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Analyst: internet to be dominated by Google and Amazon Google and Amazon are two big giants on the web. However, they are not alone and a lot of companies are currently dominating the web in one way or the other. Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay has however other ideas about the future. In his report named “U.S. Internet: The End of the Beginning”, he says that the future on the internet would largely be dominated by Google and Amazon. He states in the report: “We expect two players to continue to perform strongly, Google and Amazon. Both Google and Amazon.com are still racking up annual growth rates in the 30-40 percent range, with only a relatively modest slowdown in sight.” He further predicts that Yahoo would end up getting acquired by Microsoft. The other popular search engine company IAC is already headed for a split. About eBay, he says that the company could possibly maintain its position in the market but they would have to focus on their core business.

BERLIN: Last Christmas, the BBC started an online service called iPlayer that streams live television programs and a backlog of shows from the previous week to online audiences. Through April, Britons had watched 75 million episodes of programs like "Doctor Who" and "The Apprentice." While a boon for the broadcaster, the service has burdened some British broadband operators, who say their networks have had to carry sharp increases in BBC video traffic. A few have even called on the BBC to share the cost of transmitting the video. "What we are asking for is not unreasonable," said Jody Haskayne, a spokeswoman for Tiscali UK, a broadband operator with 1.9 million customers. Noting that the BBC pays to have its programs delivered over the air and on cable, she said, "there is a precedent for payment." The BBC has balked at paying broadband operators. But the debate over the iPlayer reflects a broader change in the relationship between Internet operators and content providers, a bond that has nurtured the growth of the Internet over the past 20 years. Facing a surge in traffic, many European Internet providers are building faster networks. But rising traffic from video-driven Web services like iPlayer and YouTube, as well as Internet gaming sites and social networks, threatens to outpace the capacity of even these faster networks, industry experts said. "There is an economic tension building," said Pat Dolan, general manager in Europe at Tellabs, a U.S. maker of networking equipment. "If you look at the demands on network operators, the question becomes: How can they continue to make money when out of nowhere comes this huge volume of video that wasn't there before?" Amid the growth, some network operators have begun restricting high-volume broadband users during peak times, an issue that has become sensitive because some advocates of an unfettered Internet say any effort to limit traffic is tantamount to censorship. The critics of limits, who include free speech advocates, peer-to-peer file sharers and major content providers whose services depend on the Internet for distribution, argue in favor of "network neutrality" - the idea that every bit of data should be given equal priority, whether it is part of a simple e-mail message or a cumbersome video file. Equal access for all, supporters say, is good for innovation, allowing start-up companies to flourish on the Internet. But network operators argue that as users of large amounts of bandwidth earn ever more revenue on the Web, they no longer should be given a free ride. Otherwise, they say, telecommunications companies will be unable to build the new, faster networks needed to facilitate the start-ups of the future. The principle could get its first legal test this month in the United States should the Federal Communications Commission rule on whether to rebuke Comcast, a broadband and cable operator, for limiting some peer-to-peer file sharing during peak hours. Comcast has argued that it has the right to manage its growing network demands. The debate in Europe has centered less on free speech issues and more on whether telecommunications operators should have the right to access the new broadband networks of their competitors, a right they do not now have. Under legislation drafted by Erika Mann, a Social Democratic member of the European Parliament from Hannover, Germany, operators would be given so-called interconnection rights in exchange for either shouldering a portion of the cost of investing in a new network or by paying a user fee based on their traffic. The Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy is scheduled to consider the bill in July. "We are trying to strike a balance," Mann said. "We want to make sure that the Internet remains interconnected and operators have an incentive to invest and build these new networks." European regulators so far have not intervened. In