Crazy. Is all I can say about the terms I had to agree to in order to buy Disneyland tickets on the Disney website. How and why should it reference stock quote information in the terms when I want to buy a theme park ticket? Well perhaps cause they don’t want to manage multiple terms for various websites so sure why does it matter if it’s a transactional website vs. a sports site (ESPN) vs. a news website? Regardless of the content and needing to agree to a 12-page legal document shoved onto a website, isn’t there something just a little dishonest about this whole process? Here it is, outside of the 5 lines it gets shoved into on the disneyland.com website:
Welcome to the Internet sites of the Walt Disney Internet Group (“WDIG“). “WDIG Sites“include Disney.com, ABCNEWS.com, ABC.com, ESPN.com, DisneyShopping.com, Go.com, Movies.com, FamilyFun.com, and other Internet sites on which these terms of use are posted. WDIG and any and all entities that control, are controlled by, or are affiliated or under common control with, WDIG are collectively referred to herein as “we,” “us” or “our“.
PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING ANY WDIG SITE. By using any WDIG Site or by clicking a box that states that you accept or agree to these terms, you signify your agreement to these terms of use. If you do not agree to these terms of use, you may not use the WDIG Sites.
Note that special terms apply to some services offered on certain WDIG Sites, like subscription-based services, rules for particular contests or sweepstakes or other features or activities. These terms are posted in connection with the applicable service. Any such terms are in addition to these terms of use, and in the event of a conflict, prevail over these terms of use.
You acknowledge that these terms of use are supported by reasonable and valuable consideration, the receipt and adequacy of which are herby acknowledged. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you acknowledge that such consideration includes your use of the WDIG Sites and receipt of data, materials and information available at or through the WDIG Sites, the possibility of our use or display of your Solicited Submissions (as defined below in Section 3, entitled “SUBMISSIONS”) and the possibility of the publicity and promotion from our use or display of your Solicited Submissions.
All information, materials, functions and other content (including Submission, as defined in Section 3, entitled “SUBMISSIONS”) (“Content“) contained on WDIG Sites are our copyrighted property or the copyrighted property of our licensors or licensees. All trademarks, service marks, trade names, and trade dress are proprietary to us and/or our licensors or licensees. We may change the WDIG Sites or delete Content or features at any time, in any way, for any or no reason.
Except as we specifically agree in writing, no Content from any WDIG Site may be used, reproduced, transmitted, distributed or otherwise exploited in any way other than as part of the WDIG Site, except that where a WDIG Site is configured to enable the download of particular Content, you may download one copy of such Content to a single computer for your personal, noncommercial home use only, provided that you (a) keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices, (b) make no modifications to the Content, and (c) do not use the Content in a manner that suggests an association with any of our products, services or brands. Any business use, “re-mailing” or high-volume or automated use of WDIG Sites is prohibited.
In the event that we offer downloads of software on a WDIG Site and you download such software, the software, including any files, images incorporated in or generated by the software, and data accompanying the software (collectively, the “Software“) are licensed to you by us or third-party licensors for your personal, noncommercial home use only. We do not transfer title to the Software to you. You may not distribute or otherwise exploit the Software or decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble or otherwise reduce the Software to a human-readable form.
In these terms of use, we use the word “Submissions” to mean text, messages, ideas, concepts, pitches, suggestions, stories, screenplays, treatments, formats, artwork, photographs, drawings, videos, audiovisual works, musical compositions (including lyrics), sound recordings, characterizations, your and/or other persons’ names, likenesses, voices, usernames, profiles, actions, appearances, performances and/or other biographical information or material, and/or other similar mterials that you submit, post, upload, embed, display, communicate or otherwise distribute (collectively, “Distribute“) on or through a WDIG Site
There are two types of submissions: Solicited Submissions and Unsolicited Submissions. “Solicited Submissions” means those Submissions (a) that we expressly request or enable you to provide to us via any feature or activity on a WDIG Site for our review or display and possible specifically-defined consideration or compensation (collectively, “Consideration“) (such as prizes or other value in games, sweepstakes, contests and promotions); and (b) that you Distribute on or through any WDIG Site for which you do not seek Consideration (such as in out Guest Services and in Public Forums (as defined below in Section 6, entitled “PUBLIC FORUMS AND COMMUNICATION”)). “Unsolicited Submissions” are any and all Submissions that do not fall within subparagraphs (a) or (b) of this paragraph.
