Shareholders Sue Yahoo!

Yahoo! is being sued by shareholders for attempting to avoid Microsoft’s proposed $44.6 billion takeover.

 

Two Detroit pension funds have filed a lawsuit against the internet giant, saying it shouldn’t have been so dismissive towards Microsoft’s approaches.

 

According to reports, five other lawsuits have also been filed against Yahoo! saying the company didn’t have the best interests of shareholders and pension-holders at heart when failing to negotiate Microsoft’s offer.

 

 

 

The Detroit lawsuit reads: “Yahoo’s directors cannot ‘just say no’ indefinitely to legitimate acquisition offers. Likewise, Yahoo’s directors cannot pursue transactions that do not require shareholder approval for the primary purpose of making Yahoo unattractive to Microsoft.

 

“Regardless of their emotional ties to Yahoo and their desire to retain their positions as directors at the company, the Yahoo directors owe fiduciary duties to Yahoo and its shareholders,” it continued.

 

 

Yahoo! is understood to be willing to negotiate with Microsoft, however, and has been rumored to be in talks with other companies, including Google and News Corp, over alternative deals.

 

Yahoo! was unavailable for comment.

Adobe AIR a.k.a. Apollo Demo Video

Apollo is the code name for a cross-operating system runtime that allows developers to leverage their existing Web development skills in HTML, JavaScript, AJAX, Flash and Flex in order to build and deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) to the desktop.

What is Ajax?

A Primer on the Ajax Phenomenon This is best for use in web applicationWith all the hype about “Ajax web applications”, you could be forgiven for assuming Ajax is some radical new plugin, akin to Macromedia Flash. And you would therefore be under the impression that Ajax is out of bounds until you upgrade your “so last month” browser, or at least download the coveted “Ajax plugin”.

Good news: You can run Ajax right now. At least, assuming you have a web browser from the past few years – IE, Firefox, Safari, or Opera. Have you seen Google Maps or perhaps GMail? They’re both Ajax applications. So are Zuggest and the AjaxPatterns Wiki Demo .

What do they all have in common? All these applications take a great leap forth towards the richness of standard desktop applications. No longer are you forced to wait five seconds for the page to reload every time you click on something. Ajax applications change in real time. They can let you drag boxes around, they can refresh themselves with new information, they can completely re-arrange the page without clearing it. And there’s no special plugin required. Ajax is just a style of design, one that milks all the features of modern browsers to produce something that feels less web and more desktop.

Applications can act more like and be developed more like the days of Visual Basic, Delphi, PowerBuilder, C++ with GUI frameworks, etc. Thus, it is 90’s GUI features but with a web browser: it strives to meld the best of web and the best of desktop GUI’s. Web browser standards were originally designed for e-brochures only. Business forms and other needs were hacked into this e-brochure framework over time and it is clear that this after-thought retrofitting for different purposes has been ugly. Ajax attempts to remedy this.

Some of the characteristics of Ajax applications include:

• Continuous Feel: Traditional web applications force you to submit a form, wait a few seconds, watch the page redraw, and then add some more info. Forgot to enter the area code in a phone number? Start all over again. Sometimes, you feel like you’re in the middle of a traffic jam: go 20 metres, stop a minute, go 20 metres, stop a minute … How many E-Commerce sales have been lost because the user encountered one too many error message and gave up the battle? Ajax offers a smooth ride all the way. There’s no page reloads here – you’re just doing stuff and the browser is responding. The server is only telling the screen what changed rather than having it redraw the whole screen from scratch.

• Real-Time Updates: As part of the continous feel, Ajax applications can update the page in real-time. Currently, news services on the web redraw the entire page at intervals, e.g. once every 15 minutes. In contrast, it’s feasible for a browser running an Ajax application to poll the server every few seconds, so it’s capable of updating any information directly on the parts of the page that need changing. The rest of the page is unaffected.

• Graphical Interaction: Flashy backdrops are abundant on the web, but the basic mode of interaction has nevertheless mimicked the 1970s-style form-based data entry systems. Ajax represents a transition into the world of GUI controls visible on present-day desktops. Thus, you will encounter animations such as fading text to tell you something’s just been saved, you will be able to drag items around, you will see some static text suddenly turn into an edit field as you hover over it.

• Language Neutrality – Ajax strives to be equally usable with all the popular languages rather than be tied to one language. Past GUI attempts such as VB, Tk, and Swing tended to be married to one specific programming language. Ajax has learned from the past and rejects this notion. To help facilitate this, XML is often used as a declarative interface language.

To prevent any confusion, these things are not characteristic of Ajax:

• Proprietary: “Ajax” is perhaps one of the most common brand names in history, but in the present context, “Ajax” is neither the name of a company nor a product. It’s not even the name of a standard or committee. It’s a label for a design approach involving several related technologies and open standards such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Each of these is “open” in the sense that its based on a published standard governed by a standards body and able to be implemented in any browser, free of legal and information constraints.

• Plugin-Based: Ajax applications do not require users to install browser plugins, or desktop software for that matter.

