Mr. eBay Goes to Washington
Several high-profile online retailers have banded together to protect themselves and their colleagues against government measures that may stifle Internet-based competition.
The lobbyist group, called NetChoice, counts among its founding members eBay, eRealty.com, OnlineMetals.com and Orbitz, the online travel agency backed by, among others, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Continental Airlines.
The group is worried that the government, pressured by established brick-and-mortar companies, might impose regulations or taxes aimed at hurting competition from online businesses. Customers, and not the government, should determine winners and losers, the group says.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Ill., support the group.
Baseball Over the Airwaves
Major league baseball fans can now vote for their favorite All-Stars anytime, anywhere.
MLB.com, the official Web site for Major League Baseball, announced last week an initiative that will allow fans to cast ballots for the starting All-Star teams via wireless devices. Until now, voting had to be done at ballparks or through a PC.
In addition, official content from the Web site will be accessible to the untethered masses, allowing users to get up-to-the-minute game scores.
iConverse, a wireless platform vendor, has developed and deployed the wireless service, which is at mobile.mlb.com. The service is the result of a collaboration between iConverse and MLB Advanced Media, baseballs Internet company.
Moving Beyond Dot-Com
You wont have Beyond.com to kick around anymore. At least not the name.
At the companys annual meeting last week, shareholders in Beyond.com approved changing the name to Beyond Corp. The company initially was an e-retailer focusing on software.
However, executives decided to concentrate on its software and services offerings and run online businesses for other companies.