Can you say Google FAST???

Microsoft Pays $6 billion for aQuantive: Massive Ad Network Consolidation Is Occuring

Breaking: Microsoft is acquiring advertising network aQuantive the parent company to Avenue A | Razorfish, Atlas and DRIVEpm, for roughly $6 billion in an all-cash transaction, the company said this morning.

aQuantive is a public company (AQNT) and had a market cap of just $2.8 billion as of yesterday. The acquisition price of $6 billion is a roughly 2x premium on yesterday’s closing price, which is a reflection of the fact that this were competing bidders (see notes below). The acquisition comes after recent big acquisitions by Google and Yahoo in this space. Google bought Doubleclick for $3.1 billion in April. Later that same month, Yahoo acquired competitor RightMedia for $680 million. Just yesterday, WPP Group acquired yet another company in this space, 24/7 Real Media, for $649 million.

2006 revenues for aQuantive were $442 million. Net income as about $54 million.

aQuantive’s operating companies include both tools and ad agencies. The company is located in Seattle.

Microsoft is held a media call this morning to discuss the transaction. My notes are below. At about 7 am PST a recording of the call will be available at 1-800-774-9248.

Notes From Media Call:

(see CenterNetworks as well, Allen Stern has taken very complete notes)

Deal brings lots of new relationships with publishers and advertisers

Microsoft is now able to sell display ads on any website

Good tools for rich media ads, including IPTV

aQuantive was founded in 1997.

Microsoft says they are showing they are willing to aggressively grow strategically. Ad market is predicted to grow dramatically over the next few years. Lots of synergies between companies. Will be able to better monetize microsoft inventory, and will now be able to sell display ads on third party sites. Financial implications to MS: deal will close in FY 2008. They do not think it will have a significant impact on MS operating income.

MS expects an antitrust review in the U.S. and maybe in other countries. Probably not EU, but perhaps in Germany.

MS talking about privacy: says aQuantive has high degree of respect for privacy and fits well with Microsoft’s privacy policies.

Bear Stearns question: does this affect MS’s opinion on Google/doubleclick transaction. MS: no, not at all. Says this will promote competition and Google/doubleclick will hurt competition. Microsoft is in none of the businesses that aQuantive is in, whereas Google was already in direct competition with doubleclick and will give Google 80% market share in those markets.

question on how difficult integration will be with MS’s Adcenter platform? MS says online ad market is $40 billion annually and growing 20% per year. Says MS is committed to getting their share of the market, and this deal gives them a more complete end to end solution (paid search, display ads, CPA). MS says the deal will make their time to market much quicker. They are looking to consolidate their inventory from MS sites to create more scale for ad network. Talking about MS’s new software + services model, phones, games, IPTV, etc. and that advertising will drive these businesses.

MS has a long relationship with aQuantive, has been a customer for many years.

question on the size of the premium v. yesterdays closing price for aQuantive. MS says if they can drive growth through acquisition better than through internal growth they will do it. “we have the economic fire power to do more if we wish to”. MS says this was a competitive bidding situation, and “we are delighted to have won”

MS is saying that there is very little overlap between the two companies, the products are highly complementary.

this is largest MS acquisition to date, but this is only 2% of MS market cap, and they have $35 b in cash on had.

TechCrunch

New Stuff At My Yahoo

The big guys are really starting to focus on personalized home pages, where Yahoo dominates and Google is coming on strong (by adding a link from the Google.com home page). Google says their personalized home page has been their fastest growing product over the last few fiscal quarters. Pageflakes and Netvibes are two notable startups in this space.

Tonight Yahoo is announcing a few enhancements to the recently relaunched My Yahoo: a new calendar module, a My Netflix module that uses the Netflix API and an update to the Yahoo Bookmarks module.

The calendar module has read/write functionality (as it should). My Netflix lets users see what movies have recently been released on DVD, the movies in your queue and movies you have at home. The main addition to the bookmarks module is the ability to add new bookmarks directly from the module.

The new features will be rolled out on Thursday. Screen shots are below. The first one shows the calendar and netflix modules.

eBay, meet YouTube

Better late then never, as they say, but eBay has finally sanctioned embedded videos, a time-tested practice pretty much everywhere on the interest these days.

Sellers may now include a video right in their ad (let’s be honest, it’s going to be a YouTube video) to provide a level of advertisement beyond mere images and words (here’s a listing for a Lego figure with video embedded).

This is especially good news for sellers with high ASPs since it allows you to really show off your product from many angles (increasing conversion rates, if done right). Real Estate agents have been using online videos for a while and personally it’s starting to look suspicious if you don’t have a video available for your house. I can see this turn into a must-do shortly on eBay Motors (want an example of how NOT to do it? — warning, may make you dizzy).

Here are a few helpful resources to get you started:

• Business Week podcast on selling on YouTube
• YouTube Marketing Tips (with link to good article on product marketing using YouTube)
• Excellent tutorial on getting optimal video results
• YouTube tools & more!

Is Your Business Growing? You May Qualify for the Inc. 5,000

You set out to build a successful company... and you've done it! Now, it's time to make sure the world knows about it.

Inc. magazine is recognizing the 100 fastest-growing private businesses in every major metro area and every major industry in the U.S. Together, these fast-growing private companies will comprise the Inc. 5,000, an editorial award from the most prestigious private-business magazine in the country. The 500 fastest-growing companies will be profiled in the September issue of Inc. magazine and all 5,000 will be profiled online on Inc.com.

Click to Apply for the Inc. 5,000!

For 26 years, Inc. magazine's editorial staff has done extensive research to identify the fastest-growing companies. Many well known companies, such as Microsoft, Timberland, and Domino's Pizza, were recognized by Inc. long before they became household names. But we've also helped gain recognition for thousands of smaller companies looking to raise their profile within their industry or region.

The list is a great way to recognize your company's success - and not only in the pages of Inc. Stories about last year's list in local and national press were seen by more than 25 million people.

Applying for the Inc. 5,000 is free, easy, and takes only minutes.

Go to www.inc5000.com to learn more and apply. The deadline is May 15^th, so apply today!

Vision Experience 28-foot inflatable theater

Vision Experience 28-foot inflatable theater

Price: $19,999

Sometimes watching a movie indoors just won't cut it. So create your own drive-in with the Vision Experience's complete package, which includes a gigantic blow-up screen, an HD-capable projector and a full sound system. The company suggests playing your Nintendo Wii on this screen. And if you spill your beer or popcorn, don't worry--it's machine-washable.

10 Ripe Areas for Starting Your Business

Big Dreams, No Cash: 10 Businesses You Can Start Today on a Tight Budget

by S. Tia Brown

Eden Reff dreamed all her life of opening a restaurant. But she couldn’t dream up the money to pay for it.

By 2003, Reff's financial situation still hadn't changed. Her resolve had. She decided to stop letting poor finances stand in her way and her future as a businesswoman.

"I saved money from my tax returns and started out making southern-style pies," she says. "I sold them around the winter holidays."

The pies were a hit. Today Reff, 31, operates Artistic Edibles, a full-service, home-based catering company in Mount Rainier, Md.

Starting a service- or talent-based business out of your home is an ideal choice for first-time entrepreneurs, and for a simple reason: They don’t require a lot of capital.

"If you have a talent that others are willing to pay you for, the business startup phase is usually easy," says Henry J. Turner, executive director of the Small Business Development Center Network at Howard University. "The easiest home businesses to start are janitorial and technological services."

But starting out small doesn't mean it’s cost-free.