• Browser Specific: As long as the user is working with a relatively recent, mainstream, browser (say 2001+), the application should work roughly the same way. Browser-specific applications somewhat defeat the purpose of Ajax.
• Limited Capabilities: Some Ajax applications are certainly doing things people never dreamed were possible on the web, but there are still substantial restrictions of the web platform. For example: multimedia capabilities, local data storage, real-time graphics, interaction with hardware such as printers and webcams. Support for some of these are improving in recent browsers, some can be achieved by delegating to Flash, but many are simply not possible, and if required, would rule out Ajax.
• Performance Concerns: Constant interaction between browser and server can make an application feel unresponsive. There are, however, quite a few well-known patterns for performance optimization such as browser-side caching. These usually suffice, even for fast-paced applications like stock trading, but Ajax still might not work for really time-critical applications such as machine control.
• Internet Access Required: The user can’t access an Ajax application in the absence of a network connection.
• Second Programming Language: Serious Ajax applications require some knowledge of Javascript. Many developers are discovering that Javascript is actually a more capable language than at first assumed, but there is nevertheless an imposition to use a language different to that on the server-side.
• Easily Abused: As with any powerful technology, Ajax concepts can be abused by careless programmers. The patterns on this site are intended to guide developers towards more usable solutions, but the fact remains that Ajax isn’t always used in a manner that supports usability.

This article can be found at: http://ajaxpatterns.org/Whats_Ajax

Tucson Web Design: Google Slams Microsoft Bid for Yahoo!

Google Slams Microsoft Bid For Yahoo!
Article from Forbes by:
Wendy Tanaka, 02.03.08, 9:52 PM ET

BURLINGAME, CALIF. -

In an apparent effort to protect its hefty share of the online search-advertising market, Google on Sunday accused Microsoft of trying to unfairly dominate the Internet by bidding for Yahoo!

In a blog post, David Drummond, chief legal counsel for Google (nasdaq: GOOG – news – people ), wrote: “Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies–and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets.”

By “new, adjacent markets,” Drummond clearly means the growing and lucrative search advertising market, in which Google is the undisputed leader with about 75% of search-ad revenues worldwide.

An article posted Sunday night on the Web site of The Wall Street Journal suggested that Google might take active steps to help Yahoo! stay independent, too. Google declined to confirm the report, which stated that Chief Executive Eric Schmidt had offered assistance to Yahoo!’s Jerry Yang, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. Although it’s unlikely Google would try to buy Yahoo! outright, it could assist others, or craft a package that guarantees Yahoo! more advertising revenue.

In his Sunday blog post, Drummond also pointed out that a union of Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT – news – people ) and Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO – news – people ) would dominate the instant message and e-mail sectors and would combine the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet. “Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors’ e-mail, IM and Web-based services?” he asked. “Policymakers around the world need to ask these questions–and consumers deserve satisfying answers. … This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It’s about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.”

Google’s assertions, however, sounded a lot like the pot calling the kettle black. The Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet giant has been accused repeatedly of unfairly dominating online search and advertising.

The questions that Google raised about Microsoft are similar to those that European regulators are mulling in evaluating Google’s proposed acquisition of online display advertising specialist, DoubleClick. U.S. regulators approved the deal late last year, but the European Commission has yet to decide and has expressed concerns about possible anti-competitive aspects of the deal. The commission is expected to weigh in by early April.

Google needs DoubleClick to become a force in display advertising, an area that Yahoo! dominates. Unfortunately for Yahoo!, that dominion is less lucrative than the keyword advertising where Google reigns–one of the factors that led to the recent announcement by Yahoo! of disappointing earnings. Some news reports Sunday speculated that Google opposed Microsoft’s bid because it might be trying to wrangle a deal of its own with Yahoo! in display advertising.

Spectators throughout the industry have suggested that a Microsoft-Yahoo! alliance might actually provide a competitive boost to the industry (See: ” Microsoft Finally Gets The Competitive Spirit”)

Soon after Google lobbed its shot at Microsoft, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant issued a rebuttal. “The combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising,” Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said in a statement. “The alternative scenarios only lead to less competition on the Internet. Microsoft is committed to openness, innovation and the protection of privacy on the Internet. We believe that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! will advance these goals.”

Tucson Web Design: Trouble with Click Fraud

Click fraud involves the process of intentionally clicking ads
listed on your website for the purpose of earning money rather
than intending to view the products of the advertiser. Adsense
involves placing ads on your website for other businesses. The
way your website makes money is determined by the number of
clicks to the advertiser’s…
Having trouble with click fraud? – http://www.freeinternetmarketingcourses.com/blog

Tucson Web Design: 25 Worst Web Sites

The 25 Worst Web Sites

From unforgettable flame-outs to some of the most popular destinations around, no one is safe from our look at the world’s dumbest dot-coms and silliest sites.

