More Google Phone Rumors

As always take this with a grain of salt. Reuters is reporting that Google is expected  to announce within 2 weeks advanced software and services, enabling handset makers to sell Google-powered phones by mid-2008. Google declined to comment. Verizon has been mentioned as being in talks with Google. These talks revolve around technology and potential business models such as advertising-sponsored services.

One More Step Towards Extending the Internet Tax Moratorium

From Ars Technica: The House of Representatives has passed the Senate’s version of legislation that would extend the ban on Internet access taxes by seven years. The House had previously approved a four-year extension, but some representatives wanted to see the moratorium made permanent, and the Senate’s seven-year ban was a compromise so good that it passed by a 402-0 margin.

State and local governments had opposed making the ban on taxes permanent. The National Governors Association had urged Congress to pass a “reasonable extension” that would “promote Internet usage,” but argued against keeping the ban in place indefinitely. Once broadband connections are as commonplace as stoves and refrigerators, proponents of a temporary ban argue, the question of whether ‘Net access should be taxed should be revisited, as they could prove a lucrative source of funding for state and local governments

Nine states that enacted access taxes prior to the original passage of the Internet Tax Freedom Act in 1998 continue to be exempt from the ban. In addition, a prohibition against taxing e-mail and instant messaging services that are “not packaged with Internet access” was inserted into the bill by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR). The bill’s passage by the House marks the third time the moratorium has been extended. It was first extended in 2001, and then again in 2004.  It is currently slated to expire on November 1. The legislation will now go to President Bush, who is expected to sign it into law.  http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071030-internet-access-tax-moratorium-extended-another-seven-years.html

MSN adCenter: Now With Instant Editorial Reviews

adCenter upgraded with new features

Over the weekend we upgraded adCenter to add new features to help you manage your campaigns more easily. We’ve broken up the new features into 3 categories:

1) Editorial (which we’re covering in-depth here today – see below)

2) Campaign management – changes include:

• Daily budget option
• Default dynamic text
• Campaign import – now compatible with AdWords Editor output

3) Reporting – changes include:

• Access recent reports and report templates right on the Reporting tab
• Drag and drop to re-order custom report columns
• Totals and averages now shown

Here on the blog we’ll be taking a look at each feature, starting today with editorial changes. To read a rundown of all the new features, please check out the Feature Release Guide, and stay tuned here as we spotlight other new features throughout the week. 

Editorial Updates

Immediate editorial feedback on ads and keywords

With this upgrade, as you create or edit ads, you now receive immediate editorial feedback. When you save your ad, adCenter verifies that:

• all required fields are filled out,
• length limits are not exceeded, and
• display and destination URLs are formatted correctly.

This helps you adhere your ads to our Editorial Guidelines and get your campaigns live more quickly. Take a look at this example:

With this inline feedback, you can make the necessary adjustments to your ad even before you submit it, which will help your ad through our editorial review process.
Similarly, when you save new or changed keywords, the Status column displays the term New or Error. Mouse over the Error status term for more information that will help you adjust your keyword.

View disapproved ad and keyword associations

If you’ve ever experienced a situation where your “active” ad was associated with a “disapproved” keyword, or a “disapproved” ad was associated with an “active” keyword – we’ve made it easier for you to resolve this issue by providing more info in the Status column on the Keywords and Ads tabs. In the screenshot example below, the Status column on the Keywords tab contains Active – 3 ad rejections because a keyword is active but three associated ads are disapproved. If you click the status term, you can get further information about each associated ad. Once you’ve reviewed the details, you can make changes as needed and be on your way.

Pamela Anderson Hearts Google

I will make no comment….no matter how much I want to.

Click Fraud As Much as 16%, For Affiliates 28%

The rate of click fraud for PPC  hit 16.2% in the third quarter, up 17.4% from 13.8% a year earlier. 16.25 is the highest level yet for the year.  Even worse for advertisers aggressively pursuing an affiliate model,  the click fraud rate for affiliate sites was 28.1%, up from 19.4% at year-end 2006, according to the Click Fraud Index.

Combine that with stagnant consumer spending and retailers are facing an interesting Q4.

Ebay Posting Levels

From Scot Wingo at:  http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/ebay_strategies/2007/10/im-back.html 

“You’ll see that the 07 promo is getting listings up into that 17/18m range that we had last year.  What’s interesting to think about is what if eBay didn’t do the promo,  Then most likely the 07 listings would have stayed in the sub 15/14m range and that would have really made the y/y comps from wall st. unfavorable.

The Internet Has No Wrath Like a Woman Scorned

From Yahoo News:

A 34-year-old woman has been charged with using the Internet to try to get revenge on an old boyfriend by breaking up his marriage. Pilar Stofega has been charged with second-degree harassment and breach of peace and released on $2,500 bond.

Waterford police say she created phony profiles of the former boyfriend’s current wife on some adult Web sites that included the wife’s home and work phone numbers and high school yearbook picture.

Stofega said she did to it “to be vindictive, knowing that the profiles would create marital problems between” the victim and her husband, according to court documents.

The plot came to life when strange men started calling a Waterford woman’s house over the summer, saying they had seen her profile on an adult Web site.

The man Stofega had dated eight years ago used his own computer to investigate and discovered someone had created a profile for his wife on several Internet sites, according to court records.

Police say the husband did more online investigating and was able to find out that the person behind the phony profiles of his wife was the woman he dated in 1999. He passed the information on to Waterford police, leading to Stofega’s arrest last week.

Waterford police got a court order to seize Stofega’s Internet records. They reviewed the account records before searching her house in late September.

Stofega was at the house when police served the warrant. Officers said she provided them with a sworn written statement in which she admitted to intentionally creating the profiles in the victim’s likeness on the adult Web sites.

Stofega is scheduled to appear in New London Superior Court on Monday. Court records did not list an attorney and her phone number was not listed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071026/ap_on_fe_st/odd_internet_revenge&printer=1;_ylt=Aq9WHHvg06eWs.UK2vILnTUuQE4F

Top #5 Position on Google Without Being Cached?

Google Google is showing that the last time they cached my blog was 22 October, yet for a post that went up just a few hours ago, I am now #5 for the term  “10 top most popular costumes” . Interesting. I’m hoping that smarter people than I comment with an explanation!

Top Ten Most Popular Halloween Costumes Searches

The most searched for Halloween costume is ‘Hannah Montana’ followed by…well see the list below via Hitwise : 

1)      Hannah Montana costume

2)      Master Chief costume

3)      Pirate costume

4)      Wonder Woman costume

5)      Little Red Riding Hood costume

6)      Hannah Montana halloween costume

7)      Tinkerbell costume

8 )      Pippi Longstocking costume

9)      Flapper costume

10)  Raggedy Ann costume 

And where people are going to buy them:  www.buycostumes.com www.halloweenexpress.com www.spirithalloween.com www.costumesupercenter.com www.anniescostumes.com www.costumehub.com www.costumecraze.com www.zoogstercostumes.com www.halloweenmart.com www.partylounge.com

Consumers Shifting Budget to Online, Total Budget Remains the Same

The good news for online retailers: consumers plan on shifting a significant part of their budget and spend online. The bad news is sonsumers plan on spending about the same amount they did last year. This when in a report released today, online retailers  expect to grow their business 30% this holiday season.

 While consumers say their holiday shopping budgets are going to be the same as last years, 35% of them  plan on  shifting that budget and will be spending  it online according to a BizRate Research survey for online retailer trade group Shop.org and comparison shopping site Shopzilla. BizRate surveyed 2,695 online consumers and 116 retailers for its 2007 eHoliday Study.

Online retailers plan on aggressively growing their budget and to offer promotions. One of their favorites? Free shipping.

 Other takeaways:

Providing good value remains the most important attribute of an e-commerce site in consumers’ eyes, receiving an average rating of 4.52 out of 5.0. Shoppers also rated clear product descriptions (4.37), merchant reputation (4.31) and guaranteed on-time delivery (4.28) as important criteria in deciding where to shop.

Asked how they had improved their sites in the past year, 10.2% of merchants said they had added cross-selling from the product page this year and another 28.7% said they improved it; for cross-selling from the cart page the comparable figures were 9.3% and 19.4%. 24.8% said they had added product reviews for the first time and 14.8% faceted search that lets visitors narrow a search by attribute.

10.3% of the online retailers surveyed said they had added Google Checkout as a payment option this year, 9.4% PayPal, 8.4% Bill Me Later and 8.2% gift card or certificate redemption. 96.4% say they accept credit cards and 63.6% debit cards.

Nearly half the merchants (48.5%) planned to start their online promotions by this week. Many of those who have not (28.2%) are targeting the week of Nov. 5 to begin. 21.8% said they plan to start their online marketing campaigns earlier this year, and only 2.6% later.

http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=24180