EBay.com, a highly popular and huge online auction and shopping website filed a lawsuit against Craigslist, one of the top advertising companies featuring free ads for everything from jobs to services and products to personals, for a network of online communities.

You might wonder how both these popular giants are connected. EBay had acquired 28.4% interest in Craigslist in 2004, making it a minority share holder in Craigslist.

Things do not seem to be fine on the home front. On Tuesday, a lawsuit was filed by eBay against Craigslist, with the Delaware Court of Chancery, in the State of Delaware, which is a forum that resolves disputes between companies registered in Delaware.

According to eBay, the reason behind them filing the lawsuit is that two directors of Craigslist, Craig Newmark and their chief executive, Jim Buckmaster, have unfairly entered into transactions that have diluted eBay’s economic interest in the company by more than 10 percent. EBay alleged that both the directors have breached their fiduciary duties.

EBay is keeping silent on further details about the nature of the transactions entered into by the directors of Craigslist. The reason for the silence is said to be the confidentiality requirement of some of the information given about Craigslist in the complaint, which is filed under seal. Read the rest of this entry »

Let us talk about Google first, the more popular of the two. Google is a major search engine that is well-known and well-used in many countries around the world. It provides the world’s largest and most scalable platform for huge web based applications.

While Google has always been known for its superior search engine performance, Baidu is a Chinese search engine that seems to be winning against Google, in the search engine war in China. Alexa ranking shows Baidu as the fifth most popular site in terms of visitors.

Research shows that Baidu commands approximately 60% of the Chinese search engine market, while Google is said to command about 25%. China is the world’s 2nd largest search engine markets with 150 million users, with potential of increasing tremendously in the future.

People in China find Baidu better and according to them, it produces better search performance. Their strong preference for their native search engine is revealed through their advertising, which calls Google, the “clueless foreigner.”

Analysts feel that this could just be the spurious opinion of the loyal Chinese citizen. This fact is reiterated by some people who admitted to using it because it is Chinese. Studies and comparisons reveal that Google is a more superior and powerful search engine. Google presents a better experience for the user. Read the rest of this entry »

In the good old days, there were albums, where pictures needed to be printed and stuck in. We progressed to posting pictures on the web, which also had to be done in groups into an online album. Flickr changed all that with the concept of digital photography, and alleviated the need for processing of rolls of film or grouping of pictures to go into an album.

Flickr, which was founded in 2002 by Ludicorp, is a digital image and video hosting website, providing a suite of web services with an online community platform. It is one of the most innovative photo sharing sites available currently and few other sites have had this impact on digital photo sharing as Flickr did.

Flickr until now provided users the facility of sharing personal photographs online, which can also be tagged and browsed. It has come to be a very popular website, also used by bloggers as a photo repository.

It has been a great hit with Mac users and Linux users, who have always been given a raw deal by other photo sharing sites that provide access to only Windows and Internet Explorer users. Read the rest of this entry »

Social networking is the talk of the day. We see it being mentioned with every strike of the key. Social networking websites connect people with others who share similar interests. People can have their profiles online and share media files such as videos, photos as well as music with friends.

The idea behind the social networks is that they operate on many levels, right from the family level up to the level of the nations. They have come to play a very important role in determining how problems are solved, how organizations are run, and the efficiency with which individuals succeed in achieving their goals.

Previously, there were bulletin board systems to communicate with people and network with them. This changed and gave way to a more open and personalized system, where it is possible to connect with each other visually and in the most appealing manner.

You would have heard of MySpace and Facebook, which are the top two social networking sites today. Both are innovative in their own way. MySpace is extremely popular and it allows users to customize their pages, share videos with friends as well as embed music. Facebook took the internet by storm when it went a step ahead and allowed people to create widgets for the site. These top social networking sites make people feel at home and this is what makes everyone from young to old feel comfortable about using these sites extensively. It is interesting to note that MySpace founder, Tom Anderson ensures that his friendly presence is felt among the registered users and welcomes each new member of the site by making them his “friend.” Read the rest of this entry »

A sign board says, “Caution: Heavy traffic ahead.” You do not have to travel anywhere to see this. It is right here on the internet. We are talking about “internet” traffic.

Look at the amount of data being processed online day-in and day-out. Researchers say there is increasing fear about the threat that video clips, games, movies and social networks pose to the internet. It is all very well to talk about the benefits of online communication and the immense entertainment internet provides millions of people worldwide but what about the damage being done.

The real problem lies with the bandwidth-sucking content, such as video images on the net. These high definition movies require a huge amount of bandwidth. One minute of video requires around 2MB of web hosting space, and this is with medium resolution. If this video is offered in different formats, the space needed will be around 20MB. For a 20 minute video provided in all formats, it could easily consume 400MB of space. The video monster is a hungry creature that hogs bandwidth. Read the rest of this entry »

In marketing there is no substitute for effective, targeted advertising. For example, if you want to sell beach towels, you need to go where there is a need and desire for those towels. You won’t find beach towel retailers lined up anywhere but along coastal communities and resorts. Likewise if you want to sell your beach towels online, you need to display your advertising where beach towel consumers can find it. And that is where Google AdWords comes in.

