BuzzRun.com

Online shopping is going places and Microsoft wants a piece of action. According to a their Live Search Blog, Microsoft Corp. has bought comparative shopping search engine web site Jellyfish.com. The site gives a portion of the advertising revenue it earns from the retailers back to the customers, which materializes in a rebate on purchases made through the site.

When a sale is made on jellyfish.com, advertisers will decide the level of commission they will pay to Jellyfish.com. According to Jellyfish.com, it will pay at least half of this amount to customers are rebates. The company ranks products according to the price including that rebate. The company says it has at least 5 million products on its web site.

Jellyfish.com was started in mid-2005, and is based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Microsoft is looking to enhance the shopping services it provides by acquiring Jellyfish.com. A Microsoft search engine blog made the following statement, “We think the technology has some interesting potential applications as we continue to invest heavily in shopping and commerce as a key component of Live Search”

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That’s cool … as long as they keep it open source and FREE! Heck, they should give away the Network Edition now … they want to compete with Google don’t they…?

Yep, they bought them for $350 million cash (read the official blog post here and here … and here’s

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Seattle (WA) - Starbucks has announced it plans to give away free music downloads across its entire US chain to promote the coffee house’s upcoming promotion with the iPod.

More than 10,000 stores will hand out a total of 1.5 millions songs per day from October 2 to November 7.  Customers will receive a “song of the day” card with their coffee purchase, containing a promotional code to redeem at iTunes.

37 songs will be part of the promotion, including music from Paul McCartney, John Mayer, and Annie Lennox.

Earlier this month, Apple announced it had struck a partnership with Starbucks to allow users of the new Wi-Fi-enabled iPods to download music wirelessly while in the store.  The servie will have initial rollout in major cities, and is expected to be available nationwide by 2010.

Also starting October 2, Starbucks will include two free iTunes downloads with the purchase of a Starbucks gift card.

[via]

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L’Oreal reportedly estimates that counterfeit sales of its products on eBay have resulted in its loss of several million dollars. The cosmetics giant’s legal action against eBay echoes similar moves by the jewelry firm Tiffany & Co. in 2004 and by French luxury goods firm LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton a year ago.

More…

[via: e-commerce times]

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Up till now, Microsoft has been very quiet about the nascent Web Office threat from Google. But today, in response to the news that IT systems consultancy CapGemini has partnered with Google to sell Google Apps Premier Edition (GAPE) to enterprises, Microsoft issued an email listing 10 “top questions that enterprises should ask when considering the switch to GAPE.” The questions read more like reasons why enterprises shouldn’t choose Google Apps. This list was first published by Mary Jo Foley, who says it was an unsolicited email from a Microsoft “corporate spokesperson”.

The 10 reasons make for fascinating reading - and show just how concerned Microsoft really is about not only Google Apps, but Web Office in general. Here is a copy of the email list:

“1. Google touts having enterprise level customers but how many “USERS” of their applications truly exist within the enterprise?

“2. Google has a history of releasing incomplete products, calling them beta software, and issuing updates on a “known only to Google” schedule – this flies in the face of what enterprises want and need in their technology partners – what is Google doing that indicates they are in lock step with customer needs?

more…

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Don’t blame the airplane’s ventilation system the next time you experience dry eyes and headaches while flying. It’s the interaction between your oily body and ozone in the upper atmosphere that is the real culprit, a new study suggests.

The finding, detailed online in Environmental Science & Technology, a publication of the American Chemical Society, could lead to new preventative measures to make flying more comfortable.

In simulated four-hour flights, American and Danish researchers placed two groups of 16 volunteers in a mockup of an airline cabin and then exposed them to varying levels of ozone and air flow, including levels typically experienced during actual flights.

More …

[via LiveScience]

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At this years Geneva Auto Show Pagani revealed it’s new Zonda R Renderings … yeah, they’re bad!!!

The Pagani Zonda is already one of the most dramatically styled and exclusive supercars in recent production but founder Horacio Pagani has more ambitious plans for the car as previewed by these latest renderings. Labeled the Zonda R, Pagani is working on a new 750hp track special that it plans to build in a limited run of just ten cars.

More pics & info here.

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For those Vista / Programmers users out there … here’s a walk through the development of a simple guitar tuner Vista sidebar gadget and in the process learn a little bit about Silverlight, XAML, and Vista gadgets.

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Just saw this on TechCrunch this moring, “AllofMP3 To Rise From The Dead” …

The owners of the now infamous cut price Russian MP3 retail site AllofMP3 have posted that the site will soon recommence trading.

The announcement follows a Russian court decision August 15 that found AllofMP3’s previous CEO was not guilty of breaching Russian copyright laws, and therefore the AllofMP3 service was legal.

EMI, NBC Universal and Time Warner had led the legal case against AllofMP3, with the US Government previously threatening to escalate the dispute regarding AllofMP3 to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

According to AllofMP3, “The service will be resumed in the foreseeable future.”

This is good news for many people that loved the service when it was working (not so good news for the music industry execs that hate the Russian site. It’ll be interesting to see their reaction to this news).

Stay tuned to their site for more … www.allofmp3.ru <- notice the .ru instead of .com address.

BTW,  AllofMP3’s holding company MediaServices continues to operate mp3sparks.com - the site is an almost exact replica of the other.
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The National Science Foundation gave just under $100,000 to the University of Charleston for the development of a music search engine that uses aesthetic similarity.

The engine has the ability to ‘listen’ to the music and find comparative pieces in the same genre and music style.

In and of itself that is impressive, but the cross applications are enormous for sound recognition based search.

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