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Internet Marketing - Breaking News!

Paid search dominates as UK online ad spend nears £1bn

Source: Netimperative

Web 2.0 and real e-Media marketing

This week was a busy one in the burgeoning world of the Internet. Google reported massive growth in profits, Microsoft delayed further Vista and the merger and acquisition arena in B2B and e-commerce gathered pace too. What's more, the unrelenting advance of online marketing and e-business kicked into new territory for some old school content providers. The Who announces their first tour in over two decades and the whole virtual box-office world online goes ballistic. Sure, online ticket sales, marketing and merchandising is not entirely new and has been around doing good business since Web 1.0.

But what is new about media marketing, notably in music and the MySpace phenomenon, Web 2.0 is seeing a better mix of carrot-coaxing of fresh content by talent producers, harnessed to a virtual box office e-business. The Who, for example, are packaging e-tail content of previously unreleased live footage accessible only to those buying online. Similarly, other artists, even going back some years such as Bowie and others, have been marketing their digital assets exclusively online, bypassing completely the historic, physical distribution and retail outlet networks of yesteryear. However, it doesn't necessarily work for everyone, it's no silver bullet for real quality wares and true, timeless talent.

But as for B2B, the jury is still out insofar as e-commerce and virtual niche marketing goes, though the underlying technologies for e-business and commerce are pretty much as sophisticated and secure as could reasonably be expected to be at this juncture of Internet Time during Web 2.0.

Source: Paul Quigley - Editor- Internet World [article shortened]

Yahoo Has Decided to NOT sell itself to Microsoft

Over the past two weeks, there have been rumblings of a potential merger or outright acquisition involving the two tech giants. In an interview with the Financial Times, "Yahoo rebuffs Microsoft offer", Yahoo CEO Terry Semel confirmed rumors regarding discussions between the two firms but stated unequivocally that Yahoo is not for sale.

Microsoft and Yahoo had been in discussions for some time as part of a general exploration of plans to cope with Google's dominance of the search business. From the tone of Semel's comments, those talks did not lead to any deepening of relationships between Yahoo and Microsoft.

In fact, relationships between the two firms appear to be strained. Semel spoke specifically about Yahoo's wish to continue serving paid advertising results via Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM) to MSN search. Microsoft decided to allow that deal to expire in order to replace YSM with paid ads generated through its new internal paid advertising program AdCenter.

Microsoft was interested in buying a stake in Yahoo search however Semel says he was not willing to sell a portion of the company.

Will your funds be sufficient for retirement?

The vast majority of people in this country do not have enough pension provision to fund the sort of lifestyle they would wish to lead in retirement, according to a paper published last week by the Institute of Directors (IoD), UK.

The paper, called ‘Crisis? What crisis? Pension policy in the UK’ forms the basis of the business organisation’s responses to the Government’s consultations on pension provision. Ruth Lea, Head of the Policy Unit at the IoD, said:

“There is no doubt about it, there is a ‘pensions crisis’ in this country in the sense that the vast majority of people do not have enough pension provision to fund the sort of lifestyle they would wish to lead in retirement.” “We doubt that the Government appreciates the scale of the problem. We doubt if they recognize that there is indeed a ‘pensions crisis’.”

There are three main reasons for this:

The IoD said that there is no one solution to this crisis but it is vital that ‘under-pensioned’ people realize that they must increase their pension saving if they are to have a decent pension. It is crucial that the current government helps them by reversing the disincentive effects of the MIG and offering more incentives to encourage them to save. The removal of the tax credit on dividend payments should also be reversed, when affordable.

Ruth Lea added, “We broadly welcomed the measures in both the Department for Work and Pension’s Green Paper on pensions and the Inland Revenue’s consultation document on the taxation of pensions, though we had some serious reservations about, for example, the proposed contribution limits. But these consultations are barely scratching the surface of the pension problem. In particular, they do nothing to improve incentives to save in pension schemes for employers and/or employees and they do little to remove the existing disincentives to save.”

Donating to the Red Cross for Areas Impacted by Hurricane Katrina

Wednesday, August 31, 2005 — When a disaster of the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina strikes and the news broadcasts images of broken, battered and destroyed homes, it is natural for the public to be eager to help their neighbors – whether they’re across town or across the country. Often, seeing that they have lost everything, people are eager to donate food, clothing or other goods to meet the needs of storm victims and help the affected families begin to replace what they have lost. read more ...

Donate Now by clicking here!

The "In Case Of Emergency (ICE)" Campaign

The London Ambulance Service, particularly following the tragedy of the incidents of the 7th of July 2005, as well as many other services nationwide, is promoting the "In Case Of Emergency (ICE)" Campaign. The idea is that you store the word " I C E " in your mobile phone address book, and against it enter the telephone number of the person you would want to be contacted "In Case of Emergency". In an emergency situation ambulance and hospital staff will then be able to quickly find out who your next of kin are and be able to contact them. It's so simple that everyone can do it. For more than one contact name ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc.

For more information go to: www.icecontact.com or: www.cnhw.co.uk/ice.cfm

London Bombings

7-Jul-2005 - The Anti-Terrorism Hotline - 0800 789 321

The Metropolitan Police Casualty Bureau is open and operating on 0870 1566344.
Message from the MET: "If you are concerned about relatives or friends who may have been affected by today’s incidents in London, please try and contact them directly before you call this number. If you are unsuccessful and still have concerns that your friends or relatives may have been injured in the events, contact Casualty Bureau on 0870 1566344. The Metropolitan Police would also like to hear from people who were injured or involved in the events so that we know they are safe.

We are experiencing a very high volume of calls to this line – at present we are receiving 42,000 calls per hour. We would therefore urge anyone calling it to please be patient whilst we continue answering as many calls as possible. The Casualty Bureau number should be used for this purpose only and NOT for general enquiries.

Anyone with enquiries about travel information should contact Transport for London on 020 7222 1234".

London Bombings Relief Fund

To donate telephone: +44 (0)8705 125 125

For online donations click here: London Relief

Or post your gift to: LBRF c/o Mayor of London,

FREEPOST LON18968, Sheffield S98 1ZA

Message from AMI Ltd: We personally would like to express our condolences to the people hurt in yesterday’s incidents in London and wish them and their relatives all the strength to go through this. Living in a city with all colors and religions, we stand firm with our Muslim friends living in the UK, and can only encourage them to express their opinions, condemning terror attacks on innocent people, in public and in private, since we believe any change to the better most likely comes from within. KGO

London to host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games!

6-Jul-2005

We would like to congratulate the bid chairman Lord Coe, Keith Mills and the whole London 2012 bid team to bring the Olympic Games 2012 to London! Thank you for your outstanding efforts and humble professionalism to make this dream come true.

We share your vision for London, Britain and the youth of the world to make the games a sporting event that will encourage children, teenagers and adults to make sports a central part of their life, to compete in fairness and to win without forgetting those who just lost.

We as AMI LTD would like to offer our support and enthusiasm to contribute our part to make the Olympic Games 2012 in our home town an inspiring event for millions of young people around the world.

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