France adopts “three strikes and you’re out” law
The Register reports that the French National Assembly has now voted through its “three strikes law” designed to clamp down on file-sharing and illegal downloads. Yahoo!News reveals that “IBM cut its offer for Sun Microsystems Inc to $9.55 a share after a thorough vetting and may soon unveil details of its largest- ever takeover, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday. But the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the deal, said that price [...]
Yep, That’s Their Business Model
Just a week after a widely read news story about how Twitter, three years in, doesn’t have a business model, here comes the news today is that Google is in late stage talks to buy Twitter. Gosh, I wish someone had suggested last week that lack of a business model is, actually, a form of a business model and means for cashing in.That’s all for now. I’m off to make some Lotto picks.
EBay users get rewarded for shopping
Yahoo!Tech reveals that “[s]hopping on eBay just got a bit more rewarding, at least for some users of the online auctioneer's site. On Wednesday, eBay Inc. launched a ‘beta’ test version of eBay Bucks, a program that lets participants earn a 2 percent reward on certain items they buy through the site and pay for using eBay's online payment service, PayPal. Rewards come quarterly as gift certificates, which can be used to buy other items through eBay within 30 days. [...]
European Commission to scrutinize use of online consumer data
Yahoo!Tech reveals that “[t]he European Commission is about to launch an investigation into how consumers' online data is being used by search companies, social networking Web sites and Internet service providers. […] Officials are particularly concerned about the growing use of deep packet inspection techniques that allow broadband providers to track online activity even if consumers have tried to delete tracking cookies set by the Web sites they visit.” The Seattle Times has an interesting article discussing whether the emergence [...]
No Business Model IS a Business Model
Rafe Needleman has a story today about how Twitter has gone three years without a business model, or a plan to make money. In fact, they only recently hired someone who’s specifically tasked with making a business out of Twitter. But as Needleman points out, that doesn’t mean Twitter isn’t valuable or that it won’t make money someday. They could just be following the model of several other Internet-based companies, a model we’ve identified as “Skim, Skimp, and Scrap.” Needleman [...]
Meaning of cloud computing still a bit clouded
The Wall Street Journal has a worthwhile piece discussing the origins of the word “cloud computing” and what the term actually means. Yahoo!Tech reports that, according to a new report by industry consulting firm Ovum, “[b]roadband-service providers will see their revenue from mobile services jump to 137 billion dollars worldwide by 2014, up 450 percent from 2008. […] But the number of mobile broadband users will likely outpace revenue growth as competition drives prices lower and because most of the [...]