Yahoo!News writes that “[m]ost consumers probably associate eBay Inc. more with vintage lunch boxes and low-priced electronics than with laptop bags made from recycled plastic by women in New Delhi. The online auction operator is trying to change that perception with WorldofGood.com, a Web site due to launch Wednesday to sell goods produced with social and environmental goals in mind. EBay developed the site with World of Good Inc., a startup focused on ‘ethical supply chains’ behind consumer products, and licensed the group’s name for the marketplace. World of Good will get a share of the revenue from the site, which had been operating for the past six months as an online community focused on the social impact of business.”
According to a different Yahoo!News article, “EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding has proposed slashing the price of sending a mobile text message from one EU state to another by nearly two-thirds to 11 euro cents ($0.16), EU sources said on Wednesday. Reding’s long-awaited proposal is now circulating among all the other EU Commissioners before they formally adopt it later this month or in early October. The EU’s 27 member states and the European Parliament must also approve the change.”
The Silicon Valley Watcher has an interesting post on “who is making the most money from Web 2.0.”
Internetnews.com reveals that “Microsoft is getting into the [app store] game. [An] advertisement on ComputerJobs.com, which has since expired, would indicate the company has an App Store-like service of its own in the works. ‘The service, called SkyMarket in the ad, is an App Store-like service for Windows Mobile 7, which Microsoft has up to now not formally discussed or disclosed. The duties included the usual product manager-types of responsibilities, such as preparing for the launch of Mobile 7 and building a developer community.”
In more Microsoft news, CNetNews reports that “Microsoft has an idea for keeping children safe online: create ‘digital playgrounds,’ sites where visitors have to prove their age using digital identity credentials. The idea was detailed in a paper Microsoft was set to release early on Wednesday as part of its Trustworthy Computing initiative. The concept builds on a notion called ‘End to End Trust’ that Microsoft first proposed in April at the RSA Security conference. The company is tackling the challenge of how to make the Internet safer not just for children, but also for adults wanting to conduct business, make transactions, and communicate with the confidence that the people they are interacting with really are who they say they are.”