DO NOT DISTRIBUTE ANY UNSOLICITED SUBMISSIONS; NO IMPLIED CONTRACT.
Our long-standing company policy does not allow us to accept or consider Unsolicited Submissions so please do not Distribute Unsolicited Submissions on or through any WDIG Sites. We want to avoid the possibility of future misunderstandings when projects developed by us or under our direction might seem to others to be similar to their own creative work. We therefore ask that you not Distribute any Unsolicited Submission. In any event, you agree that any Submissions you make is not being made in confidence or trust and that no confidential or fiduciary relationship is intended or created between you and us in any way, and that you have no expectation of any review, compensation or consideration of any type (other than any stated Consideration).
Except as expressly stated in these terms of use, the provisions of these terms of use apply equally to Unsolicited Submissions and Solicited Submissions. Accordingly, we, our licensees, distributors, agents, representatives and other authorized users shall be entitled to exploit and disclose all Submissions, and we shall not be liable to you or to any person claiming through you for any exploitation or disclosure of any Submission.
You hereby grant us and our licensees, distributors, agents, representatives and other authorized users, a perpetual, non-exclusive, irrevocable, fully-paid, royalty-free, sub-licensable and transferable (in whole or part) worldwide license under all copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets, privacy and publicity rights and other intellectual property rights you own or control to use, reproduce, transmit, display, exhibit, distribute, index, comment on, modify (including removing lyrics and music from any Submission or substituting the lyrics and music in any Submission with music and lyrics selected by us), create derivative works based upon, perform and otherwise exploit such Submissions, in whole or in part, in all media formats and channels now known or hereafter devised (including on WDIG Sites, on third party web sites, on our broadcast and cable networks and stations, on our broadband and wireless platforms, products and services, on physical media, and in theatrical release) for any and all purposes including entertainment, news, advertising, promotional, marketing, publicity, trade or commercial purposes, all without further notice to you, with or without attribution, and without the requirement of any permission from or payment to you or to any other person or entity (the “Submissions License”).
By communicating a Submission, you represent and warrant that the Submission and your communication thereof conform to the Rules of Conduct (set forth below in Section 7 labeled “RULES OF CONDUCT”)) and other requirements of these terms of use and that you own or have the necessary rights, licenses, consents and permissions, without the need for any permission from or payment to any other person or entity, to exploit, and to authorize us to exploit, such Submission in all manners contemplated by these terms of use (including the Submissions License). These terms of use (including the Submissions License) do not limit any past or future grant of rights, consents, agreements, assignments and waivers you may have made or make with respect to Submissions.
To the extent that any Submissions you Distribute on or through WDIG Sites contain original songs or recordings, you hereby represent that you are a member of ASCAP, BMI, SESAC or any other applicable performing rights society and that all musical compositions (including lyrics) and sound recordings contained in such Submissions are available for licensing to us (and our licensees, distributors, agents, representatives and other authorized users) directly from such societies. Notwithstanding the foregoing, regardless of whether you are a member of any performing rights society, you grant the Submissions License with respect to each and every musical composition (including lyrics) and sound recordings contained in such Submissions.
To the extent that we solicit Submissions through features or activities on or through WDIG Sites (including games, sweepstakes, contests, promotions and Public Forums (defined below in Section 6, labeled “PUBLIC FORUMS AND COMMUNICATION”)) that require the use of our copyrighted works (in whole or in part), we hereby grant you a non-exclusive license to create a derivative work using our copyrighted works (in whole or in part) as required (but only as required, and only for the purpose of creating your Submissions); provided however, that such license shall be conditioned upon your assignment of all rights in the work you create to us. If such rights are not assigned to us, your license to create derivative works using our copyrighted works (in whole or in part) shall be null and void. You agree to the foregoing grant of rights, consents, agreements and assignments whether or not your Submissions are used by us.
You hereby appoint us as your agent with full power to enter into and execute any document and/or do any act we may consider appropriate to confirm the grant of rights, consents, agreements, assignments and waivers set forth in these terms of use.
