Dear List,

In continuation of the Website Error Messages.

Ajay

www.decisionstats.com

Looks like the boys from Mountain View did some testing for anti spam or
denial of service ( depends on if you like/trust/dislike G)

, and went live instead of sand boxing the tests.......

Article from Techcrunch

   The Latest from TechCrunch <http://www.techcrunch.com>

Google Flags Whole Internet As
Malware<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/2uJSFcuU7oQ/>

Posted: 31 Jan 2009 06:53 AM PST

We're not quite sure what's going on, but a couple of minutes ago any search
result from Google started being flagged as malware with a message stating
"This site may harm your computer". Including Google's own websites as you
can see above.

Twitter is abuzz <http://search.twitter.com/search?q=google+search> with
people reporting the massive error (also look for tags
#googmayharm<http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23googmayharm>or
#googmayhem <http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23googmayhem>), and it's
clear that this is happening around the world. Apparently, it's happening
with any browser on any platform too.

Clicking the message takes people to a support page from
Google<http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=45449&topic=360&hl=en&ei=EGWESb6YMYaR-gbTu40o&sa=X&oi=malwarewarninglink&resnum=1&ct=help>(image
below), but this is being bombarded with millions of people right now
so it's very slow to respond. I saw the page briefly, and it pointed to
StopBadware.org <http://www.stopbadware.org/> (which is obviously also
loading slowly or not at all right now).

*Update: *it seems to be fixing itself. I'm having no more issues on Google
Belgium, still getting warning messages for malicious software when I search
Google.com. Also, it only seems to occur when you're searching as a
signed-in user now.

*Update 2:* it seems to be fine now. Lasted about 15 minutes. You can take a
deep breath now and go on with whatever you were doing before [image: :)]

Now we just have to wait for Google to tell us what went wrong. It's quite
clear that a meltdown of this size, no matter how short it was, will be the
topic of discussion for the coming days (and not only at the Googleplex, I'd
wager).

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Nielsen Deletes Reply-To-All
Button<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/_LJXfDaYhc4/>

Posted: 31 Jan 2009 02:43 AM PST

This happened last Tuesday, but we wanted to make sure you're aware that
Nielsen <http://www.nielsen.com/> management, after years of research, has
finally come up with an adequate solution to cluttered e-mail inboxes and
inefficiency in office environments: control-deleting the reply-to-all
button from the messaging software.

In a move that could have come straight from Mike Judge's Office
Space<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_space>,
the company has decided to remove the button from their e-mail program of
choice, Microsoft Outlook, affecting all 35,000 employees across the globe.
In a memo, republished by
Folio<http://www.foliomag.com/2009/nielsen-disable-employees-reply-all-e-mail-functionality>,
Andrew Cawood, Chief Information Officer for Nielsen Company, writes that
the measure will "eliminate bureaucracy and inefficiency".

I've never been a huge fan of the reply-to-all button either, but removing
it sure sounds like a very extreme decision, and claiming that it will
eliminate bureaucracy and inefficiency is just plain absurd.

Memo below.

*"REPLY TO ALL" FUNCTION TO BE DISABLED*

A Message from Andrew Cawood

In December, the Nielsen Executive Council (NEC) held an Act Now! event to
review suggestions from across the business that would eliminate bureaucracy
and inefficiency. Beginning Thursday, January 29, we will implement one of
the approved recommendations: removing the "Reply to All" functionality from
Microsoft Outlook.

We have noticed that the "Reply to All" functionality results in unnecessary
inbox clutter. Beginning Thursday we will eliminate this function, allowing
you to reply only to the sender. Responders who want to copy all can do so
by selecting the names or using a distribution list.

Eliminating the "Reply to All" function will:

• Require us to copy only those who need to be involved in an e-mail
conversation
• Reduce non-essential messages in mailboxes, freeing up our time as well as
server space

This is one of the many changes being implemented as a result of the NEC Act
Now! initiative. If you have any suggestions on how we can continue to
improve the way we work, please send your comments to Nielsen Communications
[mailto: REDACTED].

