for discussion of Internet issues.

Option #3 ,Creation of International Internet Council that would assume responsibility for the Internet governance issues that arise on the national level. ICANN's mandate would need to be altered based on the development of the IIC.

Option #4 , Start from scratch by creating a World Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers as well as a Global Internet Policy Council.

Where does all this leave the Internet governance issue? If countries are looking to deal, it seems to me that Option #3 provides the best prospect for the basis for negotiation. The U.S. has made it clear that it would not agree to Option #1 (international oversight) or Option #4 (no ICANN). I suspect few other countries would agree to Option #2 with no ICANN oversight.

By default, that leaves Option #3. It focuses on ICANN's softest spot , Internet governance at the national level. This addresses a major concern for many countries and opens the dialogue in the one area where the U.S. may be comfortable with some change. If both ccTLDs and the IANA function are built into national competencies, there may be an opportunity to strike a compromise."

Google

Friday, July 15, 2005

Amazon faces the challenges of its second decade

CNET News.com: "Ten years after Jeff Bezos started Amazon.com in his garage, the company is celebrating three things that evaded legions of other Internet start-ups: survival, independence and profitability.

But as Amazon celebrates itself with 10 days of concerts and special offers, profound challenges face the e-commerce pioneer. Profits are stagnating, competition is blooming, and even people who are bullish about the company are concerned about downward pressure on prices."

Google

SuperPages.com Redesigns, Mimics Google, Yahoo!

MediaPost by Shankar Gupta: "TO COMPETE in the growing local search market, SuperPages.com this week has completed a set of redesigns and upgrades that make the site look and feel more like a search engine such as Google Local or Yahoo! Local.

Among other changes, the search fields were simplified and relocated to the top of the homepage, while tabs were added for searches in merchandise, eBay auctions, and Web pages. On the advertising side, SuperPages is also beginning to incorporate formats pioneered by search engines. It already includes pay-per-click search ads, and will incorporate pay-per-call ads by the end of the summer"

Google

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Web logs fuel Net growth

Internet Daily via Frank Barnako, MarketWatch: "Netcraft, a United Kingdom-based Internet research and analytics company, said its latest tally of Website host names showed a gain of 2.76 million addresses in July from last month. The total number of Websites identified by the company was 67.5 million.

The company attributed the growth to factors including the increasing use of Websites by small businesses, the growth of Web logs and their publishers' purchasing domains for branding, and strong sales of online advertising which are prompting speculators to register names they think may have value for buyers.

'The Internet has added 10.7 million host names in the first seven months of the year,' Netcraft said in a statement. 'Barring a dramatic slowdown, 2005 should easily exceed the record growth of 16 million host names in 2000.'"

Google

Brands Suffer from Negative Google PR (public relations)

Micro Persuasion's Steve Rubel blogs about a new survey - "Brands suffer from negative PR on Google from NetImperative" - as reported by searchenginewatch: which concludes that Brands Suffer from Negative Google PR.

Rubel points the Fortune Cos to the example of Common Craft and the Case Study: Using a Weblog to Achieve #1 Rankings in Google whose Lee LeFever comments that the major consumer companies should be "listening to what the blog world is saying and responding like a person."

Category mistake there I think... a brand is not a person and most consumers are savvy enough not to confuse any attempts to personify a brand with a "real" person...to attempt to do so via blogs and manipulative SEO will likely add to the negative PR, now there is a real bonus.

Google

Monday, July 04, 2005

Web branding is more than skin deep

July 04, 2005: New Thinking by Gerry McGovern: "By Gerry McGovern

Web branding is much more about function than image. Great websites put substance before flash. This reflects a knowledge society that has become more rational in how it makes decisions.

First things first, emotion still rules our lives. No matter how many facts we gather before we make a particular decision, we will always be heavily influenced by our feelings. Beauty still adds sparkle to our lives, and when style and function combine that�s an irresistible combination.

Somewhere along the line, branding lost its way. It became rigidly linked to a narrow focus on creating marketing messages that spoke to surface emotions. Branding became all about image in some people�s eyes. A lot of marketing and advertising became a process of telling pleasant lies. The idea was to create a fantastic fiction out of the product"

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