Rumor Puts Anonymous Group In Line To Buy Yahoo
Fair warning: this is an unsubstantiated, nonspecific, and not entirely easy to swallow rumor. Today isn’t April 1st, however, and the rumor seems to have gotten the attention of a leading tech reporter and at least a few stock traders. So (for the umpteenth time) consider the possibility that Yahoo is on the path to getting acquired.
Do Your Customers Trust You?
Making a purchase online, especially a substantial one, can be a nerve-wracking process for a consumer. The primary problem, aside from price, is trust. Shoppers negotiate their relationship with the vendor in much the same way they negotiate relationships with any stranger: by seeking information. What an online vendor lacks (and what becomes a disadvantage) is one-on-one interaction with the customer. As such, the customer must put forth additional effort to find out about a product for sale. Making this task easier can make all the difference in closing a sale.
Retailers Increase Paid Search Spend
Multi-channel retailers increased their U.S. paid search spend in Q4 08 by 12 percent compared to Q4 07.Consumers continued to convert online at a steady rate, although they spent 10 percent less on average per transaction compared with the prior year, according to a report from SearchIgnite.
Got AdWords Ideas? Checkout the AdWords Wishlist
Last week, Google used its Google Moderator product to call upon users to give them ideas for improving Google Mobile. It allowed people to submit ideas and vote others up or down. This would give Google an idea of the ones that were most in demand.
Yelp Review Leads to Defamation Suit
A California man named Christopher Norberg is in the middle of a legal dispute with a chiropractor for posting a negative review of his services on the site Yelp.com. The dispute stems from a billing experience, which Norberg referred to in his review, and the chiropractor filed a defamation suit. It is now a classic example of where the line between free speech and defamation should be drawn.
Microsoft Setting Aside Seattle Expansion Plans
Sometime this spring, construction of a Seattle development known as 2201 Westlake should be completed. There will be 14,000 square feet of ground floor retail space, 134 condominium units, and 302,200 square feet of office space. Only the office space may remain empty, because Microsoft has backed away from it.
Employees Overwhelmingly Confident About Layoffs
Employees in the U.S. seem to overwhelmingly share a "it won’t happen to me" attitude when it comes to losing jobs. Glassdoor.com has released results from a survey, which found that 4 out of 5 employees have no concerns about being laid off in the next six months. GlassDoor breaks it down into two categories – companies that have reported upcoming layoffs, and companies that have not:
Google as an Example of How to Blog for Business
Many business owners know they should be blogging. There are plenty of reasons to do so (particularly in a recession) as discussed by Jennifer Laycock here:
(Some) LinkedIn Profiles Leading To Malware
Over the weekend, Twitter suffered from some security problems that fell more on the mischievous than malicious side of things. Now, the sort of social media trouble quotient appears to have risen a bit as fake LinkedIn profiles are trying to send users towards malware.
You’re Safe with Twellow
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone recently talked about some phishing issues going on with Twitter on its official blog. "If you receive a direct message or a direct message email notification that redirects to what looks like Twitter.com—don’t sign in," warned Stone. "Look closely at the URL because it could be a scam." Doug reported: