Gotta share this with you...
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FUTURE TENSE for Tuesday, March 30, 2004
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STUDY: DOWNLOADING DIGITAL MUSIC HAS MINIMAL EFFECT ON SALES OF CDs

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Listen to today's show at:
http://mail.publicradio.org/site/R?i=SOWaz5BHPkFp-GW9jh2-kg..

How to listen: http://mail.publicradio.org/site/R?i=-H-o71KhL7hp-GW9jh2-kg..
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File sharing may not be responsible for declining CD sales.

Researchers at Harvard Business School and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill say they've found that sharing of digital music files on peer-to-peer networks like KaZaA has only a minor effect on the sales of compact discs.

The report counters the music industry's central theme in its war on digital piracy. The music industry has blamed file sharing for a prolonged decline in CD sales.

The report says that file sharing actually appears to boost by a small amount the sales of popular albums by the likes of Britney Spears a little, while slightly depressing the sales of CDs from lesser-known artists.

Harvard associate professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee says the study compared actual downloads of music files to store sales of CDs during the latter part of 2002. He says people who shared files likely would not have bought the albums that they downloaded.

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OBERHOLZER-GEE: Most of what we know about the effect of file sharing on CD sales comes from surveys. You would ask people, "Do you download music?" Then you would ask whether or not downloading music has changed behavior. The problem with all these surveys, in particular after people realized file sharing was illegal, is that you couldn't be too sure whether everybody is willing to reveal what they do and what they think. The study we did is unique in that we have log files from servers that facilitate downloading. And so we can actually see what people download and we can see if albums that are downloaded more often -- whether their sales change in any way in response to downloading.

GORDON: What do you find in that regard?

OBERHOLZER-GEE: The average effect of file sharing on sales is pretty much zero. We cannot find a negative impact. We have a number of statistical models, and even if we take the most pessimistic one, the negative effect that we find is so small that the big drop in sales in the 2000 to 2002 period cannot be explained by file sharing.

GORDON: It's such a tempting connection to make, and one that the recording industry has wanted us to make. Even though CD sales are dramatically down while downloading is dramatically up, there's no connection?

OBERHOLZER-GEE: To make the argument ring true what you would have to see is that the types of music that are shared most often are the types of music that lose the most sales. This is not what we see in the data.

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The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the trade group representing the music industry, denounced the report's conclusions. It released the following statement: "Countless well-respected groups and analysts, including Edison Research, Forrester, the University of Texas, among others, have all determined that illegal file sharing has adversely impacted the sales of CDs."

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TECH NEWS DAILY 3
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1. Good Riddance, Gigahertz
http://mail.publicradio.org/site/R?i=RfUujEdcy49p-GW9jh2-kg..

2. AT&T Brings Internet Telephone Service to New Jersey
http://mail.publicradio.org/site/R?i=SK_8MQ4aELBp-GW9jh2-kg..

3. New Wave of Web Ads on the Way
http://mail.publicradio.org/site/R?i=lpmGhnK0XVdp-GW9jh2-kg..


Until tomorrow,
Jon Gordon

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ABOUT THE SHOW
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Future Tense can be heard daily at 8:20 am on Minnesota Public Radio,
and across the United States on the CBC's As It Happens.

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[ Actually, the Edison Report was not very strong in supporting the record company's standpoint... change or die; change or die...]

(hris

Trying to understand

how all the search engines work together is very much like having a head full of buzzing bees. You can't stand it, but you can't swat at them, since you might get stung. You just want the damn honey....

Well, a new search engine chart makes it all VERY EASY. Don't like search engines? You should STILL check out this slick bit of Flash animation, since it's one of the nicest functional uses of stupid morphing, waving, twisting, poping, time-wasting, technology that I have seen in a long time. Check out the controls and you will see what I mean. Easy to understand, easy to use, and provides very useful information, er, at least to SEO geeks....!

