DygiScape

O RLY? AOL’s Reports +11% Unique Visitors, +35% Page Views (3/07 — 3/08)

The ship hasn’t sunk — yet. AOL claims that Internet traffic to their Web sites increased 35% (page views), along with 11% growth in unique visitors. However, this begs the meme — O RLY? More »

Google: No Child Porn, No Evil and We’re FCC Pioneers

Google has been in the news a lot lately regarding their advancements to combat child pornography, remaining on higher ground for corporate decisions and only bidding in the 700MHz Band FCC auction for the goodwill of everyone. I’ll share my perspective each piece. More »

Consumer Advocacy: Ad Industry Bans Sensitive Demographics

Have you wondered why you see ads on the Web for alcohol when you’re in your 20s or ads for refinancing after you purchased a property or even ads for credit reports when you’ve visited a Web site about credit scoring? That’s called Ad-Targeting. More »

Microhoo: Yahoo Raises the Stakes (Again)

In an attempt to either upset Microsoft or their shareholders, Yahoo rejected Microsoft’s higher bid to acquire them. Microsoft responded with a veiled threat for a “hostile” takeover — which Yahoo would like to avoid. More »

VA Requires Students to Learn Online Safety

Virginia, the state that houses NCMEC and AOL, has enacted a policy that schools must now facilitate classes that help keeps kids safe on the Web. Before I shoot it down, I want to say that this is a step in the right direction; I just don’t believe that the fear of online predators is all that realistic. More »

Web Analytics: Not Just For Webmasters Anymore

YouTube has rolled out a feature that empowers video creators in understanding the traffic their videos receive. Web Analytics have often been associated with Webmasters or at most Web site owners, but this gives people some real-world insight into what Web sites know about the, all from the kind folks at Google. More »

Some Thoughts on Community Moderation

It’s probably a good time that I share my thoughts on the tireless debate surrounding online community moderation of user contributed content — what works, what doesn’t and what the future holds for moderation of the Web. More »

Firefox Breaks 500M Downloads!

Mozilla Firefox has officially broke past 500 million downloads of their Web Browser. In light of their success, Mozilla has donated 500M grains of rice which will feed approximately 25,000 people.

Firefox has been the browser of choice among power users and it appears word of mouth marketing has paid off is paying it forward for people in need by donating 500M grains of rice in celebration over to FreeRice.

Mozilla is able to make this possible with a very positive synergy between Google. For every download of Firefox, Google funds Mozilla an estimated $1.50 per installation. Google knows that with the integrated search bar that isn’t intrusive but very useful, they will have a lot of Web traffic, visibility on their ads and deliver millions of impressions for their advertising network. Do people mind? Obviously not.

To download Mozilla Firefox (it’s FIREFOX, not “Foxfire”), just head on over to Mozilla’s Web site and grab yourself a copy of the best darn Web browser since 1994 — that was, Netscape.

Congrats, Mozilla! Thanks for making the fastest, most secure and easy to use Web browser.

eBay Empowers Buyers, No Retaliated Negative Feedback

Good news for frequent buyers on eBay — buyers will not need to fear negative feedback on their own ratings if an auction goes sour. EBay plans to revamp their feedback system, of which has gained the trust from millions of users over the years, specifically eliminating abusive feedback that sellers issue to buyers. [Link via Techmeme]

This is one step eBay has effectively empowered their users who purchase items from poor sellers. It is well known that if you leave bad feedback on a seller (or even a deadbeat one), they are likely to return fire and damage your online reputation on eBay — with no recourse available from eBay.  This change absolves the problem from surreptitious sellers who penalize buyers for their own inadequacies.

As I’ve said this is good news; however, this can leave legitimate sellers powerless in the event of a deadbeat bidder. There’s already some buzz among power sellers to boycott eBay in response to these changes. I believe eBay should step up their services they provide sellers in addressing non-paying bidders (NPBs) as a means to make reasonable resolution. Could this mean eBay will offer “auction insurance” which provides collection services against NPBs? I’m not sure, but it would be interesting as these changes are executed.

What do you think? Could these changes backfire or improve the user experience on eBay? Share you thoughts in the comments below.

‘Cyber Monday’ 2007 Recap

“Cyber Monday,” the shopping day after Thanksgiving, was a success with very minimal headaches for consumers.

Yahoo’s Small Business Web sites did go down for a bit. I imagine this probably upset eager merchants who were expecting a large flow of online sales. Web surfers, like everyone else probably just moved on to another Web site that flaunted free shipping or related deals.

The numbers were pleasing, too. Retailers are happy to report that overall, Cyber Monday sales rose 21% from last year, with consumers spending $733 million in a day online.

Personally, I didn’t do any shopping; as I was stuck in a vacuum catching up from other urgent/important matters that were left over the holiday weekend.  However, I imagine that some people did manage to purchase something. (However, when do you decide to start buying things over your corporate network? … I’ll save that for a future entry.)

Did anyone get anything online on Monday? I know I didn’t, but just curious if you want to be a statistic.