To the extent any “moral rights,” “ancillary rights,” or similar rights in or to the Submissions exist and are not exclusively owned by us, you agree not to enforce any such rights as to us or our licensees, distributors, agents, representatives and other authorized users, and you shall procure the same agreement not to enforce from any others who may possess such rights.
Without limiting the scope of the Submissions License or any future grant of rights, consents, agreements, assignments, and waivers you may make with respect to Submissions, you hereby ratify any prior grant of rights, consents, agreements, assignments and waivers made by you with respect to Submissions submitted by you to us.
Some services on the WDIG Sites permit or require you to create an account to participate or to secure additional benefits. You agree to provide, maintain and update true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by our registration processes (the “Registration Data“). You shall not impersonate any person or entity or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person or entity, including using another person’s username, password or other account information, or another person’s name, likeness, voice, image or photograph. You also agree to promptly notify us at security_breach@help.go.com of any unauthorized use of your username, password, other account information, or any other breach of security that you become aware of involving or relating to any WDIG Site. In addition, you agree to exit from your account at the end of each session.
We may suspend or terminate your account and your ability to use any WDIG Site or portion thereof for failure to comply with these terms of use or any special terms related to a particular service, for infringing copyright, or for any other reason whatsoever.
“Public Forum” means an area, site or feature offered as part of any WDIG Site that offers the opportunity for users to Distribute Submissions for viewing by one or more WDIG Site users, including a chat area, message board, instant messaging, mobile messaging, social community environment, profile page, conversation page, blog, e-mail function (including electronic greeting cards and send-a-friend e-mails).
You acknowledge that Public Forums and features offered therein are for public and not private communications, and you have no expectation of privacy with regard to any Submission to a public Forum. We cannot guarantee the security of any information you disclose through any of these media; you make such disclosures at your own risk.
You are and shall remain solely responsible for the Submissions you Distribute on or through any WDIG Site under your username or otherwise by you in any Public Forum and for the consequences of submitting and posting same. We have no duty to monitor any Public Forum.
Also, you should be skeptical about information provided by others, and you acknowledge that the use of any Submission posted in any Public Forum is at your own risk. For example, we are not responsible for, and we do not endorse, the opinions, advice or recommendations posted or sent by users in any Public Forum and we specifically disclaim any and all liability in connection therewith.
We owe you no obligation, and therefore may refuse, to post, deliver, remove, modify or otherwise use or take any action with respect to Submissions you Distribute.
The following Rules of Conduct apply to the WDIG Sites. By using the WDIG Sites, you agree that you will not Distribute any Submission that:
We cannot and do not assure that other users are or will be complying with the foregoing Rules of Conduct or any other provisions of these terms of use, and, as between you and us, you hereby assume all risk of harm or injury resulting from any such lack of compliance.
We reserve the right, but disclaim any obligation or responsibility, to (a) refuse to post or communicate or remove any Submission from any WDIG Site that violates these terms of use (including the Rules of Conduct) and (b) identify any user to third parties, and/or disclose to third parties any Submission or personally identifiable information, when we believe in good faith that such identification or disclosure will either (i) facilitate compliance with laws, including, for example, compliance with a court order or subpoena, or (ii) help to enforce these terms of use (including the Rules of Conduct) and/or our contest, sweepstakes, promotions, and game rules, and/or protect the safety or security of any person or property, including any WDIG Site. Moreover, we retain all rights to remove Submissions at any time for any reason or no reason whatsoever.
You should be aware that when you are on a WDIG Site, there are links to other sites that take you outside of our service to sites that are beyond our control, such as banner advertisements and links from advertisers, sponsors and content partners that may use our logo(s) as part of a co-branding relationship. You acknowledge that when you click on any of the aforementioned links, the sites you are taken to are not controlled by us; different terms of use and privacy policy may apply, and we are not responsible for such sites. We do not endorse and cannot ensure that you will be satisfied with any products or services that you purchase from a third-party site that links to or from any WDIG Site or third-party Content contained on our sites. We strongly encourage you to make whatever investigation you feel necessary or appropriate before proceeding with any online or offline transaction with any third parties.
Nor can we be held responsible for the accuracy, relevance, legality or decency of material contained on sites retrieved in searches and/or listed in search results or identified on search results pages.
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Furthermore, the Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your physician with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately. Reliance on any information appearing on a WDIG Site is strictly at your own risk.