The Best Search Engine Partnership Chart

America Online Endorses New Minnesota State Antispam Proposal That Seeks to Impose Harsh, New Penalties against Spammers - Including Jail Time

DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 19, 2004-- Minnesota Proposal Continues AOL's State-by-State Campaign to Enact Tough New Junk Email Laws Against 'Kingpin' Spammers

Sending junk email to online consumers in the State of Minnesota could result in stiff, criminal penalties if a new proposal - backed today by America Online - is enacted into law.

The world's leading interactive services company today announced its support and advocacy for an important new antispam initiative in Minnesota that would complement AOL's public policy efforts at the Federal level and in other states to fight back against spam and spammers on behalf of its members. AOL is backing a strong new antispam proposal introduced just last week and authored by State Senator Dan Sparks (D-Austin). A companion bill has been introduced in the Minnesota House of Representatives by State Rep. Eric Lipman (R-Lake Elmo). The bill is based on the nation's toughest law against junk email in Virginia, where AOL is located. Co-authors of the measure are State Sen. Jim Metzen (D-South St. Paul), President of the Senate; and State Sen. Ellen Anderson (D-St. Paul), Chair of the Jobs, Energy and Community Development Committee.

The newly introduced legislation, the "Minnesota Spam Control Act" (S.F. 2622/H.F. 2948), would impose tough criminal penalties against the most egregious spammers who use tactics of fraud and deceit to get spam into the email inboxes of online consumers. The bill creates misdemeanor, gross misdemeanor and felony levels of crime and imposes jail time and monetary penalties.

AOL's support for this new proposal was announced in conjunction with today's scheduled hearing in the Minnesota Senate Jobs, Energy and Economic Development Committee. America Online will be testifying on behalf of the bill.

"Tough, new state antispam proposals like the one being supported by AOL in Minnesota can have a tremendous impact as part of a comprehensive, multi-faceted effort that includes a combination of corporate litigation, online industry collaboration, new antispam technologies, enhanced tools and features placed at the fingertips of our members, and stronger spam filtering at the email server level," said Randall Boe, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of AOL.

Mr. Boe added: "If the 'Minnesota Spam Control Act' is adopted - and we hope it will be in this session of the Legislature - it will be a significant and much needed, new weapon to 'can-the-spam', which all starts with our members referring spam to us using AOL's 'Report Spam' button."

Senator Dan Sparks, the Senate author, will be presenting the bill to the Jobs, Energy and Economic Development Committee today. After the hearing, the bill will be laid over for final passage on Friday, March 26. AOL has pledged to work with Senator Sparks to further refine and strengthen the bill as it is considered in the legislative process. The bill would next go to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"I am very pleased to be putting a significant new tool to deal with this enormous problem into the hands of prosecutors. Since one of the alleged 'kingpin spammers' is reportedly located here in Minnesota, we can contribute to the national solution with this bill," said Sen. Sparks.

The legislation is timely and critical to AOL, and more directly to its millions of members nationwide - especially Minnesotans who use AOL's service. Under this new law, spammers sending large volumes of junk emails using tactics of fraud, deceit and evasion to members of AOL in the state would be subject to severe sanctions and damages.

If enacted, the Minnesota Spam Control Act would work hand-in-hand with the tough criminal provisions of the new Federal law - the 2003 CAN-SPAM Act - which AOL strongly endorsed. It would also give Minnesota residents and officials added enforcement tools to combat spam with criminal and civil penalties. The Minnesota junk email proposal was also crafted and structured in a way that would allow it not to be pre-empted by the new federal antispam law.

The Minnesota junk email proposal is an updated version of Virginia's antispam state law, which went into effect on July 1st, 2003, and has already been successfully used by state law enforcement officials to file criminal prosecutions against two spammers widely-known to industry groups and ISPs. This took place in December 2003, when AOL joined with Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore to announce the arrests of two North Carolina individuals accused of spamming AOL members, using the new state law.

