Vocabulary Word for the Day: Net Neutrality

As defined by Google:

"Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet. The Internet has operated according to this neutrality principle since its earliest days. Indeed, it is this neutrality that has allowed many companies, including Google, to launch, grow, and innovate. Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the Internet. In our view, the broadband carriers should not be permitted to use their market power to discriminate against competing applications or content. Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online. Today, the neutrality of the Internet is at stake as the broadband carriers want Congress's permission to determine what content gets to you first and fastest. Put simply, this would fundamentally alter the openness of the Internet."

Put simply, Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination.

Here is the question. How can there really be true Net Neutrality with no competition? Some metro areas only have ONE true broadband provider. Check back next week for part 2.

 

So I'm NOT The Only One Tired Of Paris

Finally someone else that is tired of Paris Hilton. Between Anna Nicole Smith and Paris Hilton, you'd think that there was nothing more newsworthy in the US. But what do I know?


Paris Hilton Is Not News - Watch more free videos

WAY TO GO MIKA!

 

Web Designer Needed in Waterloo & Cedar Falls Iowa

IMT Inc. is hiring an additional web designer.

Qualified candidates must have a background working in a dynamic, interactive, and fast paced team environment.

Responsibilities: Design and develop custom web applications for a diverse client base.Analyze and troubleshoot technical problems Convert business objectives into a creative, functional and professional web presence.

Requirements: Min. of 2 Years development/design experience in a professional capacity. Must be detail oriented. Applicants must demonstrate a comprehensive working knowledge with some or all of the following: PHP or ASP, JavaScript, MySQL or SQL, HTML, CSS, XHTML, and Dreamweaver. Candidates must comprehend the basic fundamentals like cross platform browser compatibility, web graphic optimization, website to search engine relationships and the like.

Other Desired Skills: Working knowledge of Photoshop, Quark, Illustrator, and InDesign. Flash and 3D Studio experience is a huge plus. The ability to work in Windows and Linux server environments. Telecommuting negotiable.

Salary commensurate with qualifications and experience. Please send resume and samples of work to IMT Inc. 110 Fletcher Ave. Waterloo, IA 50701. Attn: Andy Mullinex.

 

Google Still on Top

ComScore recently reported that Google now has an incredible 50.7% of the search market. This is an increase from the last reported number at just over 47%. This means that, of the searches performed in the US, 3.9 billion are being done with Google.

Yahoo dropped to 26.8%, MSN was at 10.3%, Ask came in at 5% and Time Warner (AOL) finished at the bottom of the heap with a paltry 4.6%.

Where is it going to stop? How big can Google get? Let me just throw this out there...What happens when/if Google gets so big that they have end up having 90% or more of the searches? Will the government step in and break them up like they did with AT&T or impose some anti-trust legislation like what happened to Microsoft?

 

Arrrrg...Ye Pirates Beware

Not that DVD pirates are acting legally now, I just thought that it was a catchy title. Digression aside, an article just published on PCMag.com says that a proposed amendment would ban ALL DVD copying. Mark Hachman writes that, "A proposed amendment to the current copy protection license governing DVDs would completely ban all DVD backups, and prevent DVD playback without the DVD disk being present inside the drive."

This new amendment called the "Unknown Specification Amendment" would be enforced on all DVD hardware and software manufacturers and would "eliminate DVD copying of any form, whether for the purposes of fair use or not."

This new amendment comes on the heels of a legal victory by Kaleidescape Systems, a DVD jukebox company that syndicates DVD programming and allows viewers to store the broadcast to a hard drive on their local system. Michael Malcolm, the CEO of Kaleidescape, feels that this new legislation is designed to put his company out of business based on his victory. Even though subscribers are paying for the DVD "image", the new legislation would make Kaleidescape's equipment non-compliant due to the fact that it would rip a DVD image to the hard drive and play it back without the need for the original DVD.

 

Random Rant of the Day

What bugs you?

How about 10 year olds with cell phones?
A 12 year old girl that discovers she is prengant?
Kids walking through Disney World playing with a PSP or a GameBoy?
Drug testing deemed unconstitutional for welfare recipients?

Let me know.

 

When and What to Cut

For quite some time I have subscribed to Seth Godin's Blog. I just read a post called "Fall into the Gap." It talks about Gap stores and the recent struggles they've been going through. Seth's post addresses the inappropriate cutbacks that the Gap has been making and he is right on.

Often times when a company is struggling, all they know to do is cut expenses. It's a nasty cycle. You become under-capitalized, cash flow begins to suffer and the owner turns to the only thing they feel they have control over, operational costs. But what is an appropriate cut? Do you cut sales people, close locations, eliminate advertising, what? When a company cuts back on their sales force or customer service, you know they are in a world of hurt and the end may be near. Sales people are the lifeblood of any organization, without them how do you retain and acquire new business? You need to identify your profitable markets, understand what you do best, market effectively, and understand the value of your key people.

