Bill Gates, KBE
News item: Queen Elizabeth will tap Bill Gates on the shoulder with a sword. My reaction: he’ll probably enjoy that more than being hit in the face with a pie.
Google v. Yahoo
Wired article on Yahoo’s 10 year anniversary. The article sharply points out that Yahoo seems to get lost in all of the hype about Google, and it shouldn’t. I confess that Google pervades my life: I search Google dozens of…
Old TV Shows, Music Licensing and DVD Releases
Katie Dean writes a nice article about how the need for music licenses is inhibiting the release of classic TV shows on DVD, both because of the license fees and the sheer transaction costs of obtaining proper licenses. She also…
Nielsen-NetRatings Search Engine Loyalty Study
Nielsen-NetRatings released its latest study showing that searchers use multiple search engines. For example, the study says “58 percent of Google searchers also visited at least one of the other top two search engines, MSN Search and Yahoo! Search… Nearly…
Good GQ Article on Google
Long but insightful article on Google by John Heilemann. I’ve blogged more about it at my personal blog.
Associated Press on Spam Filters
Associated Press article about IAP spam filters, specifically going after Verizon’s policies. There’s not really much new in this article, but it does give me a chance to make a few points about spam filters: * any type of filtering…
Dealer Management Systems v. Design Automotive Group
Dealer Management Systems v. Design Automotive Group, Ill. Ct. App. Jan. 2005. Vendor sells $20k of software and $15k of services using an unsigned purchase order. Customer doesn’t pay. Vendor sues. Customer defends claiming Statute of Frauds. Court concludes that…
Another Follow-up on Microsoft Antispyware Misclassification
Another article on Microsoft’s antispyware tool blocking access to a Dutch search engine. See earlier posts #1 and #2.
Search Engine “Impression Spam”
Click fraud has been well-discussed among SEMs/SEOs, but Rob McGann runs a good article in ClickZ calling attention to “impression spam.” This occurs because Google considers click-through rate in its sorting algorithm for paid ads. If an ad gets a…
Block v. eBay
Block v. eBay, #105CV035930 (Cal. Superior Ct. filed Feb. 17, 2005). Important new class action lawsuit against eBay. Internet News and Reuters have focused on the claim that eBay acts as a shill bidder by exhorting high bidders to up…