Also, in late January, AOL joined in announcing the introduction of a new state antispam proposal in Ohio, H.B. 383, which closely matches both the existing Virginia junk email statute, as well as the new Minnesota proposal being supported today. The proposal is authored by State Representative Kathleen Walcher (R), and is pending consideration in the Ohio Legislature this session. In early March, in Maryland, AOL announced its support of an almost identical antispam bill introduced by Delegate Neil Quinter (D) and Senator Robert Garagiola (D), called the Maryland Spam Control Act" (H.B. 1320/S.B. 604) - which is also pending consideration in the Maryland General Assembly.

AOL continues to be an industry leader in the ongoing an aggressive fight on a state and Federal level to craft and adopt tough, rigorous new public laws that hold spammers accountable for their outlaw tactics of deceit, fraud and evasion. Just last week, AOL joined its industry partners Microsoft, Earthlink and Yahoo! to announce the first major industry lawsuits against hundreds of spammers using the new federal CAN-SPAM law that went into effect on Jan 1st, 2004.

In addition to its public advocacy campaigns on spam in Virginia and in the U.S. Congress - which produced milestone victories on behalf of its members and all online consumers in 2003 - AOL continues to work with lawmakers in other states toward the goal of ensuring that public laws evolve to keep pace with the ever-changing, complex nature of spam.

About America Online, Inc.
America Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. Based in Dulles, Virginia, America Online is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services.

Contacts
America Online - Corporate Communications
Nicholas J. Graham, Spokesperson - 703-265-1746


(hris

Jayde.com - The B2B Search Engine

Helping businesses find products, services, and information quickly and accurately. Jayde is an entirely human reviewed directory with a lightning fast search.
http://www.jayde.com/

Ya know, I've been submitting to this site for over three years and you never hear much in any of the search engine newsletters. I was on the site submitting a client's site and I have started verifying what systems actually list sites, I checked another client's URL and found they were listed - cool! Then I thought I would see if our site was listed and there we were. THEN I went to see if the link worked ok and I was SHOCKED at what I found!!!

Not only did they have a page on my site, they had all my pages listed! Some of the information needs to be updated, but it's all there.

Here's an example of what I found under listings for "seo":

10. SEO List Category > Directories Find search engine optimization and marketing companies by location. Free listings for SEO or SEM companies. http://www.seolist.com

And here's what you see when you click on the link:
SEO List Listing at Jayde.com

Jayde really deserves more attention that it's been getting. Recommended!

(hris

The response to our launch of The Best Free Search Engine List has been better than expected. I suspect the look of our main site has been scaring people away for some time and this may be proof... Downloads per day have doubled and we have our first List Partner!

www.seo-uncovered.com has agreed to use our list information to update their site which offers good information and a number of resources for those interested in SEO or search engine optimization, increasing web traffic, and more visitor conversions.

(hris

Yahoo throws in towel: Concedes search marketing not effective without Google

March 14th, 2004 Yahoo.com has hired an Austin-based telemarketing company to hire home telemarketing workers in 12 states to sell business listings. The move was noticed today in posts for staff by Manpower on Monster.com. Ad copy Follows:

MANPOWER

Sales Agent Outbound B2B-Work from Home

Location: US-MN-Eden Prairie
Status: Full Time, Employee
Job Category: Sales

Use the employer's preferred method to send your resume - click Apply Now!

Job Description

Get paid what you're worth and work from home

Business-to-Business Telesales Professionals

Our Austin-based client is one of the nation's fastest growing
telesales companies. Yahoo!, the #1 online Internet yellow page
provider has contracted them to sell business listings to 12
untapped states. If you're one of the best telesales agents -
consistently in the top 10%, then finally get paid for how you
perform! Plus, you'll get to work from home!

Run your own business as an independent contractor with your
ultimate success based on your performance. You'll be
responsible for executing specific campaigns and making the
calls that generate revenue. Get paid per sale or lead you
generate - it's your ability, dedication, and hard work that
will generate results. As a business owner, you may be able to
write off current expenses, such as computers and equipment as
well as your recurring telephone, cellular and Internet charges.

Our client provides the infrastructure software, training,
support, and clients, but it's up to you to make it happen. You
determine how much you are worth!