I have a friend that owns a business. His one-track minded approach to revenue building is raising prices (regardless of market demand) and trying to figure out how to cut employee salaries. Declining any help that I have offered and after years of this approach, he now has the most expensive product in his market segment and continues to struggle with poor service and bad employees. Sales have continued to decline. I fear the damage that has been done is irreversible and he will never be able to climb out of the hole.

One of the most humbling things that a business owner can do is realize when they are out of their league and can't handle it any more. Once you realize that you don't know it all and you need help, you can surround yourself with people who "know more" than you do. This is when the healing can begin. Too often an owner will ride their pride into the bankruptcy sunset.

Seth said it best: "When your current strategy isn't working, doing the same thing, but just a little less of it, doesn't make a lot of sense..."

 

Domain Name Auction Report.

In case you were wondering, there actually is a domain name auction that is held in New York and other places around the country. Here are some of the names and what they sold for at the Recent auction in New York.

VintageAirplanes.com $5,700
Toy.net $26,000
StockTrades.com $25,000
BondFund.com $12,000
IrishWhiskey.com $8,000
PrivateTutors.com $16,000
PrivatePilots.com $20,000
Historian.com $25,000
TechnologyFund $10,000
PinkRoses.com $10,000
VintageMotorcycles.com $14,000
Booksellers.com $25,000
Houses.net $75,000
tightrope.com $18,000
EgyptianPyramids.com $75,000
clap.com $21,000

 

The Pentagon Gets Email System Hacked?

CNN Reported Thursday afternoon that the Pentagon confirmed that their email system got hacked. The Pentagon emphasizes that breach occurred on an unclassified system that primarily handles "routine email" involving administrative type email.

Nothing was said about the depth of the attacks or if they even figured out who did it.

As of Thursday, the email service was yet to be fully restored. This recent attack affected about 1500 users of the system.

Wow, to think that this could happen at the pentagon. This must have been a very determined hacker. Kind of makes you wonder how secure thing really are.

 

Do You YouTube?

Well apparently someone is. Jason Miller just reported on WebProNews that "YouTube Comprises 10% of all Internet traffic."

Social media like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and other similar sites are getting more and more traffic every day. As Generation Y moves up in years, they are continually turning to the Internet for entertainment. The transition from simple web browsing to viewing streaming media will continue.

I agree that this trend will continue and lead the way for new applications, transforming the way we use the Internet.

According to Jason Miller, this recent YouTube traffic trend has surpassed, the once leading, P2P traffic in bandwidth consumption.

 

Microsoft Decides to Play Nice

Several days ago I wrote about Microsoft's Vista not allowing any other desktop search to function in the environment. After a brief battle in the legal arena, Microsoft's shields were down to 10% so they decided to surrender.

According to the DOJ Microsoft caved and decided to play nice. They opened the big V up to other desktop search applications. This allowance will take place in the release of of Service Pack 1 of Windows Vista, which is scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2007.

 

ASK Google...Mistaken Identity.

How funny is it when an advertising campaign backfires? Not very funny at all.

A little background first. Ask.com has been getting a lot of flack about their latest advertising campaign. The new campaign, a brainchild of Cripin, Porter & Bogusky, went a little "left of center" with some of the ad concepts. Many claim that the ads are a tad off color, slightly controversial or don't make sense at all. One such example can be seen here. Another billboard states; "The Algorithm Constantly Finds Jesus." Uhhh ok. I guess that means that Ask's algorithm is so good that that it knows where Jesus is.

So here is the funny part. According to the SEO RoundTable site, one of their contributors initiated a survey on Digg. The question was; "Is Ask.com's "The Algorithm" Campaign Really working?" 74% of the respondents actually thought that it was a campaign for Google.

I have to admit, I didn't quite get the campaign at first. The TV commercials were clever but were driven by humor that may escape most. At first glance the campaign appears to be a miserable failure for ASK. However, if the poorly received campaign was attributed to Google, it may not have been a complete disaster after all.

 

Advanced Environmental Launches New Site

Advanced Environmental Testing and Abatement Inc. has launched their new website. Specializing in asbestos abatement and mold remediation, Advanced Environmental is licensed in Iowa and Illinois. For more information on commercial and residential asbestos and mold removal solutions, visit their website at http://www.cleanandrestore.com

 

It's Official. Google IS Coming to Iowa!