WDIG Sites may contain the opinions and views of other users. Given the interactive nature of these sites, we cannot endorse, guarantee, or be responsible for the accuracy, efficacy, or veracity of any content generated by our users.
The content of WDIG Sites are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Such content is not intended to, and do not, constitute legal, professional, medical or healthcare advice or diagnosis, and may not be used for such purposes. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. You should not act or refrain from acting on the basis of any content included in, or accessible through, the WDIG Sites without seeking the appropriate legal or other professional advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue from a lawyer or professional licensed in the recipient’s state, country or other appropriate licensing jurisdiction.
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UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, SHALL WE, OUR LICENSORS OR LICENSEES, OR ANY OF THE FOREGOING ENTITIES’ RESPECTIVE RESELLERS, DISTRIBUTORS, SERVICE PROVIDERS OR SUPPLIERS, BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON OR ENTITY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, PERSONAL INJURY (INCLUDING DEATH) AND PROPERTY DAMAGE OF ANY NATURE WHATSOEVER, THAT RESULT FROM (A) THE USE OF, OR THE INABILITY TO USE, ANY WDIG SITE OR CONTENT, OR (B) THE CONDUCT OR ACTIONS, WHETHER ONLINE OR OFFLINE, OF ANY USER OF A WDIG SITE OR ANY OTHER PERSON OR ENTITY, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. IN NO EVENT SHALL OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL DAMAGES, LOSSES AND CAUSES OF ACTION WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE) OR OTHERWISE EXCEED THE AMOUNT PAID BY YOU, IF ANY, OR $100 (WHICHEVER IS LESS) FOR ACCESSING OR PARTICIPATING IN ANY ACTIVITY RELATED TO ANY WDIG SITE. MOREOVER, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL WE, OUR LICENSORS OR LICENSEES, OR ANY OF THE FOREGOING ENTITIES’ RESPECTIVE RESELLERS, DISTRIBUTORS, SERVICE PROVIDERS OR SUPPLIERS, BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DELAY OR FAILURE IN PERFORMANCE RESULTING DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY FROM AN ACT OF FORCE MAJEURE OR CAUSES BEYOND OUR OR THEIR REASONABLE CONTROL.
WE MAY TERMINATE YOUR FURTHER ACCESS TO WDIG SITES OR CHANGE THE WDIG SITES OR DELETE CONTENT OR FEATURES IN ANY WAY, AT ANY TIME AND FOR ANY REASON OR NO REASON.
THE LIMITATIONS, EXCLUSIONS AND DISCLAIMERS IN THIS SECTION AND ELSEWHERE IN THESE TERMS OF USE APPLY TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.
You agree that any action at law or in equity arising out of or relating to these terms of use or the WDIG Sites shall be filed, and that venue properly lies, only in state or federal courts located in the borough of Manhattan, New York, New York, and you hereby consent and submit to the personal jurisdiction of such courts for the purposes of litigating any such action. We make no representation that Content on any WDIG Site is appropriate or available for use in any particular location. Those who choose to access a WDIG Site do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with all applicable laws including any applicable local laws.
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Supply of goods, services and software through WDIG Sites is subject to United States export control and economic sanctions requirements. By acquiring any such items through WDIG Sites, you represent and warrant that your acquisition comports with and your use of the item will comport with those requirements. Without limiting the foregoing, you may not acquire goods, services or software through WDIG Sites if: 1) you are in, under the control of, or a national or resident of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan or Syria or if you are on the U.S. Treasury Department’s Specialty Designated Nationals List or the U.S. Commerce Department’s Denied Persons List, Unverified List or Entity List or 2) you intend to supply the acquired goods, services or software to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan or Syria (ar a national or resident of one of these countries) or to a person on the Specially Designated Nationals List, Denied Persons List, Unverified List or Entity List.
We have adopted and implemented a policy that provides for the termination, in appropriate circumstances as determined by us in our sole discretion, of users who are infringers of copyright.
Pursuant to Title 17, United States Code, Section 512(c)(2), notifications of claimed copyright infringement must be sent to Service Provider’s Designated Agent.
