Holiday Sales Forecast: E-Commerce Growing Like Gangbusters

Forcaster Comcast expects an 11% increase in e-commerce sales this holiday season. They attribute the increase to an improving economy and the ability for newly thrifty shoppers to compare prices on the Internet. See Holiday Sales Forecast: E-Commerce Growing Like Gangbusters.

Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction

Are computers and cell phones interfering with focusing and learning? Are young students, used to constantly switching between technical distractions, unable to concentrate on school work? The New York Times explores the affect of technology on students. See Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction.

Resisting the Online Tracking Programs

Worried about all those cookies on your computer? Privacy advocates tell us we should be. The NYT reviews some options for more private browsing. See Resisting the Online Tracking Programs.

Facebook Offers New Messaging Tool

Facebook hopes its new Messages tool will transform it from a social networking site to a communications site. Facebook describes it as "a new unified messaging system for Facebook that allows people to communicate with one another on the Web and on mobile phones regardless of whether they are using e-mail, text messages or online chat services." See Facebook Offers New Messaging Tool.

Facebook Offers Local Deals for Mobile Users

Facebook's new location feature, called Places, lets businesses push coupons and deals to mobile users at their location. The feature will alert you when you are near a business with a deal. Once you "check-in" at the location, you show your phone screen to the business to claim your deal. The Places feature is only available on the iPhone app. Facebook Offers Local Deals for Mobile Users.

Learning in Dorm, Because Class Is on the Web

Public universities are offering online courses to their on-campus students as a cost-cutting measure. For example, the University of Florida web-casts an economics course to 1,500 enrolled students. While the college spends less to deliver the course, both students and professors struggle with the results. See Learning in Dorm, Because Class Is on the Web.

Marketers Can Glean Private Data on Facebook

Marketers love that Facebook allows them to specify very narrow groups to receive their ads. Facebook limits the distribution of the ads to users who's personal information fits the marketers criteria. A recent study pointed out that if you click on one of these narrowly targeted ads, you are essentially telling the marketer that you fit the ad criteria, perhaps sharing more private information than you intended to. See Marketers Can Glean Private Data on Facebook.

The Many Faces of You

One of the ongoing issues for social networkers is how to manage the information you share among different groups of friends. This New York Times pieces discusses some of the challenges of the shared online life. See The Many Faces of You.

Google Is Determined to Crack the Social Code

The closed nature of social networks is an ongoing challenge for Google. Google can't provide search results from these pages, and can't offer ads to those searching them. When users ask friends on social networks for shopping advice, Google misses an opportunity to advertise to those users. So far, Google has been unable to compete with Facebook, but expects to introduce some new social networking tools this fall. See Google Is Determined to Crack the Social Code.

How to Be a Millionaire by Age 25

How to Be a Millionaire by Age 25? Looks like the answer is to find the right e-commerce idea. See How to Be a Millionaire by Age 25.

After Building an Audience, Twitter Turns to Ads

Twitter is ready to cash in on its 160 million users with several new advertising tools. With Promoted Accounts, companies can pay Twitter to suggest that Twitter users follow their company. Twitter has added advertising space to some of its popular apps. Twitter plans to offer a service allowing local businesses to buy Twitter ads tied to location. See After Building an Audience, Twitter Turns to Ads.

Facebook Lets Users Interact in Small Groups

Facebook introduced its new Groups feature this week. You can set up a Group and post information only to that group. Facebook users have long complained that they had no way to control which of their Facebook friends saw their posts. You may not want your mother or co-workers to see the same Facebook content your close (real life) friends see. See Facebook Lets Users Interact in Small Groups. If you want more information on how Groups works, see Five questions — and answers — about Facebook Groups.

Shifting Online, Netflix Faces New Competition

While Netflix may have outlasted Blockbuster, it must now compete for online movie viewing customers. Apple, Amazon, and Google are all gearing up to offer viewers streaming movies and television programs. All of these companies will have to negotiate with the studios that produce the content. Once streamed entertainment becomes mainstream, a red envelope in your mailbox will seem as old fashioned as a newspaper left at your door. See Shifting Online, Netflix Faces New Competition.

Why Bricks and Clicks Don’t Always Mix

Blockbuster and Netflix invite interesting comparisons. While Blockbuster is facing bankruptcy and closing stores, Netflix is thriving. Blockbuster struggled with integrating its stores and online presence, while Netflix focused solely on e-tail. See Why Bricks and Clicks Don’t Always Mix.

