Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits, Cozy Up To ISPs Instead
December 20, 2008
After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy. read more
New Domain Names To Become Available
November 6, 2008
Relief may be on the way for small businesses stuck with bad Web addresses.
Next year, the organization that oversees the Internet will start selling rights to an unlimited number of new top-level domains — the suffixes like .com that appear at the end of Web-site names. Domains likely to appear include those that take their names from popular subjects, types of businesses and geographic locations, such as .books, .flowers and .nyc.
The good news for small businesses is that if a company currently has a .com address that is cumbersome or hard to remember, like joesflowersnyc.com, it may soon get a shot at a new address that’s identical to the name of the company, or one that is just easier to find on the Web — say, joes.flowers or joesflowers.nyc. read more
Venture Capital Financing Slows Amid Economic Downturn
October 27, 2008
Silicon Valley technology startups are adopting a new business plan: deferral.
MerchantCircle Inc., a Los Altos, Calif., Internet startup, typifies the trend. Last month, company founder Ben Smith was in New York talking to media companies about raising $50 million, with which he planned to make acquisitions to fuel MerchantCircle’s growth. But as the financial markets tumbled this month, Mr. Smith canceled two trips to New York and a roadshow to Europe to raise the capital. For now, the fundraising is on the backburner.
“When we started the year we were pushing really hard for growth,” says Mr. Smith, who in 2005 founded MerchantCircle, which provides online advertising services for small businesses. “That’s just not as important anymore. Now it’s all about cash flow.” read more
Wholesalers turn to the web
September 18, 2008
As times get tough, wholesalers are turning to the web, setting up online stores to move more product and hit the end consumer directly. read more
Top 10 Small Business Owner Woes
July 23, 2008
The National Federation of Independent Business has recently released a report on the top 10 matters that plague small business owners. read more