Rock the CashbackMicrosoft's new advertising scheme

If there's one thing that the Microsoft-Yahoo off-again, on-again love affair has laid bare, it's how badly Microsoft blundered its mid-'90s search and advertising advantage. Feeling the need to prove its competence with search, Microsoft tried to convince investors that they can do better, with or without Yahoo, through a big announcement on Wednesday. They unveiled a clever new advertising innovation that, at a minimum, shows they're committed to thinking creatively about monetizing search. Of course, that matters only if the feature actually works.

The new program is called Live Search cashback, and it's built upon a clever business model. (No, the C in cashback is not capitalized. That's how Microsoft is insisting on writing it. Blame e.e. cummings.) Search for a product through LSc to compare prices on any item you can imagine—everything from obscure hiking socks to under-the-radar fiction. On top of a routine price comparison, though, is an extra goodie: cashback savings, usually between 4 percent and 8 percent of the pretax price.

Once you find a price and item to your liking, you click through to the retailer, enter your e-mail address for Microsoft to track your discount earnings, and buy the item from the retailer's Web site. Microsoft then credits your cashback account, and once you accumulate at least $5 of savings, you can cash out. Microsoft says it has partnered with 700 different merchants, all of whom are eager to capitalize on the estimated 68 percent of online

Microsoft's interoperability drive

Microsoft will support open document format next year, In a drive to improve interoperability, Microsoft has said it will offer greater choice and flexibility among its document formats.

The release of Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2, scheduled for the first half of 2009, will expand the list to include support for XML Paper Specification, Portable Document Format and Open Document Format (ODF).

The announcement is in line with the company's principles around interoperability, said Chris Capossela, senior vice president for the Microsoft Business Division.

“We are committed to providing Office users with greater choice among document formats and enhanced interoperability between those formats and the applications that implement them,” he said.

“By increasing the openness of our products and participating actively in the development and maintenance of document format standards, we believe we can help create opportunities for developers and competitors, including members of the open source communities, to innovate and deliver new value for customers.”

However, sceptics are concerned about the extent to which Microsoft will be open about how far its policy of openness will stretch.

Marino Marcich, managing director of the ODF Alliance, said: "The proof will be whether and when Microsoft's promised support for ODF is on par with its support for its own formats. Microsoft has a long history of broken promises, so no one should celebrate this news until we see what is actually done and how quickly it is put in place.

"Governments will be looking for actual results, not promises in press releases."

Radiohead isn't a very popular

So, Radiohead isn't a very popular band, in fact, I bet most people haven't even heard of them. Wait, that's not true at all, Radiohead is HUGE! I love them, you love them, we all love Radiohead. From Pablo Honey to Kid A, they're eclectic crazy, sexy, modern and interesting.

Anyway, now that I got that out, let me tell you about Radiohead's Free Album! Their newest album, "In Rainbows" is available absolutely free on their website. As a downlaod of course, the actual box set will cost you $40. What's so interesting about this, is the recent activity and media surrounding copyright holders, record labels, and our dear old friends (Napster, Limwire, etc.)

Radiohead has slapped them in the face by offering their entire album, as a free download, available on the website In Rainbows

I know, you go to the website and it doesn't look like it's free. But add the album download to your shopping cart, go to check out and be surprised by the witty little form you're asked to fill out.

I'd tell you about it, but I don't want to spoil the fun! btw: click on the question mark link when you're in the shopping cart to get some cute dialogue going :)

Why Myspace is suck

They have a crappy layout and the add placements are obsurd but the real reson MySpace sucks is because of spam.

I've been reading about how they have 200 million members, but I know for a fact that about 20 of those profiles have the same girls picture and now her name is Bob.

It is really, really stupid. Can MySpace do something about this, of course. But they won't until they have to.

MySpace is that girl in school that sleeps with everybody. Easily accessible, everybody likes her but she obviously has no self respect.

MySpace Sucks.

Why Google Page rank Drop Down?

On November 1 (Thursday) very popular websites, including Washington Post, TechCrunch, etc. saw that their Page Rank Drops according to Google. The Google Page Rank is a number scaled from 1-10 that essentially ranks a website importance in the Google Search Engines. But, if you have been following SEO over the years and Google Page Rank you probably already know that the Page Rank system is becoming less and less important. During this recent Page Rank drop, the big sites who saw their rank plummit proved this fact in that their rank did drop, while their traffic stayed the same.

Why Did Google Drop Page Ranks?

Google said that the drop in page ranks was a direct result of websites who use paid linking systems and back links in order to get a better Page Rank effectively getting better search results. Google has adamantly resisted the paid linking system and says that it is unethical according to the search engine's ranking and result system.

On the Other Side...

What if sponsors pay for links, but the links are similar to your website and act as any other advertisement would.
Are we not supposed to put advertisements on our website?
Only Google is allowed to earn a profit from the entire internet?

Brendon Sinclair from SitePoint said it best

"But the fact that Google took action on these sites shouldn't come as a great shock to anyone. The point is this: if your site relies totally on Google for revenue, you're nuts. Google isn't here to help you. What comes first for it is making as much profit as possible"

Buy Printer INK For very Cheep

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If you need inkjet cartridges, no matter what type of printer, copier, multifunction or fax machine you own, you can find it on Inkers.biz. You can also find the latest toner cartridges and multiple generic and cost effective options for purchasing brands that are cheaper and just as good quality.

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