There are more than a few ways to find highly targeted advertising online. Continuing the example of beach towels, you can start your own beach towel website and perform enough SEO that you’re ranking highly in the search engines. This generates natural traffic from effective marketing, but can take time.

In your search for other customers, you can create banners and other advertisements for use on other websites. These banners might be used by affiliates marketing your products and bringing you their beach towel customers for a percentage of the final sale. You might also use the banners and advertisements on other beach product websites. You might find another website selling sand toys or swimsuits and buy some ad space for your beach towel website. Read the rest of this entry »

For a long time, there was great speculation about formal advertising on the mobile web, but now advertising over mobile phones and devices is not only common, but also has guidelines set in place by the Mobile Marketing Association. The initial guidelines were released by the MMA in 2005 and the latest release in December 2007 marks an increased interest in mobile advertising that will only continue to grow as the world of handhelds expands.

A Growing Trend
Mobile handheld technology is a growing trend all over the world, but especially in well industrialized countries. In North America, 10% of mobile users use the phones for gaming, browsing and sending messages. Most users are between the ages of 25 and 34 and have plenty of disposable income. In Europe, the number of users is considerably higher making mobile web advertising a very lucrative and growing field for marketers.

Buying Time Online
Buying ads on the mobile web is a bit different than buying ads online. You’ll still need to create a graphic banner ad, but the size of the mobile screen must be taken into consideration. The ads are sold through mobile ad networks or directly from the mobile internet websites. Rates for placing ads on the mobile web fluctuate greatly but will continue to rise steadily due to ever increasing numbers of users on the mobile web. Read the rest of this entry »

The value of content is virtually undisputed, and the trend of including a blog with your website is still going strong. The only problem is, with all the blogs out there, how do make yours stand out? And even if you have terrific content, does it matter if you don’t have traffic to read it. Make this the year that you focus energy on bringing yourself more blog traffic.

Find an Angle
If you’re writing the same kind of content that everyone else it, often using the same spammy keywords as everyone else, you’re not offering much to readers. Readers want something unusual and interesting from your blog. If you’re in the business of making money online, use the blog to get personal. Tell stories – both good and bad. Make lists of tips and include your own successes and failures from those tips. Leave generic articles and randomly pulled news releases for the competition. Besides, with your new edge, you won’t have to consider them competition for long.

Be a Blogger
If you’re writing on a blog (or paying someone to write a blog) you need to do more than throw up a post or two a week. If you’re going to blog – blog. Throw your heart into your content and then get out into the community to talk it up with other bloggers. Bloggers aren’t meant to live in isolation. Your blog is designed to be shared – it is written for a community, so you need to be in the community networking and getting to know others who also tool around in the industry. They may be your competition or they may become your partner in your next JV. You’ll never know who’s out there until you start socializing. Read the rest of this entry »

For many internet marketers, AdSense is king of revenues. From small webmasters bringing in a few bucks a day to industry giants earning six figures a month with Google AdSense, the targeted advertising program is a standard addition to almost any website. Of course, ads on your site aren’t the only way to make money with a program like AdSense – many webmasters make money through the referral program offered by Google. Or, at least they used to make money that way – now they make not make anything at all.

Changes in AdSense Referrals
In the past, the referral system was set up so that you earned money after a certain time period for anything made by your referrals. If they earned $2, you earned $2. If you referred someone and they made more than $100, you earned a lump sum of $250. If you really did your marketing and referred twenty-five people who make $100 in 180 days, you earned a bonus of $2000. There was some serious money to be made through referrals, but those days are over now. Read the rest of this entry »

The holidays may or may not be important to you, but they can certainly be important in internet marketing. Black Friday and Cyber Monday aside, are you taking advantage of the holiday shopping, while at the same time ensuring your websites and businesses are optimized for the New Year?

More Shopping
Based on estimates from the first few days of the season and the entire year, holiday shoppers are expected to spend 21% more between Thanksgiving and Christmas. There is an extra week of shopping due to the positioning of Thanksgiving this year, but that increase also reflects higher incomes, more enthusiasm, and better response to marketing. The money will be spent both off and online.

Online Shopping and Increased Traffic
11% of shoppers will be doing more than 75% of their shopping online this year. Many more will be doing up to half of their shopping online. 72 million Americans are taking to the internet in search of holiday gifts. This is an increase from 60.7 million surfers in 2007. This traffic may be searching out holiday gifts, but all facets of the internet can benefit.

This shopping traffic means something to everyone in internet marketing – not just those with ecommerce sites. The sheer numbers of people online will have an impact on the whole of the internet. Directories, advertisements, ezines, newsletters and more all have meaning and impact with shoppers, especially women who will search for better deals and try and find related items.

Take Advantage of the Season
If you run any sort of online business, this increased traffic and increased spending can make a difference. Want to take advantage of the season? Here are a few suggestions: Read the rest of this entry »