Andrew Cawood
Chief Information Officer

It's funny to me that Nielsen seems to suggest that the change has actually
been requested by employees across the board, which I'm quite certain was
not the case.

About half a year ago Mitchell Habib, Executive Vice President at Nielsen,
managed to accidentally cc all Nielsen employees in a reportedly arrogant
note to another employee, ending his e-mail with the now
famous-in-certain-circles punch line "Who do you work for, and why do you
think copying me on this is appropriate?".

I suspect that particular blunder led to this strange situation.

Hat tip Brett Powell for pointing to the Folio
article<http://www.foliomag.com/2009/nielsen-disable-employees-reply-all-e-mail-functionality>and
suggesting that we should read the comments. He was right.

My three personal favorites:

"Fine! Who needs to reply to all anyway. I don't even have electricity on my
farm and I never needed to reply to all. Besides it's known fact that if you
"Reply to All" your email goes into Sub-space and attracts Demon Vampires
from The Future. It's your choice."

"In December, the Nielsen Executive Council (NEC) held an Act Now! event to
review suggestions from across the business that would eliminate bureaucracy
and inefficiency. Beginning Thursday, January 29, we will implement one of
the approved recommendations: removing the "Q" key from all Nielsen Company
computers. We have noticed that the "Q" key is only used 19% of the time
throughout a typical work day as opposed to the most utilized letters, A, R
,S, T , and L, This results in unnecessary keystrokes, causing a waste of
time and silly words that use the letter Q. Beginning Thursday we will
remove all "Q" keys, allowing you to type only words without the letter "Q".
Employees who want to use the letter "Q" can now substitute the "asterisk"
symbol for all words containing "Q"…. "

"It is remarkable to see how Mitchell Habib's harrassing comments to an
accidental "reply to all" respondent has led to an initiative to prevent him
from humiliating himself again. It is discouraging to see that money saved
through layoffs is used to finance discussions about the "Reply to All
Crisis." I wonder how many high-level executives were flown from around the
world to resolve this threat. I wonder if those in charge of this brainchild
are the same people that disabled power-save mode from Nielsen computers.
Keep up the great work CIO! Look forward to a new comedy of errors in 2009.
May I suggest eliminating air conditioning?"

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Elevator Pitch Friday: BookGlutton, The Computer's
Kindle<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/_aGzJOlmoos/>

Posted: 30 Jan 2009 08:45 PM PST

This week's elevator
pitch<http://pitches.techcrunch.com/pitch/203-bookglutton>comes from
BookGlutton.com <http://www.bookglutton.com/>. Although the pitch is
long-winded and lacking energy and enthusiasm, it did alert us to this site
that is worth checking out.

BookGlutton.com is basically a community for online book reading. The site
promotes and encourages social interaction in reading and is ideal for book
clubs. You can read though any of the books uploaded in full length or
upload your own and share with others. One downside is the library is
limited to public-domain works, which doesn't offer a lot of recently
published books. You can also join groups devoted to a certain author or
type of book, like this
group<http://www.bookglutton.com/bookgroup/show/id/38>that is reading
British literature. BookGlutton has even posted a nifty how-to
video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBOB1cOkS7M> on YouTube about how to
share books.

And if you want to restrict your group to just close friends, you can create
a private book club. You can even make public or private notes while you
read.

As of now, BookGlutton is ad-supported, but the site is looking to sell
content in the future.
I'm already looking forward to starting a TechCrunch book club of my own!