"I always recommend a cash-flow analysis for the first 12 months," Turner says. "That will tell the entrepreneur what they need to spend and how much they will need from various sources, such as credit and personal finances."

10 Ripe Areas for Starting Your Business

If you’re hot to get going with a startup, but your finances aren’t, here are some independent businesses – requiring little more than a certificate or license – that you can start today:

1. Tutoring: The last U.S. Census reports more than 76 million school-age children. Federal laws like “No Child Left Behind” and state requirements that students pass tougher standardized tests before moving to the next grade have led to booming demand for tutors.
2. Hair Care/Makeup: Women – and men – spend big money on grooming services. Assisted-living homes, nursing homes and senior centers are great places to get started, and sharpen your skills.
3. Child Care Provider: U.S. Census figures also show that more than 20 million children live in single-parent homes. Many of those working parents need and are looking for childcare – especially outside of regular business hours.
4. Catering: This is a great first step to opening a restaurant. Home-based catering is an inexpensive way to build clientele, test recipes and find out if you're suited for the rigors of food service.
5. Cleaning/Lawn Service: With unemployment low, more people have less time – but more money – to spend on taking care of their homes and lawns.
6. Online Professor: Have an advanced degree or a lot of experience? Selling your services as a virtual instructor can be lucrative. Web-based and traditional colleges and universities offer online courses.
7. Financial Services/Business Consultant: If you know your stuff and have a proven track record, financial planning and/or business consulting can pay big.
8. Party Planning: Kids’ birthday, sweet 16 and graduation parties, bat and bar mitzvahs and other celebrations today involve a lot more than just buying a cake and inviting people over. Besides event planning, other niche opportunities include making invitations, decorations and party favors.
9. Computer Services: Whether you fix the machines, develop software or are able to translate technical jargon into everyday language, this growing field needs experts who make house calls. Many new users, especially older people who once avoided computers, now are giving in to lower prices. This new wave needs help with everything from setting up their new box to using the Web.
10. Personal Organizer: If you have a knack for neatness, you can turn it into money by starting a service to organize anything from closets to computer desktops.

Now take one last tip: Plan carefully.

"Don't start until you have a business plan," Turner says. "The reason a large number of small businesses don’t survive beyond three years is the lack of financial and marketing planning."

What Would Meg Do?

On The Cover forbes Magazine

Ebay's Meg Whitman built a retail leviathan without sacrificing her customers, shareholders or ethics. She still has more to prove.

People at Ebay love to tell this story about Margaret (Meg) Whitman, the chief executive. She was on a flight to India with three other Ebay employees when one of them developed a dangerous gastrointestinal problem somewhere over Tehran. Whitman pulled out an atlas and decided Istanbul was the nearest, safest city in which they could land. She called an air emergency service and arranged for an ambulance to be waiting on the tarmac when the plane landed. Whitman rode in the ambulance with the ill executive and stayed with him for hours in the hospital, talking to his wife on the phone. Once the executive was stabilized Whitman took him to a hospital in London in the corporate jet. She and the other Ebay employees flew commercial to India, leaving the jet for the patient to fly home to California. "She will exert herself personally, far and above the call of duty," says Rajiv Dutta, head of Ebay's PayPal business. "She makes you want to do the right thing."

Whitman is indeed a welcome respite in an age littered with corporate shenanigans. Nice is the word usually applied to Whitman personally, and nice she has been to shareholders. She became chief executive of the online auctioneer in March 1998. Six months later she took the company public at an initial market value of $700 million. Now Ebay is worth $46 billion, and shareholders have enjoyed a compound annual return of 40%. Yet Whitman has taken home a quite reasonable paycheck--averaging $1.7 million a year in the last six years. Of course she is sitting on a nice pot of Ebay stock, most of which she was granted upon her hire--her 1.9% stake is worth some $885 million. That, plus cash and other holdings, makes her one of only ten self-made female billionaires on the planet.

And she did it without indulging in accounting tricks or backdated options, as have so many Silicon Valley executives. "I love who we are as a company and what we stand for," says Whitman. "It's fun to have built such a successful company and done it with a nice character, in a way most people would be proud of."

Whitman's performance earns her a top spot on our annual list of Best Bosses, those who delivered superior returns to shareholders while not gorging on outrageous pay packages. She has built Ebay so that today, with $6.3 billion in revenue, it is becoming a full-service Internet retailer--far more than just an auction site selling Hummel figurines and teeny teapots. Ebay runs a site for apartment hunters, a comparison-shopping bot, a place to sell cars, a handful of regional classified businesses and StubHub, a competitor of Ticketmaster. Ebay also helps 143 million people pay for all those purchases. Last quarter Ebay's PayPal unit processed $11.4 billion of payments between individuals and/or businesses. Nearly 200 million people use Ebay's Skype Internet phone service.

Says Whitman, "I'm a better leader, a better manager, a better executive than when I arrived as a youngster. I have learned how to manage a company that reinvents itself every couple of years."

The next reinvention may be the most critical she will face. From 2000 to 2004 Ebay's revenue rose an average 77% a year. But revenue in the first quarter of 2007 was up just 27%. Her quandary: The company's core business, its Ebay marketplace, is lagging. New listings in the U.S. this past quarter were down 2%. Some of that can be attributed to Whitman's recent efforts to improve the quality and profitability of those listings, but the slackening growth hints at saturation.

Buyers and sellers today have options that were not available when Whitman joined Ebay. Yahoo (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ) now has a more comprehensive retail offering, which includes a place to sell cars online, as well as shopping, real estate and classifieds. Amazon (nasdaq: AMZN - news - people ), no more than a discount bookseller in the late 1990s, now sells everything from iPods to Prada pumps. Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) lets people and businesses buy ads or sell wares such as motorcycle helmets and Hello Kitty boots for free, and its Checkout service is chasing down PayPal.

Ebay has $3.5 billion in cash, feeding rumors of acquisitions or mergers to reinvigorate growth. Travel sites such as Expedia (nasdaq: EXPE - news - people ) or Priceline could be targets, as might Monster Worldwide (nasdaq: MNST - news - people ) or Autobytel (nasdaq: ABTL - news - people ). A megamerger is also a possibility. Over the years a bevy of corporate beaux including AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) have reportedly come courting, but Whitman has sent them all away. An Ebay spokesperson said the company "will continue to be opportunistic with acquisitions."

Whitman, 50, was born in Oyster Bay, N.Y. and raised in Cold Spring Harbor, both quaint towns on the North Shore of Long Island. The youngest of three siblings, she earned a bachelor's in economics from Princeton and a master's in business from Harvard. In 1980 she married a brain surgeon; they have two boys, ages 22 and 18.

She did a quick stint at Procter & Gamble (nyse: PG - news - people ) before current Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney hired her as a consultant at Bain & Co. After eight years of telling executives how to manage their brands, Whitman moved on to management roles at Disney, Stride Rite, FTD and Hasbro (nyse: HAS - news - people ) before joining Ebay in 1998, then with 40 employees. The company delivered $47 million in revenue that year. David Beirne, an executive recruiter and partner at Benchmark Capital, an early backer of Ebay, called Whitman to lure her to California. At first she said no, but when she met founder Pierre Omidyar and then president Jeffrey Skoll she saw something special. "The connection between the company and its users was something I had rarely seen," she says.

During the first five years of her tenure she focused on expanding the auction business, then acquiring and building PayPal (bought in 2002 for $1.5 billion). Shareholders were thrilled with the company's trajectory. Ebay shares continued to soar in 2004 as Whitman made a big push into new global markets. She brought Ebay to Malaysia and the Philippines, and purchased online marketplaces in India, the Netherlands, South Korea and Germany. That same year she also picked up a 25% stake in classifieds site Craigslist.

At the close of 2004 Ebay's stock reached a split-adjusted alltime high of $58 a share. But in January 2005 Ebay announced the first quarter in which its revenue rose less than 50% over the year prior. Investors took it as a bad sign and pummeled the shares.

In a desperate effort to bring in new business opportunities, nine months later Whitman paid $2.6 billion for Skype, a Luxembourg Internet phone company. Wall Street thought she overpaid for an asset with no obvious revenue plan. Some board members initially raised concerns, too, that the deal was both expensive and potentially distracting. The board eventually acquiesced but, says director Robert Kagle, a partner at Benchmark Capital, "Meg definitely led the Skype acquisition, there's no doubt about that. There were lots of important and challenging issues."

Skype remains a work in progress, delivering only $240 million in revenue in the past 12 months--a measly $1.20 per user. Though analysts have written down the asset, Whitman insists Skype will prove to be a good deal. "PayPal is a fabulous company, but it took a number of years," she points out. (PayPal contributed $1.5 billion in revenue in the past 12 months.) Whitman hopes Skype calls will be used to conduct business, such as someone in Beijing teaching an American to speak Mandarin. "When the cost of telecom goes to nothing a lot of interesting things happen and new businesses can be built," says Whitman.

Last year Whitman gave William Cobb, president of Ebay North America, an edict to fix the auction marketplace. It turns out many buyers were turned off by bad listings. They would think they scored a digital camera for $1, for example, only to learn they owed $300 in shipping fees. Ebay now exposes the full cost in search results. To reduce fraud, Ebay now requires more information from sellers posting items favored by counterfeiters, and hides the identity of bidders so they do not get targeted by fake "second chance" offers.

Whitman is also building Ebay's global classifieds businesses. This should help bring in new customers who do not like the auction format, as well as help Ebay make money from people buying and selling services, such as hiring a lawyer, a plumber or a nanny, which cannot be closed over the Web because they require face-to-face meetings.

In Asia Ebay has been crushed by Taobao, a Chinese online marketplace owned by Alibaba. Yahoo owns 40% of Alibaba--and that's just one reason some on Wall Street have again been talking up an Ebay-Yahoo deal.

Bear Stearns (nyse: BSC - news - people ) analyst Robert Peck ticks off potential synergies: "Yahoo has advertising, Ebay has a marketplace. Ebay has Skype, which Yahoo could use for its click-to-call and [instant messaging] services. Ebay also has a checkout platform [PayPal] that could be used with advertising."

It's a measure of Ebay's growth--and Yahoo's shakiness--that Ebay is now seen as the potential acquirer, reversing the scenario of past rumors. Yahoo's capitalization, $38 billion, is 20% below Ebay's.

Another possibility for Ebay: a future without Meg Whitman. In 2005 Whitman was rumored to have been considered for the top job at Disney but turned it down. "Meg is on everyone's target list," says Kenneth Virnig, a recruiter in Silicon Valley. She may also be tempted toward politics. Whitman is cochairman of Romney's finance efforts, a path that could lead to a cabinet spot. "People are convinced that I must have something going for me if I have Meg Whitman with me," says Romney.

Kagle's take: "Meg is very committed to leaving a legacy at Ebay that clearly demonstrates it has been one of the biggest business successes over the last decade." The legacy-building period is not over yet.

Cell phone tracking locates heart recipient

Police located a 10-year-old boy awaiting a heart transplant by asking his mother's cellular provider to locate her cell phone.

John Paul May of Harrisville had the successful surgery at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh on Saturday night, but came dangerously close to being passed over for the donor heart until police tracked down the boy and his mother at a jazz festival.

The hospital called state police Saturday afternoon because officials couldn't reach the boy's parents to let them know a donor heart had been found. When police couldn't find the boy or reach him by phone, they contacted Sprint Nextel Corp. to get the coordinates of his mother's cell phone.

"The only time you can use it is life or death, or to track someone wanted in a homicide," state police Cpl. James Green said. Otherwise, police must get a warrant from a judge.

Using the coordinates, state police tracked the phone to a Slippery Rock University building. Police stopped the jazz concert that was happening and announced they were looking for the boy and his mother, Sue.

The crowd of some 500 jumped to their feet and gave the boy a standing ovation as he left, said Steve Hawk, a music professor who conducted the concert.

"I've been in the entertainment business for 30 years and never had such an emotional, shocking event happen at something live," Hawk told the Butler Eagle.

Yahoo News

Survey: Office Managers Worth 10 Employees

April 24, 2007 -- From testing phone lines to picking up the boss's dog, most office managers are doing the work of 10 regular employees, a recent national survey by Staples found.

In a survey of 8,000 office managers at small businesses nationwide, more than half said they were covering customer relations, IT support, human resources, administrative duties, promotions, and accounting, among other workplace duties.

Other tasks cited by respondents included customer service manager, purchasing manager, housekeeping manager, and workplace psychologist.

Although the current median salary for office managers is $53,654.53, a composite salary calculated by Salary.com based on all duties they typically perform is closer to $90,000, the survey said.

"They're performing an extraordinary range of duties to keep their small businesses running," John Giusti, vice president of Staples Business Directory, said in a statement.

Source: Inc.com

Yahoo Mail to offer unlimited storage

Yahoo will begin offering unlimited storage for its free Web-based e-mail in May, the company announced late Tuesday. The move makes Yahoo the first of the major free e-mail providers to offer unlimited storage, but it likely will not be the last.

Yahoo currently offers 1 gigabyte for its free mail service and 2GB for its premium fee-based service. Google's free Gmail service offers more than 2.5GB of storage, and Windows Live Hotmail offers 2GB for free.

"We are watching the trend lines of how people are using e-mail...and they are sending more photos and videos and rich media," said John Kremer, vice president of Yahoo Mail.

Google began the storage wars in earnest when it launched Gmail in April 2004 with 1GB of storage. Yahoo Mail, which launched in 1997 with 4MB of storage, upgraded to 100MB of storage shortly after Google's Gmail announcement, bumped it up to 250MB in late 2004, and then up to 1GB in 2005.

With 250 million users, Yahoo Mail is the largest global e-mail provider and the largest in the U.S., according to comScore.

The unlimited storage will begin rolling out globally in May, and Yahoo expects to have all of its customers covered within a month, except for China and Japan. "We will continue working with these markets on their storage plans," Kremer said.

CNET News.com

RIM to introduce newest BlackBerry

NEW YORK - BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. on Monday will unveil a new version of its top-end e-mail phone for business users, replacing the signature side navigation wheel with a front trackball that first appeared last year on the consumer-oriented BlackBerry Pearl.

The BlackBerry 8800 will be offered in the United States by AT&T Inc.'s Cingular Wireless starting Feb. 21, priced at $300 with a two-year contract commitment.

The new device enters a far more crowded market for multifunction "smart" phones than the 8700 did when it was launched in late 2005. Back then, the main competition was Palm Inc.'s Treo, while lower-priced BlackBerry-like entrants from Motorola Inc.,

Nokia Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. had not yet arrived.

RIM is billing the 8800 as the thinnest BlackBerry to date, measuring 0.55 inch from front to back. That's just a hair thinner than the Pearl's 0.57-inch thickness, but 0.2 inch thinner than the 8700 model that the 8800 will replace over time. The 8800 is also a shade narrower than the 8700 from right to left, but slightly taller.

