Amazon.com has launched a new technology they are coining “payphrase” for users to make purchases online.  Traditionally, a user name and password is required to buy goods on the site, followed by shipping information and other credit card specifics.  With this new model, users will simply type their phrase, such as, “my home”, followed by a pin code, and a conformation click.  Once the phrase is typed the account information will automatically come up and be shipped to the consumers house.  This idea begs the question of how easy will it eventually be to buy goods online.  Amazon keeps pushing the envelope to make purchasing online as user friendly as possible.  With this new way of buying consumers will not have to share credit card information with third party sites such as paypal.  In addition, sites such as buy.com and dkny.com who use the Amazon checkout service will also be adapted to use payphrase.  In today’s online market a number of tools are used to bring new consumers in.  Amazon’s attempt at this new payphrase does not seem to really be that much more simple than a username and password.  The success of this new technology is still to be seen, but just like usernames the payphrase idea may work until all common phrases are used up.  The next step in this online purchasing game will soon be voice recognition software on smartphones to make purchasing things online even more accessable.  I dont know if i agree with this marketing scheme as it does not seem to make things any simpler, but the proof will certainly be seen in the pudding.

The article on RBD’s blog dealt with the future plans apple has for its online store Itunes.  As of now, Itunes sells the majority of online music in the market, as well as videos and applications.  The company is thinking of expanding this market to include software for Mac users as well.  This would be a great step for the company for a number of reasons.  One, most software must still be bought in stores, or purchased through manufacturers websites.  With Itunes hosting software, users could download the desired software through their Itunes.  This one stop shop solution would no doubt see positive feedback from all mac users and further expand the itunes brand.

The article i read dealt with the popular video site Hulu.com and the struggles it has had adapting to a volatile market.  Hulu is a site that streams primetime and cable television shows with no charge to viewers.  The idea behind this site was to try and combat popular video piracy sites such as torrents and give viewers high quality streaming video legally.  Usually viewers would have to pay for such a privilege, but Hulu shows advertisements embedded in their shows to pay for use of content.  For a while it seemed that this model of advertisement would suit the site, but the recent influx of viewers has some hulu executives concerned.  Hulu has had talks about switching up their ad-supported model into something else, but most critics think that with time this model will show to be viable.  The problem of overconsumption and not enough advertising will ultimately result in multi-million dollar ad deals with the company, though right now it just seems to be overloading the site.  Top Hulu executives have also heard talks dealing with changing the site over to a pay to watch model, which would no doubt be much more profitable in the short-term for the company.  The problem with this idea is simple, the reason people watch hulu is because it is free.  If the site were to start charging to watch it would lose a great percentage of their customers.  Though the ad-supported model takes time to work out exactly how many viewers are watching the show and respectively how much advertisers should pay, with time this model can prove to be profitable.

Becca’s article dealt with a new trend emerging in the automotive industry dealing with brand loyalty.  For many decades consumers have bought certain brands of cars with relative commitment to the brand.  When an old car stopped running, consumers generally bought the same brand of automobile as before.  Today however, people are buying varying brands of cars largely in part to the information that can be gathered on the internet.  Shoppers are gaining insight into new technology and features on foreign automobiles or brands they have typically never even looked at.  We are seeing a new age of consumer that is fueled by information gained online.

The article i read from the New York times dealt with Googles rise out its previous economic slump.  For a while now Google has been on a hiring freeze, no doubt from its decilining share value.  However with many industries that has struggled in the last 2 years, Google has already restarted buying small net companies and hiring new employees.  The strategy for the last 2 months has been stablizing the economic situation, then gradually increase advertising and jobs.  Many people may think this recession has no end in sight, but with economic activity increasing, most intel companies will most likely recover.  For a long time now, Google has been such a powerhouse one would seem to think that they were impervious to decline.  Though Google’s rapid rise to power was no doubt impressive, and the amount of revenue they produce is substantial, even this titan can feel the pressure of tightening the belt.  They have also aquired a small number of startup buisnesses in silicon valley, further spreading their control over the industry.  Google has no doubt seen some changes in the past years, but they will continue to muscle their way to control a number of industries.  Their advertising revenue alone is incredible, and though they felt the wake of the recession, no real damage has been dealt to this company.  It is amazing to me the amount of manpower it takes to run such a large buisness, and google employees have been among many others who joined the unemployment line recently.  The end to this, however does seem to be near.