Britain, the media regulator Ofcom has studied the effect of the iPlayer on broadband operators but has announced no plans for regulation. In Brussels, the European commissioner responsible for Internet issues, Viviane Reding, said in April that traffic prioritization by broadband operators was legitimate, but she wanted to give European Union regulators the option of setting minimum quality thresholds for consumers, to ensure that their service was not slowed down too much. Consumers occasionally notice the limits placed on high-volume broadband users, when streaming videos slow into a series of halting still photos. At Tiscali, Haskayne said, low-volume users can still scroll the Internet or check e-mail during peak hours because high-volume users are temporarily given lower priority. The practice, said Dan Cole, the director of product marketing at Thus, a company that operates the Demon broadband network in Glasgow, is called traffic shaping. "Everybody manages their traffic to a certain degree," Cole said. "Every ISP is going to have traffic shaping. How much do you do that? How much do you tell your customers? How noticeable is it? Those are the big questions. Some things will slow down occasionally. But the end user still gets a decent experience." Operators generally do not like to discuss their traffic management practices, fearing that they will scare away customers, said Robinson of Velocix, adding "I think it is the big elephant in the room." Marvin Ammori, the chief legal counsel at Free Press, one of the two nonprofit groups that have filed complaints with the U.S. communications agency about Comcast's network management practices, said the regulator needed to draw a line on what level of traffic management was acceptable. Suranga Chandratillake, the chief executive of Blinkx, a video Internet search engine in San Francisco, said he did not think that the agency would intervene. "Their deliberations have been open-ended," Chandratillake said. "So far, the FCC commissioners have shown a healthy respect for letting market forces sort this out." Bills now before committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate would direct the agency to study broadband operators' traffic management practices and determine whether new rules are needed to guarantee the openness of the Internet. Proposed legislation in the Senate seeks to forbid operators to manage traffic by arbitrarily selecting individual applications, users or content services. To try to accommodate more video and other bandwidth-heavy content, telecommunications companies are spending billions of dollars to upgrade their networks. Deutsche Telekom and France Télécom, as well as some of their local competitors, already offer speeds of up to 16 megabits a second, eight times the speed of many residential services. BT, formerly British Telecom, began selling other broadband providers access to a new network in April that operates at speeds of up to 24 megabits a second. Cable operators like Virgin Media in Britain are also speeding up their networks. But Internet traffic is projected to jump, said Phill Robinson, chief executive of Velocix, an operator of a so-called content delivery network, a dedicated Internet fast lane of sorts that helps content providers like the BBC distribute their video over the Internet. And so too would the downloading of rich content. "Watching one DVD over a broadband connection is like downloading 1,000 MP3 music files or viewing 100,000 Web pages," said Robinson, who is based in Cambridge, England. The most likely outcome of the capacity crunch, said Suraj Shetty, vice president of the worldwide service providers group at Cisco, is that consumers will have to pay more to ensure faster speeds and guaranteed access. Broadband providers now typically sell packages with speeds "up to" a certain rate, but the actual speed is often lower. "The debate about network neutrality is an ongoing debate," Shetty said. "There will be a way found over the next few years that decides whether the consumer or the content provider pays for these increases in traffic. But in the end, I think it will be more the consumer who ends up paying." By Kevin J. O'Brien International Herald Tribune

Webmasters need to avoid making these common web design mistakes. Website visitors who have a pleasant experience on a website are more likely to trust the website, and as such they are more likely to purchase products from that website. Use the following guide to avoid some of the more common web design mistakes... 1. Legibility Use standard web fonts and normal font sizes. The font color should be dark enough that the reader does not need to strain to read the text, and not so large that it screams at the reader. Bold text should only be used for emphasis and headings. 2. Graphics Optimize website graphics so they are not slow to load. Avoid using animated graphics that will distract or annoy website visitors. Graphics should be clean and not pixelated. 3. Links Links should be easily distinguished from other text on the website. And all links should be tested to ensure they function properly. 4. URLs When selecting a domain name, choose carefully! A number of factors should be considered, not the least of which is how the domain will "read". Examples: www.expertsexchange.com could be a valid website for "Experts Exchange", but the domain name itself could also be read as "Expert Sex Change" www.penisland.com could be a valid website for "Pen Island", but the domain name itself could also be read as "Penis Land" 5. Features Benefits sell; Features do not. Drop any "technical" lingo, and simply tell users how they will benefit from using your product or service! I can not say it any more plain than that. You should use web copy that explains how your product or service helps, and in very simple terms. 6. Copy Do not over optimize web copy. Copy should be written for people and website visitors, and not for search engines. Keywords and keyword phrases should be used naturally in your web copy, and it goes without saying that the web copy should make sense. 7. Novelty Items Background graphics, and animations such as animated mailboxes with a red flag that pops up, are a thing of the past. Times have changed, and the Internet fads of the 1990s are no longer in. Just because you may like to reminisce about yesteryear does not mean that your website visitors will -- they're far more interested in the actual reason your site exists or the products it supports. 8. Browser Compatibility Test your website with all of the popular web browsers. Be sure that your website displays properly, regardless of which browser your visitor might be using. If not, you could be losing potential customers without even knowing it. 9. Global The Internet is global; do not minimize your audience by thinking locally. Use country and area codes on telephone number listings, provide currency indicators when listing pricing, and offer ecommerce options that appeal to a wider audience. 10. Retain Control Never give up control over the content served on your websites. Lots of webmasters will simply link to images or content served from other websites, in an attempt to save on bandwidth and content development costs. But serving content from someone else's system gives them control over your website. This can be a big mistake! For example, what if you are pulling a graphic from another website, and they suddenly decide to change that image to something inappropriate? By serving the contents of others, you are relinquishing control over an important aspect of your business. Keep in mind that style isn't everything. Do not sacrifice SEO for style, and do not sacrifice style for SEO. There is no reason they cannot coexist. A web designer not familiar with SEO should not be doing web design. Fancy graphics and SEO can live in harmony. Avoid the above mistakes and you will be well on your way to a professional successful online presence. By Sharon Housley

The world is full of advice on how to do research. There's general advice that applies to research of any kind. There's particular advice for particular fields. There's advice that applies to archival research and advice that applies to field research. There's advice for novices and advice for graduate students. But how about bloggers doing research on the web? Here are five pieces of advice for them. Enjoy. If you use Google (and who doesn't?) don't use the default page. Use the Advanced Search page instead:http://www.google.com/advanced_search Sure, the Advanced Search page is sort of a crutch for people who haven't memorized Google's set of Boolean operators. But that's most of us, right? And since any advanced search you use is better than any advanced search you don't, you're better off with the crutch than with nothing. So bookmark the Advanced Search page and use it. While you're at it, you should also free yourself from the tyranny of getting only ten results per page. The best hits aren't always in the top ten, and you're more likely to see them if you just have to scroll down a single page rather than going back and forth between different result pages. So go to http://www.google.com/preferences and set your default to 50 results per page. Whenever you read something by someone you don't know, Google 'em. Find out what axe they have to grind. Are they liberal or conservative? Do they work for a think tank? Do they have a history of being obsessed by weird stuff? What expertise do they have? The web allows you to root out this stuff in less than a minute or two for most people. Take advantage of it. If you're writing about a specific topic that you're not that familiar with, take a minute and find an article that provides a quick outline of the general subject area. Even a modest 60-second familiarity with the lay of the land can