Blogger Fights Big Bank Goldman Sachs Over Threat

A blogger in the U.S. filed a lawsuit against Goldman Sachs on Monday to prevent the big investment bank from taking his domain names.

Blogger Mike Morgan hopes to protect anti-Goldman Web sites, including www.goldmansachs666.com and www.goldmansachs13, from trademark action threatened by the powerful bank.

He filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida after receiving a letter accusing him of violating Goldman's intellectual property rights by using its trademark, attached as Exhibit A in the lawsuit.

"David didn't beat Goliath by waiting till Goliath threw the first punch," Morgan wrote on his blog.

Opened early last month, Goldmansachs666 carries a host of anti-Goldman stories including "Is Goldman Sachs Manipulating the Stock Market? - It Sure Looks Like It"; "Did Goldman Sachs Scam the System with AIG?"; and "Did [Goldman CEO] Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs Lie to Congress?"

Most of the articles criticize Goldman Sachs in relation to the disaster that has hit the U.S. financial sector, which Goldman appears to be weathering better than most of its peers.

Its stock price has risen over 54 percent so far this year to close Monday at $130.15.

The company has faced criticism for the US$12.9 billion in cash and collateral it received from insurer American International Group (AIG), which only made the payments due to the estimated $173 billion it got from the U.S. government.

But Goldman has proposed paying back the $10 billion in direct bailout money the government handed it last year as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The champion of TARP was former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, who previously ran Goldman Sachs as its chairman and CEO.

Morgan says in a disclaimer on his blog that he is betting in the stock market against Goldman Sachs, and holds a short selling position.

The Goldman versus Morgan fight looks similar to a problem Wal-Mart Stores faced over Web sites devoted to hating the retailer.

A judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia last month rejected Wal-Mart's request to take over the domain names "Walocaust.com" and "Walqueda.com" saying there was no way to mistake that the content on the sites, mostly anti-Wal-Mart opinions and products such as Walocaust T-shirts, were meant to criticize the company, not profit from the use of its name.

The legal wrangling did cause Walocaust.com to post a disclaimer at the top of the site saying it has no affiliation with Wal-Mart, a step that Morgan has already taken at Goldmansachs666.com.

A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs declined to comment on the lawsuit but said the letter was sent to Morgan to protect the Goldman Sachs trademark.

"We don't have an issue with his comments, those are his views," she said.

She indicated that the prior lack of a disclaimer at the top of Morgan's Web sites to say that the site and owner had no affiliation with Goldman Sachs played a part in the letter, but declined to comment on whether the inclusion of a disclaimer, which is now there, would mean Goldman Sachs will not proceed with legal action.

Disclaimers are not often used by Web sites that criticize companies and products, nor by sites professing undying devotion, such as iPhonefreak.com and iPhonebuzz.com.

Goldman Sachs has won court cases against similarly-named Web sites in the past. The company took down Netherlands-based Goldmansex.com after filing suit three years ago.

But a quick search on Google reveals other uses of the name Goldman in domains that do not carry disclaimers nor appear to not have been challenged, including Goldmanfund.org and Goldmanprize.org, a philanthropy Web site and environmental prize, respectively.

By law, a company holding a patent or trademark that wishes to protect their right to that intellectual property has to go after every perceived misuse, or risks losing their rights. The Internet has been a battleground for intellectual property disputes for a long time.

Arvind Krishnamurthy Launches Comodo Encryption Journal on Ulitzer

Comodo's range of solutions gives businesses the ability to create online trust through proprietary technology that help e-businesses convert more customers, retain more customers and increase lifetime value.

Arvind Krishnamurthy is the media relations manager for the Comodo companies. Comodo provides the infrastructure that is essential in enabling e-merchants, other Internet-connected companies, software companies, and individual consumers to interact and conduct business via the Internet safely and securely.

The Comodo companies offer PKI SSL, Code Signing, Content Verification and E-Mail Certificates; award winning PC security software; vulnerability scanning services for PCI Compliance; secure e-mail and fax services. Continual innovation, a core competence in PKI, and a commitment to reversing the growth of Internet-crime distinguish the Comodo companies as vital players in the Internet's ongoing development.

