September 8, 1999
Useit.Com: Reputation Managers are Happening.
Epinions and Google join eBay in maintaining independent ratings of the quality of products, websites, and auction sellers, leading to better customer service and helping users make informed buying decisions.
Wired News: EFF: Piracy Not the Problem.
[EFF executive director Tara Lemmey] "How do we lock these rights up? I think the real question is how do we ease the function of payment. People don't normally steal things that are easy to pay for. Combating piracy means making it easier for people to pay."
NY Times: Microsoft to Start Net Hotel-Pricing Service.
One factor, however, that might impede Microsoft is that Priceline has been granted a patent on the central mechanism of its system: the concept of a "conditional purchase offer" in which a consumer is committed to buy something if the seller can meet their specifications.
Computerworld: Q&A: EBay's new CIO.
Maynard Webb. You really need to figure out what the business plan is, do a what-if scenario that is beyond your wildest dreams and build an architecture that lets you scale beyond your wildest estimation. You quickly need to be a world-class organization to handle your technology.
USA Today: Gutenberg project's goal: all books online.
The project hopes eventually to input every book as soon as it falls out of copyright and enters the public domain, making the entire backlog of human written endeavor available.
Red Herring: How Amazon.com kept a top idea guy.
Despite that Amazon.com acquired all of Alexa's stock when it purchased the company, Mr. Kahle says Amazon.com has succeeded in holding on to its golden egg by allowing Alexa to exist as an "independent subsidiary."
ZDNN: How wide is the Web?
A power-law distribution means that the Web doesn’t follow the usual mathematical models of random networks, but instead exhibits the type of physical order found in, say, magnetic fields, galaxies and plant growth.
USA Today: Only 19 degrees of Web separation.
The findings, reported in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, suggest that the Web is so interconnected that any desired information is nearby even though there are 800 million documents available.
ZDNN: Palm creators prep faster, cheaper Visor.
Handspring has developed a number of new touches, such as a new Palm-III like form factor that includes a built in microphone and a slot that can accommodate a range of peripherals, called Springboard modules.
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