Ecommercepartners.net

It’s been a snowy morning here in NYC and in just a few hours, we will celebrate a new year filled with hope for a promising future. Time’s Square will be packed with tourists and locals alike, counting down the minutes in the slushy streets typically bumper to bumper with taxi cabs and impatient drivers. Illuminated by the light of a blue moon, we can take time out to reflect on the past as we plan for a successful 2010 personally, professionally and as a society.

(more…)

Have you heard this story yet?

I was watching the news late the other night when I learned that there have been memos sent around to hotels in and around Beijing informing them that they would need to install Internet monitoring software prior to the Summer Olympic Games of 2008 at their own expense.

(more…)

Could it be that we have almost survived another work week?  I think so!

And just because I can, I have certified this post as Yahoo, Google and Microsoft Free!

The Ultimate Collection of Online SEO Tools
I just came across this link yesterday and have still barely made it through half of the excellent SEO related links they have available.  The fact that every one of their tools are web-based makes it that much more cool, especially when your hard drive is as bloated as mine is these days.

Obama Wants a Cyberterror Czar
Dismissing the current administrations attempts at curtailing cyber crime, the Presidential candidates detail their ideas for increasing cyber security and making us all safer on the ‘net.

Australians Want to Buy Online, study
Research has indicated that Internet users from Australia and New Zealand are twice as likely to make purchases online as their counterparts in the United Kingdom.

Have a great weekend!  See you on Monday!

San Francisco, CA – Terry Childs, 43, is in jail.  It seems that his employer upset him enough for him to cause a little problem on the job.

Did I forget to mention that Childs works (worked?) for the City of San Francisco as an IT Network Administrator?  Because yeah, he does/did.  It seems that after being disciplined on the job for lackluster performance, Childs felt the need to prove that he had mad skillz and proceeded  to set up a master password for the city’s FiberWAN (Wide Area Network) that only he has access to.

According to a press conference with San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris,  Terry Childs stands charged with four felony counts including improper tampering with computer systems as well as causing a denial of service that locks city admins out of the network.

After refusing to give up his own master password and reportedly giving police several fakes, he is being held on a $5 Million bond.  The network is still operational, but concern has been expressed as this network contains sensitive data ranging from confidential official email communications to police records and city employee payroll records.

It is estimated that the damage could end up costing the city millions of dollars, though the extent of the problem has yet to be revealed.

The lesson to be learned here?  Always stay on the good side of your company’s IT people.

The power of the blogger is being realized and capitalized upon by companies big and small and tThe latest to jump on the bandwagon is one of the most recognizable household names in the United States.

One of Procter & Gamble’s most well known products is responsible for bringing as many as fifteen mommy bloggers to their headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio later this month.  Moms from all over the country are being flown to HQ for a special gathering to reach out to blogging mothers of young children Bryan McCleary, director of external relations for P&G baby care said.  “Mom bloggers are the new influencers," McCleary is quoted as saying.

Well, it seems to be that time of the week again – TGIF!

iPhone 3G hits the marketplace
At long last (has it really been all that long?), Apple releases that latest and greatest iPhone to the retail market today. The much-hyped updated version of the cell phone that does it all now does even more, with features including GPS and the accessibility of hundreds of other applications through Apple’s new App store.

The App Store gives iPhone users access to a tremendous variety of software in any of eighteen categories, over a hundred of which are free. I have become addicted to the Texas Hold ‘Em app, personally.

Flickr, Getty looking for the next great photographer
Online photo storage and sharing website Flickr (which is owned by Yahoo, for the record) has penned a deal with Getty Images that will make it possible for amateur photographers to have their work receive mass exposure they might never realize otherwise. Did I mention that Getty will be paying? [full story]

Gene Hoffman Jr. has written a fantastic piece over at E-Commerce Times called “Online Businesses: Recession-Proof or Just Lucky?” that discusses some of the reasons as to just how and why ecommerce businesses are not only surviving but thriving despite a struggling ecomony.

See you next week, folks!

TGIF and Happy July 4th Weekend to everyone in the U.S.!  Here are a few of the ecommerce and Internet marketing headlines that caught my attention over the past few days:

If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em.  Search engine web site Ask.com has completed their purchase of the company that owns Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com – two of the most widely used reference web sites in the world.  The cash-only deal automatically increased Ask.com’s traffic by 11 percent to 145 million visitors monthly, securing Ask.com’s place as the 9th largest web property in the world.

Playing with the big dogs.  Business Week is carrying an excellent feature story this week about how small home-based businesses are using international outsourcing to strengthen their foothold in the e-commerce marketplace.  By outsourcing his web site design, New York based auto dealer Tehrani found a Brazil-based firm to handle the work for him, why a couple in Massachusetts has folks around the world working on graphic design and e-commerce marketing materials.

And finally, one for the “you’ve got to be kidding” file:

Don’t try this at home.  The infant child of two would-be jokesters in New Zealand has been returned home after being seized when it was discovered that his parents tried to sell him on Ebay. [full story]

Have a great weekend everyone!  See you on Monday!

For the first time in the company’s 33 year history, Microsoft founder Bill Gates will not be reporting to work today.  Friday was Gates’ last day as a full time employee of the software giant, though he will stay on as a consultant and advisor.

He’s been paving the way for this change since he gave up the CEO reigns to Steve Ballmer in 2000, so this change will not have a major impact on the company.  In fact, Gates will stay on as a part timer for some time.

TGIF Everyone!

Here are a few headines that caught my eye over the past few days:

Top 100’s Ad-Spend Growth Grinds to Halt
from AdAge.com
synopsis: The big-spending advertisers who once spared no expense to get the word out about the next great idea are spending less and less, with ad spending increasing overall a mere 1.7%.

Disney-ABC Makes ‘Lost,’ ‘Desperate,’ ‘Ugly’ Deal With Veoh
from E-Commerce Times
synopsis: Media giant Disney/ABC has made the leap for increased online content by hopping into bed with Veoh Networks, who is now offering full episodes of the network’s most popular television series for content-hungry streaming video fans.

US Airways to offer PayPal services
from Birmingham Business Journal
synopsis: From the “what took you so long” files…California-based PayPal now has a major nod from air carrier US Airways, who will now be allowing customers to select the online payment company’s services as a payment option for flight reservations at no additional cost when reserving their travel through usairways.com.

Are you old enough to remember the dot com boom?

What about the Internet crash that eft hundreds of thousands of would-be entrepreneurs thumbing through the classified ads while sipping lattes from the kitchens of their soon-to-be-reposessed luxury homes?

The Economist is carrying a well-executed article about three of the biggest name companies who each have survived the best of times and the worst of times – Yahoo!, Google and Amazon. In a June 19, 2008 article, “The Three Survivors” details the beginnings of each along with why Amazon is once again emerging to take its place in the sun, with founder Jeff Bezos still holding the reins.

Yahoo! is floundering, though they have managed to survive the threat of being Microsofted – for now – with a little carefully managed assistance from their friends at Google. Still, stockholders are angry enough at co-founder Jerry Yang that they do plan to buck him from the saddle at the annual meeting in August.