Australia Puts Brakes On eBay PayPal Only Plan
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) have told eBay to put its plans to move to a PayPal only system on hold."The ACCC is concerned that the notified conduct will allow eBay to use its market power in the supply of online marketplaces to substantially lessen competition in the market in which PayPal operates," ACCC Chairman, Mr. Graeme Samuel, said today.
Yahoo’s Zawodny Announces Exit
Asked to name one person associated with Yahoo, most people would pick Jerry Yang. David Filo would be another choice. Perhaps third out of roughly 14,000 employees is Jeremy Zawodny, though, and within a few weeks, he’ll be leaving the company.
Metallica Really Enjoys Positive Reviews
The metal gods tossed their management team under the proverbial bus after those managers demanded takedowns of positive reviews by bloggers of some rough takes of Metallica’s newest project.
Icahn's Yahoo bid may set up others
The big money speculators hovering over Carl Icahn’s pending proxy fight with Yahoo could have other companies in their sights.
Gaming Does Not Lead To Poor Social Skills
People who play video games for long periods of time are not necessarily lonely nerds without social skills according to an Australian study.The study by Victoria University psychology graduate Daniel Loton revealed that 15 percent of 621 adult respondents were flagged as "problem gamers" who spend more than 50 hours a week playing games.
The Internet’s Influence For Home Buyers
Just what we want to hear – bad news about the housing market, but this time online. Turns out online searches didn’t have as significant impact on homebuying or renting decisions as we may have hoped. That doesn’t necessarily mean real estate sites should pull back their budgets though.
Does Google Know What You’re Doing Offsite?
Google’s behavioral targeting is an inevitability and, in one form, a current practice. People are aware of personalized results when logged into their accounts, and certainly retail sites are aware of what you’re checking out. But a recent forum poster reports Google’s apparent knowledge of what he was doing off-site. And the thought of that is a little unnerving.
You Got Pants, Facebook Has People
Just because a social network is popular doesn’t mean it’s so easy to monetize, as News Corp. found out after its purchase of MySpace. Analysts have tried to extend MySpace’s trouble to other social networks while balking at Facebook’s $15 billion valuation. But after speaking with Facebook’s Kent Schoen about the social network’s fairly precise ad targeting, skeptics could be won over.
Ratings, Not Usage, Moves Google Rankings More
Despite massive server farms with processing power to burn through mountains of user data, Google relies on a quaint approach to tweaking its rankings.
Google Wins Communication And Humanities Award
This honor might seem better suited for an individual, and it comes with a cash prize of 50,000 euros that Google really doesn’t need. Nonetheless, the search giant has won the 2008 Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities.