Filed under: World wide web, Web services

The New York Times has launched a nifty browser for reading old newspapers. Like really old. The company has scanned duplicates of each issue from 1851 through the end of 1922 and put the results on the web as a series of PDF files. That means you can read stories about the Civil War, World War I, and the sinking of the titanic just as they originally appeared a hundred years ago. Except, you know, on a computer screen and not newsprint.

Boing Boing reports there’s also a publicly available API, which means you can create your own browser or other application that’ll pull together old newspaper issues.

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Filed under: Fun, Internet, Productivity, Web services, Google, web 2.0

There’s a new feature in town for Gmail Chat, but it’s actually not all that new. It’s been possible for some time now to go into “invisible” mode via AIM and other chat protocols, but Gmail Chat is finally joining the invisible party.

Going invisible through chat software enables IMers to log into their IM accounts without showing that they’ve logged on. It’s still possible for others to IM you, though it’s unlikely since you wouldn’t be listed as “online”, and you can also IM others.

Invisible mode in Gmail Chat doesn’t yet work with Google Talk, the gadget and desktop app. Currently, it’s only supported via the online Gmail interface, but we’re sure that’ll change soon.

[via Google Operating System]

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Filed under: Press releases, Management, Competitive strategy, eBay (EBAY)

This will be a year of change for eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), no doubt, especially after Meg Witman stepped down to be replaced by John Donahoe, President and CEO-elect. The new Skype CEO will be Josh Silverman, currently CEO of Shopping.com. Silverman will join Skype on March 24, 2008 and report directly to Donahoe.

Succeeding Silverman as Shopping.com CEO is another eBay veteran, Andre Haddad. Haddad joined the company in 2001, when eBay acquired iBazar, a leading European on the web marketplace he co-founded and successfully ran in Paris.

Many World wide web companies have been treading water recently and are ‘searching’ for new growth opportunities. eBay’s stock has been down and stagnant for quite some time. Controversy among the eBay ‘faithful’ about constantly changing fees and procedures has caused an uproar over the last two years.

Clearly, eBay is looking for some fresh blood with a successful track record to move things forward and smooth out the wrinkles. Skype itself has been one of the major wrinkles since eBay overpaid for the free World wide web telephone service two years ago.

According to this press release, Skype has more than 276 million registered users around the world. In Q4 2007, it posted total revenues of $115 million, an increase of 76% over the prior year, while delivering a fourth consecutive quarter of segment profitability. While that is putting things in the ideal light, fact is that even at a 25% profit margin, it would mean Skype is earning less than a 3% return on invested capital. eBay has acknowledged it overpaid for Skype and that the business wasn’t making the expected profits when it took a substantial writedown in 2007.

Currently, eBay’s stock is trading near its 52-week low. The high to low range has been $40.73 to $25.64, and it opened this morning at $27.70.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I own shares of EBAY.

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Filed under: Press releases, Management, Competitive strategy, eBay (EBAY)

This will be a year of change for eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), no doubt, especially after Meg Witman stepped down to be replaced by John Donahoe, President and CEO-elect. The new Skype CEO will be Josh Silverman, currently CEO of Shopping.com. Silverman will join Skype on March 24, 2008 and report directly to Donahoe.

Succeeding Silverman as Shopping.com CEO is another eBay veteran, Andre Haddad. Haddad joined the company in 2001, when eBay acquired iBazar, a leading European online marketplace he co-founded and successfully ran in Paris.

Many Internet companies have been treading water recently and are ‘searching’ for new growth opportunities. eBay’s stock has been down and stagnant for quite some time. Controversy among the eBay ‘faithful’ about constantly changing fees and procedures has caused an uproar over the last two years.

Clearly, eBay is looking for some fresh blood with a successful track record to move things forward and smooth out the wrinkles. Skype itself has been one of the major wrinkles since eBay overpaid for the free Internet telephone service two years ago.

According to this press release, Skype has more than 276 million registered users around the world. In Q4 2007, it posted total revenues of $115 million, an increase of 76% over the prior year, while delivering a fourth consecutive quarter of segment profitability. While that’s putting things in the ideal light, fact is that even at a 25% profit margin, it would mean Skype is earning less than a 3% return on invested capital. eBay has acknowledged it overpaid for Skype and that the business wasn’t making the expected profits when it took a substantial writedown in 2007.

Currently, eBay’s stock is trading near its 52-week low. The high to low range has been $40.73 to $25.64, and it opened this morning at $27.70.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I own shares of EBAY.

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Filed under: Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO)

We know that Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) exec David Drummond has stated that he’s not fond of the proposed acquisition of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) by software giant Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). Drummond indicated that he believes Microsoft could influence the web too much care about it has done in the Personal computer market. What about other Google execs — what do they think?

Google co-founder Sergey Brin took a potshot last week (although indirectly) by saying “The World wide web has evolved from open standards, having a diversity of companies. And when you start to have companies that control the operating system, control the browsers, they really tie up the top Web sites, and can be used to manipulate stuff in various ways. I think that’s unnerving.” There you have it, Microsoft. You may soon be unnerving the world’s largest search company.

This really is not a new argument, but it’s typical of Google, which tends to believe in openness for all World wide web users instead of locked-down and proprietary solutions controlled by choose companies. Although Microsoft has lost court battles claiming it used illegal, monopolistic tactics to build its company in many ways, nothing of the sort has tarnished Google’s doors yet. It simply built the ideal solution possible, and what do you know — customers flocked to it. It’ll be that position that Google takes as it continues planting the seeds of doubt and discontent as the Micro-Hoo situation continues to evolve.

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Filed under: Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO)

We know that Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) exec David Drummond has said that he’s not fond of the proposed acquisition of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) by software giant Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). Drummond indicated that he believes Microsoft could influence the web too much like it has done in the Computer market. What about other Google execs — what do they think?

Google co-founder Sergey Brin took a potshot last week (although indirectly) by saying “The Internet has evolved from open standards, having a diversity of companies. And when you begin to have companies that control the operating system, control the browsers, they really tie up the top Web sites, and can be used to manipulate stuff in various ways. I think that’s unnerving.” There you have it, Microsoft. You may soon be unnerving the world’s largest search company.

This really is not a new argument, but it’s typical of Google, which tends to believe in openness for all Internet users instead of locked-down and proprietary solutions controlled by choose companies. Although Microsoft has lost court battles claiming it used illegal, monopolistic tactics to build its company in many ways, nothing of the sort has tarnished Google’s doors yet. It simply built the best solution possible, and what do you know — customers flocked to it. It’ll be that position that Google takes as it continues planting the seeds of doubt and discontent as the Micro-Hoo situation continues to evolve.

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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, eBay (EBAY), Marketing and advertising

Last week I wrote a couple pieces on the current seller strike over at e-commerce giant eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY). The strike was supposed to last until this day, but now it has been extended another week. Initial data is showing that the current eBay strike has lowered the items listed for sale on the site by an impressive 13%, so you can be sure that eBay is paying attention.

As most of you are already aware, the current strike is the result of frustrations by eBay users over a couple new changes that the site has introduced. While the site lowered its initial listing fees for items, it raised its completion fees. This has been seen by power sellers as a direct attack on the more successful eBay sellers. In addition, eBay has decided to keep sellers from leaving negative feedback on buyers, a move that has infuriated sellers who claim that feedback is their ideal defense in avoiding dead-beat bidders. The final straw came in the decision to hold certain PayPal payments for up to 21 days.

The strike, which started last week, has had a couple of impacts on the e-commerce world. One result that I examined last week, was the increase in traffic and users to some smaller e-commerce sites that historically have had a hard time breaking into some of eBay coveted traffic. Now we’re starting to see just how hard the strike has been hitting eBay itself. According to reports, the site has seen a 13% drop in its auction listings.

Data that has been compiled by medved.net and dealscart.com indicate that there are now “only” 13 million items available on the site. eBay users have started to smell the blood in the water apparently and have decided to extend the current strike in hopes eBay will begin to give in to some of their demands. After what they considered to be an effective first week, sellers are now extending the strike by one more week, stretching it out until March 3.

We had some great reader feedback on our posts last week over the current strike, and it seems like most of our BloggingStocks readers concur that the current changes eBay is imposing are unfair. Several of our readers are avid eBay users, and let us know that they’d indeed joined in the sellers strike and were looking for new alternatives for their on the web auction business. I’m curious to hear if these eBay users will continue to boycott the site for another week, or slowly return to business as usual on the site. Let us know your intentions, and what alternatives to eBay you’ve found (if any).

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

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Trintech writes “A Utah couple acting as their own attorneys have filed a lawsuit against Apple and Starbucks over the retailers’ current Song of the Day promotion, which offers Starbucks customers an iTunes gift card for a complimentary, pre-selected song download. In a seven-page formal complaint, James and Marguerite Driessen of Lindon, Utah state they developed in 2000, and were granted a patent in February 2006 for, an Internet merchandising utility dubbed RPOS (retail point of sale). The concept, which forms the heart of the infringement lawsuit, would grant gift cards for pre-defined items that can be sold at a brick-and-mortar store but used online; customers could redeem a card for a dining room set or a DVD, for example.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Travoltus writes “Privacy suggests are frequently confronted with the rhetorical question, ‘If you don’t have anything to hide, you don’t have a good reason to worry about losing your privacy, right?’ This AP story uncovers a vast, distributed, decentralized epidemic of snooping into databases of personal information by workers at major utilities, the IRS, and other big organizations. In a number of cases these incidents have led to real harm. One striking example involves now ex-Mayor of Milwaukee Marvin Pratt, who had a pattern of being late paying his heating bills. This fact was leaked to the media by a utility worker and might have led to Pratt’s losing a bid for re-election. As one can envision, the harm becomes much greater when this same snooping is done by Government officials to deal with political enemies, or by corporations to uncover whistleblowers.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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