Comodo secures and authenticates online transactions and communications for over 200,000 business customers and has over 10,000,000 installations of desktop security products.

About Ulitzer.com
Initiating content coverage on any topic or launching a magazine at Ulitzer.com  is designed to be as easy as boiling an egg and doesn't take much longer. To become a Ulitzer author, anyone can fill out a simple author profile and submit for editorial review and approval. Once you've been handed the keys, you will be able to associate your future Web presence to whichever topic or topics suit you best.

The full list of topics and magazines being brought on stream via Ulitzer, and a list of more than 6,000 Ulitzer published authors at beta launch can be viewed at www.ulitzer.com.

Within the next five years, TIME Magazine, Harvard Business Review, Scientific American, Condé Nast Traveler, and Wikipedia will be replaced by Ulitzer.

Ulitzer authors can add their Google AdSense account numbers to their profile pages to start earning 100% AdSense cash immediately. Topic editors should obtain a new AdSense account from Google to be used strictly on their Ulitzer story pages. Ulitzer will match their AdSense revenues 100% and payment will be made to their PayPal accounts.

Salesforce To Tweet

Despairing of getting an answer from just about anybody's customer service these days, people are turning instead to Twitter to solve their product problems.

And seeing an opportunity to monetize that fact Salesforce.com has promised an extension of its two-month-old Service Cloud called Salesforce CRM for Twitter. It should be ready by summer.

It's supposed to let companies to find, monitor and join relevant Twitter micro-blogs in the Service Cloud, which is already connected to Facebook and Google.

Dell and Comcast have signed up for the new service.

With CRM for Twitter a company will be able to capture and monitor conversations by creating a record in the Service Cloud that tracks the original post and all subsequent replies. They can then funnel solutions from the Service Cloud knowledge base into a Twitter post.

There are reportedly eight million Twitter users but the free service still hasn't figured out how to monetize its popularity. Perhaps it'll go the way of sponsored tweets since Salesforce claims 50% of all service conversations take place in the cloud.

Salesforce CRM for Twitter will start at $995 a month for five agents and five business partners with support for 250 customers

Microsoft, Yahoo Ponder a Display-Advertising Deal

In the deal that refuses to die, Microsoft and Yahoo are reportedly in talks once again about joining forces in search advertising.

This time, it's not a merger or a Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo's search assets. Rather, Yahoo might take over Microsoft's display-advertising business, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Yahoo's stock rose 6.5 percent in early trading on the news.

According to the Journal, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz have discussed what a potential partnership might look like. A variety of ideas are being explored, but a full acquisition of Yahoo is reportedly not on the table.

"We have to take all these rumors with a grain of salt. We've heard all of this before. What's different this time is the personnel change at the top of Yahoo. That makes it possible for the two companies to talk and consider how they might work together in a less emotional way," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "In a way, it would be irresponsible for Carol Bartz not to have a conversation with Microsoft."

Targeting King Google

Yahoo is the leader in display advertising, and the Journal reports Microsoft may turn over some of its display-advertising operations to Yahoo as part of a larger collaboration that includes the overall search-advertising market.

It appears that the companies are looking for ways to leverage their combined strengths against rival Google. Microsoft has a small percentage of the search- and display-advertising markets, but has resources to use in a Google battle. Yahoo has seen a slight uptick in its market share and offers Microsoft the ability to reach a broader audience.

"It would make sense for Yahoo and Microsoft to form sort of a partnership because they are the number-two and number-three players in search advertising," Sterling said. "The issue is going to be how much of its search assets Yahoo is willing to give up to Microsoft. What Microsoft really wants is the reach that Yahoo can provide. Marketers are generally happy with the performance of [Microsoft] adCenter. The issue is the lack of volume that Microsoft offers comparatively."

