Archive for December 2009
Music Downloads Sing A New Tune
FreeAllMusic.com, which began a test version for invited users on Dec. 22 and plans to open to the public in January, will allow users to download songs, which may be copied and shared — unencumbered, in other words, by digital rights management restrictions, reports The New York Times. In return, instead of paying 99 cents [...]
CNet has put together a list of web businesses that went out-of-business in the last year. 1. Yahoo Briefcase 2. Jubii 3. Barnes & Noble: Quamut 4. Microsoft Encarta 5. Wikia Search 6. SpiralFrog 7. Yahoo Jumpcut 8. Yahoo Geocities 9. Yahoo 360 10. Windows Live Events Photo by clipart.com.
Certified Experts Will Be The Rock Stars Of 2010
According to the SmallBizTechnology blog there are hundreds of “specialist” programs, setup by vendors that, to help you get the most out of technology products and services. Cisco certified network consultants, Symantec security specialists are gurus in security and I could go on. Email marketing is such an important part of marketing to customers and [...]
Best Innovations Of The Decade
It’s hard to believe iPods, Facebook and consumer GPS devices didn’t exist in the 1990s. So many of the gadgets and web sites we use every day were introduced during what has arguably been the most innovative decade to date. The Washington Post put together a list of the best innovations of the last 10 [...]
Top 10 Homepreneur Trends for 2010
The rise of the homepreneur is a long-term trend that will continue to accelerate over the next decade. Fueled by technology and enabled by low costs, businesses of all kinds are finding there is no place like home. With a troubled but recovering economy as the back drop, SmallBizTrends.com put together a list of the [...]
Mom’s Boutique Celebrates 10 Years
Rockford Independent: Ten years ago Erika Morgan took her college savings money and began a clothing business in Rockford. She was just 21. That business, Paper Doll, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. “I always really liked shopping in mom-and-pop shops as a kid,” Morgan said. “I just loved small antique shops, mom-and-pop restaurants and the [...]
Pictured Memories That You Can Hear
When you look at photos that represent special moments in your life, what do you remember? Whether it is the sound of a babies heartbeat during an ultrasound or the yell of “Surprise” on your 50th birthday, a new business is giving you the opportunity to hear memories just as you see them. Jennifer Furr [...]
Subway in a Shipping Container
The new World Trade Center under construction in New York City got it’s first franchise restaurant this week. The Subway restaurant was assembled from nine yellow shipping containers and is perched on top of the under construction Freedom Tower.
Things Every Web User Needs to Do Before 2010
It’s one thing to have resolutions for the new year. I, for example, plan to lose weight, learn Python and design the perfect web app. But since nothing satisfies like the quick achievement of a short-term goal, Jolie O’Dell over at ReadWriteWeb has put together eight things every good web user needs to do before [...]
Entrepreneurs Of The Decade: 2000 To 2009
Inc. com has put together their choices for entrepreneurs of the decade. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook We don’t have much more to say than this: When the decade started, he was 15. Today, he is CEO of Facebook, a company that has become an indispensable part of the lives of 350 million users worldwide. And [...]
News Media Business Trends For 2010
With the news industry struggling to find new revenue streams that can reshape their broken business model, 2010 will be defined by experiments in news media monetization. This will also include content that is guided more than ever by the audience and ad revenue, reports Mashable.com. 1. Social Media Monetization 2. Revenue Beyond Advertising 3. [...]
In a nationwide effort to help support the growth of small businesses, Intuit is hosting the “Love a Local Business” sweepstakes. Fans of local small businesses can nominate their favorite hometown haunt, which will make them eligible for a drawing to win a $1,000 Intuit Growth Grant, which includes a $500 Visa gift card and [...]
On Monday, we started a biz poll asking readers to guess how much time is spent online surfing the web. Of those responding, 46 percent chose 16.5 hours per week, 27 percent guessed 13 hours per week, 13 percent chose 8 hours per week and 15 percent guessed 5.5 hours per week. According to a [...]
Mom Stitches Up A Side Business
TuscaloosaNews.com: Jennifer Clark, 28, of Berry, was an administrative assistant before she gave birth to her daughter, Olivia, nearly three years ago. She decided to stay home with her child. And so she began to sew. ‘I didn’t intend to start a business,’ said Clark. ‘It just kind of happened. I would make clothes for [...]
@pdxWebDr: Business idea: MeWithaMustache.com, where people can upload photos and it layers a mustache on their lip. I slept about 3hrs last night. @djenningspr: RT @heavensgame: You know what Twitter needs, an auto translate function 4 foreign lang tweets. A nice business 4 someone there @chipmunc56: Business idea: Heated handlebars?RT @srobbin: Had my first winter [...]
Solar panels aren’t even ubiquitous yet and already solar panel theft is a big problem. In the past year, over 400 panels, worth at least a thousand dollars each, have been stolen from the vineyards of Napa County, California. As more homes and businesses install solar panels, the problem will grow. Ground-mounted panels are the [...]
