Marketing Pilgrim

Amazon Web Services (AWS) – programmatic access to Amazon’s data and infrastructure via open APIs – have announced a contest to find the next hot web start-up.

Contenders must leverage the pay-as-you-use AWS solutions and submit their idea or existing application by October 28. Five budding entrepreneurs will then be selected as finalists based on…

originality and creativity of the idea, likelihood of long-term success, how well it addresses a need in the marketplace…

and, oh yes, one other criteria… US residency. Doh! I just booked my ticket to Seattle.

[The finalists] will pitch their business to VCs, mingle with industry leaders and Amazon executives, and be featured at the AWS Awards Ceremony

The grand prize winner will get $50k in cash, $50k credit toward Amazon Web Services (mmm… would prefer the cash), and an investment offer from Amazon — that’s if you haven’t already bagged an offer over dinner.

Yahoo! have finally secured a deal with a major social networking property for display and video advertising. Bebo, the UK and Ireland’s most popular social networking site, has entered into a multi-year, exclusive partnership.

Yahoo! Europe will help advertisers reach a young British audience of over 11 million users, generally ranging from 13 to 24 years – a sought-after but traditionally difficult group to target.

Although no financials have been disclosed, the deal is rumored to involve a revenue guarantee – an approach reportedly made by Google in a deal that snatched MySpace advertising, and possibly part of Microsoft’s recent Facebook agreement.

Joanna Shields, President of Bebo International, told Reuters that choosing a market leader like Yahoo! was the important part of the decision.

In an environment like Bebo where our users are our core constituency, we had to be sure that the ad partner that we selected could deliver a targeted ad that was going to complement the experience of the social network.

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Only one week has passed since NBC / News Corp announced the name of their online video project – Hulu.
And it was TechCrunch that made us all laugh when they ironically translated Hulu into Swahili – meaning, among other things, “cease” and “desist”.

Observations like that usually fizzle away – at least Jason Kilar, Hulu CEO, wishes it would. Yesterday, Lulu Enterprises confirmed that they have filed a law suit against N-F Newsite LLC (the operating company) for “trademark infringement, unfair and deceptive trade practices and for federal cyberpiracy” in a US District Court on August 22.

Lulu alleges that Hulu, as a result of their recent name and Internet domain announcements, have intentionally attempted to create confusion in the marketplace.
Hulu, in name, as a mark and in their business as a digital content distribution platform, represents a definitive encroachment.

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A predictable clash of interests is brewing.

Mark Zuckerberg – programmer and founder of the social networking site Facebook – has taken yet another controversial decision, this time to integrate profile searching, in an effort to drive more traffic from name-based searches across the major search engines.

Although users will be able to exclude their profiles and the facility will be restricted to over 18’s, initially many participants will be concerned for their privacy.

The Public Search Listing of a profile shows the profile picture thumbnail and links to interact with a user on Facebook. People will always have to log in or register to poke, message or add someone as a friend. A user can also restrict what information shows in their public listing by going to the search privacy page.

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Last Friday (Aug 31) Jordan blogged about the alleged bust-up between NBC Universal and Apple over pricing – also covering the speculation over alternative partners and forecasting a speedy counter-decision from NBC executives.

Well, our First Lady (no offence to Mrs Beal) wasn’t wrong; NBC wasted no time in securing a new download outlet for their premium television shows – swiftly signing a partnership deal to host their digital TV content with Amazon’s Unbox – an online store already selling NBC Universal’s movies.

This represents another blow to Apple – Universal Music Group had already decided not to renew their contract for music downloads over a decision to offer DRM-free content across other networks.

To kick-off the arrangement, Unbox will release pilot episodes of NBC’s new shows Bionic Woman, Chuck, Journeyman and Life in advance of their network premieres. Other shows will also be available the day after they’re broadcast.

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Just as users report a second major eBay property outage in the last 30 days, PayPal wake up to the stark reality of Google’s expansion plans with the publication of a new Patent application.

PayPal’s subscription service stopped working the same day, August 30. Service providers affected by the outage have been advised that the issue could take until September 5 or 6 to fix – possibly delaying tens of millions of dollars in monthly subscription payments.

In the meantime, the US Patent Office released details of Google’s text message-based payment system filed under the guise of Gpay on February 28, 2006. Although dubbed as a mobile web solution – possibly Google Checkout for mobile, Gpay does have the blueprint of being web independent. Images clearly indicate the offline payment of goods – including vending machines, point of delivery, and over-the-counter from retailers – where the transaction is facilitated using a mobile device.

