The speculation and pondering by talking heads is getting old and I’m ready for trading to begin. Through out this whole craziness today, there is also one other coming besides the instant ultra billionaire status of Mark Zuckerberg, and that is the bashing on Twitter! Jokes, funny quips, and warnings are coming because if there is one thing that Twitter is good for, it’s advice:

The slim margin doesn’t match the hype coming into the report. WebProNews writer David Utter mentioned earlier this week that some Wall Street figures projected Google would beat estimates by as much as 50 cents per share.

Google-owned sites generated $2.73 billion, or 65 percent of total revenues, a 68 percent increase over third quarter last year. Google network revenues, generated through AdSense amounted to $1.45 billion, or 34 percent of total revenues, a 40 percent increase over this time last year.

Google’s total cash is $13.1 billion.

"We are very pleased with the impressive growth we experienced across our business," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt, in a statement. "Our core search advertising business experienced continued momentum driven by growth in monetization and traffic, and we are creating a wider and deeper ads system through our focus on innovation, bringing more ad formats to our advertisers.

"Our efforts to offer more products and services in international markets as well as effectively grow our technology infrastructure and add to our deep talent base during the quarter helped to deliver growth by enabling Google to reach more users around the world."

Though EPS were largely as expected, analysts expect Google shares to soar above $700 if and when Google announces its entry into the mobile phone market.

Regardless, eBay still beat analyst expectations by pulling in $1.89 billion in revenue for the third quarter. Analysts had expected $1.83 billion.

"During the quarter we made significant progress against our business unit strategies which resulted in record net revenues of $1.89 billion, a 30% year-over-year increase," said eBay President and CEO, Meg Whitman.

"eBay International, PayPal Merchant Services, StubHub, classifieds and our advertising businesses all performed above our expectations."

Even so, nervousness about increased spending and discounts drove shares down. Currently, eBay is trading at $38.06, down 6.26 percent.

As newspapers focus increasingly on locally relevant news, Curley said the AP is proposing changes that would allow members to subscribe to a core package of breaking news and then add other news packages. Currently, it offers broader packages of news defined mainly by the volume of news delivered — small, medium or large.

So a near monopoly is breaking up how it sells content to other news agencies? I think that more than anything else shows the effect search and the internet are having on news agencies.

The media is addicted to search, and Google is keeping them addicted by giving them a bit more traffic. The NYT is already republishing old stories to spam Google. Eventually I wouldn’t be surprised to see the AP sell chunks of stories that local papers can chose to wrap their own content around, to get past duplicate content filters.

Microsoft just launched AdWriter (a free tool to write ad copy), and Thomson Financial already admits to using robots to automatically write some of their stories:

Thomson Financial has been using automatic computer programs to generate news stories for almost six months. The machines can spit out wire-ready copy based on financial reports a mere 0.3 seconds after receiving the data.

This movement toward efficiency and recycling is the exact opposite of what the papers need to do if they want to stay relevant, but the machines are already in motion, doing everything from writing the news to trading stocks:

Quants seek to strip human emotions such as fear and greed out of investing. Today, their brand of computer-guided trading has reached levels undreamed of a decade ago. A third of all U.S. stock trades in 2006 were driven by automatic programs, or algorithms, according to Boston-based consulting firm Aite Group LLC. By 2010, that figure will reach 50 percent, according to Aite.

As established trusted authorities and rich power sources move toward automation and efficiency who could beat them? Probably Google, but then whats left to trust but robots?

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• Don’t sell sandals to an Eskimo – understand the Digg audience before you start trying to get stuff on the homepage that doesn’t relate to them. In the past, you may have been able to get spammy stuff such as articles about Forex trading on Digg, but now you can’t. When people bury your story it hurts you more than before so give them something they want and not something they don’t care about.
• Power isn’t everything – if you think it is best to have a power user submit a story, you are wrong. From what I have tested if you have a normal user submit a story and tons of top users end up digging that story, there are high chances that it will hit the homepage with a lot less votes. The main reason this works so well is because normal users usually don’t have tons of Digg friends so votes from these power users are very effective.
• Being greedy isn’t smart – if you feel all of your content is Digg worthy, you are wrong. Don’t vote on non-worthy content and more importantly don’t place Digg this buttons on your website unless you really feel your content is great.
• Don’t assume content is king – many people think that all you need is great content to make the homepage, but that’s not true. A good portion of Digg users don’t read stories, but instead just vote on what they like based on the submission title and description. So before you submit a story analyze your title and description because it can make a world of difference.