save you a lot of grief and keep you from making an idiot of yourself. Speaking of which, use Wikipedia. No, it's not 100% reliable. And given the nature of the internet community, it's better on some topics than others. You're more likely to get a useful description of the binomial theorem than you are of the objective correlative in Heart of Darkness. But all reference works have limitations, and virtually all popular references should be taken as starting points, not final authorities. And that's how you should use Wikipedia: as a starting point. The scope of Wikipedia is vast; it's extremely useful for recent events; it frequently does a decent job of summarizing a topic; and most articles come with a lot of highly useful links. Sure, you have to be careful with Wikipedia, but you should always be careful anyway. And while we're on the subject, always click the link. The web makes checking sources so easy that there's no excuse for failing to at least skim the primary links in an article. Click, click, click! By Kevin Drum CBS News

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., owner of the most popular Internet search engine, probably boosted fourth-quarter profit by attracting more Web queries and online advertising. Net income climbed 21 percent to $1.25 billion, or $3.91 a share, from $1.03 billion, or $3.29, a year earlier, according to the average estimate of 21 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Sales may have increased 55 percent to $3.45 billion, excluding revenue passed onto site partners, the survey showed. Google's share of the U.S. Internet search market rose to 56 percent in December from 51 percent at the end of 2006, while second-place Yahoo! Inc. lost ground, according to New York- based Nielsen Online. Google also drew advertising to its YouTube videos, mobile-phone services, and new multimedia promotions that broadcast live news and show movie previews. ``We're looking for Google to continue to gain share,'' said Jeff Donlon, managing director of technology research at Manning & Napier Advisors Inc., which oversees more than $18 billion in assets, including Google shares, in Fairport, New York. The rise in online advertising is a ``long-term story and we have a long way to go with it,'' he said. Excluding stock compensation, profit at Mountain View, California-based Google was $4.45 a share, analysts estimate. The company is scheduled to report results after the close of trading today. Google spokesman Jon Murchinson declined to comment. Initial Signs? Google, which had dropped 21 percent this year before today amid a slump in U.S. equities, fell $8.68 to $539.59 at 9:59 a.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock jumped 50 percent last year. Thirty-two of 36 analysts following Google advise buying the shares, while four have a ``hold'' rating, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A slowing U.S. economy may curb Google's growth rate, said Clayton Moran, a Stanford Group Co. analyst. He reduced his Google rating to ``hold'' last week, citing concerns that consumers will shop less online. Rising energy costs and a housing slump dragged down consumer confidence to almost a two-year low in January, the Conference Board reported this week. ``That may be the initial sign that the consumer spending slowdown is going to impact search volumes, which impacts Google,'' Moran, based in Boca Raton, Florida, said last week. Following is a table of analysts' fourth-quarter estimates. All figures are in billions of dollars, except per-share figures, which are in dollars. Fourth-Quarter 2007 estimates Net income Per-share Sales Net Colin Gillis, Canaccord Adams $1.27 $4.00 $3.52 Rob Sanderson, American Technology $1.27 $3.97 $3.45 Youssef Squali, Jefferies $1.26 $3.97 $3.44 Jeffrey Lindsay, Bernstein $1.23 $3.85 $3.54 Sandeep Aggarwal, Oppenheimer $1.29 $4.06 $3.60 To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Levy in San Francisco at alevy5@bloomberg.net

Revised: comScore Releases 2007 U.S. Internet Year in Review Google and Facebook among Biggest Winners in 2007 January 31, 2008: 04:38 PM EST RESTON, Va., Jan. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- comScore, Inc. , a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a report highlighting the major trends in U.S. Internet activity in 2007, including top gaining properties and site categories, and core search market growth. The biggest winners in 2007 featured some of the top Internet brands, including Google, Facebook, Wikipedia and Craigslist. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO) Top-Gaining Properties in 2007 A study of the growth in visitors among the top 100 U.S. Internet properties revealed that 2007 was a strong year for several of the largest properties. Social networking giant Facebook.com reaped the benefits of opening registration to all users, jumping 81 percent versus December 2006 to 34.7 million visitors in December 2007. Wikipedia Sites gained 34 percent to reach nearly 52 million visitors, continuing its reign as the Web's most popular reference hub. Leading classified site Craigslist.org jumped 74 percent to 24.5 million visitors, while AT&T grew 27 percent to 30.2 million visitors boosted by its exclusive deal with Apple as carrier for the iPhone. Yellow Book Network jumped an impressive 137-percent to 10.4 million visitors Several of the top-gaining properties were driven by the acquisition of Web entities including, but not limited to, the following: -- Everyday Health gained 349 percent driven by its acquisition of several web sites and the addition of Drugs.com to their network. -- Women's category leader, Glam Media, grew 213 percent during the year, due in large part to the addition of several new entities, including Quality Health Network, MyYearbook.com, and LifeScript.com, among others. -- Yellow Book Network grew 137-percent to 10.4 million visitors, as visitation to Yellowbook.com Sites tripled (up 207 percent to 4.6 million visitors) and one new entity was added to the property. -- iVillage.com: The Women's Network gained 27 percent with the addition of Sugar Publishing, MakeoverSolutions.com, and iWin.com, among others. -- Demand Media added numerous entities under its Demand Media Knowledge and Demand Media Games media titles, which contributed to its 149- percent growth. -- OfficeMax's dramatic 199-percent gain was driven primarily by a December 2007 surge in visitation to its popular viral holiday greetings site ElfYourself.com. comScore Top 20 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.) December 2007 vs. December 2006 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix Total Unique Visitors (000) Dec-06 Dec-07 % Change Total U.S. Internet Audience 174,199 183,619 5 Everyday Health 2,690 12,073 349 Glam Media 7,994 25,028 213 OfficeMax 5,130 15,339 199 Demand Media 5,999 14,958 149 Yellow Book Network 4,386 10,388 137 ValueClick Sites 6,339 13,013 105 Facebook.com 19,105 34,658 81 WorldNow - ABC Owned Sites 8,714 15,474 78 Craigslist.org 14,075 24,468 74 Experian Interactive 8,054 12,500 55 Yellowpages.com Network 16,168 24,453 51 AmericanGreetings Property 11,982 18,102 51 Comcast Corporation 18,716 26,445 41 UGO 8,450 11,912 41 The Mozilla Organization 10,948 15,267 39 Answers.com Sites 10,707 14,899 39 Wikipedia Sites 38,585 51,851 34 iVillage.com: The Womens Network 13,545 17,234 27 AT&T, Inc. 23,833 30,212 27 Internet Broadcasting Systems 9,894 12,394 25 * Ranking based on the top 100 properties in December 2007. Top-Gaining Site Categories in 2007 The top-gaining site categories in 2007 reflected trends in both the online and offline worlds. The politics category grabbed the top position, gaining 35 percent, as the 2008 presidential election and primary season kicked into high gear. Women's community sites also jumped 35 percent, as the top two properties in the category, Glam Media and iVillage.com, saw strong growth. With the ever-increasing coverage of celebrity news, from Britney Spears' meltdowns to Anna Nicole Smith's death, entertainment news sites jumped 32 percent. Online classifieds had a strong 2007 growing 31 percent versus year ago, as it continued to impinge on traditional news media's classified revenues. comScore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.) December 2007 vs. December 2006 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix Total Unique Visitors (000) Dec-06 Dec-07 % Change Total U.S. Internet Audience 174,199 183,619 5 Politics 6,192 8,384 35 Community - Women 51,632 69,854 35 Entertainment - News 37,093 49,023 32 Classifieds 31,867 41,688 31 Career - Training and Education 7,865 10,279 31 Gay/Lesbian 1,843 2,367 28 Retail - Consumer Goods 28,829 35,936 25 Finance - News/Research 43,317 52,064 20 Teens 23,313 27,979 20 Religion 19,101 22,886 20 Core Search Query Growth in 2007 In 2007, searches at the five major core search engines increased 15 percent to 9.6 billion searches. Google Sites led with 5.6 billion searches in December 2007, up more than 30 percent from the previous year. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 2.2 billion searches, followed by Microsoft Sites (940 million), Time Warner Network (442 million), and Ask Network (415 million). comScore Core Search Report* December 2007 vs. December 2006 Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch 2.0 Search Queries (MM) Percent Change Dec-07 vs. Core Search Entity Dec-06 Dec-07 Dec-06 Total Core Search 8,348 9,636 15% Google Sites 4,317 5,629 30% Yahoo! Sites 2,300 2,211 -4% Microsoft Sites 871 940 8% Time Warner Network 465 442 -5% Ask Network 396 415 5% * Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers. More than 113 billion core searches were conducted in the U.S. during all of 2007, with Google Sites accounting for nearly 64 billion, representing a 56 percent share of the market.