Newsweek put together a list of business predictions for 2010. 10. The New York Times Charges for Web Content 9. Comcast Will Fire Jeff Zucker 8. Boeing Will Soar 7. Unemployment Drops Below 9 Percent 6. Derivatives Remain Largely Opaque 5. Cap and Trade Won’t Pass (But It Won’t Matter) 4. AIG Will Be Downsized [...]
Trendwatching.com has put together a list of 10 consumer trends for the new year. Business As Usual Forget the recession: the societal changes that will dominate 2010 were set in motion way before we temporarily stared into the abyss. Urbany Urban culture is the culture. Extreme urbanization, in 2010, 2011, 2012 and far beyond will [...]
10 Books You Should Have Read in 2009
Since it’s the season of giving, AdAge figured they’d drop a little knowledge on you. While you’ve been running yourself ragged going to conferences, socializing in social media and just trying to hang on, you may have missed these titles. 1. Twitterville by Shel Israel 2. The Next Evolution of Marketing by Bob Gilbreath 3. [...]
Five Technologies Shaping The Web In 2010
As we’re coming to the end of this year, everyone starts to look towards the next one and there will no doubt be an upsurge of articles predicting the web trends of 2010 in the next days to come. However, in this article, Six Revisions will be talking about what’s actually driving these trends now, [...]
Top 10 Consumer Web Apps of 2009
Every year at ReadWriteWeb, we look at hundreds of new web apps aimed at everyday users. Here is our list of the top 10 consumer web apps of 2009. These are apps and services that helped consumers use the web in new ways this year; and brought technologies that were previously only geared towards advanced [...]
Amazon Sells More Kindle Books Than Conventional Books
It had to happen eventually, and it’s not really a surprise, considering people don’t tend to shop online for books on Christmas Day but… it will be marked down in history, that’s for sure — Christmas Day 2009: the day digital books outsold their physical, paper counterparts,(At Amazon anyway), reports DownloadSquad.com. It’s a misleading statistic, [...]
al.com: Christy Jordan is a busy work-at-home mom, wife and blogger who has built a business she began as a hobby. Her blog, SouthernPlate.com, led to her selection as a “kitchenista” by Kraft Foods. The “Velveeta it! Kitchenistas” shared daily tips and advice on VelveetaKitchenistas.com “to help make dinnertime a success,” Jordan said. “Not only [...]
The story of Duke Nukem Forever is an important lesson for starting a business. It is more important to start, than to get everything absolutely perfect. If you try to plan out everything in advance, you’ll never begin. If you look at almost any successful business, it is the exception that looks 100% like it [...]
Newsweek has put together a list of 10 predictions for the tech sector in 2010. 10. Google Faces Antitrust Suit 9. Microsoft Pushes Out Steve Ballmer 8. Twitter Use Flatlines 7. Facebook Goes Public 6. Your Phone Replaces Your Wallet 5. Movie Downloads Stall Blu-ray 4. Starbucks Will Stalk You 3. Malware Disrupts Facebook 2. [...]
ReadWriteWeb are chilled and saddened by the ghosts of the past year – the apps that should have been, the startups that failed to launch, the brilliant ideas that were throttled, the great minds that were fired, the tech heroes that committed tragic gaffes. But some failures were so monumental that they require specific enumeration [...]
What Invention Would You Most Like to See in 2010?
According to The New York Times, in “Endpaper: Patents”, creations patented in 2009 are sorted and classified by labels like “When Life Isn’t Exciting Enough,” “Reinventing the Wheel,” and “Department of Questionable Judgment.” Inventions include a bacon comb, an inflatable Christmas tree, water-draining shoes and a retractable chopstick. Maybe you’ve had an idea for an [...]
10 Things You Never Heard Of 10 Years Ago
Newsweek has put together a list of ten things that didn’t exist ten years ago, that are indispensable now. 10. Online Airline Check-In 9. Free Credit Reports 8. Red Bull 7. TMZ (celebrity Web site) 6. Chipotle 5. Gardasil (human papillomavirus vaccine) 4. Digital Video Recorder 3. iTunes 2. YouTube 1. Wikipedia Photo by mai05.
Forbes.com has put together a list of year-end tax tips to help reduce your anxiety and possibly lower your 2009 tax bill. Spend your FSA balance. If you set up a flexible spending account (FSA) and had money regularly withdrawn from your paychecks and deposited into the account, make sure you spend the money before [...]
According to a new report, the average time weekly (in hours) spent by web surfers online: (The reported times exclude e-mail — only time spent surfing the Web.) 16.5 13 8 5.5 View Results The answer on Wednesday. Photo by jazza.
Program Helps Mom Save For A Business
hutchnews.com: Garcia has the passion to make her dream of owning a photography business a reality. But there is one important ingredient that she doesn’t have. Money. With what Garcia makes, it is tough to pay the bills every month, much less save enough to buy the equipment she’d need to pursue her photography dream. [...]