25. Rentmychest.com

Look up the word hunk in any dictionary, and you will not find a picture of a bare-chested Chris Pirillo, the guy behind download sites such as lockergnome.com. But you used to be able to find several such pictures at this site, where the pasty, paunchy Pirillo auctioned off messages, written on his chest with magic marker, for $20 a pop. These days the marker-based messages are gone, replaced by a single background image that I wish I hadn’t seen and a bunch of linked keywords. Believe it or not, the keywords are actually more expensive, starting at $200. Look, Chris may know his downloads, but please, somebody buy this man a gym membership.

24. IKissYou.org

For a brief period in 1999, an accordion-playing Turk named Mahir Cagri was the most famous man on the Net, which really says more about us than it does about this mostly harmless Web destination. His site, which featured personal photos, charmingly fractured English, and the phrase “Welcome to my home page…I Kiss You!!!” became a minor Web sensation, for reasons that are now entirely obscure. Mahir’s legacy lives on in Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat” character, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the Turk.

23. InmatesForYou.com

This site helps you find that special someone, even if you have to wait 13 years for her parole to come up.

22. Digital Entertainment Network (den.com)

This DEN of iniquity blew through more than $100 million before it shuttered its doors in January 2002. A sex scandal involving the site’s CEO didn’t help matters.

21. Golden Palace Casino

Web sites used to do just about anything to make headlines, and Golden Palace’s ad campaigns took that idea just about as far as it could go. From buying the “Holy Toast”–the grilled cheese sandwich that looks like the Virgin Mary–to buying William Shatner’s kidney stone, no promotional gimmick is too cheesy for this online casino.

20. Hotmail.com

In the mid to late nineties, Hotmail was a virtual Switzerland for spammers, who operated with impunity across the free e-mail service. Hotmail account holders were routinely buried in a blizzard of junk–in part because new subscribers were automatically added to a public directory of e-mail addresses, making them easy pickings for spam harvesters. A massive “dictionary attack” on the site’s user base in August 2002 didn’t help matters. Later that year Microsoft finally began implementing serious antispam measures, but by then many subscribers had already had their fill of canned luncheon meat.

19. WebVan

The big daddy of dot bombs, WebVan ripped through $1.2 billion of investment capital before checking out for the final time in July 2001. The costs of building a national network of grocery distribution centers proved too great for the online grocer. It’s a classic example of a great idea without a viable business model. The only reason it’s not higher on our list is that its delivery service was actually pretty good, while it lasted.

18. Beenz.com and Flooz.com (tie)

These ambitious schemes to float a Web-based e-currency both sank like a rock in August 2001. The sites hoped wary Netizens would rather trade credits for goods online than use credit cards, but consumers said No Sale. The biggest difference between the two? Flooz featured Whoopi Goldberg as spokesperson. Her career hasn’t been the same since, either.

17. Boo.com

This symbol of dot-com excess burned through cash so fast you’d think its executives worked for the federal government. The fashion retail site featured a 3D avatar named Miss Boo, but the real stars of Boo were its founders, who spent money like it was going out of style–$120 million in six months on lavish apartments and expensive gifts, as well as a site that was too unwieldy for the largely dial-up world of 2000. Amazingly, Boo.com is scheduled for a comeback later this year under new owners. Be afraid, be very afraid.

16. Microsoft Windows Update

Microsoft could have escaped our notice if we didn’t have to visit this cryptic and difficult-to-use site so often. It’s the only reason to ever use Internet Explorer–and then simply because Microsoft’s update site won’t work with any other browser. But it’s not reason enough.

15. Neuticles.com

Are your pets embarrassed about being neutered? Their four-legged friends need never know, thanks to Neuticles–implants that restore the look if not the function of their recently removed body parts. In an especially nice touch, the site opens with a flash animation of a bouncing ball (naturally). Yes, these cosmetic cojones are no joke; prices start at $73 a pair. Not to be confused with BumperNuts, which provide a similar service for your car.

14. BidForSurgery.com

Sadly, this site is exactly what it says it is. Think Priceline for face-lifts and tummy tucks. No, we are not joking.

13. Whitehouse.com

Not the virtual home of our president–that’s Whitehouse.gov–Whitehouse.com began life during the Clinton era as a site devoted to political discourse. In September 1998 it helped distribute the Starr Report, but by then it had also become the most notoriously named porn site on the Web–featuring, among other things, a White House Intern of the Month. Today the site hosts a white-pages listing.

12. The Dancing Baby

Both strangely amusing and deeply disturbing, the famous dancing toddler boogied its way across the Internet and into the spotlight, appearing on both Ally McBeal and a Blockbuster video commercial during the mid-nineties. There are now dozens of variations on thousands of sites. If you’re looking for the parties responsible for giving birth to this phenomenon, blame its parents at Burning Pixel Productions.

11. Rabies for Kids

Here’s what happens when good intentions meet really bad design. Published by the Viral and Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch of the Centers for Disease Control, the Rabies for Kids site is an orgy of graphical offal. You’ll be foaming at the mouth long before you reach the “Activities” section, which features a photo of a dog’s brain being sliced with a scalpel.

