ROUNDUPS
For the record 28 July
28-07-2003
by Sylvia Leatham
Overture signs deal with Knight Ridder Digital | Register.ie warns of bogus domain name renewal notices
Internet advertising and search company Overture announced on Monday that it has signed a key advertising services and search deal with Knight Ridder Digital, the Internet arm of newspaper publisher Knight Ridder Inc. Under the terms of the deal, Overture will provide its full line of services to Knight Ridder Digital for one year, including the provision of paid-placement search advertising services and Web search results. The deal is one of the first major search agreements announced by Overture, which is in the process of being acquired by Yahoo. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has hinted that his company may launch a music download service similar to Apple Computer's iTunes, reports CNET News.com. Responding to questions at an analyst meeting, Gates indicated that any music-store project would be more focused on providing computer users with added convenience than with being a direct moneymaker. "It's maybe a feature your platform should offer, but it's not like you're going to make some [big] markup," said Gates.
Irish e-payments firm Trintech has announced that the UK's Thermae Bath Spa has selected its PayWare Merchant solution to process all of its card payment transactions. The EFT card processing solution will enable Thermae Bath Spa to provide rapid on-line payment authorisations from any sales or order processing system. The solution can also be integrated with existing electronic point-of-sale systems, call centre systems, Web sites and other business systems.
The Irish Internet Association (IIA) has announced the appointment of John O'Shea as its incoming chairman. O'Shea, the commercial director of mobile ISP Zamano, succeeds John Pierce as chairman. The announcement was made after the association's annual general meeting on 24 July. O'Shea said that although the tech sector still faced many challenges, the Internet had exceeded many of the most optimistic forecasts of the past and is fundamental to a vast range of businesses.
Thorntons Recycling, a waste processing and recycling company, has announced that it has installed Opera from Quantum Business Solutions (QBS) to manage and reduce its costs and to create a more streamlined business approach to the waste and recycling business. "Now we have data when and where we need it, allowing us to make informed commercial decisions," said Gary Brady, financial controller of Thorntons. QBS is a Dublin-based software solutions company that specialises in accounting, quantum payroll, CRM and mobile business solutions for SMEs.
Irish domain registrar Register.ie has issued a warning to all domain name owners to be wary of bogus renewal notices. Register.ie said that in the past week it had been notified of a number of questionable marketing techniques focusing on domain name renewal. These techniques usually involve the sending of a letter that appears to be an invoice, warning the domain name owner of dire consequences if they fail to renew the domain and inviting the owner to renew their domain with a new provider. Register.ie advises that anyone who receives such a letter should refer the correspondence to their current registration provider. The warning comes in the wake of reports that hundreds of Irish domain name holders have recently received "Domain Name Expiration Notices" from the Domain Registry of America.
Using the subject line to get noticed: Denise Cox argues that to get results you have to make every word work in a subject line.