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I used Square this weekend for a small moving sale. Square is (in my case) an iPhone app with a little credit card reader you plug into the earphone jack of the phone that you can then use to swipe credit cards. There were a couple of categories of potential transactors as you might imagine:
So, the neighbors also were fairly tech savvy and it didn’t seem a stretch that something like this might be possible. They may have seen such an application e.g. at the Apple Store where wireless PDA-type credit card readers are commonplace. They were also quite happy to give it a try and have me email them a receipt. The other types of people were more interesting.
The responses were fairly predictable – one person asked how does this thing work? Though really, most people seemed to think the technology made sense and it was possible; credit card swipers in stores are understood by most to be a telecom-like device. One older gentleman asked me if I was going to store his credit card number – a good question, of course I said I never see the number it gets sent straight to the processor, and if anything bad happens he can call the credit card company of course. (Not something the merchant really wants to be talking to the buyer about though at the best of times) This same person wasn’t sure if they should sign their name or something else, but I said just use your finger to sign your name and that was okay. The email receipt worked well, though another person asked if I was going to send them some email later — I said no. Etiquette about who enters the email address remains unresolved though mostly it’s me except in just one case where they typed it in.
Overall, a good experience for me and the buyers – some issues that will clearly come up from these initial observations: as is usual with payments, there will be issues around trust of the payment mechanism as distinct from trusting the merchant (and especially if that is an unknown). Credit card safeguards already have a lot of mindshare so that helps – but as Square extends to less tech/finance-savvy customers it’s likely they will have to get their name out there to be seen as a trusted payment brand as well.
Good luck to Jack Dorsey, Keith Rabois and the rest of the Square team with that – it’s a very cool concept and as usual the payments space could use some more disruption.
And their CPM number seems very high. See release here.
Based on my estimates, I’d guess they came in about 50% on the impressions numbers and about doubled the CPM. But then what do I know?
My guess is around 24.1 billion impressions a day whereas theirs comes in around 12.2 billion a day (or around a trillion in the US for the first quarter). $2.48 as a CPM is high; the true number is quite probably in the $1.00 to $1.50 range. Especially when you look at Facebook – the CPMs there for an ad unit are in the $0.20 range on the higher end and if you look at three ads or max four ads per page, that’s $0.60-$0.80 or so.
Would love other people’s thoughts on this, back of the envelope or not.
I couldn’t print out my Southwest boarding pass because the page hadn’t finished loading. Turns out it was trying to get images that were taking forever to load:
http://i.xx.openx.com/250f8716d94d8b28c4cab4ff37b2c3a4.gif
Looks like Southwest is using OpenX for hosting “ads” on its boarding page site. Just seems like a silly idea.
Mozilla has a lot of interesting information and statistics about installed plug-ins, and one of my personal favorites to examine is AdBlock Plus by Wladimir Palant. Here is the stats page for it. Looking at a chart over the last 12 months, the number of active installs is fairly stable except for times like Christmas when a lot of people are seemingly not at their computers. Weekly ebbs seem pretty reasonable as well:
Right now there are 10.63 million live installs (of 78 million-odd total), with 3.5 million of those in the US, or 33%, followed by Germany at 2.1mm (19%) and Russia at 1.01mm (10%). France trails a bit further behind with 813k or 8%. The most common OS is Windows but Linux is right up there which clearly also adds to the fact of this being Firefox, to make it a far less mainstream crowd that our Internet Explorer group. It’s geeky.
While these numbers are significant they are not huge (about the size of the 400th biggest US website or so at the 3.5mm mark, if you believe the Quantcast figures) and no immediate looming threat to the advertising market. The Adblock product, on Firefox and with some configuration needed, is simply not a mainstream product. Me wonders though what some of the catalysts would/might be to make this a more mainstream phenomenon.
It is interesting what you retain in email, 10 years later. In early 2000, I had a spreadsheet I’d been maintaining with the “Word of the Day”. Here are the words for Friday, March 10, 2000 and the following Monday, March 13, 2000:
3/10/2000: warp speed – the highest possible speed
3/13/2000: Efflorescence – the period or state of flowering | a : the action or process of developing and unfolding as if coming into flower : blossoming b : an instance of such development c : fullness of manifestation : culmination
It truly did feel like we were moving at warp speed during those times. And only later I think did we realize that we had reached the blossoming or culmination of the manifestation of a kind of technological innocence at the same time the Nasdaq peaking at a value it has never ever even remotely approached again. If there truly was a time of “yes we can”, this seemed to be it.