The New York Times has a very interesting article relating to websites that compile user submitted recipes and the popularity these sites are gaining among online investors.  The idea behind these sites is that excellent recipes exist in households all over the world, not just in popular TV chefs kitchens.  Users can alter or add additions to existing recipes, or just add their own secret family recipe.  These sites also offer cooking techniques and instruction for the not so seasoned chef.  This collaboration of information is similar to the idea driving the popular encyclopedia site Wikipedia, just with food.  The article talks about one site, foodista.com, which has 6.5 visitors every month.  The high traffic flow of recipe collaboration websites is drawing the attention of many online investors.  Most of these sites use the wiki model, that is user submitted information that is then altered and improved by peer review.  These sites are creating communities of cooks, similar to social networking sites just centered around the love of cooking and food.  In my opinion these sites will continue to gain momentum as users discover the wealth of knowledge that actually exists in kitchens all over the world.  Though watching television cooking shows and visiting famous chef’s websites will no doubt produce excellent recipes, they are not the only venues for good recipes.  Plenty of families have interesting variations of food preparation based on culture and upbringing, and a site where anyone can submit and have their recipes reviewed is great for those looking for something a little different for each meal, as well as offering aspiring cooks some feedback on their own recipes.

The article i read on Shaun’s blog dealt with talk of Microsoft launching its new operating system, Windows 7.  This new system will hopefully bring the company out of the sales slump as far as operating systems go.  With the surge in sales of PC users switching to Mac and the relatively unpopular launch of Microsoft Vista, the company needs to produce an effective, error free operating system to instill trust back in PC users.  I personally can’t stand Windows Vista, and would love to see a new system that is more up to date than the currently 9 year old Windows XP.  Windows has to get this software right to make sure they will continue to stay an operating system power player.

The news report i read described the sticky legal situation between the founders of SKYPE and the new owners of the company, Ebay.  The technology that runs Skype was apparently not included with the sale of the corporation however, as now the founders of SKYPE want EBAY to relinquish control of the technology.  This is an interesting case because with technology ever advancing the sale of technology based companies does not necessarily mean the sale of the technology behind it.  In my opinion, the sale of SKYPE for 2 billion dollars definitely constitutes the ownership of the internet phone technology as well.  However in today’s ever changing technological horizon, many cases similar to these will no doubt arise.

The New York Times published an interesting article pertaining to the scanning of out of print books for sale online.  The article speaks to google’s advances to take advantage of publishing companies yet again, however this time it deals with the selling of digital copies of books that were published and written before the digital age.  American courts have upheld that google is allowed to sell out of print digital copies of publications, but the European Commission has sponsored this hearing to discuss the amount of copies and number of books the company will be allowed to publish and sell online.  Though these books are still under protection of copyright laws, there is a seemingly grey area surrounding the sale of these digital copies online.  A United States District Court judge is currently reviewing the possibility for google to sell these books as long as they are covered by American copyrights.  However, European publishing companies may still see losses from books that are sold in the American market place.  In opinion Google is once again taking advantage of hard copy publications in order to profit in the seemingly lawless “digital” world.  Just as newspapers are slowly being taken over by digital copies and headlines news on sites such as google and yahoo, books are slowly falling into the same trouble.  If Google is allowed to keep assuming massive amounts of information digitally, they will soon hold a monopoly position in publications of a multitude of books.  Another alarming aspect of this case seems to be that Google is constantly in court for some sort of copyright infringement, a trend that doesn’t seem to be going away.

This article in the New York  times explores complaints made by Italian news publishers regarding advertising revenue withheld by google.  The basis of the complaint is rooted in google news, a search engine that highlights breaking news on the site, but does not force viewers to click the link.  In essence, google is taking information from publishers and posting the meat of the information on google news, allowing readers to get headlines without clicking the link, which generates revenue for the publisher.  This article is important for a number of reasons in today’s ever changing economic environment.  With newspaper sales dropping all across the globe, many publishers have turned to online publications to compensate revenue loss.  The problem arising is that many publishers want to be compensated for their headlines that google is using, but not paying for, unless the viewer clicks on the link to read the article.  However many viewers are content just reading news headlines which contain most of the important information they need.  In my opinion google is taking advantage of these publishers in order to further their google news site.  Ripping off headlines without paying publishers is wrong, however google remains steadfast in their position that they are not treating publishing houses unfairly.  If google was to remove the publisher from their search engine, no advertising revenue would be yielded.  However, if viewers are just reading the headlines without clicking on them, google reaps the benefits while publishers are left in the dust.  This is a slippery slope because google is the venue for which these publishers make money, but they like anyone want to be treated fairly.