You must have a minimum of 3-5 years prior B2B outbound
telesales experience, in a call center or home-based. Ideal
candidates should be self-motivated and highly professional.
Successful completion of our computer based job assessment,
interview, and security screens is required. If you enjoy a
self-directed, home-based environment and believe in a pay for
performance philosophy that offers unlimited earning potential
then this just might be the ideal opportunity for you.

TO COMPETE FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY, FOLLOW THE LINK TO COMPLETE THE
REQUIRED ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE TO MOVE TO THE NEXT STEP OF THE
PROCESS.

Job Title: Sales Agent Outbound B2B-Work from Home
Primary Skills: Communication Skills; Time Management;
Negotiation Skills
Job Industry: Services
Vacancies: 20
Job City: Eden Prairie
Job Metro Area: Hopkins
Job State: MN
Job Country: US
Salary: DOE
Hours per Week: 40
Start Date: 03/23/2004
Job Duration: Direct Placement
Detailed Job Duration: NA
Degree Type: BA
Degree Area: 16
Experience Minimum: 5 Years
Certificates/Licenses:

To be considered for this position you must complete a
prescreening questionnaire. Please go to www.us.manpower.com/netselectjobs and enter the following 9
digit pin number 500888535.
Candidates responding to this posting must currently possess the
eligibility to work in the United States.

Manpower has the job connections you need! For over 50 years,
Manpower has been a world leader in the staffing industry.
Whether you're interested in an office, light industrial, or
call center environment, we can find you top pay and satisfying
short-term, long-term, or direct hire positions that fit your
skills and lifestyle.

Contact Information

Contact: Staffing Specialist
Email: Staffing.Jobs@manpower.com
Ref ID: US78744/MB/K33

(hris

We decided to create a brand new site for our search engine hand submission system. The downloads were hitting the main site pretty hard and I think having one page with over 1,000 links was hurting our standings with some of the search engines... so it seems to make sense.

The new site is called Best Free Search Engine List. We think it's the best one because it's completely free to the point that we let you download the list in 6 different formats. You can really do things with this list, because we give you the data files if you want them. That's right, you have your choice of HTML web page, ASCII-delimited list, dBASE file, PDF, Excel spreadsheet, and HTML SSI include file.

All the places I asked if they would mind sharing their list refused, so we decided to give away our list so others would not have to type in all those silly links and site URLs if they wanted to have their own submission list, build a submission program, or do something else with it.

The hand submission system consists of two parts: 1) the HTML web page and 2) the Excel spreadsheet. You use the HTML page to go to each search engine and directory and submit your site and you use the spreadsheet to record when and where you submit to.

The HTML include file can be used to let your site visitors submit their site to search engines and directories. The include file as all the files are updated monthly and can be downloaded and then uploaded to your site and it will then be current.

(hris

Yahoo sells out

Sure, they can do whatever they want, but here is why they are shooting themselves in the foot and WILL attract attention from the FTC, in my opinion:

Yahoo is now serving users search results and including sponsored listings on the same page. These are paid ads and marked as such, no problem.

They also have paid inclusion, which does not guarantee ranking but only inclusion and frequent re-indexing. Also no problem.

But now they are starting site match and this is a problem. Site match is like paid inclusion with a yearly fee, but there is also a fee for every click.

So now you have advertising and free listings all together and no way to tell them apart.

This just confirms my feeling that Yahoo did not purchase Overture. Overture has used some kind of mind control to get Yahoo to pay for Overture to take over Yahoo...!

The Yahoo that we have known and loved for so long is in trouble and many be gone forever.

Thank God we still have Google!

(hris

Note to all you Blog-bell ringers from eMedia, I can tell when you ring the bell from the office, but I can't tell who you are... so drop me a line sometime, ok? Did you realize I was laid off from eMedia a year ago this month...? Yeah, time flies when you're having un-employment.... :-)

(hris

There is a recall Verisign petition available if you would like to request that Versign lose their position in managing the domain registry. You can sign the petition here.

