PayPal's Unpopular Practices

PayPal sends these types of EMAIL all the time:

PayPal as a regulated financial services company is required under law to assess its customers against certain lists of individuals and entities which have had sanctions imposed against them. PayPal as a financial institution is required to comply with these regulations in multiple jurisdictions where we do business.

Where a potential name match is identified, PayPal's policy is to lock the account and request further identifying documentation. The decision to lock your account has been taken solely by PayPal in line with its compliance policy in regards to the legislation covering financial sanctions.

We decided to take a closer look at this and started a Google search regarding PayPal freezing accounts. We came across a couple of sites that host, "PayPal horror stories." One story really struck me. Apparently, PayPal has had terrible dealings with customers in the past. Complaints range from unnecessary locking of accounts and/or funds, to mishandling of their customer's money. PayPal went to court for this. They were forced to pay $9.25 Million Dollars in damages to more than 10,000 PayPal accounts. PayPal simply walked away after paying the settlement.

A little further into the Google Search I discovered that PayPal has been known to block donations for the Katrina victims, up to $30,000, from the popular website something awful. One word for the victims: Ouch.

It's understandable the need to safeguard the company and to point out fraudulent use whenever it occurs. However, PayPal really needs to get better at it and change its practices if it plans to have loyal customers in the future.

For people who are in need of a merchant account, check this place out. For those of you that need to transfer money worldwide, iKobo is a great alternative.


Hilarious Monkey Picture courtesy of www.dotmana.com.

Digiframe your Frame!

Picture and Photo fanatics get to indulge on sites like Flickr and Imageshack. Massive amounts of bytes are stored on their servers daily. The best part? It's accessible anywhere in the world, and its shared by millions of users. The services that keep appearing for these die hard enthusiasts just keep getting more and more interesting. Look at the service of DigiFrame for example. Let's say you have a really great picture that not only you would like to share with the rest of the world, you also want it framed so that everyone who walks in your front door can see it, and awe in all it's glory. Ok, less melodramatics right?


Now what does it take to get a picture framed? Ummm, let's see. Get in your car, drive over to Kodak or your nearest K-Mart, get in line, talk to the clerk, choose the frame, pay, and drive back home. Could there be an easier more professional way of going about this? Well, we do live in an era where the Internet has bestowed upon us great tools and services, like DigiFrame. The frames are amazing, some offer MP3 Audio Playback, others an internal memory, a couple offer a slide show of your photo, and others come with a built in microphone. Technology is great!

DigiFrame also allows you to choose from lots of professional framing brands like Axion, Impecca, Photoc, Vialta, just to name a few. Just in case you need extra help they also offer customer support. The best part of DigiFrame is the extremely fast shipping, 1-3 days. Not to mention that the Shipping and Handling is free. And, just in case you are not satisfied with the service you also have a 30 MBG. Of course, don't take my word for it. Look up their samples and tell me what you think!

I Have to Assist a Conference... In China!

Remember the old days of going to a Conference? How everyone would walk in, salute the Boss, gather a seat, get your report ready, and wait for the Boss to open his mouth. Well that was me back when I was part of the rat race. Now a days there seems to be a whole new way of going to conferences.

Video Conferencing, for example, are some of the best ways to get some face time around the office, whether your transmuting, or in a whole different continent some 10,000 miles away. Not to mention it's excellent for first time impressions. In today's world most companies require sophisticated and reliable video conferencing software. Some great features that you must keep in mind are ease of use, versatility, security, presentation integration, desktop sharing, and audio support, just to name a few.

A lot of video conferencing softwares lack these really important features. Others, however, like MegaMeeting, come with all these features included. Now there are a couple of other web conferencing softwares that could be mentioned, this is just one that comes highly recommended. So whether your a starting business that needs some face time with your employees, locally or internationally, video conferencing may be the next step for your business needs. Take a sneak peek at what benefits it can bring to your organization.

Updated

Google's 1st Quarter Profit reaches $1 Billion

Compared from the first quarter of 2006, this new quarter of 2007 has surpassed the old one by 69%, with a profit reach of $1 Billion Dollars. I compare this report with Yahoo, and I still wonder WHY does Yahoo have #1 in Alexa rankings but cannot surpass Google in profits? Google seems to be on a hot streak. It plans to reach out on new advertisement techniques, acquire Doubleclick, and go up against Microsoft by releasing a program similar to that of Powerpoint.

Even with all the problem Google has had with Copyright lawsuits from Viacom, it hasn't slowed down one bit. Google plans to release something called, "Claim Your Content." This will be used to minimize the use of unlawful video uploading on YouTube, and automatically remove content that doesn't have copyrights. It will be released later this year.

Yahoo's Earnings not what was Expected.

Despite the fact that the company has reached #1 in Alexa rankings, it has failed to surpass it's gross expectations for the 1st Quarter. Based on the earnings of the first Quarter of 2006, Yahoo's 2007 earnings fell by 11%. Even so, Terry Semel, president of Yahoo, commented on how he is, "Satisfied by the companie's results and that it has performed just as it was expected." Wallstreet states otherwise by saying that the projected earnings were far more superior than what Yahoo has achieved.

Adobe's Steps Up to the Plate

Today Adobe announced plans to release a new version of their flash into a free Media Player. The difference between this one and Microsoft's Windows Media Player, Apple, and Real Network's is that it will use RSS Feeds instead in order to download watchable Video on your desktop. Sorta like a Personal TV on your computer, except a lot faster and cheaper! Another nice feature to note will be that it will not matter whether your online or not, it will download your chosen content automatically and display it at your leisure.