10. MyLackey.com

This Seattle-based site offered to walk your dog, pick up your dry cleaning, and do all other manner of scut jobs for a fee. (Isn’t that what kids and younger siblings are for?) The dot com contracted with local service providers for the dirty work, but apparently applied the “lackey” notion to its own employees as well. An infamous memo from cofounder Brendon Barnicle berated the company’s 65 employees for not putting in 11-hour days, making MyLackey a symbol of the dot-com work ethic. Sixteen months after it began, the last lackey still standing closed the doors and shut off the lights.

9. Hamsterdance.com

Quite possibly the most irritating site on earth. Earplugs recommended.

8. BonziBuddy

This animated purple gibbon called itself “your best friend on the Internet,” but many who downloaded this free program weren’t feeling too friendly afterward. Buddy could tell jokes, recite your e-mail, manage your schedule, download files, and more. But the grape ape also tracked users’ surfing habits, hijacked home pages, and installed several of his adware buddies. Depending on your browser settings, merely visiting Bonzi’s Web site or clicking a banner ad could install Buddy on your machine. In 2002 annoyed Netizens had enough of this monkey business and sued Bonzi for deceptive advertising. By 2005 Buddy was history.

7. Pets.com

Who let this dog out? Back in the heady days of 1999 it must have seemed perfectly normal to spend $175 million making a sock puppet famous. But the notion of saving some coin on kibbles and kitty litter never caught on with consumers, and by November 2000 Pets.com had been euthanized–going from IPO to liquidation in just nine months. Before it got sent to the pound, however, the dot com filed suit against Triumph the Comic Insult Dog for allegedly defaming its moth-friendly mascot. Apparently, even sock puppets have feelings.

6. Pixelon.com

More dot con than dot com, this streaming media company boasted of a revolutionary new technology that would deliver high-quality audio and video over the Net. But Pixelon CEO and founder “Michael Fenne” was in reality a grifter named David Kim Stanley, who spent the majority of investors’ money–some $16 million–on a launch party in Las Vegas featuring Tony Bennett, KISS, and The Who. Prior to starting Pixelon, Stanley had pleaded guilty to swindling friends and neighbors out of $1.5 million; he was on the lam and living out of the back of his car when he founded the company. Pixelon’s revolutionary new streaming technology was equally spurious.

5. AllAdvantage

This site had the brilliant idea of paying people 50 cents an hour to surf and watch banner ads all day, plus another 10 cents per hour for every friend they convinced to sign up. All users had to do was install a “Viewbar” that displayed ads and clocked how much time they spent online. Stunningly, the company managed to raise $135 million in venture capital and convince 2 million users to sign up before it folded in February 2001. For some reason, advertisers failed to see any advantage in trying to reach the $4-a-day demographic. Go figure.

4. CD Universe

In December 1999 a Russian hacker named Maxim broke into the music retailer’s site, stole 350,000 credit card numbers, and then demanded $100,000 ransom. When CD Universe refused to pay, Maxim posted 25,000 of the numbers to a Web site. At the time CD Universe was owned by eUniverse, which combined its site and its customer database on an unprotected server. “Basically, they put the candy jar in plain sight and left the cover off,” says current CD Universe owner Chuck Beilman. “It was only a matter of time until someone stole the candy.” CD Universe’s customer database is now separate from the Web site, encrypted, and protected by a firewall.

3. Cartoonnetwok.com

No that’s not a typo; it’s “typosquatting,” where a site owner deliberately registers a misspelling of a popular domain in the hopes of attracting the actual site’s traffic. Cartoonnetwok was one of some 5500 deceptive domains owned by John Zuccarini, d/b/a/ “Cupcake Confidential.” But that wasn’t Zuccarini’s only nasty bit of business. FTC investigators visiting one of his sites found their screens filled with 29 new browser windows for instant credit, online psychics, gambling, and porn sites. When they hit the Back button, another 7 windows opened–a technique known as “mousetrapping.” Worse, many of Zuccarani’s typosquatting sites were aimed at children. In 2003 Zuccarini pleaded guilty to violating the Truth in Domain Names Act and was sentenced to 2.5 years in the federal pen.

2. CyberRebate

The phrase “the check’s in the mail” took on new meaning with this dot com. CyberRebate offered to refund 100 percent of what you paid for electronic goods, provided you a) paid up to 10 times their normal retail value, and b) let CyberRebate hold onto your money for at least 10 weeks. The site banked on people simply forgetting to apply for the refund. Unfortunately for CyberRebate, not enough of them did. The company filed for bankruptcy in May 2001 owing $60 million in refunds. Aggrieved customers had to settle for roughly 9 cents on the dollar.

1. MySpace.com

Yes, we know. With more than 90 million users, MySpace is now more popular than Elvis, “American Idol,” and ice cream. But the Web’s most visited destination is also its most poorly designed and counterproductive.