YouTube Can’t Be Liable on Copyright, Spain Rules

Is YouTube liable for copyright infringement if a TV show clip is posted on the site without the owner's permission? A Spanish court ruled that YouTube does not have to screen the clips before they are posted, as long as they remove them when notified of their presence by the clips owners. An American court has followed the same rule. Other European courts have found YouTube liable on copyright violations, imposing more responsibility on YouTube to police its content. See YouTube Can’t Be Liable on Copyright, Spain Rules.

Search Takes a Social Turn

What book should I read? Is there a good restaurant nearby? Social media users would rather ask their friends for advice than rely on a traditional search engine, and services are coming online to help them do just that. Amazon will display a list of your favorite books to your Facebook friends. Loopt will show you which of your friends liked a particular restaurant. See Search Takes a Social Turn.

University Declares A Week Without Social Media

Harrisburg University is shutting off access on school computers to popular social networking sites for a one week experiment. Students are encouraged to participate in the social media blackout and write a reflective paper on their experience when it is over. See University Declares A Week Without Social Media.

Retargeting Ads Follow Surfers to Other Sites

If you view an item online and then see ads for it later, you may be experienced retargeting or remarketing. A site you visit will put a cookie on your computer showing that you viewed that item. When you leave the site, you may see ads for that same item appear. The ads have been generated using the information in those cookies. Critics say the practice makes them feel as though they are being "watched" while they surf or "stalked" by a product. It is a reminder that information about your surfing practices is stored on your computer and can be exploited by advertisers. See Retargeting Ads Follow Surfers to Other Sites.

How to Build a Better Business Blog

This opinion piece from CRM Buyer offers some useful tips on creating a business blog. Company blogs allow a business to personalize its brand and create trust in a customer. See How to Build a Better Business Blog.

Bonus Points!

Earn five bonus points for a course you are currently enrolled in with me! E-mail me the title of the last posting in this blog by Tuesday, August 31, 2010.

Replacing a Pile of Textbooks With an iPad

Would you prefer your textbooks on paper or on an iPad? An iPad is expensive, but books loaded on an iPad could be interactive (a teacher or a student could highlight a passage and leave a note or questions) or have supplemental graphics. As the author concludes, not matter how many books on your iPad, it will still weigh the same. See Replacing a Pile of Textbooks With an iPad.

Now Playing: Night of the Living Tech

After Wired magazine ran a recent story titled "The Web is Dead," the New York Times responded with this review of the face pace of change "in the Internet-era media and communications environment." Innovation has resulted in "a proliferation of digital media forms and fast-shifting patterns of media consumption." See Now Playing: Night of the Living Tech.

Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime

Our portable technology allows us to fill any spare moments with calls, games, or online tasks. A recent NYT article suggests there is a down-side to all that multi-tasking - one that students should note. Scientists state that "when people keep their brains busy with digital input, they are forfeiting downtime that could allow them to better learn and remember information, or come up with new ideas." See Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime.

Facebook Unveils a Service to Announce Where Users Are

Facebook's new Places feature will let users broadcast their location. As described in a recent NYT article, users can use their smartphones to "check-in" when they get to a location. That update gets sent to friends, and users can see who else has "checked-in" at the location or is close by. Privacy advocates have raised concerns about releasing this kind of information, but the potential for targeting advertising makes it an appealing feature for businesses. See Facebook Unveils a Service to Announce Where Users Are.

Making Lunch a Social Networking Game

How can you make ordering fast food a social networking game? The new restaurant 4Food will allow customers to order a custom burger, name it, and broadcast their creation to friends via social networking sites Twitter and Facebook. Each time someone orders their custom burger, the creator gets a food credit. See Making Lunch a Social Networking Game.

Summer Break

I won't be blogging over summer break. E-Commerce Update will resume in August. Enjoy your summer. - Carolyn

Teaching About Web Includes Troublesome Parts

Two hot topics of concern for educators and parents are "concerns about how their children are acting online toward friends and rivals, and what impression their online profiles might create in the minds of college admissions officers or future employers." A group called Common Sense Media has put together lessons for students on online behavior. The classes are based on “ethical fault lines”: identity (how do you present yourself online?); privacy (the world can see everything you write); ownership (plagiarism, reproducing creative work); credibility (legitimate sources of information); and community (interacting with others)." See Teaching About Web Includes Troublesome Parts.

How Privacy Vanishes Online

How much information about you is floating around online? Social media encourages users to share information about themselves. The pool of personal information revealed in sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr can be assembled with data mining to form a "social signature" - a picture of that person's identity. See How Privacy Vanishes Online.