Microsoft's Discovery Win

People don't think Microsoft is going to give up its display business to Yahoo, either, at least not in large part. One reason is because Microsoft Advertising just inked a deal for simultaneous three-screen ad campaigns for the Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch television series. The advertising campaign spans MSN, MSN Mobile, Windows Live Hotmail, Microsoft Live Search, and Xbox Live, and marks a major display-advertising win for Microsoft.

Ultimately, display advertising represents less than one-fifth of the $23.6 billion market for Internet advertising. But the Journal speculates that a display deal, in whatever form it might take, could open the door for a larger partnership.

"If there's enough financial incentive for Yahoo, the company might take some sort of a deal. But I don't think Yahoo is going to sell search or totally outsource it to Microsoft," Sterling said. "I am sure the companies are talking and exploring a range of scenarios. It's all sort of meaningless until something gets announced."

Netsuite targets SAP and Oracle

NetSuite Inc has developed programs targeted at large corporations, a person familiar with the strategy said, in an effort to move the software maker beyond the small- to mid-sized business market.

The person, who requested anonymity since the products have not been announced, said NetSuite wants to sell the software to divisions of large corporations that use software from SAP AG and Oracle Corp.

To date, the company has focused on products for small- to medium-sized companies (SMBs). But NetSuite is eager to get a slice of the enterprise market as corporations account for the bulk of sales of business application software, which researcher Gartner estimates at about $89 billion a year.

The new programs -- dubbed "SuiteCloud Connect" -- allow corporate divisions to run their businesses on a high-end version of NetSuite's Web-based software, then easily roll up financial data into their parent companies' SAP and Oracle systems, the person said.

Shares of NetSuite rose 2.54 percent to close at $12.10 on the New York Stock Exchange.

A spokeswoman for NetSuite, which is majority-owned by Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison, declined to comment.

SAP and Oracle sell traditional software, which companies buy and run in their own data centers. The bulk of the world's biggest corporations either use SAP or Oracle.

That approach can be more expensive than buying a subscription to NetSuite's hosted, Web-based software, said Rebecca Wettemann, an analyst with Nucleus Research, who had not been briefed by the company on the new product line.

Analysts said they expect the new product will be well received by corporate technology managers looking at NetSuite's software-as-a-service offering as a low-cost alternative to installing an SAP or Oracle system.

"It is clearly making it easier for customers that might need to do something, but are unable to do something given the capital constraints," said Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Nemeroff, who had not been briefed on the new product.

He added that corporations have more money to spend on technology these days than NetSuite's traditional customer base.

"If you are going after deals, it makes sense going after customers that have cash, as opposed to SMBs that are cash strapped these days," Nemeroff said.

Analysts expect 11-year-old NetSuite to post its first profitable year in 2009 as the San Mateo, California-based company's revenue grows 15 percent to $176 million, according to Reuters Estimates. By comparison, they expect SAP to post revenue of 11.8 billion euros ($15.8 billion) and Oracle to report full-year revenue of $23 billion.

The source said NetSuite would soon announce the connection software for SAP, but hold off on unveiling the product that works with Oracle. NetSuite may choose to downplay its efforts to take business away from Oracle due to the Ellison connection.

While Ellison and his family own about 61 percent of NetSuite, his influence over operations is limited. Prior to NetSuite's December 2007 initial public offering, Ellison put the 52 percent stake in NetSuite that he directly owns in a "lockbox" company, effectively stripping him of voting powers, and thereby reducing concerns that his involvement with Oracle could create a conflict of interest.

NetSuite developed SuiteCloud Connect using tools known as application program interfaces, or APIs, that are already built into SAP and Oracle programs, as well as software from most vendors.

Those APIs are open to all programmers and have previously allowed NetSuite customers to develop their own integration software for rolling up financial data into the parent company's computer systems.

Twitter tormented by nettlesome computer program

An obnoxious computer program that barged into Twitter Inc.'s mishmash of Internet chatter served as another reminder of the challenges facing the rapidly growing service.

The nettlesome program, known as a worm, targeted Twitter's network with four different attacks starting early Saturday and ending early Monday, according to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.

