Web 3.0 & Google (Part 1)

Introduction Google is the world’s largest search engine and online advertising network. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. It is the largest American company (by market capitalization over $217 billion) that is not part of the Dow

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Web 3.0 & Amazon (Part 5)

Conclusion We have reviewed Amazon’s strategy in the upcoming Web 3.0 world over the last few days. Amazon has been focusing on enhancing its technology, introducing new categories of products and services (recently introduced, Amazon MP3 and Grocery), increasing depth of selection in each category, opening new markets (UK, Germany, Japan), offering better shopping tools

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Web 3.0 & Amazon (Part 4)

Acquisition Targets Amazon has been slow to acquire companies. Amazon acquired dpreview.com, a London-based digital photography review site in May 2007. Amazon needs to use acquisitions to enter businesses that have a higher profitability dynamic in their business models. For example, Amazon could consider acquiring on-demand, customized product creation company CafePress. CafePress.com is a growing

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Web 3.0 & Amazon (Part 3)

Web 3.0 Framework discussion Below is a quick overview of the Web 3.0 framework for the Amazon sites. Context Amazon’s primary Context is shopping. Whether it is for books, music, toys, or clothes, you come to Amazon to shop. Content Amazon has really good content about its merchandise. In fact, the Amazon catalog is a

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Web 3.0 & Amazon (Part 2)

Vertical Strategy Amazon is the most popular e-commerce site in the world. We will take a look at the Company’s various online verticals below. Books, Newspaper and Magazines Amazon was started as an online bookstore. It is the largest retailer of books online. It allows users to buy books, magazines and newspapers online. Amazon has

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Web 3.0 & MSN (Part 5)

Conclusion Microsoft has been reorganizing and rebranding its online properties. The Company has rebranded MSN Messenger and Hotmail as Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail. Microsoft is working on improving the underlying technology behind MSN and introducing new features but all this is yet to trickle down to the bottomline. There are rumors of

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Web 3.0 & MSN (Part 4)

Acquisition Strategy Microsoft acquired Medstory and aQuantive this year. Actually both were very good acquisitions. Online Health is a large segment with 31% of the total U.S. Internet users or 55.3 million U.S. Internet audience visiting health information sites each month during the first quarter of 2007. Buying aQuantive was a shrewd move. With the

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eBay vs. Amazon: Which is a Better Company?

Holiday shopping is on everyone’s mind. All e-commerce players stand to gain. Here are 4 charts that compare eBay and Amazon’s performance. I would like you to take a look at them and provide your comments on which one is a better company, and why.