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WELCOM To The World's Most Exclusive Social Network (Not Really, But Here
Are Screenshots) <http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/KxOcQFowDMs/>

Posted: 30 Jan 2009 06:28 PM PST

The World Economic Forum <http://www.weforum.org/en/index.htm> in Davos is
finally trying to make its mark in social
media<http://www.weforum.org/en/events/AnnualMeeting2009/SocialMedia/index.htm>at
this year's conference. The organization is unveiling the beta version
of
its exclusive Facebook-style social networking site, called
WELCOM<http://www.weforum.org/welcom>,
reserved for high-profile attendees of the World Economic Forum like Mark
Zuckerberg, Vladimir Putin and Kofi Annan.

The site, which was designed in partnership with Adobe Systems, BT Innovate
and Microsoft, will actually be a pretty nifty way to share ideas between
the world's best and brightest. That is, if world leaders will bother to
take the time to contribute to the site and establish profiles. (Don't count
on it).

It seems like the forum is reinventing the wheel since it uses LinkedIn and
Facebook style features, yet doesn't appear to link to either of those
networks. Other conferences such as now-defunct tech conference PCForum have
used existing networking sites, such as LinkedIn, to their advantage by
creating groups and discussion boards for attendees. Rather than reinvent
the wheel, they tapped into sites where most people already have profiles.

WELCOM will allow world leaders to sign into virtual meetings with video
technology, share documents, and discuss topics live. Members can also set
up private rooms and invite guest experts to participate when needed. WELCOM
can also publish works and news via a public page, to share results.

Although the World Economic Forum is encouraging members to use the site to
share personal news as they would a Facebook account, it's doubtful whether
world leaders would poke each other and reveal personal details, and other
more "complicated" matters.

This application comes as no surprise since the World Economic Forum has
made several strides into the social web this year. The forum has active
MySpace <http://www.myspace.com/worldeconomicforum> and
Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2440681615>pages and a
Twitter <http://twitter.com/davos> feed. The forum also uses
Flickr<http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum>to post current
photos and features two YouTube channels, the more tame forum
channel <http://www.youtube.com/worldeconomicforum>, and the Davos Debates
channel <http://www.youtube.com/davos>.

Here are screenshots of Welcom. It's probably as close as you are going to
get to the site, so enjoy.

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   Startup2Startup Unites Startup Rookies With Veterans; Five Invites For
TechCrunch Readers<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/TM-oh1kkyXk/>

Posted: 30 Jan 2009 05:18 PM PST

<http://startup2startup.com>

Startup2Startup <http://startup2startup.com/>, a popular invite-only Silicon
Valley networking event, held its 7th get-together last night, bringing 140
entrepreneurs together. The event is the brainchild of Dave
McClure<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/dave-mcclure>,
the venerable startup angel investor who recently joined Founders
Fund<http://www.foundersfund.com/>,
and the event sponsors <http://startup2startup.com/sponsors/> include some
of the top VCs in the valley.

The monthly event consists of a dinner, with an invited speaker or two
giving a presentation followed by moderated table-by-table conversations
(plus healthy lobby chatter before and afterwords). Startup2Startup brings
together three types of startup people: startup rookies and students;
entrepreneurs and startup veterans; and investors and experienced corporate
employees. See the photo
set<http://www.flickr.com/photos/nandorfejer/sets/72157613164136830/>of
the night's activities and introductory video below:

Part of the event's success has been the ability to pull in big names to
speak, including Chad Hurley <http://www.crunchbase.com/person/chad-hurley>,
James Hong <http://www.crunchbase.com/person/james-hong>, Naval
Ravikant<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/naval-ravikant>,
Matt Mullenweg <http://www.crunchbase.com/person/matt-mullenweg>, Toni
Schneider <http://www.crunchbase.com/person/toni-schneider>, Reid
Hoffman<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/reid-hoffman>,
Matt Cohler <http://www.crunchbase.com/person/matt-cohler>, Paul
Graham<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/paul-graham>,
and Jessica Livingston <http://www.crunchbase.com/person/jessica-livingston>
.

