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Filed under: Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Japan

Japan’s largest wireless operator, NTT DoCoMo, Inc. (NYSE: DCM), will be joining with the world’s leading world wide web search company to provide advanced services to its customers. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) will help NTT customers find what they want on the internet through a promotional effort that aims to boost mobile search as well as generate revenue with search-related advertising.

In a country where much of the mobile subscriber population regularly accesses the internet through millions of cellphone handsets, this is a significant development. But it’s not just because Google has partnered with a global wireless carrier — it’s because the partnership referred to search-related advertising explicitly.

One area that Google must treat carefully with new wireless partnerships is its capability to monetize its search service within the confines of a smaller screen. The company made its fortune supplying relevant but relatively easy text ads to web surfers, so it already knows how to reach customers successfully in another medium: supply relevancy and quality without taking away from the search experience.

If Google can demonstrate this capability on the mobile phone battlefront with a huge partner like NTT, then the future for its mobile monetization efforts will look very bright. The company will be able to confirm its mission of “organizing the world’s information and mak[ing] it universally accessible and useful” — at the same time that it generates handsome profits.

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lisah writes “Reports are beginning to surface that some Web servers running Linux and Apache are unwittingly infecting thousands of computers, exploiting vulnerabilities in QuickTime, Yahoo! Messenger, and Windows. One way to tell if your machine is infected is if you’re unable to create a directory name beginning with a numeral. Since details are still sketchy, the ideal advice right now is to take proactive steps to secure your servers. ‘We asked the Apache Software Foundation if it had any advice on how to detect the rootkit or sanitize a server when it’s found. According to Mark Cox of the Apache security team, “Whilst details are thin as to how the attackers gained root access to the compromised servers, we currently have no evidence that this is due to an unfixed vulnerability in the Apache HTTP Server.” We sent a similar query to Red Hat, the largest vendor of Linux, but all its security team could tell us was that “At this point in time we have not had access to any affected machines and therefore cannot give guidance on which tools would reliably detect the rootkit.”‘”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Filed under: International markets, Forecasts, Products and services, Management, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, eBay (EBAY), Amazon.com (AMZN), Marketing and advertising

When we took a look at eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY)’s fourth-quarter earnings last night, we also made note that long-time CEO Meg Whitman would be stepping down, to be replaced by John Donahoe. We wondered what changes Mr. Donahoe would be bringing to his new position, and some of those answers have come quicker than we expected, as Donahoe has already announced a few changes that we have the ability to anticipate to see.

One thing consistently on the mind of eBay users is the website’s fee structures. Since last year, users have been openly voicing their disappointment with what they think about to be abnormally high selling fees, and it seems like Donahoe will quickly look to address these concerns.

Donahoe said that within a few weeks, we’ll be seeing a brand new fee structure from eBay. In response to what users are demanding, eBay is planning to lower its upfront listing fees, but at the same time will be raising final selling fees. These final fees are only paid once an item has been successfully sold, and I’m sure that users will not like to hear this too much, but they should be happy to hear that the initial listing fees are going to be reduced.

Another huge change for eBay will be the emphasis the site places on fixed-price items. Historically, eBay has mostly been about one simple thing: user-to-user auctions. Now that the company finds itself in some steep competition with rival Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), the company has decided to put more emphasis on its fixed-price items, bringing a much greater “Amazon-like” experience to eBay.

While the new changes might ring positively for eBay users, it will more than likely lead to lower revenues for the company in the short term. As a result, the company was forced to lower its guidance for the current quarter as well as its full year 2008 outlook, which has resulted in shares falling in today’s session. The stock traded down to a new 52-week low of $25.75 earlier in the session, but has bounced a bit from the lows up to $26.70, which is down 7.6% with about an hour left in the trading session.

Looking down the road, it is anyone’s guess how the new changes will impact eBay’s business. I assume that the lower initial listing fees should result in more listings on the site, but will it be enough to get eBay back to its glory days? Time will tell, and until we get more details on the upcoming fee structure, it’s just way too early to predict what reaction eBay users will have to the new changes.

Other changes that some industry insiders are calling for Donahoe to consider are structural changes to the company. Will Donahoe look at the possibility of selling off Skype? How about the option of spinning of its popular PayPal business into a separate company? Both of these options are choices that Donahoe will undoubtedly be forced to consider once he takes over the reins a few months from now.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the on the web investment advisory service Investor’s Observer

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lisah writes “Reports are beginning to surface that some Web servers running Linux and Apache are unwittingly infecting thousands of personal, exploiting vulnerabilities in QuickTime, Yahoo! Messenger, and Windows. One way to tell if your machine is infected is if you’re unable to create a directory name beginning with a numeral. Since details are still sketchy, the ideal advice right now is to take proactive steps to secure your servers. ‘We asked the Apache Software Foundation if it had any advice on how to detect the rootkit or cleanse a server when it’s found. According to Mark Cox of the Apache security team, “Whilst details are thin as to how the attackers gained root access to the compromised servers, we currently have no evidence that this is due to an unfixed vulnerability in the Apache HTTP Server.” We sent a similar query to Red Hat, the largest vendor of Linux, but all its security team could tell us was that “At this point in time we have not had access to any affected machines and therefore cannot give guidance on which tools would reliably detect the rootkit.”‘”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Darkman, Walkin Dude writes “An world wide web group calling itself Anonymous has declared war on the Church of Scientology, in the form of an ominous posting to the YouTube site. ‘In the statement, the group explained their goal as safeguarding the right to freedom of speech. “A spokesperson said that the group’s goals include bringing an end to the financial exploitation of Church members and protecting the right to free speech, a right which they claim was consistently violated by the Church of Scientology in pursuit of its opponents.” The press release also claimed that the Church of Scientology misused copyright and trademark law in order to remove criticism from websites including Digg and YouTube. The statement goes on to assert that the attacks from the group “will continue until the Church of Scientology reacts, at which point they will change strategy”.’ It should be noted that Slashdot users have had interactions with Scientology in the past as well.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Darkman, Walkin Dude writes “An internet group calling itself Anonymous has declared war on the Church of Scientology, in the form of an ominous posting to the YouTube site. ‘In the statement, the group explained their goal as safeguarding the right to freedom of speech. “A spokesperson stated that the group’s goals include bringing an end to the financial exploitation of Church members and protecting the right to free speech, a right which they claim was consistently violated by the Church of Scientology in pursuit of its opponents.” The press release also claimed that the Church of Scientology misused copyright and trademark law in order to remove criticism from websites including Digg and YouTube. The statement goes on to assert that the attacks from the group “will continue until the Church of Scientology reacts, at which point they’ll change strategy”.’ It should be noted that Slashdot users have had interactions with Scientology in the past as well.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Filed under: Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Japan

Japan’s largest wireless operator, NTT DoCoMo, Inc. (NYSE: DCM), will be joining with the world’s leading internet search company to provide advanced services to its customers. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) will help NTT customers find what they want on the internet through a promotional effort that aims to boost mobile search as well as generate revenue with search-related advertising.

In a country where much of the mobile subscriber population regularly accesses the web through millions of cellphone handsets, this is a significant development. But it’s not just because Google has partnered with a global wireless carrier — it’s because the partnership referred to search-related advertising explicitly.

One area that Google must treat carefully with new wireless partnerships is its ability to monetize its search service within the confines of a smaller screen. The company made its fortune supplying relevant but relatively simple text ads to web surfers, so it already knows how to reach customers successfully in another medium: supply relevancy and quality without taking away from the search experience.

If Google can demonstrate this ability on the mobile phone battlefront with a large partner like NTT, then the future for its mobile monetization efforts will look very bright. The company will be able to confirm its mission of “organizing the world’s information and mak[ing] it universally accessible and useful” — at the same time that it generates handsome profits.

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Filed under: World wide web, Competitive strategy, Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Time Warner (TWX), Next large thing

American Greetings (NYSE: AM) knows how to deal with changing times. After all, the company got its start in 1906.

In fact, the company was an early adopter of dot-com technologies (going back about 13 years), and has bought a variety of digital companies, such as BlueMountain.com.

And yes, American Greetings is also making moves on the social networking front through its popular Kiwee.com destination. In its first six months out of beta, the site has attracted more than 1 million members. A key has been its IM Toolbar, which allows for cool digital icons and expressions for messaging platforms like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX)’s AOL.

However, Kiwee is not a social networking site. “There are already strong players in social networking, such as MySpace and Facebook,” said Rajiv Jain, the SVP and general manager of Kiwee, in an interview with me Wednesday. “Instead, we focus on our core strength, which is creating great content.”

No doubt, the content is pretty cool. Most importantly, there are a variety of tools to grant for customization, letting users easily create unique online personalities.

So far, it seems the formula is getting traction — and shows that old companies can still find ways to innovate.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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bcmbyte writes “IBM in current months has been hit with lawsuits filed on behalf of thousands of U.S. employees who claim the company illegally classified them as exempt from federal and say overtime statutes in order to avoid paying them extra whenever they worked more than 40 hours per week. The good news for those workers is that IBM now plans to allow them so-called “non-exempt” status so they have the ability to collect overtime pay. The bad news: IBM will cut their base salaries by 15% to make up the difference.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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