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January 9th, 2008

Renowned tech insiders Joseph Jaffe and C.C. Chapman to Speak to local bloggers, podcasters, social networking specialists, new media marketers, and business leaders

Yesterday marked a very interesting day for online free speech on the internet.

CentreSource and its CEO, Nicholas Holland, are featured in the Monday (02/19/07) edition of the Nashville City Paper. The article covers our company's humble beginning and rapid rise to our current levels of success. We love Nashville and feel honored to be featured. Click here to read the full article.

Those of you who read our newsletter know that for this Holiday season, CentreSource had a contest to find the website in the greatest need for a makeover. Companies were able to nominate their websites, which were then filtered by the CentreSource staff down to the 10 Top Worst Websites. Finally, the finalists were asked to launch their own grassroots campaigns and get their family, friends, and coworkers to vote for their site to win the grand prize.

The new mac commercials are great - especially given their crafty delivery of undertone messages about PC users. On the other hand, these parody commercials are hilarious as well. Tit for Tat baby... tit for tat.

http://www.bestweekever.tv/2006/07/07/bwe-mac-ads/

I can't tell you how many times I will visit a website, read content that indicates it will cost me something, but try in vain to find any prices listed. This isn't as bad for service websites where the price can vary dramatically, but now I'm even seeing it for websites that are a service unto themselves.

I just finished reading (SmartComputing) a quick blurb about a Virtual Keyboard that uses lasers and infrared to produce a fully functional 'virtual' keyboard. The picture was awesome and I thought it was revolutionary... but upon doing a little research, it appears that virtual keyboards like this date back to 2002 - possibly earlier.

Apple continues to make headway in their attempt to remove the barriers that have divided the Mac/Windows world for so long. By now, everyone is well aware that Apple is moving the Mac platform to Intel x86 based machines. Significance: Cheaper hardware for everyone who loves the Mac OS.

It looks like Google is going to enter the eCommerce market. My basic understanding is that Google will be allowing people to upload product information to Google Base and then when Google Payments is released they will be able to set a price for those items and accept payment.

There is no indication of how fulfillment will be handled, but it does sound like there will not be a transaction fee. I would imagine there is also not a need for a merchant bank account.

It seems that directory assistance (411) is getting more expensive every year. Cell and local carriers continue to charge more and more - all while more and more Internet sites offer it for free. The good news for carriers is that people continue to use it, to the tune of 6 billion directory assistance calls made per year (in 2005). At $1.00+ per call, that's pretty lucrative!

Alas! Now you can have your directory assistance free (again)!