Google is releasing a new shopping feature called Google Checkout. I have attached a link to the demo video below. What is interesting about this feature is that they are tying it into adwords (the search words that advertisers purchase ads under). Adwords advertisers that have the Google Checkout API and merchant agreement can then get a small shopping cart icon next to their advertisement. This will show customers that the advertiser supports Google Checkout. Google Checkout also appears to be a workaround for Google to get around the patent that Amazon has on one-click ordering.
Archive for June, 2006
Video of Google’s new “Google Checkout”
June 29th, 2006Adobe Releases Flash Player 9
June 29th, 2006Adobe just released an update to Flash Player that compiles actionscript with a Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler. Adobe claims that this update provides a 10-fold speed increase in how the player behaves. Besides the actionscript compiler, there is also support for Flex2, which is now also being released.
Adobe press release: http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200606/062806Flash9.html
Here is where you can download the flash player update: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/
Google to release competitor to PayPal this week
June 27th, 2006I heard about this in the past that Google was working on a competitor to PayPal, now officially called GBuy. A news article on msnbc released the story today. Naturally there will be an API for GBuy, much like there is an API for Google Sitemaps and Google’s Conversion Snippet, which tracks the keywords that visitors to your site clicked on when they left Google.com to visit your site. If you take a look at Google’s growing list of tools, it is pretty impressive.
» Read more: Google to release competitor to PayPal this week
Why Most Companies Shouldn’t Co-Locate a Server
June 24th, 2006Your company uses its web site and online applications more and more as an integral part of your business. Your sites are getting bigger, and more applications are being integrated into them. Or perhaps you have grown from one web site to five or more sites. No longer is your web site merely a brochure for your company, it has now become “mission critical” to your business operation.This is the stage when many companies outgrow shared web site hosting from a web site hosting company. Shared hosting is when your site resides along with other web sites on the web hosting’s companies servers. Those other sites belong to other cutomers of the web site host. With your own server, your sites can enjoy more hardware processing power, more hard drive space, and you can also install your own applications on the server that may or may not be provided by most web site hosting companies.
The decision is… do you rent (managed server), or do you buy (co-located server)? The vast majority of companies think that collocated is better becase THEY own the server. But in all actuality, managed hosting is safer, less expensive, and less of a liability for your company.
Here’s why.
» Read more: Why Most Companies Shouldn’t Co-Locate a Server