If you feel it is hard to get on the Digg homepage, don’t complain, do something about it. Learn from your mistakes and get involved with the community on a personal level.

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Some of them are online stock brokerage trading firms while others are individual investor “online stock trading” websites.

There is a remarkable difference in these two types of websites. Online trading firms are almost the equivalent of traditional trading with more resources to assist the accountholder for tracking their money. “Online Stock Trading” is a do it yourself website, with web based information, complete with the reports on annual fees and commissions that provide the investor with information and a method of investment.

While trying to sort through the information provided by online site sources and “online stock trading” websites can seem like an insurmountable task, there are a few of these websites that provide a simple and easy to understand format. Onlinetradingideas is a revolutionary online trading website that is invaluable in assisting the average investor in understanding the stock option resources available to them.

Online trading ideas has the unique feature of language translation right on its webpage. Whether you are searching for “online stock trading” information in Russian, French, Italian, German, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, or Portuguese, this website has the information for investors from all around the world to gain a further understanding of trading in the marketplace.

ONLINE TRADE MARKET NEWS

The online Trade Market News is a wonderful resource to achieve a wide variety of knowledge in a multitude of trading aspects. Bank of America, Yahoo! Finance, and INREEX are just a few of the topics covered on this informative page. ETrade and the Online

Trading Academy as well have a remarkable amount of information on this page. The website offers informative online trading news and updates as well as unbiased trading articles.

Unbiased trading articles are crucial to a website’s credibility. Unbiased trading reports are critical to making financial decisions. The presence of these reports lends credence to the notion that this website is not just about promoting itself, but promoting the information necessary in order to navigate the harsh world of online trading.

The collection of “Online Stock trading” articles is yet another resource available, lending itself to guides and even step by step help packages to getting started in the online stock market circuit.

Financial independence is possible when you know where to look. The leaders in financial guides and resources all share the same view, make your money work for you. Financial marketing is a proven method of increasing income potential and deriving a sound plan is the key to investing wisely. The popularity of stock brokerage firms is falling dramatically with the introduction of the small online investor. It is estimated that in the next fifty years stock brokerage firms will become obsolete for the average investor.

THE BEST IN INDIVIDUAL STOCK TRADING

Discovering the best individual method of “online stock trading” can be a difficult proposition. Some require minimum deposits while others require trading organization fees. There are a few that are commission only, though those are rare. It is quite common, however to find a firm with low fee trading that will periodically waive its commission based scale to encourage new investors to use their services.

Not all firms will treat their investors equally. There are firms who do not consider any account under $50,000 a worthwhile endeavor. Before placing any capital to be invested with any firm, it is wise to find out their average clientele. Remember that those who trade for you in any online brokerage firm are subject to a commission. The higher the trade, the higher the commission. Therefore it would make sense to assume that smaller accounts are not getting adequate attention. It is imperative to find out this information prior to depositing any sum of money with any online trading firm.

Do not assume that just because a firm is well recognized that it is suitable for the small investors needs. It is imperative that as many published reviews as possible and the opinions of both current and former clients be taken into consideration. Equally as important, don’t assume that every review can be taken verbatim. Reviews can be purchased, thus they can be misleading to the investor.

The basic rule of thumb in determining the value of reviews is fairly simple. Three out of every five reviews contains 75% accuracy, while one out of every one hundred contains 80% or better. So, if you read ten reviews by small investors and seven of them say the firm in question meets the small investor’s needs, then it’s safe to say that the particular firm is averaging a satisfied small investor rate of three out of four.