This week in e-commerce news Microsoft announced the beta launch of its Content Ads program, a pay-as-you-go analytics tool is slated to debut next month, a new Web site that serves as a legal resource for new e-tailers rolls out and Google began overlay advertising at YouTube. Microsoft's adCenter Adds Content Ads Microsoft yesterday upgraded adCenter to include Content Ads, which allow you to place content-targeted ads on the Microsoft network. The new program means advertisers now have access to the MSN audience, including the Tech and Gadgets, Money, Real Estate ane Windows Marketplace pages, with Microsoft planning to expand it to the rest of their partner sites in the near future. "Until now, this premium inventory has been available directly only through the MSN sales team and has commanded premium pricing. (Now) we are making it available to everyone at a price you will decide," wrote David Jakubowski, general manager of adCenter, at his blog. For example, if you're trying to attract shoppers researching hiking gear before making a purchase, you can have your ad displayed at the top of the pages where sports stories appear on MSN. Advertisers with existing campaigns will have those promotions automatically expanded to include content distribution, according to Jakubowski. E-tailers will be able to select where they want ads distributed, on search pages or content pages, and fees are administered through a cost-per-click, or pay-per-click, model. According to Microsoft, the cost-per-click amount you're billed depends on the keyword bid, the match types, any incremental bids, other advertisers' bids and ad performance. Sign Up for Free Analytics Trial In analytics news, Compete Inc., on Sept. 12 is offering a new service called Compete Search Analytics, a Web-based resource that delivers search analytics on a pay-as-you-go basis. By logging into the service — and paying per use by credit card — the company says Web shop owners can discover new keywords that may need to be bid upon that day, see gaps in their competitor's search strategies that they can exploit, find search terms that net the most engaged visitors, meaning they linger longer after the click to a site, and track performance by comparing how keywords are faring compared to competitors. Compete Search Analytics provide data from billions of monthly searches by 2 million users on the top six search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Windows Live, Ask and AOL), according to the company. It shows keyword referrals, what sites are benefiting most from popular keyword phrases; site referrals, which keywords are driving traffic to specific websites or categories; and site comparisons, how your search referrals stack up against other sites. Prior to launch, Compete is also offering a limited number of free beta accounts. If you're interested, send an e-mail to searchanalytics@compete.com with the subject line of "Beta Account." Legal Resource Site for Sellers If you're new to e-commerce or if find you often have legal questions, the American Bar Association launched a new Web site designed to help. SafeSelling.org offers legal information for Web shop owners and covers topics such as customer security and payment processing protocol. The site was created by the ABA's Cyberspace Law Committee. "We wanted the site to be intuitive for the typical small business owner," SafeSelling.org editorial director Jonathan Rubens said in a statement. "From obtaining a domain name to protecting customer privacy, our SafeSelling.org site offers a complete range of logically listed mini-topics to help our target audience find the facts they need." Can Google Get Money Out of YouTube? In other news, Google is generating a lot of buzz with the announcement that it's now offering a new type of overlay ad display on YouTube that industry watchers say will help it cash in on the hugely popular site without alienating users. The ads appear 15 seconds after a visitor begins watching a video clip, and lays over the bottom fifth of the screen, similar to update tickers that run at the bottom of news and sports shows on TV. From there, a viewer can ignore the ad, which will then disappear after 10 seconds, or close it. If the viewer clicks on the ad overlay, the initial video is paused and the video ad runs. Pricing has yet to be set for the overlay video ads but Google has reported that it will likely offer them through a traditional salesforce, rather than by auction. NetSuite and CyberSource Join Forces Finally, NetSuite and CyberSource today announced a partnership that integrates the financial transaction company's global payment acceptance services, risk management solutions and payment security services into NetSuite's programs for e-tailers. CyberSource says e-commerce payment management services available to NetSuite's customers include the following: support for credit cards, debit cards and electronic checks; fraud prevention services ranging from an online fraud management portal to managed risk services designed to increase sales conversion and reduce the risk of fraud; and token-based, secure storage service, which helps keep sensitive payment data out of merchants' daily business operations. Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.