I could write all kinds of reflections, but I figured I would just share two different news stories (one with a bit of PR lead-in about “group buying”) that came across my email those days that I think say a lot about the technology (much more expensive to do these things, now they might be 5-person $100k projects vs. $35mm VC investments), the mindset and importantly, the media coverage of the time. Also, crucially, a lot of these things were actually pretty cool, just 7-10 years too early perhaps…
> —–Original Message—–
> From: xxxxxxx, xxxxxxx [mailto:xxxxxx@accompany.com]
> Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2000 6:48 PM
> To: ‘xxxxx@jup.com’
> Subject: Sold! Accompany First Online Group Buy of Cars
>
>
> Hi xxxxxx,
>
> First and foremost, I want to thank you for sharing your thoughts with
> the Seattle P-I reporter who covered Mercata’s additional funding
> announcement on Tuesday. I felt as though you shared both the
> benefits and downfalls of group buying very clearly. Despite the fact
> that we are a competitor of Mercata I’m sure everyone in this space
> agrees that it’s most important for the public to have a clear
> understanding of what our companies do.
>
> Secondly, I wanted to be sure that you had the latest news about
> Accompany’s success in group buying. Accompany launched a promotional
> Buy-Cycle around cars just a little over a week ago, and we sold out
> of all of them in under a week! This was the first time cars were
> sold in the US in an online group buying environment and it was an
> amazing success. This proves that Accompany’s group buying model can
> work for big ticket items along with our everyday technology and
> sports and fitness lines across our network. We are going to continue
> spicing up the product categories with promotional Buy-Cycles in the
> coming months.
> We’ll be in touch soon to schedule an all-encompassing briefing.
> Please be in touch if you need any more information or want to give me
> feedback about our news.
>
> > Best to you!
> > xxxxxx
> >
> >
> > ACCOMPANY SUCCESSFULLY CLOSES WORLD’S FIRST GROUP BUY-CYCLESM FOR
> > CARS Toyota Camry Group Buy a Hit with Consumers and Dealers Alike–
> > Customers Team Together to Drive Down Price within First Week of
> > Promotion
> >
> >
> > SAN FRANCISCO, CA – MARCH 9, 2000 – Accompany, Inc.,
> > (<http://www.accompany.com>) the pioneer in group buying -
> on the Web,
> > announced today that it has successfully sold out its promotional
> > offering of Toyota Camry 2000 LEs. With its network of over
> 20 partner
> > sites, Accompany tested the waters of the automotive space last week
> > by offering a special promotion for ten new Camrys, in conjunction
> > with Torrance Toyota in Torrance, CA and Piercey Toyota in San Jose,
> > CA. By empowering customers to work together to achieve value
> > through volume, Accompany proved a natural fit between the group
> > buying model and online automobile sales.
> >
> > Every buyer in the Toyota Camry Buy-Cycle was able to
> purchase the car
> > at approximately $500 below listed dealer cost, because of
> Accompany’s
> > unique group buying value proposition. In addition to the
> ten buyers,
> > hundreds of interested car shoppers across the US contacted
> Accompany
> > in response to this offering, attracted by both the prospect of
> > unmatchable savings and the freedom from haggling over the purchase
> > price at a dealership.
> >
> > Accompany’s Toyota purchasers have responded
> enthusiastically to their
> > savings, as well as the ease of their online buying
> experience. “Group
> > Buying for cars was a natural fit,” noted Accompany customer Diane
> > DeMartini. “No hassle, no haggle, and great upfront pricing that I
> > could never have gotten on my own. Thanks to Accompany, now I have
> > a new Toyota Camry!”
> >
> > Accompany launched this promotional Buy-Cycle to gauge customer
> > interest in participating in group buying for cars. With its
> > overwhelming response, the Buy-Cycle, slated to stay open for two
> > weeks, closed out in under a week.
> >
> > “We are just blown away by the success of the promotional
> Buy-Cycle we
> > launched for Toyota Camrys,” said Jim Rose, CEO and co-founder of
> > Accompany. “We now have the learning to look seriously
> into expanding
> > our product base to include higher ticket items like automobiles,
> > where customers stand to derive the greatest value from buying
> > together.”
> >
> > About Accompany, Inc.
