E-commerce

Google to crack down further on ads for fake goods

Google is promising a few improvements to its online ad system to help stop the spate of advertisers hawking counterfeit items.

In a blog posted yesterday, the search giant tallied the number of advertisers using AdWords at more than 1 million spread across at least 190 different countries. As a result, finding specific accounts that advertise phony products can be a challenge. Google was able to shut down around 50,000 such accounts just in the second half of 2010, but the company admits that more needs to be done.

To help stop the proliferation of fake items sold through … Read more

Facebook to test Groupon-like deals service

Facebook will soon begin testing a service that will provide its members local discounts, a move that will put it in direct competition with daily-deals giant Groupon.

The service will be tested in Dallas, Austin, Atlanta, San Francisco, and San Diego, and will expand on the social-networking giant's Deals program, which offers users deals to members when they use Facebook Places to check in at local business, the company said. Members will be able to buy deals and share them with their friends on the network.

"Local businesses will be able to sign up to use this feature … Read more

Amazon ends affiliate program in Illinois

Amazon.com is ending another affiliates program over states' efforts to collect sales tax.

The Internet retailer notified its affiliates in Illinois yesterday that it would sever their business relationships after Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law a bill that would require in-state affiliates to collect state sales tax on purchases made by Illinois residents. Affiliates place ads for retailers on their Web sites and get paid when customers make purchases via the ads.

Amazon, which has opposed similar efforts in other states, informed its some 9,000 Illinois affiliates in a letter that it would terminate the program … Read more

Amazon considering free Kindles for Prime members?

There are more rumors fluttering around Seattle that at some point, likely the holiday season of 2011, Amazon will start giving away its Kindle e-book reader for free, likely to select (as in Prime) members. And as the e-book market expands, the possibility is looking more and more likely.

Amazon doesn't make much money on the Kindle e-book reading device. And it's not supposed to; the hardware is a loss-leader that allows mobile access to--and binds customers to--Amazon's e-books store. It's a way for Amazon to say that, yes, its e-books really can replace dead tree … Read more

Warner Bros. to deliver movies on Facebook

Warner Bros. is apparently hoping to attract new fans by offering movies for viewing on Facebook.

The movie studio announced this evening it would begin testing a program that would offer movies for sale or rental for a brief period through its fan pages on the social-networking giant.

Beginning tomorrow, Facebook users can use Facebook Credits to rent "The Dark Knight" through the movie's official fan page on the social-networking site, Warner said in statement. The movie can be rented for 30 Facebook credits or $3, and Facebook users will have access to the movie for 48 … Read more

Will Facebook replace company Web sites?

LONDON--A day might be coming when the power of Facebook means that major companies no longer bother with their own Web sites.

That was the startling if self-promotional possibility sketched out by Stephen Haines, commercial director of Facebook's U.K. operation, while speaking today at the Technology for Marketing and Advertising conference here. Essentially, Haines argued, companies' interactions with their customers could take place so often on Facebook that company Web sites would fall by the wayside.

To bolster his argument, Haines showed statistics comparing how many times Facebook users have clicked a company's "like" button … Read more

At Demo Spring, start-ups sow seeds (roundup)

The confab gives young companies six minutes to make their spiel. In a landscape brimming with such shows, is Demo still worth the admission fee?

At Demo Spring, a 'social' tsunami At this week's tech showcase, products, services, and apps built around connecting people are dominating at perhaps an unprecedented level. (Posted in Geek Gestalt by Daniel Terdiman) March 2, 2011 4:00 AM PST

With Marginize, the conversation comes to Web pages At Demo Spring, the Cambridge, Mass., company shows off a publisher widget that allows site owners to embed its tool directly into their Web pages. (Posted … Read more

Amazon threatens to cut Calif. affiliates over taxes

Amazon.com has threatened to cut off more than 10,000 affiliates in California if state lawmakers pass legislation requiring the Internet retailer to collect sales tax from state residents.

Seattle-based Amazon said four bills introduced in the state legislature are unconstitutional because they would require sellers with no physical presence in California to collect sales tax from its residents, Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president for global public policy, wrote in a letter (PDF) to the California Board of Equalization, the state agency responsible for collecting property and sales taxes.

"If any of these new tax collection schemes … Read more

Yelp unhappy with Google's service

Yelp is unhappy with Google running its users' reviews, but says its former suitor is unwilling to negotiate compensation.

The search giant is unfairly benefiting by running Yelp's local business reviews on the Google Places page without any compensation, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman told the Telegraph newspaper. But Stoppelman says Google is offering only a take-it-or-leave-it response.

"We are unhappy with the way Google uses our users' review on its Places page," Stoppelman said. "However, there is no solution to the problem...Google's position is that we can take ourselves out of its search index … Read more