St. Petersburg Web Design Blog

Archive for July, 2006

Go ahead and add some video, sound or flash to those web sites. Just about everyone has hi-speed internet access now. Ok maybe not, the percentage of high speed users in America is still less than half (only 42%). This is a pitiful number when compared to the rest of the developed world. America is ranked at #12 in the percentage of high speed users according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s most recent rankings.

U.S. high-speed Internet subscriptions soared 33 percent last year to 50.2 million lines, according to the latest data released by the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday.

An estimated 42 percent of Americans had high-speed Internet access at home in March 2006, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That was up from 30 percent of Americans with high-speed access one year earlier, it said.

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Google Inc. said Tuesday that it plans to be more transparent with advertisers about a problem known as click fraud, reversing a policy of secrecy that left many advertisers in the dark about whether they were victims of scammers.

Starting late Tuesday night, Google was to start giving advertisers an estimate of the number and percentage of invalid clicks on individual accounts over a day, week, quarter and year.

Google said the numbers will go a long way to help advertisers determine the scope of the click fraud. Previously, to get an estimate of invalid clicks, advertisers had to examine their internal logs or hire a third-party measurement company.

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The music and movie industries have reached a legal settlement with their longtime antagonist Kazaa, one of the world’s best known file-sharing networks and a once-popular source of illicit downloads. Under the terms of the deal, Kazaa’s owner Sharman Networks will pay the world’s four major music companies — Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music — more than $100 million and commit to going legitimate, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. “There are very substantial damages being paid — in excess of $100 million — and Kazaa will go legal immediately . . .”

This settelment raises two questions right away:

   
1. What do they mean by going legitimate?

   

2. Does installing spyware on peoples computers really pay that much?

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Doesn’t make much sense does it? But wait, maybe it does . . .
Read the Full story at Search Engine Watch

The U.S. Commerce Department will hold a Wednesday hearing on the government’s September deadline to give up control over Internet domain names, a schedule that some high-tech industry advocates say should be delayed.

The U.S. government controls the naming system for “.com” and all web addresses through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California-based not-for-profit company that decides what names can and cannot be registered.
Some foreign governments and critics have been concerned that the U.S. government has too much control over what has become a global commerce, communications and social engine. The transition is currently slated to take place by September 30, but the U.S. Commerce Department has the option to extend its control.
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Even though I haven’t missed a single phone call, I’ve been out of town and off-line all week. I had an Aunt die down in Naples. I had never met her before, so you can save your well intended condolences. The house was inherited by a cousin of mine who had been living there for years. The house needed cleaned and repaired so the new owner could continue living there.

Without going into details, the clean up was far more labor intensive then I was led to believe. But the house is far better than it was before. And I’m back at my desk studying ASP.NET 2.0, cranking out web sites and answering calls from my clients. (Like I said before I had my cell-phone with me so I was able to take calls while I was out of town).

So I’m here ready to work for you so send me some work