Internet Marketing Course BLOG

Source: Wikipedia

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): Guess I’ve been living under a rock all these years! Black Friday? I had never noticed this term, applied to the day after Thanksgiving shopping spree by Americans, until this year. Now EVERY reference to this shopping day includes the phrase “Black Friday”. I turned to Wikipedia to find out more about “Black Friday”, and sure enough, they had a nice overview of how the term came about – it even contained a reference to the first use of the term in print.

“The origin of the name is commonly believed to be tied to the fact that the heavy shopping day after Thanksgiving is when many retailers are thought to become profitable. Businesses once recorded losses in red ink and gains in black, a tradition that lives on in modern accounting software, hence the name. However, employees of retail stores have for years used the term in a satirical way, to note the extremely stressful and hectic nature of the day. The earliest recorded (modern) usage of the name suggests the latter as being closer to the true name origin:”

Read the entire Wikipedia entry at:
Black Friday (Shopping)

Technorati Tags: Business, Internet, Marketing

by Bindu Reddy
Google Product Manager
GoogleBlog

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): Google Base is off and running as of today. Check out what Google itself has to say about the most talked about new Google feature over the last 30 days.

“Today we’re excited to announce Google Base, an extension of our existing content collection efforts like web crawl, Google Sitemaps, Google Print and Google Video. Google Base enables content owners to easily make their information searchable online. Anyone, from large companies to website owners and individuals, can use it to submit their content in the form of data items. We’ll host the items and make them searchable for free. There’s more info here.”

Read the entire blog entry at:
First Base

Technorati Tags: Business, Internet, Marketing

Source: IBM Press Release
Posted On ScienceBlog.com

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): Even though this press release is written in “IBM technospeak”, it’s very interesting from the perspective that IBM, arguably the most big business-oriented computer company in the world, has constructed a software solution designed to be used by many of its Fortune 1000 customers to help them gather and make sense of what’s going on in “real time” on the Web that could impact their businesses. The software will track and data mine sources as diverse as major online news outlets and personal Blogs in order to construct an up-to-the-minute image of that company, its markets and its competitors based on information available on the Web.

“IBM today introduced a new software solution that enables businesses to make sense of the explosion of information from emerging social networks on the Web to deliver new insight into brand reputation and customer, competitor and public opinion about their company.

The proliferation of blogs, news feeds, consumer review sites, newsgroups and articles published daily on the Web has created a phenomenon where public opinion about an organization spreads worldwide, faster than ever before. These sources are filled with insight from consumers, experts and competitors that can be analyzed and used by businesses to make better decisions on products, services and business strategies. This creates a tremendous opportunity for organizations to carefully monitor their image and more quickly address business opportunities, threats, quality concerns or changing public perception.

To help clients gain a real-time view of commentary and opinion about their business, IBM is delivering a new Public Image Monitoring Solution, a software offering designed with Nstein Technologies and Factiva, to allow organizations to analyze and make sense of commentary, issues and information affecting their brand, providing new insight into how they operate and make business decisions.”

Read the entire article by clicking on this link:
IBM Software Tracks Blogs, Web Content to Capture ‘Buzz’

Technorati Tags: Business, Internet, Marketing