The ease with which anyone of any age can create a page, upload photos, share deeply personal details of their lives, and make new “friends” quickly turned MySpace into a one-stop shopping mall for online predators. That in turn has made the site an easy target for politicians who pander for votes by playing on parental fears. In an era when the basic tenets of the Net are under attack by both Ma Bell and Uncle Sam, MySpace is a headache we don’t need.

But let’s put all that aside for a moment. Graphically, many MySpace pages look like a teenager’s bedroom after a tornado–a swirl of clashing backgrounds, boxes stacked inside other boxes, massive photos, and sonic disturbance. Try loading a few of those pages at once and watch what happens to your CPU. Watch out for spyware, too, since it turns out that MySpace has become a popular distribution vector for drive-by downloads and other exploits. And in a place where “U are soooooooo hot!!!” passes for wit, MySpace isn’t doing much to elevate the level of social discourse.

In response to a public backlash and some well-publicized lawsuits, MySpace has begun modifying its policies–for example, limiting adults’ ability to contact minors. That’s hardly enough. Requiring some kind of authentication from MySpacers–or their parents–to validate their ages and identities would go a long way toward scaring off the creeps and making the site a kinder, gentler social network.

Is MySpace totally bad? Not at all. Are we old farts? Yeah, probably. But the Web’s most popular site needs a serious security reboot. And probably a makeover. Until then, MySpace won’t ever be OurSpace.

This article can be found at:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127116/article.html

Tucson Web Design: Top 100 Websites of 2007

Top 100 Web 2.0 Sites According to Web 2.0 Magazine

Programming

1. Ajaxlines: Ajax related tutorials, articles and review, in a web 2.0 design.

2. ma.gnolia: Build your web site and build community online

3. Ajaxian: Ajax related blog

4. Web 2.0 Sites: web 2.0 sites directory, for all web 2.0 related services.

Video

1. YouTube: YouTube is a popular free video sharing Web site which lets users upload, view, and share video clips.

2. Meta Cafe: Metacafe – Get the best internet videos – Funny videos, Amazing clips, Rare movies

3. Vimeo: Share your video clips. Upload video that you shoot with your digital camera, mobile phone, or camcorder. Share video by linking to Vimeo.

4. Daily Motion Publish, tag, organize and share your video clips.

5. Imeem: imeem is a social media service where users interact with each other by watching, posting, and sharing content of all media types, including blogs, photos, audio, and video. In one sense, imeem is a media-centric social network service, and in another sense, it is also a user participation service for online content.

6. ClipShack: ClipShack is a community for videophiles; a destination where people can post their video for general public viewing and comment, share clips with friends and family, post video to blogs, share…

7. vSocial: The fastest, easiest way to upload, watch and share your favorite video clips.

8. Jumpcut: The best place to create, remix and share movies and slideshows online. There’s nothing else like it. Jumpcut Makes Movies, Simple.

9. Video Bomb: Video Bomb filters up the hottest videos on the internet: people submit links to the ‘Incoming!’ page and you bomb the best ones. If a video gets a lot of bombs quickly, it makes it to the front…

10. eyeSpot: Shoot, Mix, and Share your Video. Use the eyespot Mixer to edit and combine your videos, music and photos online! Share your video and mixes with the world for Free

11. revver : Upload, share videos

12. Avidbeauty: Avid Beauty is an entertainment community for iPod users. We offer iPod downloads which are available in playlists known as Podcasts. We also offer Flickr photo, YouTube video and LiveJournal integration into your member profile.

 

Music

1. last.fm: Generate custom streaming music stations with Last.fm by searching for and tagging your favorite artists. Build your own library and search the libraries of others to find who likes the same music as you

2. Musicovery: Discover new music based on your mood, this free webradio let you browse music styles and epochs

3. read.io :Read.io converts RSS feeds into podcasts via TextToSpeech. Many languages supported.

4. MusicStrands: Search MusicStrands to discover new music. Listen to samples, then tag good tracks and exile the ones you don’t like to get clear recommendations, either on site or with an optional iTunes plugin. Then purchase music from a variety of vendors.

5. PODZINGER: PODZINGER – the world’s premiere audio and video search engine

6. Upto11: Using tags and rankings, Upto11 suggests new music for you. Create and share your recommendations, tags, and playlists via a personal user page.

7. Pandora: Pandora is the music discovery service that helps you find new music based on your old and current favorites

Chat

1. Meebo: meebo, the web messenger that lets you access IM from absolutely anywhere. meebo supports msn, yahoo, aol/aim, google talk (gtalk), jabber and icq

2. Joopz: Allows users to send text messages from the Web to both individuals and groups, while enabling recipients to respond directly to the originating PC or Mac. Joopz web texts can be sent from any web-enabled device worldwide to any U.S. or Canadian mobile phone.

3. campfire: Simple, Web-based group chat for businesses, Campfire allows real-time sharing, editing, and collaboration for team members in a secure, password-protected chat.