The featured speaker last night was Amy Jo
Kim<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/amy-jo-kim>of
ShuffleBrain <http://www.shufflebrain.com/>, who gave a great presentation
on the psychology and practices behind successful games and how to apply
them to web apps. Showing how gaming principals make many popular sites work
(with a case study on YouTube), Kim's talk gave practical advice applicable
to any social media site. Here's the slideshow:

Fun in Functional
2009<http://www.slideshare.net/amyjokim/fun-in-functional-2009-presentation?type=presentation>

The table conversation allows the startup "rookies" — defined as being a
part of their first startup (or not yet part of one) and having raised less
than $1 million — to ask whatever they'd like about business, make
connections, learn from veterans, and meet investors. My tablemates at last
night's event included Rashmi
Sinha<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/rashmi-sinha>,
CEO of SlideShare, Matt Cutts
<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/matt-cutts>from Google, and founders
from various startups including
Apture <http://apture.com/>, Foodzie <http://foodzie.com/>,
techVenture<http://techventure.com/>,
Life360 <http://www.life360.com/>, among others. Each table brings a good
mix of first-time founders, people itching to do a startup, investors
(typically both VC and Angel), seasoned entrepreneurs, and a moderator. The
conversation is generally open, engaging, and off-the-record.

February's speaker will be Jeffrey
Veen<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/jeffrey-veen>of Adaptive Path
and Google fame. The price of the event is $40 for the
invited rookies, but we've procured five free tickets for TechCrunch
readers. All you have to do is 1) be a startup founder, rookie, or wannabe
and 2) leave a comment below explaining why you want to go. We'll pick the
best five submissions and send the winners to the event.

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   OpenTable Files For IPO, And Reveals Its
Finances<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/wjKsJ6kgSSA/>

Posted: 30 Jan 2009 03:56 PM PST

OpenTable, the online restaurant reservation site that was founded in 1998,
is hoping to raise as much as $40 million in an IPO, according to a filing
with the SEC<http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1125914/000104746909000513/a2190140zs-1.htm#dm41301_selected_consolidated_financial_data>(embedded
below). The prospectus offers a detailed look at the company's
finances and operations.

Revenues through the nine months ended September 30, 2008 were $41.3
million, a 41 percent increase from the same period in 2007. The company
makes money from the restaurants, which pay both subscription fees (54
percent of revenues) and reservation fees for each diner that shows up
through the system (42 percent of revenues). It also makes a small amount on
installation fees (4 percent of revenues).

The company lost 149,000 in net income, but turned an operating profit of
261,000. That is a rather slim margin, however, it appears that the company
was spending as much as it could to grow and take market share, especially
internationally where it is just getting started. Operating income in North
America for teh period was $6.8 million, whereas the company took an
operating *loss* of $6.5 million internationally. Those are startup costs,
since it is just getting its foot in the door at restaurants outside the
U.S. and Canada.

As of September 30, 2008, OpenTable offered reservations at 9,709
restaurants worldwide, 8,788 of which were in North America It seated 25.5
million diners the first nine months of last year, up 45 percent. It
employed 292 people, and had $17.4 million in cash.

I have a feeling any IPO money will go towards international expansion. A
successful IPO would be a coup for CEO Jeff Jordan, a former eBay executive
who is well regarded in Silicon Valley.

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   Travelzoo Buys Fly.com Domain For A Lofty $1.8
Million<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/xaXKGElpWZQ/>

Posted: 30 Jan 2009 02:06 PM PST

Travelzoo <http://www.travelzoo.com>, a publicly traded travel site launched
in 1998, has annouced that it purchased the domain "Fly.com" for $1.8
million. According to Travelzoo's announcement, Fly.com will be the home of
"a new information web site to be launched in Feburary". A visit to the site
itself <http://www.fly.com> offers a slightly less vague description:

"Fly.com will launch a new travel search engine within the next few weeks
that will help you find
the best travel options. Please visit us again soon."

