Google Enters Vertical Search With Travel

Something really major happened today. The New York Times reports: “Google has acquired ITA software, a 14-year-old company that makes software that organizes flight and pricing information, for $700 million in cash. ITA, based in Boston, specializes in organizing airline data, including flight times, seat availability and pricing.”

Forbes Column 2010: Taking On Microsoft, Google From India

A Bangalore startup aims to outperform tech’s software giants. Read more in this week’s Forbes column, Taking On Microsoft, Google From India.

Google Must Look At Verticalization

It looks as though the recession has finally caught up with Google. Yesterday the search giant announced Q1 results which reflected the troubled economy and more particularly the decline in clients’ advertising budgets. This post discusses Google’s missed opportunity in verticalization.

Deal Radar 2008: Local Marketers

As startups invent new business models to monetize their offerings, one that has become popular is the Cost Per Action (CPA) model. Here’s a company that is trying CPA in the local advertising market.

Deal Radar 2008: Gaia Interactive

Gaia Interactive is an online hangout where over 7 million visitors come every month to chat, meet new people, play games, and watch movies in Gaia’s virtual theater. Members can create customized online avatars and transform themselves into any kind of persona they want to be – classy, innocent, sexy, or scary, among others. An

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More Bootstrapping: VirtualTourist.com Co-Founder J.R. Johnson (Part 3)

SM: What was your plan for monetizing the site? How did you do it? JJ: During that time I convinced GoTo.com, which later became Overture.com, to allow us to take their paid links and put them into our content. I made the argument that a user who had to click six times to get down

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Top 8 Blog-related Startups

Blogs have clearly turned the media industry upside down,, with many providing coverage superior to that of newspapers and television. While most of them read poorly, some are excellent, and these are monetizing by quality ad networks with their content and traffic. Here are eight players in the blogosphere worth watching:

Top 7 Internet TV Startups

As Internet TV slowly gains ground, the line between the Internet and TV is getting blurred. Although IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) has not yet reached the stage where it can navigate the world of TVs and set-top boxes, it will soon.