Other features include the ability to pick up signals from Global Positioning System, or GPS, satellites for location tracking. The device comes installed with BlackBerry Maps, an application that can use the GPS signal to provide driving directions as well as integrate with other applications to, for example, send a map via e-mail.

The 8800 also comes with a media player and an external storage slot for removable microSD memory cards.

Still missing from the business-oriented device is a digital camera, which RIM says many corporate customers don't want their employees to have for security and other reasons.

"It's not that hard to put one in," RIM co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie said in an interview. "But it was unambiguous for a dramatic proportion of the mobile professional segment: No camera."

Balsillie said it wasn't a tough decision to switch to the front trackball and ditch the traditional sidewheel — which has been used to scroll through e-mail on every BlackBerry model except the Pearl since the BlackBerry and its predecessors were introduced in the 1990s. The Pearl, which unlike the 8700 and 8800 does not feature a full typewriter keyboard with one key for each letter, was introduced in August.

"The response to the trackball has been universally positive," said Balsillie, noting that 80 percent of the non-phone usage on the Pearl involves multimedia applications rather than traditional BlackBerry e-mail. "If it's just messaging, it's just up-down, left-right. But if you're going to do multimedia, the navigation aspects become more prominent."

AP

Google Checkout and PayPal Continue Shopping-Rebate Wars

It's hard to keep up with the special offers Google Checkout and PayPal are offering to shoppers. The two companies are continuing to offer rebates to encourage shoppers to sign up for their respective payment services and to encourage retailers to offer the services on their sites.

In November, Google Checkout offered new users $10-off purchases of $30 or more, or $20-off purchases of $50 or more (depending on the merchant) through December 26. The promotion was extended through an offer in which first-time shoppers on Google Checkout receive $10 off a one-time purchase of at least $10 through February 15, 2007.

Similarly, in November PayPal offered a cash rebate of up to $20 for shoppers paying with PayPal on qualifying merchant websites in North America through May 15, 2007. A page at (http://paypal.promotionexpert.com/greatshopping) promotes a $15 rebate to "Jump-Start Your Spring Shopping."

The rebate offers benefit merchants by allowing them to advertise the rebates to their shoppers and to get exposure on the services' lists of participating merchants.

AuctionBytes.com

Windows Mobile 6 unveiled: Mini-Vista

New Windows Mobile 6 to Be Presented at 3GSM in Barcelona.

First details about Microsoft’s new operating system for mobile phones have emerged on the Web, with analysts saying it is a Vista in miniature.

Windows Mobile 6, code-named Crossbow, brings a new Vista-like interface and a lot of improvements concerning interoperability with other services crafted at Redmond. The new mobile OS will be available in the second half of 2007, and its newest features will be presented next week at the 3GSM conference that takes place in Barcelona, Spain.

Suzan DelBene, vice president for the company’s mobile-device marketing, said that she expects the OS to be installed on smartphones all over the world in the next few months.

Among the new features included in Windows Mobile are:

• Email in Rich HTML Format.
• Live links to SharePoint sites.
• Windows Live for Mobile included in Windows Mobile 6.
• New Security features such as remote wiping capabilities if your device is lost or stolen.
• Enhanced Windows Vista Synchronization through Windows Mobile Device Center.
• Calendar ribbon gives you your important appoints quickly.
• Contacts with context – call records now attached to individual contact cards in Windows Mobile 6.
• .NET Compact Framework and SQL Server built in to Windows Mobile 6.
  

According to estimates, Microsoft sold 3 million licenses of Windows Mobile last quarter, up 90 percent from a year earlier, and is now boasting with fruitful partnerships signed with Samsung (for the BlackJack model), T-Mobile (Dash) or Palm’s Treo.

Windows Mobile 6 is built using the same core as the WM5-the Window CE 5- so all applications which run on WM5 should work fine with the new edition. "We hope to be 100 percent compatible," said John O'Rourke, a general manager in Microsoft's Mobile and Embedded devices unit. "If an application works in Windows Mobile 5, it should work on Windows Mobile 6."

Windows CE (sometimes abbreviated WinCE) is a variation of Microsoft's Windows operating system for minimalist computers and embedded systems. Windows CE is a distinctly different kernel, rather than a "trimmed down" version of desktop Windows. Windows CE kernel is built to run even with less than a megabyte of memory. Windows CE 5.0 is the most open Microsoft Operating System to date, though not all of the system is available under shared source agreements.

Since the kernels are similar, users of WM5 will be able to upgrade their OS just like an XP user upgrades for Windows Vista.

All Windows Mobile 6-powered phones will include the previously introduced Direct Push Technology for always up-to-date E-Mail delivery and automatic synchronization of Outlook calendars and contacts through Microsoft Exchange Server.

Windows Mobile 6 will also offer a set of important device security and management features including the ability to remotely wipe all data from a device should it be lost or stolen, ensuring that confidential information remains that way.

Users of Microsoft Office on the PC – of which there are nearly 400 million worldwide – will feel right at home with the new mobile versions of Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint built for all Windows Mobile 6 smartphones. Windows Mobile 6 addresses extensive user feedback and incorporates enhancements from the new Microsoft Office Mobile, making information management easier and more convenient.

The software also offers a new Windows Live search engine that combines Internet search with the ability to find and map nearby locations, DelBene said.

Thus, the Redmond behemoth is trying to surge into Google’s market share, which is about 5 times bigger than Microsoft’s in search engines domain.

The Windows Mobile 6 platform will offer a variety of other security options, giving IT departments the choice of how best to secure a device, from new Exchange Server policies and certificate options, storage card encryption, and continued support for remote and local device wipe.

Organizations using Information Rights Management (IRM) technology to control the viewing, storing and printing of confidential information on PCs will be able to extend those same rights to Windows Mobile 6 devices, a feature not available on any other mobile phone platform.

Powerful, new mobile versions of the .NET Compact Framework and SQL Server are built into Windows Mobile 6 make it even easier to create and access sales tools, inventory tracking, and many other applications from a smartphone.

With another WM6 built-in application users will be able to easily transform their smartphone into a high-speed modem for their laptop ("one-click easy") with either a Bluetooth wireless or cable connection.

Windows Mobile 6 also makes it easier for operators and device makers to integrate a VoIP solution into a device they're building.

playfuls.com

Cell phone offerings set to boom: report

The market for content and services on cell phones is expected to grow to $150 billion by 2011, as access to the web while on the move becomes easier and faster, research from Informa Telecoms & Media showed.

The research firm said on Thursday that applications such as messaging led by traditional SMS messaging would still account for a lion's share of this market, generating over half of this revenue in 2011.

Informa predicted messaging services comprising SMS, multimedia messaging and instant messaging on cell phones will generate revenues worth $93 billion globally by 2011 from $60 billion last year and an expected $67.4 billion in 2007.

Entertainment services comprising games, music, TV, adult content and gambling would grow to $38 billion by 2011 from around $18.8 billion in 2006, it said.

"Mobile music will be a major contributor to the revenues achieved in the mobile entertainment market in the next five years, although its overall share of the market will fall from 40 percent in 2006 to 36 percent in 2011 as new forms of entertainment such as mobile TV and video services begin to gain consumer interest," Informa said in its report.

Not all of the explosion in new services, although helped by the availability of broadband speeds on cell phones, would go to cell phone operators.

"The introduction of a whole host of new players into the value chain presents new opportunities for growth in the mobile content and services market, whilst simultaneously posing a threat to mobile operators who face losing control of the billing relationship with their customers," Informa said.

