Rise in profits announced by eBay
Internet auction site eBay has announced a 10% rise in its third-quarter profits, posting a 31% increase in sales, to $1.4 billion (£748.9m) in the three months up to September. The company's net income was $281 billion.
The profits rise was driven by a growth in its auctions; its payment service PayPal increased revenue by 41% over last year’s third quarter results.
Google launches new AdWords testing tool
Google AdWords has released a new website optimiser tool for advertisers to test their landing pages, allowing them to choose the best options for their advertising campaigns.
Google announced the new service at the Emetrics Summit in Washington DC yesterday, and it will initially be available for testing to a limited number of advertisers.
Apple to release two iPod phones?
According to Apple Insider, two new iPod–based mobile phones could be released within the next few months, initially in small quantities to test the waters.
Apple appeared to confirm such rumours last month, when they registered the trademark for the name ‘iPhone’ in the US, after months of speculation about the product.
Universal sues video sharing sites over copyright infringement
The predicted backlash against the infringement of copyright by video sharing sites has begun, with Universal Music launching legal action in the US against both Grouper.com and Bolt.com.
Universal, whose artists include U2 and Mariah Carey, is seeking compensation of up to $150,000 for each incident of copyright infringement, as well as demanding that the sites cease using their content.
Google eats up 25% of US internet ad revenue
Google’s advertising revenue is predicted to rise dramatically this year in the US, outstripping its nearest rival Yahoo by some distance. Google is expected to account for a quarter of US online ad revenue for the first time this year.
The search engine behemoth is projected to take home $4 billion of the expected $16 billion US online advertising market, according to predictions from eMarketer, an online marketing research company.
Customers unhappy with broadband customer service
A new survey has shown that consumers are generally happy with the quality of home internet services, but also revealed a high level of dissatisfaction over customer service.
In Point Topic’s latest Broadband Consumer Survey, 91% of broadband customers said they were happy with the quality and reliability of their internet service, and 82% are satisfied with download times.
Carphone Warehouse to auction mobile phones
Carphone Warehouse has launched a new auction website dedicated to the sale of mobile phones and accessories in an attempt to compete with eBay in this space.
The site, mymobileauction.com, offers buyers the chance to search and bid for mobiles as they would on eBay, and allows those looking for a mobile to narrow down their search.
New camera can upload to Google Video in seconds
Pure Digital Technologies has introduced a new, pocket sized camcorder which will allow videos to be uploaded to sites such as Google Video (but not YouTube, for some reason) within seconds.
The Pure Digital Point & Shoot Camcorder is currently available in the US for $129.99 (around £70) and features 30 minutes of storage capacity, with a 60 minute version also available.
The Sun outstrips rivals via paid search marketing
Heather Hopkins from Hitwise has some interesting statistics about The Sun’s success this month in driving traffic to its site through paid search marketing. The tabloid outstripped its online media rivals in this area by some distance.
Heather reveals that The Sun received 20% of its traffic from paid search, whereas other news and media sites achieved no more than 3% of traffic in the last month by the same method.
iPod killers for Christmas 2006?
Richard Menta at mp3newswire has been reviewing potential ‘iPod killers’ since 2004 and he rounds up the potential challengers for Apple’s crown in the run up to the Christmas shopping season.
Of the 149 portable MP3 players he has reported on in the past two years, not one has yet managed to dent the popularity of Apple’s device, which has become a generic name for the MP3 player.
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Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
