the webthinking blog

This can’t be true… I’m just posting it as a future reference. Should I bid for a MacBook right now?

Microsoft Considers eBay Acquisition

Microsoft has been in talks for several weeks about a possible acquisition of eBay, reported the New York Post on Friday (via MarketingVOX), citing sources close to the issue. Apparently, Microsoft has considered buying eBay and merging it with MSN in a bid to challenge Google for internet supremacy, but as a result of antitrust concerns the talks have “cooled somewhat,” according to the Post. More

Like the new Yahoo! home page and the tabbed content? My Toggle Tab Menus script has been downloaded nearly 10,000 times since September 2004! It has some additional features, too. Happy tabbing, if you’re a web designer! :)  More

I’d be interested to see the results, nice initiative though!

Does your iPod have more podcasts than songs? Do you listen religiously to TWIT? Live and die by Mommycast? Even if you don’t, we want to hear from you!

Sequentia and Caprica are pleased to announce the first comprehensive Canadian podcast survey. Participate and get a summary of the results in your inbox! This survey will uncover:

• the audience for podcasting in Canada
• podcast producers and their content
• favourite podcasts, types of podcasts
• how far along is videopodcasting, and more!

Some of my answers:

Q: When did you download your first podcast?
A: 2005
 
Q: Which podcast categories do you typically like:
A: Business, Music, Technology

Q: Have you heard any podcasts with ads?
A: Of course, Earthlink and GoDaddy are among the pioneers in supporting podcasting and accept user generated content and advertising

Q: How many ads would you be willing to listen to in a podcast?
A: No more that two-tree ads per 30-45 minutes show

Q: If the host reviewed a product or service, it would be:
A: Somewhat likely that I would buy based on his/her advice

Via OneDegree | Complete Survey

Couple of weeks ago I’ve attended an ITSM seminar hosted by IBM and Solidcore. Some interesting facts:

• 70% of 2005 CIO budget was labour
• Operations labour will be 73% of CIO labour budgets by 2008
• Application development will decline at –10% CGR to 2008
• If this trend continues, there will be not development budget left by …2012!

Less eBay on AdSense?

Yahoo, eBay form Web advertising alliance

NEW YORK, May 25 (Reuters) – Yahoo Inc and Web auctioneer eBay on Thursday announced a partnership designed to boost their position against Microsoft Corp. and Web search leader Google Inc. , underscoring recent speculation the two companies could eventually merge.

Under the deal, Yahoo will be the exclusive third-party provider of all graphic ads throughout eBay’s auction site. Yahoo has also chosen EBay’s online payment system PayPal to allow its own customers to pay for Yahoo Web services.

The iPod took portable music to a new frontier and now it’s doing the same for the running shoe.

Apple Computer Inc. pushed its digital music player in that direction yesterday when it announced a kit that helps turn the popular Nano device into a pedometer.

The kit, called iPod + Nike, wirelessly transmits information from some Nike Inc. running shoes to Apple’s iPod Nano device so runners can tell how many calories they’ve burnt, the length of time they’ve been running or how many kilometres they’ve covered during a workout. More.

Taste, listen, read – enjoy! Some select Indigo stores include Starbucks coffee stops. Starbuckization has already started!

The company that sells 4 million coffee drinks daily in the USA is hot to extend its brand beyond the espresso machine to influence films, CDs, and books. More.

Wahoo!
I’ve got a DevCast “golden ticket” today. Looks like I’ll be doing some beta testing for the new PodShow PDN+. Sounds exciting!

Wahoo 2!
I’ve been poking around for about one week with the PodShow+ new service, it’s quite an experience! They call it “media network”: couple of things you can do are sharing your collection and defining channels of favourile podcasts.

It’s gonna be interesting shifting users from a client based catcher (e.g. iTunes, Juice) to an online web application.

One great thing though: once you purchase a podsafe tune, you can re-download it if let’s say you burn your hard drive. Kudos!