06/18/2007
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) says that it received its 1 millionth complaint earlier this week.
Launched seven years ago as a clearing house for reports of online fraud, the IC3 is jointly run by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center. It passes on information to law enforcement agencies, and keeps track of trends in cybercrime.

To date, it has referred nearly a half-million complaints representing almost $650 million in losses to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

06/12/2007
Copyright is a type of intellectual property. A copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted by the government for a limited time to protect the particular form, way or manner in which an idea or information is expressed. Copyright is the legal protection given to artists or producers of creative work which protects them against unauthorized copying of their work.

All copyrighted material must be produced in a tangible medium (photo, paper, CD, or video). Concepts, processes and ideas can not be copy protected in the United States. If a statement is made yet not recorded or published it is not protected under the US copyright laws. In other words things must be recorded in a physical form in order to be protected under the copyright laws in the United States.

Trademarks and Copyrights

06/12/2007
US search engine titan Google has complained to antitrust authorities that Microsoft's Windows Vista operating-system software puts rivals at an unfair disadvantage, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Google Inc. sent a roughly 50-page white paper to the US Justice Department and state attorneys general in April, alleging that Microsoft Corps latest version of its market-dominating operating system violates Microsoft's antitrust settlement, the Journal reported, citing lawyers close to the matter.

Google Files Suit Microsoft

06/07/2007
This aptly named newsletter Competitive Edge is one of my favorites. In the April issue two Google AdSense experts answer questions from advertisers. The newsletter has in depth explanations that detail the ins and outs of the AdSense system.

The May issue exams three successful companies that discuss their journey to software success.

06/04/2007
All business owners like to believe that their business is in someway unique or unlike any other business. At its core though, how different are small businesses really? Nearly all small businesses struggle with relatively similar issues. Most owners wear multiple hats and have had to become jack of all trades in order to succeed and survive in the business world. While it is important to recognize the differences between various small businesses it is equally important to recognize the similarities.

How Unique is Your Business

05/31/2007
Academia has embraced RSS as a means to educate, but scrutinizing how educational institutions are using RSS feeds in their daily routines show RSS is utilized can vary across different industries.

RSS and Academics

05/30/2007
The Google Analytics Web site monitoring service suffered an outage that affected some users for more than 24 hours this week, prompting many to vent on blogs and forums their frustration with the situation and with what they perceived as unresponsiveness on Googles part.


Most affected users reported problems on Tuesday and Wednesday, although some still experienced problems on Friday. In seemingly all cases, users could access their accounts but found that the Analytics dashboard reported significantly reduced or even zero traffic to their sites.

05/29/2007
The Competitive Edge Newsletter really does a great job digging into the issue of Google Adwords. Shareware Promotions invited Adword users to send in their questions then two Adwords qualified specialists responded with their answers.

Google Adwords Questions and Answers

05/29/2007
Everyone has certain words they struggle to spell correctly. When it comes to spelling, we are not perfect—you can count on us to occasionally botch recieve (sic), accomodations (sic), and relavant (sic). With the Scripps National Spelling Bee on the horizon Yahoo posted the most commonly misspelled words in search.

Wallmart (Wal-Mart)
Rachel Ray (Rachael Ray)
Amtrack (Amtrak)
Hillary Duff (Hilary Duff)
Katherine McPhee (Katharine McPhee)
Britany Spears (Britney Spears)
Geneology (Genealogy)
Jaime Pressley (Jaime Pressly)
Volkswagon (Volkswagen)
Wikepedia (Wikipedia)
William Sonoma (Williams-Sonoma)
Tatoo (Tattoo)
Travelosity (Travelocity)
Elliot Yamin (Elliott Yamin)
Kiera Knightley (Keira Knightley)
Kelly Pickler (Kellie Pickler)
Brittney Spears (Britney Spears)
Avril Lavinge (Avril Lavigne)
Rianna (Rihanna)
Jordan Sparks (Jordin Sparks)

05/22/2007
Independent artists have long struggled to gain recognition and attract an audience. Without the backing of a major label it can be very difficult for independent artists to obtain radio play time, that is, until now. Podcasting a revolutionary new medium, has opened new distribution channels for independent artists. Podcasting is the process of distributing audio files using the RSS format and has become very popular with the younger generations.