The information on “Online Trading Ideas” can significantly streamline research for small and large investors alike. They have picked the articles and reviewed the news prior to posting to help narrow down the ratio of off the mark reviews and news. It is important to maintain that every investor is different with varying demands from the financial world. Online Trading Ideas is geared toward helping the individual investor with personalized needs and risk tolerances to help them along.

Large investors, as well need to place their research on firms that can handle the large sums of money. Not every firm is equipped to deal with much more than a couple hundred thousand dollars at one time from any single investor. Remember, it’s not their money. Large sums equal large commissions and thus it is fair to say that most firms, even do it yourself online trading firms, do not limit their investors. Online Trading Ideas can help the large investor filter through what is available to them to significantly shorten research time.

The risks of online day trading vary by individual, personal circumstance, and overall risk tolerance. One of the fastest ways to reduce risk is the gather information and become an educated investor. Educated investors are those who know how to seek out trends, which have a constant list of questions and are perpetually prepared to adjust as new information develops. Most of all, the educated investor has a trusted resource to navigate him through the marketplace. For many, Online Trading Ideas has become that trusted resource.

Equity trade research is a highly unique skill. It is important to be able to trust the source of the research that is being provided. A free exchange of informed ideas can be invaluable to the equity trader.

Direct investing has been revolutionized with companies such as ING Direct. ING works on the concept that their service is of high enough quality that they see no reason to charge anything more than minimal fees. This revolutionary concept has been adopted by other firms as well and has led to higher investor confidence when choosing an online investment firm. ING and comparable companies have increased their clientele rate by a much larger margin than ETrade and other commission plus fee based services.

The world of personal investing is loaded with pitfalls, and the average investor has been greatly relieved to see such websites as onlinetradingideas.The personal investor has never before had the chance to be so successful without years of formal education the well guarded secrets of the professionals.

Online Trading Ideas has helped to open up a new world to the timid investor as well. With their stock quote research and their vast quantity of knowledgeable and variable consideration, the timid investor can understand the process step by step in a more thorough account than most “online stock trading” companies provide.

Overall the site is impressive. Online Trading Ideas is more than a simple blog thrown together to promote advertisers. This web site has in depth coverage of varying topics that make it a top pick for both the novice and experienced investor alike. Contributions are point blank honest, well written, easy to read, and littered with integrity. The step by step information pages give you real references with real links that work in real time. The most refreshing section of this entire is the section that can’t be found. There are no promises of firing your boss next week or making thirty four thousand dollars in one week.

There is a great amount of lucrative information posted on onlinetradingideas rather than a handful of ridiculous promises aimed at the desperate and needy. This is true education and absolutely a wonderful tool for any investor wanting a bigger bite of the pie. The same is true for the investor that hasn’t yet found the courage to invest a single dime, until they receive the right information. With Online Trading Ideas, the average investor finally has a chance at making their goals attainable.

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Bobby Ryatt, writes articles on various subjects and has a treasure chest of information and resources for you to at. http://www.onlinetradingideas.com
http://onlinetradingideas.blogspot.com/

To the back of the lab!” How was I to know what collaboration meant then? But true to form, I got the hang of its meaning and put the musician’s mantra of “Practise, Practise, Practise” to its limit but getting the smartest kid in the class to ‘collaborate’ with me during all my math tests.

Today, collaboration seems to be the hottest act since Baywatch hit our television screens, for what seems like eons ago. But unlike Baywatch, collaboration produces results. It has become the epitome for almost all things Web 2.0.

But it shouldn’t come as any surprise. After all, collaboration software (sometimes referred to as groupware – though this is more commonly associated with business processes using shared databases) developers are tapping into something that is already innate within the human species; the uncontrollable desire to share, give and sacrifice. We are a communal and altruistic species. Believe it or not, we want to make the world a better place; donating ourselves in one form or another. Collaboration thus comes naturally to us.

Linus Torvalds understood collaboration only too well. And this led to the open-source operating system Linux, being born. Ray Ozzie’s understanding of human collaboration led to the release of Lotus Notes back in ’89. Jimmy Wales’s understanding of collaboration led to the creation of the world’s largest and most up-to-date encyclopedia online (Larry Sanger may have a bone to pick with that, though).