The worm was set up to promote a Twitter knockoff, StalkDaily.com. It displayed unwanted messages on infected Twitter accounts, urging people to visit the Web site.

The worm was designed to automatically reproduce itself once its links were clicked on, but it didn't filch any personal information from the more than 6 million people with Twitter accounts, Stone wrote in a posting about the incident. Nearly 10,000 Twitter messages, known as "tweets," had to be deleted to contain the potential damage.

"We are still reviewing all the details, cleaning up and we remain alert," Stone reassured Twitter's audience.

Michael "Mikeyy" Mooney, a 17-year-old high school student who created StalkDaily, acknowledged unleashing the worm in a Monday interview with The Associated Press. Besides wanting to promote his Web site, Mooney said he wanted to expose Twitter's weaknesses.

"I really didn't think it was going to get that much attention, but then I started to see all these stories about it and thought, 'Oh my God,' " said Mooney, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. He first confessed his responsibility for the worm to BNONews.com.

Mooney began having second thoughts about what he had done after reading a part of Stone's posting indicating that Twitter might pursue legal action against its tormenter. In a Monday e-mail sent to the AP, Stone said he didn't know whether Twitter will go after Mooney.

"If I get hit with a lawsuit, I am going to have major regrets and a big brick on my back," Mooney said. "I am backing off now. Twitter ignored its vulnerability (to worms) so I am hoping they can just ignore me now."

In the mean time, Mooney is retooling StalkDaily.com to accommodate more users. He has temporarily closed the site after getting swamped by the traffic triggered by his worm.

The trouble with Mooney represents another rite of passage for San Francisco-based Twitter, which has emerged a popular way to communicate on the Web and mobile phones since its debut three years ago.

Twitter's system, which limits messages to 140 characters, is used to broadcast both mundane and tantalizing information by a diverse group of users that include teenagers, celebrities, news agencies, politicians, police departments and companies.

Twitter's broadening reach makes it an inviting target for mischief makers and scam artists. Two of the Internet's biggest online hangouts, Facebook and MySpace, both have had to grapple with similar threats.

The widening usage also occasionally overwhelms the free service, whose 30 employees have been subsisting on about $55 million in venture capital until Stone and fellow co-founder Evan Williams come up with a way to generate revenue.

Although it doesn't break down as frequently as it did in its early days, Twitter periodically remains inaccessible because its computer servers can't handle all the traffic.

Such challenges have spurred speculation that Twitter eventually will be sold to a larger Internet company. Twitter already spurned a $500 million buyout offer from Facebook Inc. There also have been unsubstantiated reports that Internet search leader Google Inc. is eyeing a possible bid for Twitter.

StumbleUpon's founders buy service back from eBay

Two founders of Web content recommendation service StumbleUpon said Monday they bought the company back from online auction house eBay Inc., just two years after eBay purchased the startup for $75 million.

The founders, Garrett Camp and Geoff Smith, bought the company back with the help of investors including Ram Shriram of Sherpalo Ventures, Accel Partners, and August Capital, they said. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Camp will be chief executive of the company.

"We realized there were few long-term synergies between the two businesses," Camp said in a release. "It is best for us to part ways and focus on our respective strengths."

StumbleUpon, founded in 2001, has more than 7.4 million users and issues 425 million recommendations per month. The company suggests Web sites based on reader reviews and personal preferences of its members.

When eBay purchased the company two years ago, the startup was considered a pioneer of the so-called "Web 3.0" niche. The term refers to technology which pairs up general Internet search capability with a user's personal data and aggregated community data, in an effort to deliver more relevant results than a standard search engine such as Google Inc.

But San Jose, Calif.-based eBay itself has stumbled, acknowledging last month that it still has a long way to go in improving its online marketplace. Chief Executive John Donahoe, echoing investors, said at the time that the marketplace business has not kept up with the changing competitive landscape and customers' needs.

Ebay shares fell 39 cents, or 2.6 percent, to close at $14.63 on Monday. Shares gained 25 cents to $14.88 in after-hours electronic trade.