> > Founded in 1998, Accompany, Inc. created the Get It
> Together Network,
> > the Web’s first group buying network that aggregates demand for
> > products and services in real-time. Using its unique patent-pending
> > Demand CoordinationSM technology to empower communities and
> suppliers
> > with private-branded group buying, the Get It Together Network pools
> > buyers from across the Web into real-time Buy-Cycles, in
> which prices
> > drop as more people join. The Get It Together Network revolutionizes
> > dynamic trade by affording consumers and small businesses alike the
> > purchasing advantage traditionally reserved for large organizations
> > that buy in volume. Accompany, Inc. is headquartered in San
> Francisco,
> > with its development center in Toronto, Canada.
> >
> > #-#-#
> >
> > ACCOMPANY, GET IT TOGETHER NETWORK, DEMAND COORDINATION,
> and BUY-CYCLE
> > are service marks of Accompany Inc. Other names mentioned may be
> > trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.
> >
> >
> > xxxxxxxxxxx
> > Public Relations Manager
> > xxxx xxxx xxxxx
> >
>
By DON CLARK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
FireDrop, a secretive start-up with high-profile backing, is mounting an ambitious effort to change the way people communicate online.
The Redwood City, Calif., company has developed a technology called Zaplets that combines attributes of e-mail and the Web. A user sends one Zaplet to several recipients, who can view them with most current e-mail programs. But while most electronic collaboration requires a string of e-mails, each Zaplet is automatically updated with recipients’ responses.
Office workers selecting the best time for a meeting, for example, might send out a calendar Zaplet that adds notations as each employee indicates preferred times. A brokerage firm might mail out a client’s stock portfolio each morning, but graphs would reflect later trading when the customer opened the message in the afternoon. A newspaper could send out one set of headlines in the morning and revise them completely by dinner, though only one Zaplet arrived at the user’s mailbox.
FireDrop, which is closely held, is one of several companies announcing radical business plans this week at the PC Forum conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. But Zaplets have unusually broad potential, some people familiar with the technology say, because the company plans to let users and companies customize them for any business or recreational purpose.
Each Zaplet is akin to a Web page that is generated on FireDrop’s servers each time a user activates it. For that reason, they can be slower to call up than conventional e-mail. With an estimated 150 million e-mail boxes in existence, the company acknowledges that managing a huge number of Zaplets with acceptable performance will require massive investments in computer infrastructure.
“We are building one of the largest systems on the Internet” to accommodate such traffic, said David Roberts, FireDrop’s president and co-founder.
The company is the latest project of venture capitalist Vinod Khosla of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a Palo Alto, Calif., firm that has backed such Web stars as Netscape Communications Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. Company directors include Joe Kraus, cofounder of Excite At Home Corp.
What is a Zaplet?
Why is it different?
What’s it good for?
Though Kleiner Perkins has put only $5 million into the company so far, Mr. Khosla makes clear that money isn’t likely to be a problem as FireDrop attempts to build a new communications platform.
“E-mail is obsolete and dead when you read it,” Mr. Khosla said. “This is e-mail that is current when read, not current when sent.”
Zaplets were first conceived by FireDrop co-founder Brian Axe with help from Mr. Roberts, a 10-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency who has gone to unusual lengths to keep the company’s plans secret. To throw snoops off the track, one test Web site associated the technology with a fictitious company called Zaplet Inc. FireDrop required employees and partners to sign nondisclosure agreements with liabilities of $100,000 for leaks.
The company is releasing a test version of the service Monday, offering a dozen ready-made templates to allow people to start using Zaplets, including forms for scheduling activities, taking polls, holding discussions, sharing pictures and writing interactive stories. FireDrop plans to let consumers use the service free, but charge companies for building large-scale applications for internal collaboration or customer services.
Another company coming out at PC Forum with a star-studded investor list is Propel Software Corp. (www.propel.com), a venture by Infoseek Corp. founder Steve Kirsch that is offering technology and services to help companies set up good Web sites faster. It has raised $6 million from backers that include Andrew Grove, chairman of Intel Corp., Netscape Communications Corp. co-founder Marc Andreessen, Dell Computer Corp.’s chief executive officer, Michael Dell, eBay Inc.’s chief executive, Meg Whitman, and retired Gen. Colin Powell.