Adobe CS5 Released

Adobe released the CS5 versions of Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, and other programs on Monday. If you have a spare 61 minutes, you can watch the launch event video here.

Getting Older Without Getting Old

Facebook has attracted over 400 million users. A recent NYT article suggests Facebook will stay popular for some time due in part to the network effect. As we studied in ECM 210, the value of an online network increases as new members join. The size of the Facebook membership attracts new products and services from third party developers, which benefits all members. See Getting Older Without Getting Old.

4 Wiseguys Indicted for Gobbling Up Choice Concert Tix

Another reason all the good seats are gone - Wiseguy Tickets. Charges against the California company allege that the company "controlled thousands of Internet and email addresses, telephone numbers, and credit card accounts to make it appear that thousands of individual consumers were buying seats." Wiseguy was able to defeat the Captcha technology that is supposed to require a human eye to solve it. They resold the tickets at a profit to other ticket resellers. See 4 Wiseguys Indicted for Gobbling Up Choice Concert Tix.

Malicious Software Infects Corporate Computers

It seems like this story, or a variation of this story, appears about once a week A computer security firm has discovered some mal-ware (malicious software) that has infected over 2,500 corporations around the world. As the NYT article explains, "The malicious program, or botnet, can commandeer the operating systems of both residential and corporate computing systems via the Internet. Such botnets are used by computer criminals for a range of illicit activities, including sending e-mail spam, and stealing digital documents and passwords from infected computers. In many cases they install so-called “keystroke loggers” to capture personal information." See Malicious Software Infects Corporate Computers. Then go update your security software!

Critics Say Google Invades Privacy With New Service

Google's new Buzz feature creates an instant social network from users Gmail contacts. Critics complain that not everyone wants their e-mail contacts made public. See Critics Say Google Invades Privacy With New Service.

Google's e-mail gets social in Facebook face-off

Google is going after Facebook with a new Gmail feature called Google Buzz. It looks a lot like Facebook with a little Twitter mixed in. See
Google's e-mail gets social in Facebook face-off.

Hacking for Fun and Profit in China’s Underworld

Who is trying to break into your computer? Apparently Majia and most of his friends. Chinese hackers like Majia are "behind an escalating number of global attacks to steal credit card numbers, commit corporate espionage and even wage online warfare on other nations." See Hacking for Fun and Profit in China’s Underworld.

A Little ‘i’ to Teach About Online Privacy

The online advertising industry has reported that it will encourage its members to adopt a new symbol to appear on ads that are delivered based on personal data. The little blue "i" logo will start showing up on ads this summer. Advertisers are not required to use the logo, but many large online advertisers are expected to comply. See A Little ‘i’ to Teach About Online Privacy.

New York Times to Charge Online Readers at the Door

The New York Times is planning to charge for some of its online content. Will readers pay to read all of the Times online? The Times scrapped a "pay-to-view" plan in 2007 as it cut readership to the point that it hurt advertising revenue. See New York Times to Charge Online Readers at the Door.

If Your Password Is 123456, Just Make It HackMe

Fear over the security of shopping online keeps some customers away from e-commerce stores. A recent New York Times article suggests some shoppers are "leaving the key under the mat" by using passwards that are easy for criminals to guess. See If Your Password Is 123456, Just Make It HackMe.

Burst of Mobile Giving Adds Millions in Relief Funds

Americans are responding to the crises in Haiti by giving money using cellphones and social networking sites. This kind of giving lets people respond easily and quickly to a disaster. See Burst of Mobile Giving Adds Millions in Relief Funds.

Google, Citing Attack, Threatens to Exit China

The big tech store this week is Google's threat to pull out of China over alleged hacking and censorship. Google alleges that sophisticated attacks on the gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists are government sponsored. Google's very public defiance of the Chinese government is unusual for a U. S. company. See Google, Citing Attack, Threatens to Exit China. Many American Internet companies have struggled in China against tough Chinese competition. See China, Where U.S. Internet Companies Often Fail.

Zuckerberg: Facebook Is Helping People Avoid All That Unwanted Privacy

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims Facebook users are less concerned about online privacy than complaints over Facebook's recent privacy changes would suggest. Facebook recently changes its policies and will share more personal information with third-parties developing Facebook applications. Is there a "new social norm" with the rise of social networking? See Zuckerberg: Facebook Is Helping People Avoid All That Unwanted Privacy.