July 20, 2001

Wired News: What pops up must come down (irritating ads spur more users to install adblocking software)
PrivacyHeadquarters.com: Sound familiar? Customers seek to assert nonexistent rights (informational web site with industry perspective says banks should be able to ignore customers' privacy opt-out requests if they aren't submitted using the bank's own form, even if the customer uses a standard form notice like this)

July 19, 2001

AP: Britannica.com users say farewell to free read (Let's see here ... it didn't succeed when they charged for it, and it didn't succeed when they made it free, so now they're going to charge for it again. Why not pay people to use it, instead? They'd lose a little on each customer, but they could make up for it in volume, right? Is it too late for me to patent that business model?)
Wired News: Fixing a hole where spam comes in

July 11, 2001

CNET News.com: eBay, PayPal open new chapter in feud; Start-up auction site sues PayPal
The Register: Europe bottles spam ban
OK, I hate to give them a free plug, but this web site is definitely worth checking out: Anybirthday.com Birthdate Search Engine. You can search for anyone's birthday (in the USA), and about half the time you'll find it. (You'll also get the person's zip code, which you can look up using one of these links: Census, ZipInfo, ZipFind.) Supposedly this data comes from "public records" ... but I have my doubts.
Winchester (UK) City Council: Get your butt here

July 03, 2001

InternetNews.com: E-tailers duel on shipping charges (Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com both are offering free shipping on orders of two or more items -- though you may be able to find better prices through BooksAMillion.com or PriceFarmer.com)