4. Goowy: is a web based application offering free web and flash email service that enables you instant messaging, email, chat and much more

5. Gizmo: Gizmo Project uses your internet connection (broadband or dial-up) to make calls to other computers. With the click of a mouse, you’re connected to friends, family, and colleagues anywhere on earth. It’s just that simple. You talk clearly. For as long as you want. For free.

6. eBuddy: web based messaging for everyone, everywhere. e-Messenger is a web application that enables you to chat with your MSN, AOL and Yahoo buddies without having to install any program or Java applet.

7. e-messenger: Online messaging from eBuddy is a web messenger application which supports MSN, Yahoo and AIM (AOL). When your school or office has blocked IM you can use the web version of eBuddy with any standard JavaScript enabled browser, even behind a firewall.

8. ILOVEIM: eBuddy is a web messenger application which supports MSN, Yahoo and AIM (AOL). When your school or office has blocked IM you can use the web version of eBuddy with any standard JavaScript enabled browser, even behind a firewall.

Images & Photos

1. Flickr: The best way to stor, search, sort and share your photos

2. Zooomr:Universally the best way to share, search, store and sort your photos online.

3. Slide:

4. zoto

5. 23HQ:Are your photos stuck on your hard drive, instead of being shared with the people who matter to you?

6. Mybloop: MyBloop – sharing pictures, audio, and video for free, whithout storage limits and additional software to install

Blogs

1. Blogger: your easy-to-use web site, where you can quickly post thoughts, interact with people, and more

2. Weblogs, Inc: Creating trade weblogs across niche industries in which user participation is an essential component of the resulting product.

3. BlogCode: BlogCode.com is a fast, easy and intuitive source of blog recommendations based on the StoryCode.com model. It allows you to start with your favourite weblog (or perhaps even your own) and find…

4. blo.gs: lets you keep an eye on your favorite weblogs via the web and email. you can even put the list on your site: a blogroll that knows what is new!

5. BlogLines: a FREE online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content.

Bookmarking

1. Digg: Digg is all about user powered content. Everything is submitted and voted on by the digg community. Share, discover, bookmark, and promote stuff that’s important to you!

2. del.icio.us: A social bookmarks manager. Using bookmarklets, you can add bookmarks to your list and categorize them

3. Reddit: Reddit is a source for what’s new and popular online. reddit learns what you like as you vote on existing links or submit your own!

4. StumbleUpon: StumbleUpon uses thumbs up and down ratings to form collaborative opinions on website quality. When you stumble, you will only see pages which friends and like–minded stumblers have liked

5. Blinklist: Real people with shared interests list the websites they care about. Rate sites you like or save them for later.

6. Blummy: A free tool for quick access to your favorite web services via your bookmark toolbar, Blummy lets you add and customize widgets that do practically anything: add pictures to Flickr, submit sites to del.icio.us, look up text in WIkipedia. Choose from hundreds of custom “blummlets” or create your own.

7. Techcrunch: TechCrunch is a blog about Web 2.0 products & companies, many of the posts written by Michael Arrington. The blog’s first post was on June 11, 2005

8. Furl: Make your favorite web bookmarks accessible from anywhere with Furl’s lightweight bookmarklet. Furl allows you to easily save, take notes on and share the links you’ve stored, or browse others’ most popular bookmarks to find new and interesting things.

9. Spurl: Never lose track of a web site again with Spurl’s free on-line bookmarking service and search engine. Spurl stores addresses quickly for easy access with a one-click bookmarklet and provides recommendations for new content based on your preferences

10. Trailfire: Bookmaking sharing software.

VOIP

1. Jajah: jah is a VoIP (Voice over IP) provider, founded by Austrians Roman Scharf and Daniel Mattes in 2005[1]. The Jajah headquarters are located in Mountain View, CA, USA, and Luxembourg. Jajah maintains a development centre in Israel.

2. skype: It’s free to download and free to call other people on Skype. Skype the number one voice over ip software

3. Private Phone: a free local phone number with voicemail and messages you can check online or from any phone.

Games & Sketching

1. Trendio: Trendio.com is an online prediction market. Users, instead of buying stock in companies with real money, buy stock in certain news subjects with fake money. Words available include those from the world of politics, sport, and entertainment. The more the word appears in the news, the higher the value of the stock. Currently, the site uses about 3,000 online internet sources to gauge the value of each word.

2. GameSnips: online games list, digg style. voting for each game, sort lists by latest or by votes

3. Pictaps: Roxik Pictaps – Draw a Character and Watch It Dance in 3D

4. Broadcast Game: The objective of the Broadcast game is to connect all of the terminals and cables on the grid to the central hub by fixing their orientations. All you need to do is click and rotate the cables, the terminals, or the hub.

5. Pikipimp.com : Ever wanted to add bling to your iomages? Pikpimp is a relly cool ajax application that allows you to drop and drag objects on your image. Save the image and add to your site!

6. Mainada: How aobut Comic Sketch (thanks Tiago)

Wikis

1. Wikipedia: The biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. Over two million articles and still growing.

2. LittleWiki: LittleWiki is a Web site where you can create public and private wiki pages. A Wiki is a Web site where anyone can enter and edit content. That means you can post and edit information about virtually anything you wish, and you can read what others have posted too.