How in the heck will this make Adobe Money? It's free isn't it? Well the answer to that is that they plan to allow advertisements to run on the bottom of the player while you are watching video. This version will be released within the next couple of months.

Microsoft Silverlight vs Adobe Flash

Microsoft Silverlight has released an evaluation version of their reproductive media player software that will rival that of Adobe's ever popular Flash. Their appealing presentation showed close to about a couple of new visual implementations that this baby can pull. It's basically oriented towards reaching out the low cost crowd and promises to deliver an effective solution to high quality visual and audio presentations. It will also work with Macintosh OS X 10.4.8 or later for both Power PC–based and Intel-based hardware via a Universal Binary. So it will work for either operating system but only for three browsers, Safari, Firefox, and IE.

Google's Power on the Rise

Microsoft may be unmatched in computer software, but who is dominating the scene on the world wide web? Well, unless you've been living under a rock on an Island of the shores of Antarctica, Google is! The company which started as a research project back in January of 1996 and what used to be called, "Backrub," is clearly becoming the web's most dominating company. Their HQ, named "Googleplex," is located in Mountain View, California and has been voted by Forbes as the Number 1 company to work for in January 2007.

The company is clearly dominating the web. Think about it, they basically store all of the Internet's Content on their servers. In other words they could, in theory, have a copy of the internet's content. Mix that with their advertisement power and who knows when they will surpass Microsoft. Which brings us to the question of the day. When will Google surpass Microsoft? Watch a video about Google's Power in the Video Section.

Google: The Future of the Internet

Google is the most powerful search engine on the planet. Its used by millions of people from all over the world. But how does it manage to differentiate the right search result from the rest of the trash? The Answer: "PageRank." A complex mathematical formula which, to put it simply, labels a website as imporant depending on how many times it's link shows up on other websites. In other words if Page A shows up on Pages B, C, D.... all the way to Page Z, then it would have a high PageRank.



Also, the more important the page, the higher the rank will be. As an example, if www.vapaeso.com happens to be linked in www.google.com or www.microsoft.com, then you can bet that by the next day www.vapaeso.com will have a higher PageRank because Google and Microsoft are important web sites. Check out Google's Technology Page for more info.

Doubleclick Worth $1.65 Billion

Google has purchased Doubleclick for $1.65 Billion Dollars and is valued even more so than YouTube. Doubleclick has been selling advertisement to more than 6,000 companies for 11 years. Their profits have risen and fallen as the market's unexpected turns rise and fall through the years. This is something Microsoft and even Yahoo should be interested in as the Corporate Giants are falling behind in generating Ad revenue such as Google is doing. The purchase of Doubleclick, in theory, could rise profits from ads. There are plenty of other companies worth purchasing if such an idea strikes their fancy. Companies like Valueclick perhaps?

eBay's Whitman Ready to Call it Quits?

eBays CEO, Meg Whitman, is nearing the 10 year dead line running as the company's Chief Exectuive. Whitman, should she choose to retire, has become a billionarie running the Leading Market Giant for all these years and will have no problem finding a new job in the corporate world. She could try her hand at politics? Recent reports suggest that she already has a head start in as a national finance co-chair for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the 2008 campaign.

Critics argue that, even though the company has held steady it has shown sluggish growth. eBay should think twice about filling in the gap from within the company. Who will fill the gap should Whitman decide to leave?

Top 10 Internet Companies

The Top 10 Most Influential Companies on the web from Internet World Stats:

1. Microsoft
2. Yahoo!
3. Time Warner
4. Google
5. United States Government
6. eBay
7. InterActive Corp.
8. Amazon
9. RealNetworks
10.Walt Disney Internet Group

My company will appear here one day... yea! one day... you bet it will... you just wait...*cough*

The Evolution of the Internet

The definition of the Internet by Wikipedia is: "the worldwide, publicly accessible network of interconnected computer Networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP)."

The pubaccsi interco what?? Ladies and Gentlemen, The Enjoyable Version:

The creation of the internet dates back to the Cold War and is due, believe it or not, to the Government and it's competition against Russia in the 60s, more specifically the US Military racing against the launch of Sputnick. The Government created DARPA, headed by J.C.R. Licklider from MIT and this is where the original idea of the "NETWORK" (interconnected computers connected together and communicating with each other) was born. The original name of the internet was ARPANET. This sparked a whole series of events that gave way to the internet we know and love today. As a result, mankind has changed the way we communicate and to some of us, the way we work. Here is a detailed time line for a more detailed view.

We are witnessing a new evolution that we need to understand. Sadly, those who choose to ignore this change will soon be struggling to keep up. There are more and more people who are discovering the potential of the internet and what it has to offer. This new phase has been dubbed WEB 2.0 by O'Reilly Media in 2004. Web 2.0 simply means the second phase of the internet in regards to the way it's used by popular demand such as blogs, wikis, podcasting, etc... Go here for a detailed chart explaining the difference between the first phase of the internet and the current phase (or Web 2.0).

India and China (and now Latin America) are taking over millions of American Jobs via outsourcing due to massive company savings. I can vouch for that, I took a job in Colombia once and the company grew incredibly fast. Professional web workers are out there happily making a buck (and more) either by running a site or a blog with affiliate links, pay per click links, or selling ad space.

YouTube and MySpace rank 4th and 5th as the most visited sites in the world, which means that the young generation is really absorbed by this evolution. I mean, what the hey! Not only is it huge, free to explore, and powerful, it can also make you money! What's not to love?