12/31/2007
Top 10 Winners Predicted for 2008
1. Video
2. Healthy
3. Long Tail
4. Buy USA
5. Rich Internet / Interactive Web / Semantic Web / Web Services
6. Aggregate and Attention Data
7. Power of the People
8. Going Green
9. Biometrics and Big Brother
10. Prosthetics / Bionic

Top 10 Losers Predicted for 2008
1. Lead
2. Squat Toilets
3. DRM
4. China
5. Skinny is Out
6. Blockbuster / Netflix
7. Orbo
8. MySpace fell to Facebook
9. Privacy
10. Piracy

More on 2007 Predictions - http://www.small-business-software.net/whats-hot-whats-not-2008.htm

12/17/2007
According to InfoWorld:

Google is developing an online publishing platform where people can write entries on subjects they know, an idea that's close to Wikipedia's user-contributed encyclopedia but with key differences.

The project, which is in an invitation-only beta stage, lets users create clean-looking Web pages with their photo and write entries on, for example, insomnia. Those entries are called knols for "unit of knowledge," Google said. Google wants the knols to develop into a deep repository of knowledge, covering topics such as geography, history, and entertainment.

12/12/2007
The Internet is a bit like the old wild west, and sadly, people often post material about an individual, product, company, or service that is inaccurate or simply nasty. Businesses and individuals alike are struggling with how to best deal with online inaccuracy and defamation. The normal steps for dealing with defamation typically involve litigation, but this is not always realistic for Internet-based situations since the Internet is global, and not managed or governed by any single set of laws.

If you have the good fortune of being located in the same legal jurisdiction as the offending poster and their website hosting company, you might be able to successfully prosecute them; or at the very least, you might be able to get the webpage with the offending material taken down by the website host. Keep in mind that most defamation court cases require that you show that actual harm was done by the offending material, which can often be difficult.

Reputation Management

12/11/2007
Young Europeans prefer the Internet over television, and nearly half say they watch less TV because of surfing the web, a poll of 10 European countries showed Wednesday.

complete article

12/10/2007
Two national retail advocacy groups are at odds with each other over whether Internet sellers should collect sales tax from their buyers.


The National Retail Federation and the Electronic Retailers Association issued dueling statements on Thursday asking Congress to consider with extreme caution any legislation that would make it easier to require Internet merchants, mail-order houses and other remote sellers to collect sales tax across state lines. The debate is based around U.S. Representative William Delahunt's, D-Mass., bill that would allow states that have implemented the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement  to require out-of-state sellers to collect sales tax on merchandise sold their residents. The legislation is different than the Internet Tax Freedom Act Amendment Acts of 2007, which President Bush signed into law on October 31, in that the SSUTA permits states implementing the Streamlined Sales Tax Project to collect sales and use taxes on catalog and Internet purchases.

complete article