3. Wetpaint: Wetpaint powers websites that tap the power of collaborative thinking. The heart of the Wetpaint advantage is its ability to allow anyone — especially those without technical skill — to create and contribute to websites written for and by those who share a passion or interest. To do this, Wetpaint combines the best aspects of wikis, blogs, forums and social networks so anyone can click and type on the web.

4. JotSpot: Create and share wiki pages with a WYSIWYG editor via Jotspot’s secure wiki hosting. Install various “applications” to refine your wiki content – project manager, company directory, blog, forum, poll, calendar, and more – then invite others to contribute

5. PBWiki: Make a free, password protected wiki as easily as a peanut butter sandwich. Easily upload HTML, link files to your pages, integrate RSS, and more.

 

Office Tools

1. Zoho Office Suite: Online Word Processor

2. Google Docs & Spreadsheets: With Google Docs & Spreadsheets, you can: * Use our online editor to format documents, spell-check and more. * Upload Word documents, OpenOffice, RTF, HTML or text. * Download…

3. Num Sum: Easy, Sharable Web Spreadsheets

4. Dictinary : Online dictionary

5. notifyr.org: Be ahead of the rest with notifyr.org. Notifyr is an easy to use tool which lets anybody easily receive instant updates on any web page around the world. Notifyr.org is ideal for those who want instant information on new stock, or new product release information. Best of all it’s free – and always will be

6. ThinkFree Office: Have you ever wanted to edit an Excel spreadsheet on a Linux system? Have you ever wanted to show your colleagues a presentation on a computer not equipped with Powerpoint? Would you like to be able…

7. Numly: Numly is a web 2.0 startup offering next generation copyright and DRM licensing services for all things digital.

8. gOffice: Free online word processor, outpput can be pdf or html letters, allows personalization in letter templates..

 

RSS

1. FeedBurner: FeedBurner helps bloggers, podcasters and commercial publishers get more value from the content they create. Our advanced feed management technology deftly delivers subscription services for…

2. Feed Digest: Feed Digest is a parser, regenerator, and syndicator for, and of, RSS and Atom feeds. It lets you do things like put the content of RSS or Atom feeds on your own site(s).

3. Attensa: Attensa, Inc. is a venture backed software company developing RSS readers, online RSS aggregators, enterprise RSS servers and RSS infrastructure software that automatically and intelligently delivers…

4. Tiny Tiny RSS: Tiny Tiny RSS is a web-based news feed aggregator, designed to allow you to read news from any location, while feeling as close to a real desktop application as possible.

5. Feed43: This free online service converts any web page to an RSS feed on the fly.

6. Feed Mailer: feeds direct to your email. (thanks John)

 

Emails

1. Gmail: Gmail is an experiment in a new kind of webmail, built on the idea that you should never have to delete mail and you should always be able to find the message you want.

2. 30 Gigs: 30Gigs.com is invite-only web-based email that offers, you guessed it, 30 gigabytes of space.

3. Zookoda: is an email marketing application designed specifically for bloggers. Zookoda enables you to send a daily, weekly or monthly summary of your latest blog posts directly into your visitors inbox.

4. Sprout: osted email management for your sales and support email. No IT department required. Mailroom can organize your email and suggest replies to save you time and keep you better in touch with your customers. There is nothing to setup and it takes only a minute to get started

5. Gawab: Offers a web mail service with a number of features. Supports POP/SMTP.

News

1. NewsGator: Read all of your favorite news, websites and blogs all in one place.

2. newsvine.com: Keep track of breaking news with Newsvine: read “The Wire” for a direct stream of articles from the AP and ESPN, and read “The Vine” for Newsvine user submitted content and columns. Interact with other Newsvine readers by voting for and commenting on news, and write/maintain your own Newsvine column.

3. Gabbr :Gabbr is a community-based social news and blogging network which allows users to save and share their favorite top news headlines and blog posts.

4. wired: News site and magazine, covering technology, culture, business and politics.

5. Clipmarks: Bite-size hiligh-lights on the web.

File Sharing

1. Box.Net: Free online file storage and sharing from Box.net! Our internet storage service enables you to save, browse, share, & retrieve files, photos, and documents …

2. AllPeers:Unleash your online experience and discover unlimited private sharing. Share private photos worry-free. No passwords to remember, no public access. Share your videos without uploading – save on hosting costs while saving time.No cumbersome interface. No sharing restriction. Private and secure. No spyware, no adware, no annoying advertisements.

3. MailBigFile internet application for file sharing

Others

1. Live: Microsoft web 2.0 portal

2. LinkedIn: is like Facebook for business professionals: Build yourself a business network to give you credibility in job searches and hiring, or use LinkedIn to reconnect or keep in touch with important business connections.

3. BaseCamp: Simple project management with to-do lists, milestones, time tracking, file sharing, calendars, and more. Basecamp is a solution for taking charge of communication, collaboration, and organization for projects big and small.