But collaboration software was probably catapulted into the mainstream with the invention of e-mail. It’s an excellent communication tool (don’t let spam tell you otherwise), but as a collaboration tool, it isn’t very productive. Passing attachments back and forth doesn’t really cut it when a team is working simultaneously on a task. Today’s files and documents are getting way to big to even attempt stuffing them in team members’ inboxes (remember the ‘sneakernet’ days of carrying floppy-disks from one person to another?).

There are no hard and fast rules where collaboration is concerned. You can do it on a personal level, within or across organizations with established processes, from the bottom-up in an ad hoc way, or just communicating with clients and customers. It’s also more than likely you’ll never always be working in a same team more than thrice in a row. Your business will tend to form and dissolve teams as quickly as sugar in hot tea. Bear this in mind when choosing collaborative software. You may own the latest and most up-to-date gizmo on the planet, but another organization you’re corresponding with may not.

The Make-Up Of A Collaboration Software

There are three very basic functions a collaboration software embodies: Communication, Collaboration /Sharing and Management

The communication tools:

instant messaging

e-mail

voice mail

fax

web publishing

blogging

skyping

The collaborative tools:

wikis

video conferences

webcasting

teleconferences

data conferencing

Discussion forums

chat rooms

The management tools:

Office suites

Workflow systems

Group calendars

Project management systems

The new wave of collaboration tools populating the market today, spawned by the popularity of the Internet has an eclectic mix of features; applications catering to large enterprises right down to consumers. Some ASPs (Application Service Providers) offer a fully-integrated package, combining communication, sharing and management tools while other ASPs offer specialized services zeroing in on one specific segment of collaboration. With the nomadic lifestyles of most entrepreneurs today, mobility becomes a determinant factor in how collaboration software developers are building their products.

You may have heard then of Office 2.0. Office 2.0 is collaboration and production tasks managed fully online. That’s the simplest way I can describe it. With the surge of broadband access, this is a very viable future for the mass market to take to easily. Though still very much in its infancy, the potential for managing most or all your business processes online is very real. Synching various business tools and keeping track of all your business transactions could just be a matter of five mouse clicks and a task is completed.

I’m sure you’re already itching to know what the future of collaboration software holds for you, so let’s start with some desktop clients:

Microsoft’s very own Groove

Colligo

Socialtext

Web-based software:

Microsoft’s Sharepoint

IBM’s Lotus Notes

Joyent

Zimbra

Zoho

Google Docs & Spreadsheets

thinkfree

Atlassian

Goowy

GroveSite

37 Signals

near-time

itensil

For a more extensive list of Office 2.0 applications, I recommend you’ve a look at this database, http://itredux.com/office-20/database/. Visit those sites and see what’s on offer.

So What Does This All Mean?

As an entrepreneur, saving a buck here and there, adds up to a considerable amount of savings for your business over a year. So if you can find avenues to do so, why shouldn’t you?

Forget paying for proprietary software if there is a viable open-source alternative available or, consider using an ASP for your business. It will probably cost less than what it takes to run and manage a small IT department. Just ask yourself, how much of the productivity tools like Microsoft’s Office do you actually use? 50%? 70%? 10%? Think about it.

Does it make sense to purchase Microsoft’s Office Suite only for you to use Word or Excel? Would a more cost-effective option like the free Google Docs & Spreadsheets or Zoho be intrinsically more viable?

The dawn of Office 2.0 applications puts you in charge of the choice of tools you really need at a fraction of the cost of shrink-wrapped software. Sometimes offered to you for the unbeatable price of free. While true that many of the current applications are not yet primed for enterprise usage, SOHOs or SMBs, will stand to gain first. So why not take advantage of this cost-cutting measure?

We’re moving in a direction where the Web itself will become an operating system of sorts where every aspect of business, social and personal activities will be done online. And that includes storage. Prepare yourself for it. Prepare your business for it. Exciting times truly lie ahead.

So really, who needs cubicles?

Copyright 2006 Kevin Singarayar. All rights reserved.