Boycott Verisign

(hris

I just got a news letter that has an article about "The death of AltaVista and AlltheWeb". How depressing. What a waste, in my opinion. To take AltaVista, AlltheWeb, and Inktomi and transform those 3 valuable properties into one Yahoo will not result in a sum that is anywhere near the value of it's parts.

I mean, come on...? You have 4 valuable properties and now you have one? Ok, two. I was not including Overture, since it's not a search engine, it's an ad server. A big ad server, but it's still an ad server.

The image I'm getting, with my limited knowledge of the facts about what is going on, is that Yahoo did not really buy Overture, but what really happend is that Overture got Yahoo to buy them and is now in the process of taking Yahoo over. OYahoo. Yahoo had a much stronger brand since Overture was dumb enough to drop Goto.com as a brand.

I think Google will rise above all this crap and I really hope so.

But I think it's time to consider what I will call "Open Search" for lack of a better name.

Google has many thousands of servers that make it what it is. Why can't we have the same thing made up of many thousands of servers all owned by different people and all contrubuting to and drawing from a huge network store of pure search data?

Why do I have to submit a client's site to a couple hundered search engines and directories over and over and over? Most of them are all different from each other, but are looking for the same basic information about a web resource. And in the same way, why do all of these site owners have to wade through all the submssions and delete countless bad and spam entries over and over.

What if there was a "trusted feed" system where only certain sites could enter site listings and other site owners would know that the listings were accurate and conformed to basic listing standards?

Why does this stuff have to be so complex and difficult?

(hris

SERPs

Basically the idea of the Serps Competition is to achieve the highest position at Google for the keyword Serps. For those of you who are unaware of the meaning of the word serps, it is an acronym for Search Engine Results Page. unfortunately, or some may say fortunately, it is also an acronym for State Earnings Related Pension Scheme.

The competition began on 17th January, and is due to last 3 months, The competitor who has the the higest google position for the keyword Serps with there serps site will be declared the winner. For further information, please follow this link Serps Competition.

(hris

Verisign bites hand that feeds it...

I now feel pretty sure that some type of movement needs to be started to pull the teeth from Verisign once and for all. It does not appear that they are getting their role in the Internet and think they own a bigger piece than they do.

Only by removing what they have been entrusted with and abused will they assume their well-deserved role as a mighty company that flew too close to the source of their power and be made to pay the price of the arrogant.

[Later, that same day...]

On another note, is it a full moon or what!?! Newsletters are full of all kinds of crap right now. Google's IPO is someone's wish to get rich in a nanosecond, the problem is, it ain't gonna happen. As a friend pointed out to me, why would they? They are already raking in huge bucks and don't have to answer to anyone. Google = cool/hip/quality/not MS so why would they give up their spot as #1 and toss something of real value away? Threats from MS and (lol) Yahoo? Not even...! Now Oyahoo has got something called "site match"? [Note to Oyahoo: Most of us call it "paid inclusion".] And now that you are getting out of the free search results business, how about letting me take over that unwanted part of your business? I'll take very good care of in and even give you a link back to your site(s).

The threat to Google would be to go public and have someone move in, or shareholders start running the company. I think those boys are too smart for that... Heck, is there any other search provider that has done as much in bredth, width, and depth as they have? Know another search provider with as much free stuff to offer and a hardware product?

The problem is that few outside the company get Google. [Note to Google: Leave Booble alone - it makes you look petty and stupid...] Proclaiming that Google is going downhill and on the way out are in the same leauge with record companies fighting file-sharing and Verisign trying to own the Internet. It's got to be something in the water....!

(hris
P.S. Yes, I am perfectly aware that this post measures high on the rant meter. So? Just because a post is a rant does not mean it is not accurate or true, or mostly true and only a little confused on the facts, or has one fact right and has jumpted to other conclusions that may or may not be true, but just FEEL very right? If yonder rant offends thee, deletest thou thine bookmark to said rantings and be free of such uncouth opinions and spewings-forth. For is it not written among the mans and HOWTOs....?