In a move that brings fruition to several months of in-depth organizational planning that further solidifies its leading position in Southwest Florida, Michael Saunders & Company announced several leadership and divisional changes that will further enhance core services to its 500-plus associates and the public at large. Ann Stickel has been named to the newly-created position of vice president of Affiliated Services. Stickel, currently the divisional head of MS&C Mortgage, will move up to oversee the new “Division of Affiliated Services,” which is structured to unify into one operation the related services of MS&C Mortgage, MS&C Title and the company’s Division of Relocation Services. Stickel has worked in the financial industry for 18 years, been a mortgage broker for 12, and with MS&C Mortgage—an affiliate of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage—for the past 2-1/2 years. Earlier in her career she was with Wachovia Wealth Management before joining Wells Fargo Private Mortgage Banking. “Throughout her time here, Ann has demonstrated an outstanding ability to accept new challenges, master them quickly and motivate the people around her to do the same,” Michael Saunders said from her corporate headquarters in Sarasota. “I can think of no one more able to integrate the company’s vast array of support services into a single enhanced and far-reaching unit. You couldn’t ask for more effective leadership and I am thrilled to have her successful management style put to greater use in a much expanded role.” Also moving up to an expanded role in the company, Beth Ann McFadyen has accepted the title and responsibilities of Relocation Director, that division’s highest ranking position. McFadyen steps into her new position after a successful six-year tenure as the unit’s assistant relocation director where she was instrumental in the development of systems, procedures and reporting methods that have consistently earned her department noteworthy acclaim in national and international relocation circles. “We couldn’t be more fortunate to have someone as well-known and respected throughout the relocation industry and this company as Beth Ann to head up our relocation team,” Saunders said in praising McFadyen. “She has proven herself adept at establishing relationships within the relocation industry and will no doubt do an even more outstanding job now that she has assumed leadership of the division.” In addition to being a licensed real estate associate, McFadyen is a member of Worldwide ERC® (Employee Relocation Council) and holds the internationally recognized CRP (Certified Relocation Professional) accreditation. She has been actively involved in Leading Real Estate Companies of The World ™, where she holds two designations—World Referral Specialist (WRS) and Relo Certified (RCC)—and has been a featured speaker at its national and region conferences for the past five years. Saunders also used the occasion to announce the related formation of another new initiative within the company. With the intent to further solidify the company’s commanding market share and strengthen its leadership position within the highest priced strata of her region’s luxury real estate market, Saunders has created a Division of Luxury Marketing to be headed by another seasoned and highly-respected veteran of the company, Ann Runyon. Runyon has managed the Longboat Key offices of Michael Saunders & Company for over 10 years and is legendary in the business for being steeped in the intricacies of marketing and selling ultra-luxurious properties. Under her steady hands-on guidance, the three Longboat Key offices—which boast more than 65 of the company’s most experienced and top-producing associates—have consistently produced many of the company’s highest benchmark sales of luxury properties. “Ann brings unrivalled skills, boundless energy and enthusiasm, and an incredible legacy of success to her expanded role in the company,” Saunders said in announcing Runyon’s appointment. “As Executive Director of the new division, she will be charged with consolidating the company’s luxury marketing expertise with its leadership in selling important properties, priced from $2 million and up. She will also use her extensive experience to guide associates and customers toward a deeper appreciation of the company’s extensive luxury marketing resources, its far-reaching worldwide affiliations, proven Web superiority and how each of these assets can be put to full and effective use to promote the company’s luxury listings before qualified buyers, both nationally and internationally.” Concluding her remarks about the new divisions and promotions, which go into effect immediately, Saunders was customarily upbeat in her assessment of the market and the times ahead for her company. “My long-term confidence in the market is so positive that I want to make the necessary moves right now in order to fortify our position well in advance of a normalized market,” she said. “I am fortunate to have deep reservoirs of talent existing at all levels of the company which enabled me to assemble exactly the team I wanted to drive these exciting new initiatives.” For more information, visit www.michaelsaunders.com.

Web hosting provider The Planet (http://www.theplanet.com) is preparing for the ‘holiday rush’ with promotions geared towards online retailers, it was announced recently. According to the company, holiday sales are expected to set new records this year. The Planet’s promotions provide the required server and bandwidth to ensure online retailers offer “fast and reliable shopping experiences”. “Each year holiday sales hit epic records, and we expect these numbers to once again exceed the 2006 record of $26 billion,” explained Steve Kahan, The Planet’s Vice President of Marketing and Product Management. “The competition for fast and uninterrupted service has never been higher. Customers expect a better, faster and more seamless experience every year. To be certain they’re prepared, we advise customers to plan now.” The Planet refers to “How SMBs Can Increase eCommerce Revenue and Decrease IT Costs” - a white paper recently published by Frost & Sullivan’s Stratecast Partners – which makes suggestions to online retailers regarding how to cater with demands on resources. The white paper recommends retailers “accommodate customers with an IT infrastructure that guarantees each visitor with a seamless shopping experience”. Suggestions also include “redundant and highly scalable web servers; physical and cyber security; and sufficient bandwidth to prevent access congestion and ensure rapid response times”. The Planet’s four promotions comprise “Ready-To-Go Servers”, “Double Down”, “Unmetered Bandwidth” and “Lowest Hosting Price on The Planet”. Ready-To-Go Servers can be operational in just one hour and offer a choice of three processors (Pentium 4, Conroe 3060 or Dual Xeon), Red Hat Linux operating system alongside the cPanel control panel. Double Down offers server tuning with twice the RAM, hard-drive space or bandwidth through the end of August. Unmetered Bandwidth gives The Planet’s customers gain unlimited access to a 10Mbps or 20Mbps uplink from the company’s seven Tier-1 providers. The Lowest Hosting Price on The Planet promotion is a guarantee that The Planet will beat competitor pricing by 10 percent “simply by providing the competitor’s invoice”.

