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Oracle,
SAP Get Into Nerd Fight
Feeling cocky about Oracle's blowout quarter, CEO Larry Ellison outlined in a
conference call last night, in no uncertain terms, the reasons SAP sucks and why
it should be more like Oracle. SAP responded this morning with an I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I
press release.
Napster
Contemplates Sale
Napster's looking for a friend, or a sugar daddy, whichever one makes a better
offer. The controversial and troubled music download service announced the company
was seeking partnerships, or a potential sale.
Yahoo
Plugs In To Current TV
The Yahoo! Current Network launched today as Yahoo complements its marketing blitz
with this new service announcement. Visit the new Yahoo Current Network, and one can catch a look at Bono dragging The Edge out of bed in Miami.
Yahoo
Disappoints With Weak Ad Sales
Advertising buyers in the financial and automotive sectors have been tightening
their purse strings, in what is either a cyclical slowdown in ad spending that
will perk up later in the year, or the frightening prospect that contextual search
has beaten display advertising as the preferred method of grabbing eyeballs online.
Reddit
Carried Early News Of Thai Coup
Social bookmarking site Reddit received running commentary from one of its users
in Bangkok as a military coup began to take place.
Web
Is Preferred Resource For Dieters
Consumers researching weight loss information are far more likely to look for
it online than offline, according to a recent comScore report. That makes sense
because, obviously, offline research may involve walking, perhaps stair climbing,
and possibly book carrying, all of which are a total hassle.
Creative
Discovery Comes To Search
It's probably entirely appropriate that if a supercomputer is going to be set
up to strive for creative answers to tough questions, that hardware will consist
of Apple Xserve G5s.
Intel
Creates Super-Spiffy New Chip
The latest prototype from Intel involves some very popular buzzwords - "silicon,"
"hybrid," and "laser" are all present, and the company's Silicon Hybrid Laser
(HSL) chip could act as "a breakthrough that will propel the world of computers
into the light-based transmission era."
Picasa
Meets The Web
Google unveiled the latest updates to its Picasa photo organizer, and those included
a new feature called Picasa Web Albums. That feature allows Picasa users to share their photos online.
Warner
Hugs YouTube, Starts Talking Gibberish
YouTube didn't just get a mammoth deal with Warner Music Group. The video-sharing
site got schooled in how to talk in press release, and what to call its new intellectual
property inspector.
Engadget
Gets Facelift, Gives Gifts
Engadget announced a number of updates to its site this morning, including a "refreshed"
design and "a bunch of new features that should make Engadget a little more user-friendly."
Reactions have been mixed, but mostly positive.
Google
Moves Unclicked Sponsored Results
Reportedly, Google is testing a system that removes the top sponsored results,
moving them to the side panel, if a user consistently doesn't click on the ads.
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Thursday September 21, 2006 |
Ted Stevens thinks we're stupid. Trying to put this Net Neutrality debate to rest
in the Senate, Stevens (R-AK) distributed the results of a "bipartisan"
poll indicating that the vast majority of Americans would rather watch more TV
than have a neutral Internet.
Editor's Note: Regardless of your stance on Net Neutrality,
this poll seems patently ridiculous. Stevens' use of a bogus poll to support his
position is downright offensive and indicative of old politics still alive and
well in Congress. Got an opinion? Share it with us at WebProWorld.
Neither Stevens nor the pollsters mention that Verizon paid $60,000 for the
poll, or that the questions were phrased using classic push-poll tactics.
In fact, the poll didn't seem to even be about the "series of tubes" that comprises "an internet."
 The
poll questions centered around cable TV choice and didn't mention anything related
to Net
Neutrality until the end of the poll. There was mention of a Consumer Bill
of Rights, which would guarantee full access to legal Internet content, matching
language already in Stevens' telecom bill. Opponents have said the "bill of rights"
doesn't provide any meaningful protection of Net Neutrality.
The majority of respondents agreed that the bill of rights was important, but it was last on the list of important issues when compared to making sure nobody dies because communications networks don't work, or ensuring that poor kids get an education, or getting more TV channels, or making sure the blind and deaf can "participate more fully in the modern information economy."
But the real kickers came at the end of the poll. When the 800 respondents were asked if they'd heard of Net Neutrality (this is the first mention of the concept in the poll), about 7 percent had heard of it.
Does this mean that Net Neutrality is a non-issue because America doesn't care? Or does it mean that the pollsters at Glover Park Group and Public Opinion Strategies conducted a biased, telecom-funded poll, asking people that know nothing about the issue how they felt about it?