Also at PC Forum, OnePage.com Inc. (www.onepage.com) is announcing a technology to allow people to pull pieces of content from other Web sites and place them in individualized pages. A user, for example, might open up a browser each day to a page that includes headlines from a local newspaper’s site, the latest quotes of favorite stocks, the local weather and a homework schedule from an elementary school.
The company, also based in Redwood City, was inspired by the fact that most users only visit nine or fewer Web sites a month, despite the millions now available.
OnePage.com’s investors include N.J. Nicholas Jr., former co-chief executive officer of Time Warner Inc., James Dimon, former chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc. and Strauss Zelnick, chief executive officer of Bertelsmann AG’s BMG Entertainment unit.
– Kara Swisher contributed to this article.
I saw an AdMob ad for an “X-Ray Scan” in the Viigo application, which reminded me of the x-ray glasses you would see advertised in comic books along with Sea Monkeys and what-not (living outside of the US as a kid, I was always intrigued by these products yet they were also out of my reach – ironically exactly the point here as we’ll see), and so I “thumbwheeled” on the ad.
It was for mobile wallpaper that looks like an x-ray scan. And of course, I can get lots of other fun wallpapers and ringtones for “just 9.99/mo”. Remember to remove the $ sign, I’m sure, it’s not by accident. I clicked on the terms link. Very sparse, almost non-existent. About – was blank except for a graphic that has the name 28282 on it and very little else. How did I know it was running via AdMob? The title of the page in my browser is “X Ray AdMob”. I have no doubt that these ads are making a whole heckuva lot of money for these guys.
I decided to find out more about 28282 and did a search for them online. I found the Club 28282 page on Class Action Connect and it was quite sad. Lots of posts from parents, kids, people thinking that by complaining on this board someone was going to help them because they were unable to stop the services and/or the SMS spam that accompanied it. One person had over $500 of charges racked up by their 11-year old. Etc. Etc. Read some of the comments. Go on.
What was crazy though, was that I first read this page on my browser, with no ads to speak of, but when I looked again online in a full browser, this is what I saw:
Unreal – Google contextually targeting ringtones and basically pouring salt into the wounds of anyone visiting here by displaying similar ads for the very services people are here to complain about. This stuff is toxic, but the carriers make a lot of money out it and it appears as if they are okay letting the cycle of bad experience – complaint – chargeback go on. I heard a story recently (perhaps apocryphal? sounds very plausible though) of someone who was a big hero back in the day at MCI Worldcom since they figured out a regulation/legal loophole to add a $1 “service fee” onto every customer’s bill. If you called in they would automatically remove it but it was a quick way for them to make millions of extra dollars.
Forget about the ads it runs, for Google, becoming a mobile phone hardware company will give them all the customer service headaches they could ever want. Couldn’t imagine being a phone carrier. Good luck.
I was trying to post a comment to this story on Mediapost about newspapers arguing for behavioral targeting online, but it crapped out on me. So i figured I’d post it here:
I believe there should be more disclosure around BT. I also believe if done properly it can provide a lot of lift for advertisers and the ability for publishers to make more money and have a more sustainable business online. There are, however, double standards as applied to online advertising versus what happens in the offline world. When I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times (or most publications), they make money on selling my name and address (PII) and the fact that I’m a subscriber to various third parties. When I get one of these third-party direct mailings sent to me at home based on my address and data-matched to other information about me in various databases out there, I don’t get to find out who gave it up and how.
Consumers already ignore irrelevant mailings offline and irrelevant ads online, and with silicon being cheaper than paper and BT being non-PII, why do we devote so much more attention it seems to this online side of the equation and make it extra hard for the publishers to stay in business?
Yikes – another newspaper site getting a bit discombobulated. This is what the Washington Post looks like today after Siemens got a hold of it…. this was in IE. Firefox looked similar so not a browser-specific issue.
Great piece by Jay Weintraub borders on rant but makes very good points as he lets rip on Google. Alas it is true but there is a lot to criticize.
Anytime I or any individual criticizes Google, it requires a delicate balance, because a single voice against an established system always struggles not to sound like whiny and scorned. When a system becomes ingrained and accepted, dissenting voices get marginalized and those with dissent often relegated to the same category as conspiracy theorists.
As Jay points out, Google still doesn’t get advertising, despite hype to the contrary and billions in revenue. But that as they say, is a story for another day.
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