Wednesday, October 31, 2007Breaking News: Congress Approves Internet Tax Ban
From today’s Washington Post:
The House approved a bill yesterday to bar states from taxing Internet access through 2014, clearing the way for President Bush to sign the measure into law before the current ban expires tomorrow.
The unanimous vote resolved a conflict with the Senate, which last week called for the longest-ever Internet-tax ban by passing [...]
Tuesday, October 30, 2007Life in Beta Mode
Jessica Stillman, blogger for BNET, recently wrote a story about how digital life is increasingly locked into “beta mode”. (Read “Perfectionists Despair: Digital World ‘Always in Beta’” at BNET.)
What’s that mean? As more and more aspects of life are translated to the digital world, there’s an ever-increasing competition among businesses to win over the most [...]
Monday, October 29, 2007The Internet: Time for an Uprade?
Unbelievable as it may seem, the Internet was born almost 40 years ago — in 1969.
Okay, so that date applies to ARPAnet, the network of computer interconnectivity that eventually became the Internet, rather than the Internet that we know today. Still, the basic fact is that this modern tool of information and commerce known as [...]
Friday, October 26, 2007The Digital Revolution Continues: NBC vs. Apple
No matter how often it’s said, it’s still true: We are indeed living in an historic period of time, when traditional models are giving way to new and exciting ways of living.
But, as always, old ways die hard.
Take the music industry. Earlier this month, best-selling musicians Radiohead decided to circumvent the record industry altogether and [...]
Thursday, October 25, 2007Google Becomes Silicon Valley’s “Most Valuable Company”
Though it may come as a mild surprise to some observers who thought Google already held the honor, a recent article in the Los Angeles Times made it official: Google is now “Silicon Valley’s most valuable company,” surpassing Cisco Systems Inc., the former top-earner.
The news stemmed from the company’s release of its third-quarter financial results, [...]
Wednesday, October 24, 2007From BNET: Make Your Website Accessible
Sometimes, in our quest to build the perfect website, with a sleek design and optimized search engine functionality, we can lose sight of the most important question of all:
Is the site accessible to as many customers as possible?
BNET recently explored this question in some detail and raised some interesting (and surprising) points in the process. [...]
Tuesday, October 23, 2007From HostReview: 25 Tips to Increase Conversion Rates
HostReview recently offered up an extremely useful run-down of tips to maximize your website’s sales conversions. (A conversion happens when a visitor to your site actually buys something, which is basically the whole point of having an online store.)
As you probably know, lists of this type are usually overly obvious space-fillers straight out of Business [...]
Monday, October 22, 2007The Controversy Over Site Hit Numbers
Today’s New York Times addressed an issue that’s been getting talked about more and more in recent months: The problems with accurately monitoring site hits.
How many people visited Style.com, the online home of Vogue and W magazines, last month? Was it 421,000, or, more optimistically, 497,000? Or was the real number more than three times [...]
Tuesday, October 16, 2007Google Brings Filters to YouTube
Continuing the controversy over just what is and isn’t legally allowed to appear on YouTube, the BBC carried a story today describing Google’s new attempt to make sure that copyrighted materials are kept off.
If this solution finally works, it’ll be much to the relief of Google, which has been struggling recently with the inherent problem [...]
Monday, October 15, 2007Porn Spammers Get Jail Sentences
At this point, it’s definitely safe to say that nobody likes “spam”. It’s pretty universally considered to be the most significant negative aspect of the Internet. But it’s usually also seen as an inevitable result of the Internet’s incredible positives — namely, freedom of information and ease of access.
And as bad as spam is, X-rated [...]