A hacker posted links to pornographic Web sites on the message board of one of Fayetteville’s largest churches this week. The links first appeared Tuesday evening on the Haymount United Methodist Church message board for its youth ministry. They remained until someone notified the church Thursday morning. The board was then immediately shut down. Dr. Brian Gentle, senior pastor at the church, said the church staff acted quickly and responsibly once informed of the problem with the message board. “We don’t want to give people ideas,” Gentle said. “Obviously, we need to make churches aware this might happen.” Tracy Korff, office administrator at Haymount, said the board was hacked by someone who was able to access the church’s user name and password. Korff, who oversees the main Haymount Web site, immediately deleted the link. Korff said oversight of the message board portion of the Web site was turned over to a member of the congregation recently. She did not identify that person. “An executive decision was made to immediately shut down the board,” she said. “Right now, we are not going to open the message board back up until some very serious considerations are taken,” she said. “We’ll do more research on the security companies provide. We were hacked into because message boards are extremely exploitable.” Korff said the purpose of the message board was for the people involved in the Haymount youth ministry to exchange comments, views and ideas.

HostSearch.com is celebrating 10 years as the Internet’s leading web hosting directory it was announced this week. “As you can imagine, we are very happy to reach this milestone,” explained CEO and Founder of HostSearch.com, Mr. Charnchon Lavitrangsima. “We were very fortunate to recognize a niche emerging as web hosting began to take shape. We launched HostSearch.com when the industry was still in its infancy and as it matured a number of websites emerged that were similar in nature to HostSearch. Despite this, we have managed to maintain our position as the Internet’s leading directory”. HostSearch.com was one of the first web hosting sites to offer a searchable database with details about web hosting providers and their products and services. The current database represents the largest resource of information about web hosts available through any medium. Users looking for web hosting providers simply enter information about the type of web hosting they require, along with their budgets, and HostSearch.com generates a list of web hosting providers that meet their requirements. HostSearch.com also allows people with firsthand experience of a web host’s services to offer ratings and leave comments. “This is the main strength of the site,” suggested HostSearch.com’s Web Editor John Hughes. “There are a number of sites around that monitor hosts for uptime and technical issues, but I think these details can appear a bit distant if they aren’t presented in a human context. A report about a host having X% downtime could never mean as much to someone as reading what that downtime meant to a host’s customer. Customer service is the one issue that provides value added for web hosts and, again, here is an area where statistics like ‘average call response time 5 minutes’ simply do not represent the quality of support a host provides. Quality can only really be gauged by personal experience and HostSearch.com enables users to share this type of experience.” Alongside providing a database of reviews and ratings, HostSearch.com also offers a wealth of information of interest to web hosting users. The site has a bank of quality articles covering all aspects of web hosting, alongside interviews with web hosting players, a daily round up of the industry’s news, and Host Tour – a section of the site where web hosts post pictures of their staff and premises to present their human face. The site also offers one of the liveliest web hosting forums on the Internet. HostSearch also provides a complete range of advertising options for web hosting providers. Alongside traditional banner and button advertising, the site offers bidding options, where hosts can bid to improve their position in site’s search results, and Host Quote – where people looking for web hosting submit their requirements directly to web hosts. Discussing what has kept HostSearch.com at the top of its field over the years, Mr. Lavitrangsima suggested, “It has been a mixture of innovation and perspiration really. It is hard work, but we honestly appreciate providing a window on an industry that does not have a shop front store that customers can visit. It’s a nice feeling knowing that HostSearch.com has made such a positive contribution to web hosting for such a long time.” About HostSearch.com: HostSearch.com was established in 1997 and provides unbiased information about web hosting providers and the web hosting industry. The site maintains the largest database of information about web hosts available and continually upgrades its service to ensure the information it provides meets the requirements of its visitors.