The last question tops it off:
Which of the following two items do you think is the most important to you:
Delivering the benefits of new TV and video choice so consumers will see increased
competition and lower prices for cable TV
OR
Enhancing Internet neutrality by barring high speed internet providers from offering
specialized services like faster speed and increased security for a fee
Well, since you put it that way…more TV sounds a lot better than slow Internet and bad security. Turns out 73 percent of respondents agreed.
"The rest of the questionnaire is similarly structured along the lines of 'do you want lots and lots of pie or would you like a kidney infection'," writes Matt Stoller.
"What's particularly amazing is that 17 percent of the respondents chose the kidney infection," answers Tim Karr at SaveTheInternet.com, where 1.3 million people have heard of Net Neutrality, compared to Stevens' 800 people who missed part of a Seinfeld rerun to answer the poll.
A rough translation of the questions:
1. Do you like TV?
2. Would you like to watch more TV?
3. Which is better: cheap TV or expensive TV?
4. What if your TV breaks? Would you like someone to fix it?
5. Do you like good TV or bad TV?
6. Put these in order from most important to least important:
a.) helping people stay alive
b.) more TV
c.) healing the blind
d.) slow Internet, less TV, and killing people
Stevens and company interpreted the results to mean that "onerous Net Neutrality regulations" would interfere with the nation's TV watching and therefore should be put to rest.
This poll is the next in a string of recent dirty tricks attempted by bridge-to-nowhere-but-a-series-of-tubes Stevens. The octogenarian telecom-funded senator in charge of rewriting telecommunication laws recently tried to sneak a vote while opposition was away for the August recess, and secretly put a hold on a bill that would make federal funding more transparent.
But it's not all so bleak. Rumor has it that Stevens plans to retire soon. But then, who will protect our TV?
About
the Author:
Jason is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. |
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Yahoo
Ad Changes Being Made
 By
David A. Utter
The changes Yahoo has started to implement with the display of its ads will affect
some, but not all, of the member sites in the Yahoo Publisher Network.
Tom Furukawa, Director, Product Management, posted an entry to the YPN blog about changes taking place with Yahoo's advertising:
We've been doing some tinkering under the bonnet recently, so some of you may notice a few changes in your ads. The changes you're likely to see include the removal of ellipses (…) and truncated words, the inclusion of 40-character titles on certain ad units, and a change in the number of ads displayed on certain ad layouts.
These enhancements have to do with our efforts to upgrade our contextual advertising product, and in the coming weeks will take effect across the entire network. They come in response to your feedback and should, in the long run, help enhance your account performance. We'll share more details with you as they become available.
Yahoo's clients have long sought those upgrades. Plenty of disappointment became evident when Yahoo delayed the significant release of Project Panama, its broad update to the contextual advertising service the company operates.
The company's leadership has been uniformly behind a slow rollout of the new system. Testing has reportedly taken place outside the US, to favorable reviews. Little information about Panama has been discussed, other than the claim that it would do better at presenting relevant ads to the viewer.
About
the Author:
David is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. |
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The Role Of Flash In Web Dev
Remember when you saw your first Flash site? The moving text and animated interaction
areas were certainly awe-inspiring (in some cases)... but then people started
to realize, first, Flash sites are not easy to make (especially the good ones)
and second, search engines don't like them very much, making the whole Internet
marketing aspect very difficult, especially for unknown brands. Even though these
understandings exist, the debate about Flash's role in web development is still
a good one, as seen in the thread starting below. Take a look at what's being
said and tell us what you think.
|| Chris||
Is
Flash The Future Of The Internet?
Flash is absolutely the futre of the web... Flex has been released to increase
the platform a bit, but either way they are the same technology, being pushed
on a player format that has 98% customer base, mobile platform, etc.
Not only are high end companies using it to leverage their products. Nike.com
and others are leveraging it in small doses, but RIA's are on the rise and will
soon make the business we do on the Internet more interactive.
If you look at it from a developers side, we can use flash remoting that leverages
all the cool things PHP, ASP, and JAVA can do. We leverage ActionScript and the
flash player for all the cool things it can do design wise. We aren't talking
about just flash, but the fact that IT can interact and use a lot of other web
technologies, while the others can't simply digest any services but their own.
Next step, integrate a full 3D engine like shockwave into the ever popular flash
player customer base and programmers have unlimited abilities in development in
a portable platform... just my two cents worth.
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WebPro Question: |
All my emails from several domains are being blocked by Spam Cop. How can a third
party have control over your emails? It seems they hold you to ransom to use their
services to get your domains removed from the black-listings.
-
webgurl
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