4. Side Job Track: A job tracking application for independent contractors, Sidejobtrack creates and manages invoices for goods, services, and time, then produces monetary reports to track payments and income.

5. Kayak.com searches hundreds of travel sites to give you the widest possible choice of flights and prices. It costs nothing to search and not a cent to book because we’re not a travel agency.

6. TravBuddy is a site for people who love to explore. You don’t have to be traveling across the world to use this site. Maybe you just want to share advice about a local restaurant you enjoy, or perhaps last weekend you discovered an amazing new place to watch the sunset, right in your hometown. Whether you are exploring at home or exploring abroad, the art and joy of discovery is still the same. Something that is familiar to you might be amazing and new to someone who is visiting.

7. Wayfaring is an interesting new site that lets you tag and create your own routes and places on Google maps

8. Omnidrive: As the world’s first complete storage aggregator, Omnidrive allows you to bring all your files and content together from your desktop, devices and the web onto a single space that’s easily accessible from any platform.

9. ma.gnolia: Build your web site and build community online

10. Ajaxian: Ajax related blog

11. Web 2.0 Sites: web 2.0 sites directory, for all web 2.0 related services.

Posted by Hazem Torab at 6:09 PM

Tucson Web Development: Ebay Boss Steps Down

Meg Whitman is stepping down after 10 years as eBay boss after the online auctioneer issued a profits warning.

This article was found at: http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30400-1302201,00.html

She will be succeeded as chief executive by fellow director John Donahoe, whom she recruited in 2005.

Whitman, who will quit her post at the end of March, says she plans to get more involved in her family’s charitable foundation.

She will also intends to campaign on behalf of US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The pair worked together at consulting firm Bain & Co.

<!– document.write(”); //–>Whitman said she was still considering what to do next year and beyond.

She will not be quitting eBay entirely, however. She will remain on the board and give advice to Donohoe.

Whitman is said to be worth $1.4bn and according to Forbes is the 361st richest person in the US.

EBay’s profits warning came after it announced solid fourth-quarter results.

Analysts said it was unclear if the company feared an economic downturn or if management was giving itself room to make changes.

Tucson Web Development: Flash 10/ CS4/ “Diesel” Sneak Peek

Flash 10 / CS4 / “Diesel” Sneak Peek

This article can be found at: http://www.jonnymac.com/blog/2007/10/22/flash-10-cs4-diesel-sneak-peek/

Today at FITC Hollywood Richard Galvan, Adobe Flash Product Manager, gave a sneak peek at an upcoming feature in Flash 10 / CS4 / “Diesel”. I am really surprised that I haven’t read about this new feature anywhere else, so I thought I would post for those who couldn’t make it to the conference.

That said, I was by no means expecting anything big to come from Adobe at FITC, mainly because they just held MAX where they previewed dozens of new applications and technologies. But, we were blessed with one new sneak:

The next version of the Flash IDE, Flash 10 “Diesel”, will feature a brand new timeline animation model. What’s the difference? There will no longer be a need for keyframes. Yes, it sounds drastic, but based on the demo, this is going to make timeline animations _much_ easier to work with and make Flash much easier for beginners.

In short you will be able to select an object on the stage, right-click and choose “Add Motion/Shape Tween”, and the timeline layer with the object will turn red to signify that it now contains a tween. Then you move the object (if you want to animate its motion) to create the end state. Want to extend the length of the tween? Just drag the timeline layer out over additional frames. Basically, this model completely fixes broken tweens — you can no longer have a tween that is “broken” because it is missing a keyframe because tweens are no longer tied to keyframes.

An additional cool feature with this is that when you move the object to the end state, a dotted line shows up along the path of the tween, showing you exactly where the object is going to move to. Want to change the path? Just move the object and the line automatically updates. Not good enough? Adjust the line just like any other curved line in Flash/Illustrator making it more rounded, or increase the length by adjusting the end point to your liking. You can also choose the Transform tool and use it to squish/expand or otherwise transform your tween path.

Maybe I missed something and this had been announced at MAX as well, but if not, I am really surprised that I haven’t seen this up on MXNA yet!

Tucson Web Development: Paid Search Engine Marketing

Paid Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Brand vs. non-brand. Many multichannel marketers enjoy large sales with little cost on searches for their brand name. These searches aren’t incremental, however. Analyze your campaigns both with and without your branded terms. Challenge your paid search agency or in-house team to drive profitable sales growth out of your non-brand portfolio.

Beware of broad match and content networks. Broad match allows the search engines some leeway in matching your ads against similar search queries. While broad match is a convenient tool and appropriate in some circumstances, often that additional traffic is of lower quality.

As with broad match, syndicating your ads to the content networks can offer you greater click inventory. But again, this additional traffic can be of lower quality, increasing your PPC costs with minimal sales benefit.

For one thing, know if you’re running ads on the content networks. If so, test to determine if the additional costs are warranted by additional sales. There are good clicks to be found hidden in the content haystack, but finding them takes effort and care.