The announcement was just made! On the Des Moines Register's Site they are reporting that it is official. Google is locating their next server farm in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The new data center is already under construction on a 55 acre site.

"The $600 million project will include two facilities spread over 1,185 acres and will include 200 workers with average salaries of between $50,000 and $130,000...creating an annual payroll of about $10 million.

Google Inc. will pay an estimated $65 million in property taxes over the next 15 years, according to a press release from the governor's office. The company made a concentrated effort to use as many local vendors and suppliers as possible..."

This is an exciting prospect for the State of Iowa. Operations are scheduled to begin in the spring of 09.

 

How Many Computers?

Forrester Research has reported that there will be over 1 billion personal computers in use by the end of 2008. 186 Million of which will have high speed Internet. It is estimated that 2 billion PCs will be in use by 2015. Still say you don't need a website?

I wonder how yellow page and newspaper publishers are preparing themselves for the death of their traditional media?

 

Google Coming to Iowa?

The DesMoines Register reported that Gov. Chet Culver plans to announce a "major economic development project" on Tuesday.

"An economic development official who asked not to be identified, but who is familiar with the project, said Friday that Google has told the state that it will build its next server farm in Council Bluffs."

The proposed data center that would house the big G has an estimated construction cost of $600 million. This is a huge break for the Tall Corn State with an estimated 100 jobs created that would pay between $50k and $130k annually.

We will find out tomorrow for sure. Keep your fingers crossed Council Bluffs.

 

The Best Part Of Dealing With Clients...

One of the best things that any business owner gets to do is deal with clients. I just discovered my new favorite website that deals with relationships between service providers and their clients.

http://www.clientcopia.com - Make sure you click on the "Top 20"

 

Microsoft's Vista Doesn't Play Well With Others

Apparently there is an issue with Microsoft's new OS. It does not allow you to search with anything other than their own search tool. Google, having a similar tool, began complaining about this feature last year.

According to Google spokesman, Ricardo Reyes as reported on seattlepi.com, "The search boxes built throughout Vista are hard-wired to Microsoft's own desktop search product, with no way for users to choose an alternate provider from these visible search access points. Likewise, Vista makes it impractical to turn off Microsoft's search index."

Some prosecutors believe that this violates the Microsoft anti-trust decision 5 years ago. The crew at Google obviously agrees.

Microsoft spokesman was quoted saying, "Although we don't believe we're obliged to make these changes under the consent decree, we certainly are willing to make an effort to address these issues and make additional changes to Vista."

I may be ignorant and not know the entire story behind Microsoft and the anti-trust settlements, but part of me says, just leave Microsoft alone. If you want to build a business that eventually transforms into a huge empire and have a product that everyone wants, I say fine. But what do I know. Your thoughts?

 

Holy Wiki Batman

Ever notice that just about everything you search for, a result on Wikipedia shows up.

Some amazing stats were published on leuksman's blog earlier this month. These kind of stats aren't for the weak of heart.

How's this for traffic... Are you ready? 7 billion page views per month. Yep you read it right, I said SEVEN BILLION. AND the chart says that 24% of the traffic is contributed to Google. This means that Google results in almost 56 million clicks per day. Given that there is 1440 minutes in a day, that is 38,888.88 clicks per minute just from Google. Staggering isn't it?

Good grief, just think if they had some AdSense ads on there. How much money do you think they would make per minute?

 

Google News

June 12th, 2007 from the Google Press Center. Google announced the new Content Placement Reports for AdWord advertisers. This new report will give AdWord advertisers the ability to see the exact sites that their ads are appearing on. The available data will consist of, "...domain, URL, impression, click, conversion and cost data – as well as aggregated metrics for traffic generated from AdSense for domain sites." This new feature will now give people the ability to better track their advertising dollars and adjust their spending accordingly.

 

The Apple iPhone

I just read on MacWorld that the new Apple iPhone is NOT going to be open to 3rd party software applications. However, Jason Miller from WebProNews, says that the new iPhone will be web 2.0 ready and capable of running third-party applications by the time it ships at the end of the month. Apparently Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, reversed a previous decision to lock developers out of the iPhone.

An interesting tid-bit about the iPhone is that you need to have an iTunes account to setup the phone. What if you don't want an iTunes account? I guess your out of luck with a resounding, "No soup for you."

Not having seen the new iPhone in person, there is one thing that I am curious about. In the world of smart phones and qwerty keyboards, how is the iPhone going to stack up against the existing thumb board phones already available. Being an satisfied owner of a Motorola Q, I don't think that I could live without that little keyboard. I guess we will see when the iPhone actually hits the market.

 

BlueStem Winery

BlueStem Winery in Parkersburg, Iowa has just launched their new website and e-commerce store. Specializing in wine and beer making supplies, BlueStem Winery also carries a variety of Iowa made wines and wine accessories.

