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My 2 featured articles for the week ending Nov. 23, 2007:

Archived blogs for the week of November 26, 2007

1397 - Nov. 29, 2007 - 12.52 PM EST

Telefonica and Vodafone ink deal with ad firm

Wireless carriers Telefonica and Vodafone said they have signed a deal with mobile advertising firm Amobee Media Systems. The two wireless companies say they have made strategic minority investments in Amobee.

Started two years ago, Amobee's mobile advertising solutions support digital ad delivery to all mobile content and communication types.

This includes WAP and mobile Web browsers, mobile games, mobile video and mobile text messaging. Telefonica said it selected Amobee after it tried a large number of other competing mobile advertising platforms.

Russ Shaw, director of innovation at Telefonica said "we have chosen to invest in Amobee because we have concluded that it offers the best solution to ad-fund our growing number of mobile data services."

Shaw added "we also believe that Amobee's carrier-centric model will generate the highest quality mobile advertising inventory, thus ensuring that mobile marketers are given a broad choice of advertising solutions."

Amobee also announced investments made by Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Globespan. Read more...

Posted on Businessblog™

1396 - Nov. 27, 2007 - 5.04 PM EST

One of Canada's largest bank site down

Wow - I've been trying to access my online banking site for more than two hours now and the site is still down! I'm not impressed one bit...

How can you explain that this blog, along with all our other 5 sites are always up and running. Maybe this bank (I won't mention who it is, except to say that it has the name of an important Canadian city in it) should take a serious look at Avantex for their hosting needs.

My 2 cents. I can't believe it. One of Canada's top three banks with a site that's down for more than 2 hours. Sheeshs.... This is totally unacceptable.

Posted on Businessblog™

1395 - Nov. 27, 2007 - 12.09 PM EST

More on Google's book scanning debate

I've written in the past about this (I can't find the link to it) and the topic of Google's book copying project is a very controversial project at best. I still think that we will keep hearing more and more about it, nevertheless...

Paul Courant, the University of Michigan's head librarian recently defended his employer's relationship with Google, saying that "the University and Google are changing the world for the better." Of course, this project is highly controversial and not everyone agrees with it.

With its own and limited resources, the university would probably have a lesser chance of successfully duplicating books on its own. It could also partner with other projects like the OCA (Open Content Alliance) which won't display any snippets from copyrighted works unless the publisher opts in to the program.

Nevertheless, Courant still argues that time is of the essence is this project. Courant goes on to say that Google is the only company who can get the most done in the least amount of time.

Courant then added "we have a whole slew of students who won't find valuable scholarly works unless they can find them electronically. At the slow rate that the OCA is digitizing documents these students will be dandling great-grandchildren on their knees before these great collections can be found anywhere electronically... (!)"

Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor at the University of Virginia said that "Google has no such control. After Google scans a book, they return the book to the library like any other user, and they give us a copy of the digital file. Google is not the only entity controlling access to the collection. The University of Michigan and other partner libraries control access as well, except we don't think of it as controlling access so much as providing it."

Vaidhyanathan added that he is working on a critical book about Google, and he argues that the current book-scanning program is riddled with problems. Public institutions, he argued in a response to Courant, should not be making these sorts of deals with private companies, especially when those companies are as dominant in their fields as Google today is!

Previously, Courant has served as an economics professor at the university, and he says that his economic work on public goods has convinced him just how bad it would be for society if one company ended up with sole control over large swathes of cultural knowledge.

But so far, he doesn't believe that Michigan's partnership with Google Book Search will create such problems. Courant also wonders how the "library copy" retained by the library is not an "audacious infringement" of copyright? It violates both the copyright holder's right to copy and right to distribute.

"Doesn't a university library have an obligation to explain this?" he asks. Courant then tries to do so in a response of his own. He takes special aim at this last criticism about copyright, one that has been repeatedly leveled at Google as well.

Overall, The University of Michigan uses the scanned files in its own system, allowing patrons to search through books and various documents for keywords and to view complete pages of works no longer covered by copyright. But Michigan, like Google, does claim to respect copyright by not showing more than tiny snippets from copyrighted texts. Read more...

Posted on Businessblog™

1394 - Nov. 26, 2007 - 5.28 PM EST

Will Google acquire Skype?

A rumor that Google might possibly acquire Skype has now started and that rumor has taken on a life of its own at some Wall Street investment firms.

Of course there is no solid basis for any such speculation. However, it persists because there are a few logical explanations for the two companies to establish some form of synergy.

Guardian blogger Jemima Kiss writes "currently in favor around London's Internet community is the rumor that Google has been in negotiations to acquire Skype for some time. The search giant bases all of its mobile projects in London, so this would of course be the fitting place for such a rumor to begin."

Overall, a Google-Skype merger would make sense on some levels because the two companies have teamed up on some major issues.

For example, the two companies partnered with some other Internet companies in making a $21.7 million investment in Fon, a Spanish firm that promotes the spread of its Wi-Fi "foneros" (Internet users who share Wi-Fi access points with each other).

Also, the two companies' philosophies are pretty much aligned in the upcoming 700 MHz FCC wireless auction. Both companies fully support the "open" measures inherent in the FCC auction and are happy to abide by the rules. Read more...

Posted on Businessblog™

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