It also forecast areas such as user-generated content, the rage of the Internet world in 2006, to come into the cell phone world in the years ahead. Informa forecast user-generated content and communities to be worth $13.2 billion by 2011.

Reuters

Bill Gates Introducing Windows Vista

From Times Square in New York City, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates hosted the worldwide launch of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System. The celebration paid tribute to the millions of Microsoft customers, partners and product testers around the world who provided input and feedback on these products -- helping Microsoft transform the way people communicate, create and share content, and access information and entertainment in the new digital age.

On-Demand Webcast

Microsto

New eBay Feature Allows Store "Markdowns"

eBay has introduced a new feature in its Stores product called Markdown Manager. The tool allows sellers to offer discounted pricing on Fixed Price and Store Inventory items. Sale items will display special strike-through pricing on the item page, along with a "Sale" logo, so buyers can easily see the discount offered.

PowerSellers Unite

Developing a Marketing Calendar

When's the best time to develop a marketing calendar for the year? As they say, there's no time like the present. By Al Lautenslager
January 31, 2007

Just because we're approaching February doesn't mean it's too late to plan your marketing for the year. Jay Levinson, my Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days co-author says there are two best times to develop a marketing plan: right now and whenever your business started. Since we can’t go back in time, let's focus on right now.

Marketing is complicated. To make effective use of its many strategies and components, you have to first plan them out, then stay organized and consistent in implementing your plan. A marketing calendar is the best way to organize your marketing activity; the calendar also serves as a working document you can revise and update throughout the plan year.

A marketing calendar doesn’t have to be fancy. I recommend a simple spreadsheet matrix. Across the top x-axis, I place column headings representing the months of the year. Down the y-axis, or the first left-hand column, I list each individual marketing initiative, event or activity I'll use during the plan year.

For instance, if I'm going to do a press release every other month starting in February, I would put an X in the February, April, June, August, October and December columns. If I were going to issue a print newsletter once a month, each monthly column would have an X in it for that item.

How do you know which activities to include in your calendar? Brainstorm all the marketing ideas that make sense for your plan year but keep in mind that you can't do everything. Balance your marketing workload with the other things you need to do for your business. Plan for what you can do completely, not halfway. Also plan what you feel comfortable with, emotionally and financially. Prioritize accordingly, then place your ideas in your matrix.

Using a marketing calendar allows you to do four things with your marketing:

1. It organizes, categorizes and prioritizes your marketing initiatives and activities.
   
   
2. It allows you to spot "bunches" in your marketing activity. Too many X's close together might indicate the need to spread out your activity. It's generally accepted, though, that there are natural bunches that occur as a result of seasonality in your business and your customers' buying habits. Many retail operations market heavily in the third quarter, for instance, and bunch up marketing activity in anticipation for the fourth-quarter holiday season.
   
   
3. It offers a way for you to spot gaps in your marketing activity. Too much time in between the X's in your activities leaves customers and prospects untouched. Your goal with marketing is to achieve top-of-mind awareness. Consistency is key here, as is repetition. Don’t have gaps in your marketing.
   
   
4. It allows you to more easily evaluate your marketing. At the end of the year, the quarter or any other period of time you specify, grade the individual activity and initiative items. You can use a 1 to 10 scale, with 10 being spectacular, or you can use a simple A, B or C grading system. If your particular initiative worked, grade it high. If it was moderately successful, give it a midlevel grade, and if it didn’t work, give it a low rating. Now here's the real value of this activity: When you plan the next period’s marketing, repeat what worked or what you graded highly. Fix, modify or tweak the marketing that kind of worked or that was graded at a midlevel, and eliminate the marketing that didn’t work at all.

That’s all there really is to planning your marketing with a marketing calendar. Do what works for your business. Plan it quarterly if that's easier for you than doing it monthly. Once you establish your marketing plan, keep it up on a regular basis, just like paying your bills. Consistent marketing wins out. Planned consistent marketing with effective implementation wins out even more. And if you didn't start back when you launched your business, start now.

entrepreneur.com

The Real Value Of Vista

Microsoft's new Windows will allow you to make the most of your digital media.

When Vista finally hits the shelves on Jan. 29, most consumers won't have a clue why they should buy it. Never mind the fanfare it will receive as Microsoft Chairman William H. Gates III formally launches the new Windows from the stage of the Nokia Theater in New York. Or the hundreds of millions of dollars the software giant plans to spend through June to market it. With all of Vista's many new features, Microsoft seems incapable of really zeroing in on the handful that will truly change the way consumers use their PCs.

Not that Vista won't be a step forward. Just think back to what your PC was like five years ago when Windows xp launched. It was still the era of the Blue Screen of Death, that infamous window that popped up to say your PC had just crashed. Windows XP improved PC reliability. But in retrospect, the real breakthrough for consumers (those who didn't already have a Mac, that is) was XP's ability to help digitize their entertainment. Windows XP made it a snap to stash music, photos, and video online.

Windows XP pretty much stopped right there, though. Microsoft Corp. made it easy to rip a CD to your PC's hard drive. But it took Apple Inc., with its iPod, to figure out how to actually take advantage of that digitization and make it easy for consumers to listen to their digital tunes. And forget about photos. Consumers have snapped scads of photos—2 billion in 2006 alone. But they remain trapped on hard drives of PCs running Windows XP. It's not all that different than storing snapshots in shoeboxes under the bed.

Enter Vista. Let's go out on a limb and suggest that for all the knocks against Microsoft and the jokes about how long it took to crank this thing out, Vista will in time be recognized as a leap past XP. And not just because it is far more secure and boots up more quickly. When consumers look back a few years from now, the Vista improvement they may be most likely to cite is the ability to actually use all that digital content they've been accumulating over the years.

The result of Microsoft's efforts is a collection of devices and services that takes Windows a step closer to truly being a digital hub. Think once again about those photos. Microsoft has worked with a handful of partners that have developed digital picture frames that connect to PCs over a wireless network.

Sounds geeky. But Microsoft has made it easy for PCs to recognize the frames on a home network, so all users need to do is turn on the frame to connect with it. Then, from their PC, they can select which pictures to display on the frames scattered around the house. "A lot of the success of Vista will be up to the partners like us to make it dead simple," says Jesse Grindeland, director of sales for i-mate plc, a Dubai company whose $299 Momento 10-inch frame goes on sale when Vista launches.

FREEING THE MUSIC
Another gadget, the Sonos Digital Music System, was wowing gearheads long before Vista came along. The Sonos system lets customers shoot music wirelessly from PCs to speakers throughout the house. And it worked well, except for music purchased online that contains copy protection preventing it from playing on multiple devices. Windows Media 11, the music technology inside Vista, fixes that, letting you stream copy-protected content throughout the house.

None of this was easy for Microsoft, which has always done better with business than consumers. "We're really focused on creating a consumer brand for Microsoft," says Brad Brooks, general manager in the Windows Client group. Microsoft's critics will point out that many Vista features are already in Apple's Mac OS X. Even Vista's new method of recovering old versions of files, with the drab moniker Volume Shadow Copy, trails Apple's much flashier Time Machine technology.

But for most PC users, these improvements will matter regardless of who had them first, says Michael Gartenberg, research director at JupiterKagan Inc. After all, Vista, like its predecessor, will continue to outsell the Mac by 20 to 1.

Businessweek

Mobile Web - A Completely New Ball Game

Rich Skrenta feels that it's time for the Winner To Take All. Google has won in what he calls the Third Age of Computing.

IBM and Microsoft were in that position in the two prior Computing Ages, but now Google owns the Internet. David Beisel is not convinced and feels a Fourth Age of Computing is on the way where Google will need to get involved in a new ball game. That new ball game is the Mobile Web.