Wanting to improve online sales, marketability and navigation, BlueStem hired IMT to improve their, already successful, online business. In addition to the new online image, BlueStem Winery now has the capability to update their own site through the use of a content management software.

UPDATE: BlueStem Winery has launched their new blog. It has great information, tip and techniques on wine and beer making. Check it out at http://bluestemwine.blogspot.com/

 

It is done!

So how many of you watched HBO's final episode of The Sopranos? I did and I must say I had high expectations. For those of you have seen it you know what I am talking about when I say I thought my satellite went out. Then I began to think that someone blew up the restaurant. All of the speculation then turned to disgust. I wanted closure, I needed a better ending.

According to CBS News, Sopranos creator David Chase was in France and unreachable. He knew what the reaction would be to the ending of all non-endings. Admittedly I had my own theories on what was going to happen, including the notion that Tony was going to "turn states" and hide away in protective custody.

Here are a couple of questions that I would like to have closure on? What was the cat doing? Will Sil live? Is there a feature length film on the way?

After reading the blogs and Soprano discussion sites proceeding the abrupt ending, there was all kinds of insight that made me appreciate the ending a little bit more. The ending makes you realize that Tony Soprano will forever be looking over his shoulder. Also, Wiseguys always say that when it is your time, you will never see it coming. Well, we (the fans) surely didn't see this coming. This was a great show with a great run. In closing, what I really want to know is... WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO THE RUSSIAN that Paulie and Christopher shot in the woods?

 

EBay To Begin Auctioning Radio Ads

Online auction mogul EBay will begin auctioning Internet and terrestrial radio spots from more than 2500 providers. EBay has partnered with, privately held, Bid4Spots Inc., in the midst of a longstanding and informal boycott from the Cable Advertising Bureau. MediaPost reported that this boycott was in reaction to the "...fear that it would commoditize cable advertising buys."

This new development may usher in a new era of media buying. Bid4Spots boasts that advertisers are able to buy targeted markets, demos and day parts on Arbitron-rated stations that will air following the week of the purchase. According to USA Today, the spots being offered are going to be mostly prime spots airing Monday through Friday. However, EBay's radio auctions will target "last minute ad buyers" allowing participating stations to get real aggressive with their rates. This begins to question the value of the annually purchased media plan. This may be hazardous for a participating stations who are trying to maintain rate integrity.

Big broadcasters could now be forced to bring a bunch of value added and reduced rates to the table to off-set the lower auction prices. The other side of the coin is that unused station inventory can be dealt with any way a station sees fit. Successful concept or huge mistake? Only time will tell.

 

Royal Limousine's New Site Launched

Royal Limousine of Cedar Falls, Iowa has just launched their new site. Royal Limousine has just purchased a new Chrysler 300 luxury stretch limousine. This fully loaded, luxury coach provides the finest chauffeured transport in the area. Royal Limousine accepts booking for:

• Weddings


• Birthdays


• Anniversaries


• Holiday Parties


• Special Occasions


• Casino Trips


• Group Events


• And Much More

For more information or to book a limousine, visit them online at http://www.ridewithroyal.com/

 

Internet Safety

According the US Department of Justice, the month of June has been designated as National Internet Safety Month.

There are over 1 billion Internet users worldwide and in the United States alone, 35 million children, k-12 have Internet access. More stats that contributed to the development of this resolution can be found here.

"According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Internet “provides unparalleled opportunities for socially beneficial endeavors—such as education, research, commerce, entertainment, and discourse on public affairs—in ways that we may not now even be able to imagine. By the same token, however, individuals who wish to use a computer as a tool to facilitate unlawful activity may find that the Internet provides a vast, inexpensive, and potentially anonymous way to commit unlawful acts …” (Credits, 2000).


"Fortunately, despite all of the opportunities for criminals to use the Internet to prey on their victims, there are also many techniques and precautions that Internet users can take to avoid victimization." Make sure you are aware of your child's Internet use and do your diligence in implementing the Internet safety protocols you have at your disposal.

 

Boxhead

The newest installment in the Boxhead franchise has just been released. For those of you who have been waiting...here it is.

 

Domain Sells for $9.5 Million in CASH

I just read that the domain name porn.com has just sold for a record breaking cash price of $9.5 million, the highest recorded cash deal for a domain. This selling price is second only to sex.com which sold for whopping $12 million but included other assets. The sale of sex.com wasn't a clean transaction. Read more about the history of this big money domain here.

Wouldn't it be ironic if the new owners of these domains would use them as a platform for the promotion of a safe and porn free internet? Your thoughts?