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According to a study conducted by email marketing experts Lyris, there is “an increasing reliance on the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) authentication method” to determine the legitimacy of inbound mail.

SPF is an open standard method to prevent sender address forgery. The solution to combat fake email works via a delivery policy specified in the domain’s DNS zone records. The receiving server can check whether a message has complied with the domain’s stated policy before conducting further checks.

The study, which monitored almost half a million messages, shows that permission-based email is delivered roughly 75 percent of the time to major ISP inboxes. Further examination showed a decrease in image spam and an increase in spam using PDF, PowerPoint or Excel files.

However, for marketers looking to improve deliverability of their campaigns, the most relevant finding was the appearance of SPF authentication checks in the list of the top 10 content triggers used by ISPs.

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Forgive the title pun – CNet reports that Yahoo! are currently working on a concept social networking service called – you guessed it – KickStart. A LinkedIn style job network to connect college students with potential employers.

The features you see in screenshots, like the one above, may never materialise – but if this concept were to get the Sunnyvale green light, never will there have been a truer statement than “it’s who you know, not what you know” — to get an “in” to the company of your dreams you will need an invite from an employee who was also a previous alumnus of your college.

Research surveys are already being conducted among students to discover exactly what they think of this new idea. A Yahoo! spokesperson commented:

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eBay is launching its own mobile re-bidding service in the UK, France and Belgium, following a successful test period in Spain – rolled out last September. The service, being delivered by mBlox and Dynetic, will allow users to monitor auctions while on the move and has been designed to scale across all European markets.

Although there are similar, partner services, this official solution will be integrated and will be offered to users as an option during the online bidding process. The service will help users to track higher bids through SMS alerts, so they can react from their handset if they need to increase a bid.

Described as a “fundemental evolution” in Internet auctioning, Ian Jordan, Head of UK Innovation, explains the problem with traditional web-based auctions;

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In a leaked internal memo to Yahoo! Sales staff, President Susan Decker outlines a management team shake-up “that creates a new division responsible for generating the bulk of the company’s revenue”. [NYTimes]

Here’s a rundown of the full memo issued following Decker’s consultations with Jerry Yang – CEO and Chief Honcho Yahoo!:

• Greg Coleman, EVP of Global Sales, is out – and will pursue other opportunities by mutual agreement!
• Hilary Schneider, EVP of Local Markets & Commerce Division (LMC), will head a new “umbrella” division called, Global Partner Solutions (GPS) – encompassing Global Sales, the Online Channel, the Yahoo! Publisher Network, Corporate Partnerships and Hot Jobs
• Jeff Weiner, EVP Network Division, will take back Schneider’s LMC units having lost them in a previous reorg
• Marco Boerries, EVP of Connected Life Division, will continue with Mobile Business Development under close co-ordination of GPS

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In a BBC Radio 4 interview [podcast], Vint Cerf – known as one of the founding fathers of the Internet – protested that the Internet is merely reflecting society not leading it…

[The net] should not be used as a scapegoat for society’s ills

Cerf, now Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google, confirms the Search giant does not have nor wants the responsibility of censoring the Internet, but will respond appropriately to legal issues identified by relevant authorities – citing Google’s position in China as a prime example.

Anyone regulating beyond what was clearly illegal put themselves on a “slippery slope” that could limit freedom of expression.

His comments come after the UK’s Conservative Party proposed ideas to curb the access young people have to sites such as YouTube. Google (owner of YouTube) and other Social Networking sites have been heavily criticised in the UK Press for not excercising their self-regulation policies (where users flag offensive content) in a more timely fashion.

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Google Inc. have announced that Chief Financial Officer, George Reyes, will be stepping down – a move remarked as one of the first departures from its top executive ranks.

Both CEO Eric Schmidt, who worked alongside Reyes at Sun Microsystems, and co-founder Larry Page praised his contribution:

[George was successful in] keeping Google financially disciplined while protecting the company’s entrepreneurial culture.

Some have speculated that Google’s previous lackluster quarter has led to disagreement around the boardroom table regarding the Internet giant’s future strategy – one of diversification led by a massive hiring initiative.

Reyes will assist in the search for his successor in an effort to cut recruitment expenses – a transition hoped to be achieved by the end of the year.