Idealab scored a legal victory last week when a California Superior Court judge threw out the most serious charges brought against the tech incubator by approximately 40 of its investors. The plaintiffs -- which include such institutions as Spectrum Equity Investors, Dell and Traveler's Insurance Group - had alleged fiscal mismanagement, and specifically asked for Idealab to be liquidated. A judge said no, and also threw out breach of contract and fraud allegations. All that is now left is a request to have two individuals - including Bill Gross - removed from the Idealab board of directors. 

Posted by Reid

8:49 AM 0 comments

News: Microsoft's next target--Google?

"The software company this month quietly launched a new search program called MSNBot, which scours the Web to build an index of HTML links and documents. The homegrown system--which performs robot functions previously left to Inktomi and other partners--may pose a significant threat to Google if Microsoft fulfills its promise to make the program a cornerstone of its overall PC and services strategies."

Posted by Kelly Abbott

10:16 AM 0 comments

Report: Web Privacy Policies Confuse Net Surfers
By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "Privacy policies" that explain a company's Web surveillance habits have done little to dispel confusion among Internet users about how they are tracked online, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The dense, legalistic documents that many commercial Web sites post to explain their data-collection habits are more likely to provide false reassurance than clarity to Web surfers, the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center found.

Prompted by privacy concerns and the threat of national legislation, most top Web sites now contain prominent links to privacy policies that explain how visitors are tracked and what is done with e-mail addresses, names and other personal information they provide.

But while the disclosures may provide a measure of legal protection for the Web sites in question, they often end up misleading or confusing visitors, the report found.

More than half of the 1,200 adults surveyed for the report wrongly believed that the mere presence of a privacy policy meant that that the Web site would not sell or trade personal information about them.

Although many Web sites provide free content to visitors who provide their names, e-mail addresses and other personal information, 85 percent said they would rather pay a fee for anonymous access or get that information offline.

"People have no clue as to what goes on behind their screens," said Joseph Turow, the Annenberg professor who wrote the report.

Turow recommended that Web sites be required to translate their privacy policies into a machine-readable code called P3P that would allow users to automatically steer away from sites that they would find too invasive. P3P was introduced over a year ago but has not been widely adopted.

Web sites should also be required to disclose in plain language what they know about their visitors, what they have done with that information, and what they plan to learn about them, he said.

Posted by Reid

9:53 AM 0 comments

According to a new survey from the American Management Association, Clearswift, and The ePolicy Institute, 22% of companies have terminated an employee for e-mail infractions and e-mail users spend about 25% of the workday on e-mail. Over 1,100 US employers participated in the 2003 E-Mail Survey, a follow-up to an e-mail survey conducted by the American Management Association and ePolicy Institute in 2001.

The survey in detail revealed that:

- The average respondent spends about 107 minutes (1 hour 47 minutes) on e-mail every day ... about 25% of the workday. While 24% report spending less than one hour, 31% spend more than two hours and 8% more than four hours.

- 76% of respondents say that they have lost time in the last year due to e-mail system problems. 35% estimate they lost only half a day, but 24% think they have lost more than two days.

Ivan O'Sullivan, vice president at Clearswift, says "These statistics reveal and solidify the idea that companies need to train employees how to maximize productive use of e-mail." "While 75% of organizations have written e-mail policies in place, only 48% offer e-policy education to employees, and merely 27% offer e-mail retention/deletion training." said Nancy Flynn, co-author of E-Mail Rules.

- Eighty-six percent of respondents agree that e-mail has made them more efficient, in spite of the fact that 92% receive spam mail at work. Fully 47% say spam constitutes more than 10% of all their e-mail; 7% report spam represents over 50% of all e-mail received.

- According to the compiled data, in 2003, more than half (52%) of U.S. companies engage in some form of e-mail monitoring of employees and enforce e-mail policies with discipline or other methods. In fact, 22% of companies have terminated an employee for e-mail infractions.

- While 90% of employers have installed software to monitor incoming and outgoing e-mail, only 19% are using technology to monitor internal e-mail among employees.

"Management's failure to check internal e-mail is a potentially costly oversight," says Ivan O'Sullivan, Vice President of survey co-sponsor Clearswift. "Off-the-cuff, casual e-mail conversations among employees are exactly the type of messages that tend to trigger lawsuits, arm prosecutors with damaging evidence, and provide the media with embarrassing real-life disaster stories. The fact that 90% of respondents send and receive personal e-mail at work and 66% of companies lack a policy for deleting nonessential messages, compounds the problem."

Posted by Reid

8:46 AM 0 comments

Light Reading - Networking the Telecom Industry Internet traffic growth is still growing, according to a report released earlier this week by researchers at the University of Minnesota. Unfortunately, the revenues associated with it don't seem to be keeping pace.

Posted by Kelly Abbott

4:31 PM 0 comments

USA Interactive is changing its name to InterActive on Monday. They will also be going by IAC, for short. Their ticker symbol will change to IACI. ...Probably has something to do with their move to the world-wide Web from the USA-only Web... ;-)

Posted by Reid

3:57 PM 0 comments

BROADBAND GROWS 49 PERCENT
Nielsen/NetRatings reported there are 39 million, or 13 percent of Americans, who use the Internet via broadband connections, the highest number to date. Broadband users at home leaped 49 percent year-over-year, while narrowband users declined 12 percent during May 2003. "Clearly people are discovering the perks of high-speed access, from streaming video and audio to rich media," said Marc Ryan, director of analysis.

Posted by Reid

11:35 AM 0 comments

United to offer in-flight e-mail
United Airlines is attempting to make its domestic flights more attractive to business travelers by offering two-way e-mail capability. For $15.98 per flight, travelers can plug their laptops into Verizon's Airfone handsets to send and receive unlimited e-mail.

Posted by Reid

9:35 AM 0 comments

Microsoft to halt future Web browser versions for Macintosh
SEATTLE (AP) -- Microsoft says it will no longer develop versions of its popular Web-browsing software for Apple's Macintosh computers, saying that Apple's own browsing software is a logical choice for Mac users.

Posted by Reid

1:21 PM 0 comments

Immediately convert a Recordset into XML

Posted by Kelly Abbott

11:08 AM 0 comments

Return of the rich client application with .NET Framework

Posted by Kelly Abbott

9:29 AM 0 comments

This is the truest, most successful means I have seen of using the Web for crisis communications: marthatalks.com

Martha Stewart talks about her indictment and keeps her following informed.

Posted by Reid

9:27 AM 0 comments

INTERNET TAXES REMAIN IN FOREFRONT
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- In the digital world, U.S.-based Internet companies will soon have to become global tax collectors.

That means higher prices for customers overseas, not to mention a lot of cumbersome compliance.

Starting July 1, companies doing business in European Union member nations will be required to charge customers living in those countries the value-added-tax rate on digital services.

The European Union's regulation requires the collection of VAT taxes on digital services, a broad term that could affect the business of many Internet companies that sell a variety of online goods and services -- music, videos, dating, subscriptions to news sites or even e-learning classes.

"The biggest stumbling block is determining what is a digital service," said Jon Abolins, vice president of tax and government affairs with Taxware. "The valuation should be, 'Am I selling something that can't take any tangible form?' "

If the product or service is reduced to a digital medium, then it's most likely classified a digital service.

This broad definition of digital service may require Internet companies, which heretofore have been able to sell to overseas customers without the burden of collecting taxes from them, to begin implementing a tax-collection process.

For instance, an online school with a British student might be required to collect the VAT tax, said Abolins.

Similarly, USA Interactive (USAI) may have to begin collecting taxes on EU residents who subscribe to the company's Match.com online dating service.

Music services offered by the likes of Apple Computer (AAPL) and RealNetworks (RNWK) fall into the digital services category as well.

And Yahoo (YHOO) will likely have to charge taxes on EU residents that subscribe to its Yahoo Platinum service. AOL Time Warner (AOL) will have to collect taxes on subscribers accessing its CNN video streams.

What about, say, EU residents who book hotel rooms from Hotels.com or airline tickets from Priceline.com (PCLN)? Abolins says that tickets and rooms would not qualify because a customer is receiving an actual product. But the service-processing fee just might fall under the broad interpretation of digital services, he said.

So far, EBay (EBAY) has been one of the few, if not the only, Internet company that's made it clear that it will begin collecting taxes on the brokerage services it provides sellers to EU customers.

But EBay won't be the only one that'll have to comply, said Abolins. Shares of Internet companies have come under pressure of late partly due to investor concerns about the implications of online taxes.

Posted by Reid

11:08 AM 0 comments

Dvorak Online: Could SCO Kill Linux?

"Whether you use Linux or not, you have a vested interest in seeing this open-source OS remain alive and well. Why? It serves as an alternative to Microsoft operating systems and helps keep companies like Microsoft on their toes. But Linux is in mortal danger, according to columnist John C. Dvorak, because of the lawsuit in which SCO, the owner of Unix, accuses IBM of using Unix code in the Linux kernel. Dvorak wonders, for example, what happens to the Linux open-source movement if SCO and IBM settle out of court and IBM is suddenly the only vendor with the legal right to certain parts of the Linux kernel. He spells out some other scary scenarios, as well. If you believe in a competitive market and the open-source computing world, you need to read this column and spread the warning."

Posted by Kelly Abbott

9:35 AM 0 comments

ValueClick acquired all outstanding equity interest in Search123 for approximately $5 million, but the transaction was structured as a merger, so Search123 will survive as a wholly-owned subsidiary of ValueClick following the transaction.

Posted by Reid

12:57 PM 0 comments

Another one to pay a little more attention to:

Sprinks, AOL in deal
Sprinks, the pay-per-click unit of About Inc., has signed a deal with America Online that puts Sprinks in areas on Netscape, CompuServe and AOL's Instant Messenger service. Sprinks says it is also in talks with Yahoo! on a similar deal.

Posted by Reid

10:29 AM 0 comments

News: Microsoft to drop standalone IE

"Microsoft is phasing out standalone versions of its Internet Explorer Web browser, according to statements attributed to IE program manager Brian Countryman in an interview posted on the software giant's Web site."

Posted by Kelly Abbott

8:53 AM 0 comments