by Jason Wilk on February 5, 2009

- In an effort to thwart off time-theft and loiterers, Apple has decided to add Facebook to the list of banned websites at retail locations nationwide. When I asked some of the genius’ today whether or not anyone noticed the change, they all said that Facebook stopped working sometime in the past week. One of the genius’ said “Apple Stores have become a regular Internet Cafe, so placing the most popular time-killer [Facebook] of them all on the banned-list will certainly help everyone get a chance to test out the computers”.
- As you may have heard, MySpace was banned in May of 2007 from all Apple Stores. When asked why, Apple said “Nearly 2 million people visit Apple Stores every week. We want to provide everyone a chance to test-drive a Mac, so we are no longer offering access to MySpace in our stores.” Apple Stores, which now total 251 worldwide, see an average of 15,744 visitors weekly per store (Q4, 2008). So, currently about 16 million people per month are now denied the right to jump on for a minute (or an hour) to update their status or do their daily stalking. It will be interesting if Facebook will see a slight dip in traffic this month due to the change.
Trying to stay up on Apple? Check out these recent articles:
Is Apple Secretly Working With Axiotron?
Video Conferencing Plans For The iPhone
Flash Coming To The iPhone: Says Adobe
iPhone 2 Rumors Get Some Hard Evidence
by Jason Wilk on January 3, 2009

- Amazon.com, which fared the best out of all online shopping destinations this holiday season, has stopped supporting BillMeLater, eBay’s latest questionable acquisition which ran a bill of nearly $1 billion. It was widely speculated that Amazon would drop the ‘buy now, pay later’ service considering their move in the past to cut Paypal after eBay acquired it. Amazon now has their own payment system in place.
- Before eBay’s purchase of BillMeLater, Amazon had retained a 10% stake in the company. They had never held a board seat, thus their ties to it were limited beyond equity and good faith to use of the service.
- On Tuesday, Friedman Billings Ramsey said Amazon let merchant partners know about the change, which went into effect Wednesday. BillMeLater’s top customers without Amazon, still include OfficeMax, Apple, Newegg, and QVC.
- BillMeLater still has strong promise however without the giant retailer. Last year they had $31.6 billion in addressable sales, compared to $26.1 billion for PayPal. eBay couldn’t ignore those numbers as many speculated that BillMeLater could eventually surpass PayPal as the dominant payment processor on the web due to it’s ability to quickly process payments and instantly adjust credit ratings for consumers. Whether or not it succeeds in the long run, eBay could not ignore the acquisition which could have fell into the hands of a viable competitor, threatening one of their most profitable arms.
- We still speculate that eBay is on the fritz, however the company was the top destination traffic wise for the holidays with 85 million visitors compared to Amazon’s 76 million (ComScore).
- Was this a message from Amazon to eBay that competiton is heating up even more between the two giants?
by Jason Wilk on January 1, 2009

- The App store has been a great success thus far. Although I have gone through my share of downloading and quickly deleting apps that I don’t use more than a few times, there have been 15 that are consistently open on a daily basis, some hourly.
- Facebook. By far the app I use the most. I constantly update my status, check for notifications and chat throughout the day. Although buggy sometimes, it is my biggest time killer coming out of the app store.
- MyAnalytics. Since Google has yet to come out with an iPhone app for Google Analytics, this app is the best substitute. Nothing like having a record traffic day and keeping track of it on the go. It takes a little bit of getting used to, since some durations throghout the day it will show you a combination of your current and previous days traffic. I find it to be dead on if I check it from 2pm throughout the day.
- Shazam. If you don’t have this app yet, I’m surprised. Open up the app, put it next to the song you are listening to and it will tell you who the artist is, where to buy it, what the lyrics are and then stores the info. Hipsters beware, it has trouble picking up on Jason Bentley tracks.
- BigOven. Sometimes I just need to cook. This is a really nice app that contains thousands of recipes. It has been downloaded welll over 1 million times.
- Trace. Best game of they year for me. Travel to one of the 5 worlds in the game with your little red character. Trace your own lines around the obstacles and set your own path to success. Must be downloaded to get the full effect. Truly addicting.
- WritingPad. Similar to note pad but utilizes the latest typing technology, Swype. You don’t need to lift a finger or tap to write a word. Drag your finger through the letters of the word you want to spell and it will recognize it. Great for taking quick notes or impressing your non-tech friends. This is the future of the mobile keyboard.
- Pandora. The great app produced by the Music Genome phenomenon. Type in an artist or song you want to listen to and it will create a radio station based on similar styles and sounds. Awesome for your car, iPod Dock or walking around.
- PapiJump. Just about as addicting as Trace. Using the accelerometor, bounce the pink ball to each blue step until you can’t go any further. Just don’t try plaing it in the car. My high score is 46,000.
- Wurdle. Shake the iPhone and a fresh screen of letters will appear. Try and drag yor finger through possible words and rack up points. Think you did well? Once your time runs out, you will see all the words you missed and feel like an idiot every time.
- Wordpress. Make a lot of typos like me when you write? Well, make sure you have the Wordpress app so you can correct your grammar on the go. Gives you instant access to your dashboard, where you can add, edit or delete a post.
- iGolf. I take a sense of pride in this game since I think I may hold the world record. Play a few holes or hit the driving range with this Wii like golf game. Try and avoid playing it in public, people may think you’re nuts.
- iHunt. Need to take out a little aggression? Just open up this app to go kill some deer or pheasants. Use the accelerometer to aim you shotgun or rifle and shoot away. Such a fun game with great sound effects.
- Fandango. Movie times/reviews, on the go and fast.
- CollegeFB. Great app from the nice guys at PlusMo. Keep track of all the college football games on the go. Gives you an updated play by play for each game you click on.
- UrbanSpoon. The best app for finding a restaurant near where you’re standing. Choose from a variety of genres, pricing options and areas.
by Jason Wilk on December 12, 2008

- As we already know, Google is searching high and far for areas to drive more revenue with their ads. Today they add another industry sector to try and monetize, parked domains. Google AdSense For Domains (for everyone) is the search giant’s latest addition, targeting the millions of domain owners out there that are squatting on their names while they appreciate or decide what to do with them.
- Google AdSense for Domains has already been around prior for owners of domain names with at or around 1 million monthly pageviews. The new addition will include anyone with a parked domain and will compete heavily with big name brands Parked.com, DomainSponsor.com and many others.
- This is another questionable territory for Google as the squatter monetizers have recieved harsh criticism from advertisers who question the validity of the clicks which return poor quality traffic. Google may be out to save the industry, which has been accused of serving up fradulent clicks to make money for the domain owners while taking home a nice profit for themselves. Do the math, Parked.com monetizes more than 2.5 million domain names; serving 2 fraudulent clicks a day per domain at around $0.25 is well, a nice profit. I’m not saying they are behind it, but even Google will have a hard time telling whether or not a couple clicks a day coming from mutliple or masked IP addesses are fraudulent ot not. Maybe they don’t care. In either case it’s going to be a nice chunk of extra change for them.
- Currently the program will only be available for publishers located in North America and will expand to other regions shortly. If you are a currently using AdWords to advertise your company and would prefer to opt-out of having your ads served on parked domains, here is a step by step guide