The Mobile Web has even greater economic potential than the traditional Web as visited by desktop PCs. .. and despite the best efforts of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) with its Mobile Web Initiative, it may not end up as they would wish as One Web. There is a fundamental disconnect between agreeing Standards and competing in a fast moving technology where there are mega-bucks at stake. If in addition, the Standards are tough to apply in order to achieve that One Web, then in practice it may not work out even if many would wish to apply the Standards.

The other factor is that many involved have lived through the Internet tidal wave and may see all this from their Desktop PC perspective. That One Web should just spread out so that it becomes the Ubiquitous Web. Doesn't that seem a natural evolution to follow? Well natural evolution is fine provided we don't run into a disruptive technology that changes all the ground rules. It may even be so cataclysmic that it deserves the title, transformational technology. Some observers would apply that description to the whole Mobile world.

That is at the heart of Mobile Persuasion @ Stanford University with its tagline, "Changing people's beliefs & behaviors with mobile technology". Cameron Moll summarizes another very important article by Tomi T Ahonen entitled, "Putting 2.7 billion in context: Mobile phone users". That would certainly confirm that Mobile Phones represent a transformational technology. Ahonen's final paragraph points out the urgency in all this.

Whatever your business or interest, going mobile now will give you a competitive advantage. But going mobile next year will be a desperation move to stay in the game. Don't miss out on this. Mobile is the biggest opportunity going. Where is your business? Where is your mobile strategy?

The fact that Google may have been the winner in the Third Age of Computing is no guarantee of success in a completely changed world. There are already some powerful entities in the Mobile world. Google may already be Celling Out (free subscription required), but that doesn't yet seem to be showing results. Even a Google-positive article, Hooked on Google (free subscription required) showing Google is leaving Microsoft in the dust, had a sting in the tail.

In brand new areas, like mobile devices that connect to the Internet, Microsoft is holding its own against Google. According to Telephia, a research firm, 3.7 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers are visiting Microsoft's mobile Web sites, compared to 3.5 percent for Google.

But even in this area, Microsoft is still No. 2. Kanishka Agarwal, vice president of mobile content for Telephia, said Yahoo is No. 1 with 5.9 percent of subscribers due to the popularity of Yahoo mail.

It will be interesting to see what develops during 2007 in this fast-changing Mobile world.

End of service announcement

Free SkypeOut™ calls to US and Canadian phones ended December 31st.

After December 31st SkypeOut calls to US and Canada will be charged at the standard SkypeOut rate of ¢2.1 USD (or ¢2.4 CAD) per minute.

You can also get a full year of unlimited calls to any phone in the US and Canada. Get more information.

Skype Means Business - Saving Money is Just the Start

January 25, 2007 – Skype today announced it has taken Skype for Business one step further in response to continuous demand by businesses all over the world to use Skype™ to communicate with customers and colleagues. Skype for Business has proven to be incredibly popular because firms save both money and time as Skype is so easy to use and a convenient way of keeping in touch.

Business users have always been part of the Skype family and make up over 30% of Skype’s global community, now numbering at 171 million. In a recent survey of 250 businesses using Skype, 95% claimed to have saved money and 80% claimed that using Skype increased employee productivity.

One particular firm, Lewis & Hickey, a group of leading international architects that has recently installed Skype across its offices in the UK and Prague, claims that since making its first Skype call, it has saved up to 7.6 % on its standard call charges and wants to reach a cost reduction of 50% of its total telephony expenditure in the near future.

Benoit Mareschal, Director, Business Development at Lewis & Hickey, comments: “We have clients and teams across the UK and abroad and like many creative businesses we need to share ideas and keep in touch with one another. This can come at a high cost. We wanted to find a way to communicate but pay less for the privilege. Since we started using Skype, the amount we’re spending on international mobile and landline phone calls has dropped significantly. Skype creates a human bridge between technology and personable communication.”

The survey also revealed that 62% of the businesses communicate better with customers on Skype and 76% said they work more closely with colleagues because Skype is so easy to use.

Benoit Mareschal agrees, “Now we have Skype, the ability to talk with one another has increased enormously. People used to rely on email but with Skype you can get an immediate response to a query without disturbing the whole office – especially if you are using the instant chat feature. You can see when people are online, ask your question and carry on with what you were doing.”

With additional new features unveiled today, Skype has also made it easier for businesses to install and manage Skype. Skype can be easily installed on multiple computers using the Windows Installer package (commonly known as MSI), giving IT Administrators greater control over how Skype communications traffic runs across their corporate networks.

An online control panel enables companies to allocate individual users with Skype credits that can be used to make cheap SkypeOut™ calls to traditional landline phones or mobiles and provides a consolidated view of what is being spent.

Meanwhile, Skype is working collaboratively too. Together with its partners it has been working on a range of new business productivity tools, called Extras: these include the Convenos web conference and collaboration service, a package called Unyte which enables users to share the view off their PC desktop and a Skype-enabled call-centre offering from ACD.

Skype

eBay to end controversial practice of "extending" auctions?

Some very observant sellers noticed this subtle change to the eBay "fee circumvention" policy section that seems to spell the end of Extenders (more on this later)->

Extension of Auctions - eBay listings ('auctions') have a fixed duration. eBay may on rare occasions (for example, as the result of a site outage) extend the duration of an auction. Extension of auction duration by a seller, via either manual actions or the use of automated tools, is not permitted. Extension of auctions by a seller for any reason is not only a form of fee avoidance, but also harms the finding experience for buyers.

Here's a quick background and tutorial on Extenders if this topic is new to you. A now-defunct company, Ethical worked with a large seller to productize an idea he had found to be a winning strategy for improving sell-through rates.

eBay has a way you can manually "extend" an auction if it hasn't had bids and it is less than 12hrs from close, so what Ethical did was automate this. The way it works is you set your auctions (could be fixed price or BIN too) for 1 day. Then at close to 12hrs to the listing's original duration ending (11hrs into a 24hr listing), the software checks the listing and if there are no bids asks eBay to change the duration to 3 days. Then again, this process happens all the way to 7 or 10 days (if the seller is willing to pay the additional 10 day fee).

Why does this help sell-through? Well, the eBay indexing system doesn't really prioritize revised items (its busy handling the millions of fresh new listings every day - correctly so) and thus when you employ the strategy of extension listed above, your item shows up in eBay's search engine (which remember is listed by default as 'ending first") up to 5 times (1/3/5/7/10).

Once Ethical went under, a plethora of these tools hit the market at near-free prices. Nobody but eBay knows how widespread the practice is, but if you were to survey 100 top sellers in each category, I think you would find 15-30 of them utilizing Extenders.

If you want to know what an extended listing looks like, there's typically the word "revised" in parens next to the description as a link. When you click it, you can see that one of the revisions is "listing duration". Here's an example.

eBay's documentation lists extenders now under fee circumvention (I'm guessing the argument is that you receive the same exposure from one listing that others pay for with 4-5) and search manipulation.

This is just starting to ripple through the community and as you would predict, sellers that utilize extenders are a) confused (no official announcement, so is this coming soon or for real now? b) upset that the benefit of Extenders is going away.

Conversely sellers that haven't known about the Extenders are intrigued by the concept and sometimes upset they weren't in the loop.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the coming weeks.

eBay Strategies

Notes from the eBay Top Seller Summit

From Kevin “Sleep is for the Uninspired” Harmon

InflatableMadness.com

Hi guys,

I just returned from the Top Seller Summit in San Francisco. This is eBay's second annual e-comm conference - they invite the top 200 or so sellers on eBay for a 2 day conference.

It's a good event to attend because most of eBays top brass are there and mingling about, so I was able to have many quality conversations with the people at eBay who influence decision and direction.

Here's my main takeaways from the conference:

1. eBay has realized that there are some forces working against them now. They are beginning to acknowledge the level of fraud and to seriously study the growing attrition of buyers. The question is: Can eBay right the ship in time?

2. eBay will be working hard on improving the buying experience - they are rolling out a more detailed feedback 2.0 and working on improvements to the user interface.

3. eBay wants to make eBay fun again. ebay matchups is a good example of this.


I have always said that no matter how I feel about what eBay does as a company, I have never met an eBay employee who I didn't like - to a person they are smart and friendly. The conference was a nice jug of eBay coolade that is appreciated by us sellers.

Now, if the free eBay bag I received just didn't cost $500,000, we'd be in business.

Ha!

Kevin

StartupNation

eBay is introducing Feedback 2.0

This Wednesday at the EBAY ecommerce forum, Bill Cobb announced Feedback 2.0. Feedback 2.0, which we'll be launching in pilot markets next month, allows buyers to rate transactions on item description, communication, shipping time, and shipping & handling charges. The average of each of the Detailed Seller Ratings is displayed on the seller’s Feedback Profile page. Perhaps it is just me, but this sounds little cumbersome.

In addition, old feedback will be archived. Later this year, EBAY will be archiving all but the last 24 months of feedback history. User's total score will remain, but the percent will be based on just the last 2 years of activity. All comments older than this will be archived. This, on the other hand, is a welcome change.

Only eBay

Cell phone didn't ignite California man

Fire investigators in California now say a cell phone did not cause a fire that severely burned a man last weekend.

The Vallejo Fire Department said on Thursday that it has ruled out a malfunctioning cell phone as the cause of a fire that on Saturday night caused second- and third-degree burns on more than 50 percent of Luis Picaso's body.

Earlier this week, fire officials believed that the Nokia 2125i cellular phone found in the right pocket of Picaso, 59, was the cause of the fire. But when engineers from Nokia flew to Vallejo and tested the phone, they discovered that the electronic circuitry in the phone was undamaged and that the battery was still functioning.

William Tweedy, an investigator and public information officer for the Vallejo Fire Department, was present when the phone was tested.

"When we reinstalled the battery, the phone still booted up," Tweedy said. "If the battery had malfunctioned or the phone had short-circuited, it wouldn't have worked anymore. And it did, so we could rule out the phone as an ignition source."

Tweedy said the only other possible way the fire could have started was from some kind of smoking materials such as cigarettes, matches or a lighter. Even though none of these materials were found at the scene of the fire, Tweedy said the fire was so intense, it likely destroyed all evidence.

At the time of the fire, Picaso was wearing nylon and polyester clothing, which is highly flammable and likely would have caused the fire to spread quickly. Picaso had also been sitting in a plastic chair, which also would have intensified the blaze, Tweedy said.

Picaso remains in critical but stable condition at U.C. Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

Cell phone batteries have been blamed for other fires in the past. In July 2004, a young woman in Ontario, Calif., suffered second-degree burns when her Kyocera cell phone burst into flames while in her back pocket. In December, NTT DoCoMo, one of Japan's largest mobile operators, recalled cell phone batteries used in its third-generation handsets because they could generate excessive heat that could short-circuit the phone.

News.com

Skype Takes One Step Further With New Pricing Strategy

Disruptive pricing gives Skype users more value and choice.

January 18, 2007 – Skype, the global Internet communications company, today announced its new global pricing structure which offers a simple, convenient and cost-effective way for consumers worldwide to call landlines and mobiles over the Internet. The new pricing structure complements the foundation of Skype’s success in letting anyone in the world talk for free, from one Skype software account to another.

The pricing structure is the latest in a series of new steps Skype is taking to give consumers a choice of easy-to-understand, value-based Internet communications packages. Initially focused on Europe, Skype’s new pricing strategy will roll out worldwide during 2007.

When launched in full, the pricing strategy consists of a premium subscription package (Skype Pro), one feature of which removes per-minute charges for SkypeOut calls to domestic landlines and includes a small connection fee.

“People like using Skype to make free calls from one Skype account to another but more and more they are choosing our paid for products that offer excellent value. As a result of this, we’re introducing a new pricing strategy today that will include a premium package. This premium package builds on the success we’ve had in North America and the UK with subscription-based calling promotions. It offers our users more for less because they can buy additional Skype paid for products but for a smaller cost,” said Stefan Öberg, General Manager, Skype Telecoms.

As a part of Skype’s premium package the global dialing rate to a number of countries is also reduced. The first phase of the SkypeOut pricing structure, effective from 13.00 CET on Thursday January 18th 2007, includes a reduction in global dialing rates to 0.017 € per minute for: Czech Republic (including Prague), Guam, Hungary (including Budapest), Israel (including Jerusalem), Luxembourg, Malaysia (including Kuala Lumpur), Puerto Rico and both Alaska and Hawaii in the United States.

For some countries, this represents a reduction of up to 65 per cent.

Skype also confirmed today that its previously announced connection fee rates, applicable worldwide, are now effective. The connection fee is a straightforward set-up charge per call. The Skype Unlimited Calling plan in the U.S. and Canada and the Talk for Britain campaign in the UK do not include a connection fee for national calls.

The connection fee is 0.039 Euro, excl VAT or the equivalent in local currency.

Today Skype users around the world can make free voice and video calls to any other registered Skype users as well as send instant messages, transfer files and participate in Skypecasts which are live moderated conversations with up to 100 people.

Skype users can also take advantage of Skype’s premium calling features, including SkypeOut™ (calls from Skype to traditional landlines or mobiles), SkypeIn™ (a number which can be called from a normal phone anywhere in the world) and Skype Voicemail (takes calls when users are busy or offline).

As the world’s largest Internet communications community, Skype is committed to giving its users the ability to set their conversations free at home, at work and on the move. It is focused on further developing its ecosystem of more than 50 hardware partners and more than 150 Skype-certified devices to broaden the appeal of Skype to a wider base of users who want to use Skype away from the PC, no matter where they happen to be. This is especially true for Skype users who want to take advantage of the mobile Skype experience, which is already accessible to more than 5 million Skype users on over 120 different Windows Mobile Smartphones and pocket PC devices.

For more information, please go to http://www.skype.com/products/skypepro/

Connection Fee Rates Rates Based on Currency* (excl. VAT)

• Australian Dollar (AUD) 0.059
• Brazilian Real (BRL) 0.09
• British Pound (GBP) 0.029
• Canadian Dollar (CAD) 0.059
• Danish Krone (DKK) 0.29
• Euro (EUR) 0.039
• Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) 0.39
• Japanese Yen (JPY) 4.9
• Norwegian Krone (NOK) 0.29
• Polish Zloty (PLN) 0.149
• Korean Won (KRW) 49
• Swedish Krona (SEK) 0.39
• Swiss Franc (CHF) 0.059
• Taiwan Dollar (TWD) 1.6
• US Dollar (USD) 0.039

*If your currency is not listed, the Euro rate is applicable

About Skype Skype is the world’s fastest-growing Internet communication offering, allowing unlimited free voice, video and instant messaging communication between users of Skype Software. With over 136 million registered users, Skype is available in 28 languages and is used in almost every country around the world. Skype generates revenue through its premium offerings such as making and receiving calls to and from landline and mobile phones, voicemail, call forwarding and personalization including ringtones and avatars. Skype also has relationships with a growing network of hardware and software providers. Visit Skype at www.skype.com.

Skype is an eBay company (NASDAQ: EBAY). To learn more visit skype.com.

Access to a broadband Internet connection is required for Skype and all Skype Certified devices and accessories. Skype is not a replacement for your traditional telephone service and cannot be used for emergency calling.

Skype, SkypeIn, SkypeOut, Skype Me, Skype Certified, Skypecasts, associated logos and the “S” symbol are trademarks of Skype Limited.

Skype

Google Phone To Challenge Apple IPhone?

Engadget is reporting that they have received information from an inside source with product information about the near-mythical Google branded cellular phone, which has been the topic of much speculation over recent months.

There's nothing like a juicy rumor to get the blood pumping in the cold of winter.

I'm not talking about wild speculation and unsubstantiated hearsay; I'm talking about that sort of gossip that you knew was true all along -- the kind that sends tinges of euphoria up your spine, enveloping you in the delight of a full blown "geekgasm" as the object of your desire edges closer to becoming reality.

Okay. Perhaps that's a bit melodramatic.

Nonetheless, I daresay that as news continues to leak concerning Google's venture into the mobile phone market, the fever-pitch among the masses will exponentially mount in a chorus of wonder and elation that will make the buzz surrounding the iPhone look like little more than after dinner conversation at your local senior citizen's center.

Okay, enough adoration, let's get to the nitty gritty details of the Google phone.

First off, it's rumored to be a collaboration between Google and Samsung, which runs contrary to previous speculation that the Silicon Valley juggernaut would partner with Orange to develop its branded mobile phone.

Tech Digest lays out some of the features that you can expect from the Google Phone:

It'll have built-in GPS, allowing Google Maps based navigation features, with a contact application that's a cross between Gmail, Google Talk and more traditional text messaging.

Engadget, who received the initial tip, lets us in on another interesting aspect of the phone that is leaving many scratching their heads:

According to our tipster, the device doesn't have any on-board storage. That's right, all your applications are served up over the network with new apps "attached" to your account via a web interface.

No onboard storage? If that's true, it tells me that Google plans to employ a massive network in order to support such a feature. Perhaps this explains why the company has been buying up so much dark fiber as of late?

None of this is confirmed; but as you have probably already surmised, I really don't care. Everyone and their sister has fallen all over themselves to heap loving spoonfuls of adoration onto the iPhone, and declare it the undisputed champion of mobile phones -- all before the device has even released. So, I'm just glad to see that there could potentially be another key player in the mobile phone arena.

Always remember, competition is a good thing.

Webpronews

LG's new phone resembles iPhone

South Korea's LG Electronics Co. said Thursday it will start selling next month a new mobile phone that incorporates a buttonless touch-screen resembling the much-hyped iPhone from Apple Inc.

LG's Prada Phone is being produced in partnership with the Italian fashion brand. It is set to go on sale in late February for 600 euros ($780) at mobile phone dealers and Prada stores in Britain, France, Germany and Italy, and comes to Asia in March.

The company did not announce its U.S. plans.

The no-button interface with the entire phone face covered by a touch-sensitive screen resembles the Apple iPhone, announced by the U.S. company earlier this month to much fanfare as an innovation that could shake up the industry.

Apple's iPhone is set for U.S. release in June and will cost $599 for the high-end model with 8 gigabytes of internal memory — the same as the LG model. Other markets will see the iPhone later this year and in 2008.

The LG phone has a wide-screen display and can play most popular digital music and video formats, and has a 2-megapixel camera like the iPhone. Its memory can be expanded with cards.

The iPhone allows Internet use also through regular wireless Wi-Fi networks, and has a full-featured Web browser.

The LG phone is 12 millimeters (0.47 inches) thick, just 0.4 millimeters (0.016 inches) more than the iPhone.

Being Accountable

I came across this wonderful post "Risk Management Made Easy…". Don't panic. It’s about ACCOUNTABILITY. I would like share with all of you ‘cause I think it’s very useful, you can definitely apply it to your eBay selling business.

Define accountability. Accountability is all about:
1. Assuming full responsibility for the consequences of one's behavior
2. Following through on commitments to buyers
3. Demonstrating reliability and dependability
4. Keeping the service promise
5. Admitting mistakes and taking responsibility for correcting

In other words, accountability simply means responsibility. Read the great write-up by N2Growth. Apply accountability to your eBay selling, automatically you will build up the trust, the positive ratings, the name and most importantly the sales.

eBay Talk

EEF: Bill Cobb keynote, post 4 (FEEDBACK 2.0!!)

Feedback is foundation of eBay. Love it or hate it, it has enabled eBay's success.

Explained retaliatory negs. Feedback is mostly right, but going to refine it to better meet needs of online shopper. For 2yrs been working on "Feedback 2.0". Lots of community feedback, etc.

Late next month (Feb), outside US are going to phase in FEEDBACK 2.0:

• Granularity/specificity - four new sub-categories.
  
  • Item description
  • Communication
  • Shipping time
  • S+H terms
• Positive feedback % will be based on last couple of yrs activity
  • Old negatives/positives will archive
  • Users see most recent (couple years)
  • This comes out in Spring
  • Will be very careful in how this rolls out
  • Testing Intl first (UK/AU/IT) late Feb

Conclusion
2007 will bring major changes to the buyer side - because eBay has to. More competition, drive more buyers to sellers.

Thanks sellers for all they do. Loves working with entrepreneurial sellers. Thanks to sellers from all at eBay.

eBay Strategies

EEF: Bill Cobb keynote, post 3 (T+S)

Highlighted how important T+S is at eBay. Bad guys are getting smarter, Pierre's vision is still solid, but the BASICALLY part is getting tougher.

Over 2000 employees in T+S fighting the battle vs. the bad guys. Due to this they are going to more actively protect buyers from fraud/bad experiences.

Safeguarding seller IDs for example (this stops fraudulent SCOs). So far fake SCOs are down 80-90%, may need to take additional steps to protect bidder IDs

Another way reducing bad buyer experience is adjusting the seller standards. Repeated information on excessive shipping, late item, INR, bad customer service - causes majority of bad user experiences on eBay.

Historically have allowed practically anyone to sell on eBay with few restrictions, going forward going to significantly raise the bar on who they allow to sell on eBay.

Not fair to the large % of good sellers that small % of bad sellers are driving away buyers.

Example: cross border trade restrictions they started in Q4.

Beginning this week, any new seller who wants to list in US/CA, must offer a safe payment method - paypal/CC.

In October, eliminated private feedback - used to suspend 60%+ of sellers with private feedback. Now they are transparent again.

In 07 there will be more details on how great sellers are advantaged and bad sellers are further restricted.

Counterfeiters - Bill highlighted the changes that have already been instituted here. They are closely monitoring the results, may do more here.

Last week announced doubling of coverage from Paypal protection program. ($1k-$2k on SNAD and INR, other transactions $200 for unqualified items - no processing fee). Buyers love this and sellers should too - makes a statement in confidence of the marketplace.

Shipping and Handling
Covered why it's bad.

Made some progress in 06 with active enforcement - started in June. Cited cell phone category - S+H is down 25% in that category.

Need to be more proactive - developing some product based solutions - sort by total cost, (editorial note: ebay express does this and best match does too) going forward the approach is going to be to put the right incentives into the product and reduce reliance on manual enforcement. No silver bullet, short of regulating, but they are going to keep at it until contained.

eBay Strategies