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That question is how one differentiates between trading and investing. Because both trading and investing – when one considers them from the perspective of the financial markets – are performed in very similar fashions, they are often thought of as interchangeable actions.

In my book, The Essentials of Trading, I followed along with this basic theme by introducing the idea that what differentiates the two is scope definition. Both trading and investing, after all, are at the most simple of levels application of capital in the pursuit of profits. If I buy XYZ stock I expect to either see the price appreciate or earn dividends – perhaps both. What separates trading from investing, however, is that generally in trading one has an exit expectation. This might be in the form of a price target or in terms of how long the position will be held. Either way, the trade is seen to have a finite life. Investing, on the other hand, is more open-ended. An investor will buy a company’s stock with no predefined notion of when he or she will sell, if ever.

We can use examples to help demonstrate the difference. Warren Buffet is an investor. He buys companies which he sees as somehow undervalued and holds on to his positions for as long as he continues to like their prospects. He does not think in terms of a price at which he will exit the stock. George Soros is (or at least was while he was still actively running his hedge fund) a trader. His most famous trade was shorting the British Pound when he thought the currency was overvalued and ready to be withdrawn from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. The position he took was based on a specific circumstance. Once the Pound was allowed to float freely, and quickly devalued in the market, Soros exited with a handsome profit. That meets the criteria of having a predefined exit, making it a trade, not an investment.

There is another way one can define trading as set against investing, though. It has to do with the manner in which the applied capital is expected to produce a return. In trading the appreciation of capital is the objective. You buy XZY stock at 10 expecting it to go to 15 and thereby produce a capital gain. If dividends or interest are paid out along the way, that is fine, but likely only a minor contribution to the expected profits.

In contrast, investing looks more toward income over time. That makes income production, such as dividends and bond interest payments, the major focal point. Do investors experience capital appreciation? Sure, but unlike in trading, that is not the prime motivation.

With these definitions in mind, consider what many people refer to as their single biggest investment – their home. Based our second definition of investing, however, a home is generally not an investment because in most cases is does not produce any income. In fact, it produces considerable expenses in the form of mortgage interest payments, utility bills, and upkeep. If anything, a home is a trade. We buy it and hope for its value to rise over time, increasing our equity. And the fact that many people expect to move in only a few years and sell at that point makes it even more of a trade rather than an investment. (Of course own rental property can certainly be viewed as investing, unless one is flipping it, which would definitely be more trading.)

As noted earlier, for many people trading and investing seem like the same thing. The mechanics of buying and selling are basically the same. Sometimes the analysis one does to make those decisions is identical as well. It’s the intention and definition of objectives which separate trading and investing, though.

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John Forman is author of The Essentials of
Trading (http://www.TheEssentialsofTrading.com) and a near
20-year veteran of the markets. For a free e-book on getting
started in trading go to
http://www.theessentialsoftrading.com/FreeGuide-GSIT.html

Netflix has been in business since 1999, and is the dominant company in the online movie market, claiming 4.9 million subscribers. Blockbuster, which only began offering online rentals in 2004, has won over 1.3 million subscribers. The two businesses have been trading lawsuits for some time now, but Netflix’s new product could give it an even greater advantage in the eyes of consumers.

Eric Besner, the vice president of original programming at Netflix, made the announcement on Friday. At the Independent Film and Television Alliance production conference, he said the service could launch by the end of the year. Although Netflix hasn’t yet created a business model, Besner expected the fees associated with the set-top box would be comparable to current subscription prices.

Netflix’s box is earning comparisons to the MovieBeam service, through which “movies are beamed wirelessly into your home using MovieBeam’s patented digital signal and the sleek MovieBeam Player.” It’s possible the two companies will collaborate on the project, or Netflix may be setting itself up as a competitor.

Keep an eye out for this service. When it launches, it should make the already-simple matter of getting movies online even easier. And it may help Netflix further dominate the online movie rental market.

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Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.

AOL will be successful in attracting advertisers to this new program. They have an active salesforce that already has relationships with the biggest online advertisers in the world. The question is will they be able to interest teens. On the upside, many teens already use AIM. On the downside, AOL isn’t a cool brand to them.

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Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.

He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.