Yahoo Acquires IndexTools
Yes, that’s correct. Yahoo! has acquired IndexTools and now has become a major player in the analytics space. Google Analytics and even Omniture now appear to have another direct competitor in Yahoo/IndexTools – it should be interesting to see how Yahoo will market IndexTools in the near future. Eric Peterson, has a great follow up to this story on his blog, speaking about how this acquisition will change the analytics game:
OpenID? Try Open To ID Phishing
As major Internet players back OpenID, we were reminded of an Amsterdam computer student pointing out a trio of scenarios that makes the prospect of OpenID’s single sign-on method a scary prospect.
California Bill Seeks To Tax Downloads
California Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-City of Industry) wants to impose a sales tax on music and movies downloaded from the Internet in order to ease the states budget shortfall.Calderon’s proposal would raise the cost of an iTunes download from 99 cents to $1.07. He believes the Board of Equalization should update a 75-year-old law that authorizes sales-tax collections on tangible personal property. Music and movies downloaded off the Internet are not considered tangible goods.
Virginia Schools To Teach Internet Safety
In an effort to prepare children and teens for the potential stranger danger on the Internet, Virginia is the first state to make Internet safety classes for all grade levels.It’s hard being first and one might imagine all 49 pairs of eyes (assuming one set of eyes per state, of course) will be on Virginia to see how educators implement the program, the messages used, and the methods by which the program is evaluated.
Flickr’s Major Upgrades
Flickr launched their widely rumored video service today. Videos are limited to 90 seconds in length and 150 MB in size. Only Pro members can upload videos. The video above is one of the first videos on the service from Heather Champ’s photostream. More information from the Flickr Blog here.
SEO Being Trademarked?
It seems the world we live in has recently been relocated to the ‘Twilight Zone’. The reason being, that recently a man named Jason Gambert is trying to register ‘SEO’ as a trademark. The most shocking point in this bizarre event is that he has managed to get all the way to the publication stage of the registration process.
Legg Mason Offers Yahoo Some Support
Legg Mason portfolio manager Bill Miller is kind-of-sort-of on Yahoo’s side as it deals with Microsoft, judging from a new interview. Since Legg Mason holds about seven percent of Yahoo’s shares, this is important.
Facebook Tsks-Tsks Over Unfair Reviews, Fake Accounts
Given the number of Facebook apps in existence, allowing for reviews of them seemed like a good way of tracking which ones worked. Fake reviews have become an issue, though, and Facebook’s attempts to address the problem haven’t been too effective.
Disney Announces Pixar 3D Movies
Walt Disney has announced that Disney and Pixar will make eight new 3D animated films in the next four years.With the exception of "Wall*E", a robot love story and the hand drawn "Princess and the Frog", all the movies will be in digital 3D the studio said. All the 3D films will also be available in a 2D format.
Mets Won’t Be Rickrolled By Fark Audience
An online prank to write-in the Rick Astley song ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ as a sing-along tune in Shea Stadium may be undone by the Mets.