Friday, October 31, 2003
BW Online | October 30, 2003 | What's Google Really Worth?
Informed speculation says Google will issue an initial $1 billion worth of shares, which would represent what analysts think is about a year's worth of sales. That's a huge deal considering how unfriendly the I.P.O. climate remains for tech concerns. The more enthusiastic sorts on Wall Street say an I.P.O. may be worth as much as $25 billion. Other experts respond that such an appraisal is wishful thinking.
Posted by Kelly Abbott
8:05 AM
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Microsoft and Google: Partners or Rivals?
Google, the highflying Silicon Valley Web search company, recently began holding meetings with bankers in preparation for its highly anticipated initial public offering as it was still engaged in meetings of another kind: exploring a partnership or even a merger with Microsoft, The New York Times reports. According to company executives and others briefed on the discussions, Microsoft approached Google within the last two months to discuss options, including the possibility of a takeover.
Posted by Kelly Abbott
8:05 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Can-Spam Bill Passes Senate; Requires Do-Not-Spam Registry
Direct Magazine
by Kris Oser
Posted by Reid
9:36 AM
0 comments
Friday, October 24, 2003
A List Apart: "ALA 3.0 kicks off with three articles by three of our best writers."
Posted by Kelly Abbott
8:51 AM
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15 Seconds : SVG Developers Start Your Engines: "The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has announced a series of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) competitions that will be held over the next few months. "
Posted by Kelly Abbott
8:49 AM
0 comments
Thursday, October 23, 2003
Wired News: Survey Confirms It: Spam Sucks: "'What this is signaling to us is that there's a change in the whole Internet experience going on here -- a degrading of the experience. Spam is hurting e-mail, and it's eroding people's trust in e-mail and the Internet,' said Deb Fallows, a senior research fellow at the Pew Internet Project. "
Posted by Kelly Abbott
12:25 PM
0 comments
Monday, October 20, 2003
Many-to-Many: Department of Defense Weblog Experiment: "The Department of Defense is experimenting with weblogs to speed procurement and testing of hi-tech products, in the first round of projects selected for their Rapid Acquisition Incentive Net-Centricity (that’d be the RAI/NC to you, soldier.)"
Posted by Kelly Abbott
11:42 AM
0 comments
Thursday, October 16, 2003
VERISIGN SELLING DOMAIN REGISTRAR BUSINESS
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- After snapping up the domain-registrar business during the Internet boom more than three years ago, VeriSign said Thursday it's reached a deal to sell it to equity firm Pivotal Private for $100 million.
The registrar unit essentially sells domain names to consumers. The unit is profitable but sales, which totaled $58 million in the second quarter, had been slowing down, said Tom Galvin, a spokesman for VeriSign (VRSN).
"There was a clearing out of domain names that were registered during the Internet bubble, and as though speculative names came up for renewal, they weren't renewed," Galvin explained.
Additionally, VeriSign has been trying to "sharpen" its strategy to focus solely on critical infrastructure. Signing consumer registration names is a business that didn't fit with that strategy, according to Galvin.
The process of selling off the unit took more than six months, a period during which buying interest became more apparent. "We had several offers and decided this was a fair price and a good fit for employees," said Galvin. There are 600 employees in this unit, Gavin noted.
VeriSign bought Network Solutions for $16 billion at the peak of the Internet bubble in 2000. As part of that purchase, VeriSign received the registrar and registry business.
VeriSign is keeping the registry business, representing the wholesale side of the domain-registration business. As part of this business, VeriSign manages the domain names for the customer-facing registrars, such as Register.com and Network Solutions.
The registry business, which includes VeriSign's security and payment services business, generated $105 million in the second quarter.
The deal is expected to close in the current quarter. The company will go through financials when it reports third-quarter results next Thursday, after the close.
VeriSign's shares added 47 cents to trade lately at $15.27.
Posted by Reid
10:27 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Madison Avenue Sets E-Mail Standards, Lobbies For Spam Legislation
In what is perhaps the strongest push yet to establish industry standards for e-mail marketing practices, the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) jointly released a set of nine guidelines on Tuesday in an effort to enhance and defend the legitimacy of e-mail as a mass marketing tool.
“There is a consensus in our industry that spam needs to be eradicated not just to protect consumers, but brands and businesses as well,” said Robert H. Wientzen, president and CEO of The DMA, asserting that spam is one of the most significant threats to the future development of the Internet.
"Today's landmark announcement reflects our shared belief that stamping out spam requires a multi-pronged approach,” added O. Burtch Drake, president and CEO of the AAAA. “In addition to technological innovations and much-needed federal legislation, we are asking advertising agencies to abide by a stringent set of self-regulatory practices for legitimate, responsible, and consumer-friendly businesses."
The AAAA/ANA/DMA guidelines for e-mail marketers are as follows:
1) The subject line of an e-mail must be honest and not misleading or deceptive.
2) A valid return e-mail address and the physical address of the sender should be clearly identified. Marketers are encouraged to use their company or brand names in their domain address and prominently throughout the message.
3) An e-mail should clearly identify the sender and the subject matter at the beginning of the e-mail.
4) All commercial e-mail (except for billing purposes) must provide consumers with a clear and conspicuous electronic option to be removed from lists for future e-mail messages from the sender. The removal process must be easy to find and easy to use.
5) If a company sending commercial e-mail has multiple distinct brands or affiliates, notice and opt-out should be provided based on the likely perspective of the average consumer. Each separate brand or affiliate, as the consumer is likely to perceive it, must offer notice and a process for removal from marketing lists in all commercial e-mails (except for billing purposes).
6) Marketers should not acquire e-mail addresses surreptitiously through automated mechanisms (such as robots or spiders) without the consumer/customer's informed consent. This includes a prohibition on dictionary attacks or other mechanisms for fabricating e-mail addresses without providing notice and choice to the consumer.
7) "Remove" means "Remove." The electronic remove feature must be reliable, functional, and prompt.
8) E-mail lists must not be sold or provided to unrelated third parties unless the owner of the list has provided notice and the ability to be removed from such transfer to each e-mail address on the list. Related third parties include other brands/subsidiaries within the same parent company as well as outside affinity partners as a reasonable consumer is likely to perceive them.
9) A commercial e-mail should contain the sender's privacy policy, either within the body of the e-mail or via a link.
Posted by Julie Rosefsky
9:42 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
The New York Times:
TECHNOLOGY; Spam Fighters Turn to Identifying Legitimate E-Mail
(Registration Required)
Posted by Reid
11:06 AM
0 comments
Monday, October 13, 2003
GOOGLE ENHANCES ADWORDS PROGRAM
From AdWeek
Google has added new features to its AdWords program, the Web search company said.
The nearly 2-year-old advertising program lets marketers create their own ads and choose keywords to dictate where the ads are displayed on Google and its network of search and content Web sites. Participating advertisers, such as Dow, FordDirect, Boston Chauffeur and AmericanMeadows.com, pay only when users click on the ads.
The first addition to the program is a free conversion-tracking tool, which correlates clicks that originate from the AdWords campaigns to conversion rates. Types of conversions tracked include purchases, sign-ups, leads and page views.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company also has expanded its matching capability, meaning ads will automatically appear in response to highly relevant keyword searches, even if those keywords are not specified by the advertiser. For example, if an advertiser's keywords are "Honolulu hotels," their ads now may appear when a user conducts a search for "Honolulu hotel," "Hawaii hotels" or "Honolulu inns."
Google said the expanded matching capability would help advertisers determine the best-performing keywords. It also could produce more leads for advertisers, since ads are associated with additional related keywords and may appear more often.
Separately, America Online said last week that it expanded its multiyear alliance with Google. Under the agreement, Google will provide search results to AOL members and users of its other brands, including AOL.com, Compuserve and Netscape. In addition, Google will continue to offer its targeted paid-search-listings product, which lists advertisers based on relevancy and other factors.
Posted by Reid
2:25 PM
0 comments
E-mail remains popular despite spam
About 16 percent of Internet users have downloaded software to filter spam from their e-mail boxes, according to a survey by DoubleClick Inc. The report, presented at the annual conference of the Direct Marketing Association, concluded consumers are showing "an increasing sophistication" and that 14 percent have created a second e-mail address for use when making online purchases. The studies also showed permission-based emails are a significant driver of purchases, not only online but also through catalogs and in retail stores. Two-thirds of respondents said they made a purchase as a result of an email that they received from a retailer, cataloger or online merchant.
Posted by Reid
11:32 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
Thursday, October 02, 2003
The third quarter of 2003 produced online retail sales of $12.43 billion, a 24% increase over the same period in 2002 when $10.02 billion was spent, according to shopping search and comparison site BizRate.com. For the first nine months of this year, online sales totaled $37.16 billion, up by 24% from last year's $29.90 billion for the same period.
Actual orders grew by 47% to 101.34 million unique transactions in the third quarter. However, the average purchase amount has decreased by 15% to $123 in Q3 2003 compared to $145 in the same period last year.
Posted by Reid
2:36 PM
0 comments
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
LatinTrade.com: "Why wireless? As Mexican telecom giant Telmex and its cellular unit Telcel know, mobile phones combine fat revenues with consistent growth. But even these giants know that the big growth to come is Internet, set to jump 20% annually by 2007. As mobile telephone growth slows, business and home Internet is likely to come into its own at last."
Posted by Kelly Abbott
10:24 AM
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