Before the Internet, cell phones, Twitter and Google. If you’re under 40, you’ve probably never seen this.
The moral of this story is never give your apartment keys to friends who like to gift wrap and have lots of time on their hands.
Toys That Make You Wish You Were A Kid Again
Raising kids to be design-minded and eco-conscious isn’t always easy, but Fast Company has put together some products that kids will love just as much as adults. Skip Hop’s Wishbone bike is eco-friendly and practical–this recycled-plastic and sustainable-wood 3-in-1 bike goes from three-wheels to two with a quick switch, and also adjusts its height for [...]
The original Star Wars film was actually an unexpected hit, so in retrospect, it’s no surprise that some enterprising TV network would win a bidding war to host a Christmas TV special, according to a story at Mental Floss. Of course, after the show laid a massive ratings goose egg, everyone from George Lucas to [...]
For many, it’s the most wonderful time of the year – at least until it’s time to open all that packaging. Odds are that’s when someone in the household will contract a serious case of wrap rage, reports The Philly News. Terminology unfamiliar? It’s the maddening frustration that builds as you work laboriously to extricate [...]
Creative Mom Finds A Way To Work
TuscaloosaNews.com: Martha Pennington, 33, formerly of Tuscaloosa, was a full-time property manager known around the office for her shopping skills. Friends often asked her to shop and wrap gifts for them. When she left her job to be a stay-at-home mom, the requests kept pouring in. She was offered lunch for her trouble. ‘That wasn’t [...]
Mall of America Tweets Holiday Parking Updates
It may not be rocket science, but it is pretty cool: The Mall of America is using Twitter to tweet parking info for last-minute holiday shoppers hoping to avoid the ever-annoying quest for a space, according to a story on Mashable.com. The official Twitter (Twitter) account was launched on December 19 and will actively tweet [...]
Photo by Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty.
Norah Jones And Jimmy Kimmel Rewrite A Christmas Classic
Norah and Jimmy sing the 12 Days of YouTube…..
Things Your Mall Santa Won’t Tell You
Reader’s Digest got mall Santas from around the country to share their best secrets — from how they get their beard to smell nice to how they deal with complex questions from the little ones! • I’ve noticed a lot of you have started telling your kids the truth about me a lot younger than [...]
Things Your Christmas Tree Says About You
Do you opt for white or multicolored lights? Homemade or store-bought ornaments? Reader’s Digest helps you discover the things your Christmas tree says about you. • White lights: You ask houseguests to remove their shoes. • Multicolored lights: You’re an extrovert. • Blinking Lights: You have attention deficit disorder. • Homemade ornaments: You have lots [...]
Last Minute Biz Gift Idea: Carbonite
Give the gift of peace of mind. Every year, 43% of computer users lose their music, photos, documents, and more. Protect yourself with Carbonite Online Backup. Unlimited backup capacity, completely automatic, secure and encrypted, easy file recovery. Carbonite installs a small application on your oomputer that works quietly in the background looking for new and [...]
Family Business Is Inpired By Italy
STLtoday.com: In the middle of downtown St. Louis, about five miles from the region’s historic Italian neighborhood, a mother-and-daughter team are trying to create an authentic Italian shopping experience. The walls are painted green, red and orange inside of Mama Figlia, pronounced (feel-ya), which means “mother daughter” in Italian. The shop is modeled after the [...]
Give Someone A Small Biz For Christmas
Rhonda Abrams at USA Today has a great idea for a holiday gift. If you know a friend or relative who has been thinking of starting a small business, give them the tools to do just that.
What Will We Call The New Decade?
Blame “the media” if you want. But come January 1, we’ll dump the “two-thousands,” and we’ll get cozy with the “twenty-tens.” So say the language mavens, reports The Plain Dealer. In 2000, there were “uncertainties,” said David Crystal of the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the English Language, so we ignored the example of 1900 (“nineteen-hundred”), and [...]
The Unexpected Power Of $10 To $20
Gary Ribble would not be able to read this story if not for people like you, according to a story at CNN.com. Ribble, who has chronic lymphocytic leukemia in addition to severe diabetes and impaired hearing, needed new eyeglasses last spring but couldn’t afford them after losing a job he’d held for more than 40 [...]
How One Little Christmas Song Became A Big Biz
It arrived 30 years ago, a rebellious little ditty that became the ultimate anti-Christmas carol by killing off an eggnog-loving Grandma in the very first line, says The Dallas Morning News. But during those 30 years, “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” has become a holiday classic. Songwriter Randy Brooks estimates 40 million copies [...]
Nearsightedness Rising In U.S.
The proportion of Americans ages 12 to 54 who need corrective lenses for distance sight has risen in recent decades, increasing to almost 42 percent in 1999-2004, up from 25 percent in the early 1970s, The New York Times reports a national study has found. While the prevalence of nearsightedness has increased around the world, [...]