The $1.8 million price tag might sound like a lot (and it is), but pricey
domains are nothing new, even in the down economy: Vibrators.com sold for $1
million<http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/12/what-recession-priveco-coughs-up-1-million-for-vibratorscom/>a
few months ago and A&T's YellowPages.com paid a whopping $3.85
million<http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/30/atts-yellowpages-paid-385-million-in-cash-for-ypcom/>for
YP.com in December. Of course, good domain names are no
guarantee for success <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pets.com> - let's hope
Fly.com has more behind it than yet another generic travel search engine.

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MySpace CEO DeWolfe Jabs Back At Yahoo's Bartz
(Video)<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/WEWUKnC8yfY/>

Posted: 30 Jan 2009 01:23 PM PST

We heard that some MySpace insiders weren't exactly pleased when new Yahoo
CEO Carol Bartz <http://www.crunchbase.com/person/carol-bartz> made a subtle
jab at MySpace during the Yahoo earnings
call<http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/27/yahoo-ceo-bartz-i-did-not-come-to-yahoo-to-sell-the-company/>earlier
this week.

When asked if Yahoo would start to focus on the younger demographic, Bartz
responded<http://seekingalpha.com/article/116893-yahoo-inc-q4-2008-earnings-call-transcript?page=-1&find=myspace>
*"So one thing I would say, I want to make sure that we serve the
demographic that we have now very, very well. Also what I would tell you,
the good news is, that crowd is very finicky. And just as MySpace was
extremely hot and then moved over to Facebook, who knows what's going to
come next and who knows whether Yahoo! can grab that property and be
successful." *

The press took that quote and ran with it, writing headlines like this one
from Reuters<http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2009/01/28/facebook-hotter-than-myspace-yahoo-ceo-bartz/>:
Facebook hotter than MySpace: Yahoo CEO Bartz.

Bartz may have singled out MySpace because of a Financial Times
article<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/5d4589b2-ecdc-11dd-a534-0000779fd2ac,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F5d4589b2-ecdc-11dd-a534-0000779fd2ac.html%3Fnclick_check%3D1&_i_referer=&nclick_check=1>noting
that the company was successfully targeting Yahoo's advertisers.

I caught MySpace CEO Chris
DeWolfe<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/chris-dewolfe>in the hallway
at the World Economic Forum at Davos earlier today. I have a
much longer interview that I'll post tomorrow. But I also asked him what he
thought of being called out by Bartz. His response is in the video above. He
was polite, but threw in a couple of zingers, saying Bartz, who is new to
the consumer Internet space and is still learning, and *"she's not from this
industry and it will probably take some time to get acclimated."* He also
says he doubts Bartz has ever been on the MySpace website. Full transcript
of the brief exchange is below.

*Michael Arrington:* I'm here with MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe. Chris, sorry
to grab you in the hallway, there's something I've mean meaning to ask you.
A couple of days ago the new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz on an earnings call said
something we found kind of funny. She said something along the lines of
"Facebook is hot, MySpace isn't, or MySpace is dead "or something along
those lines. I found that interesting given that you guys have a pretty
awesome revenue trajectory and also you guys are partners on OpenSocial and
some other stuff. What was your reaction to that?
*
Chris DeWolfe:* I didn't have a big reaction to that. I think she is fairly
new to the consumer internet space and is probably still learning. I hear
she's a really smart person and she'll do a good job there. I doubt she's
been on our site and if you look at our numbers in the United States, we
have 76 million unique users and our nearest competitor has 45 million
unique users. So, it's kind of an odd statement but again, she's not from
this industry and it will probably take some time to get acclimated.

*Michael Arrington:* All right, thanks very much.

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Zazzle Lays Off 15%, Corporate Office Hit
Hard<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/khDhalaTNGI/>

Posted: 30 Jan 2009 10:20 AM PST

<http://www.zazzle.com>

Zazzle <http://www.zazzle.com>, the online shop that lets you order
custom-decorated clothing, mugs, and a variety of other items, has laid off
nearly 40% *25%* of its corporate staff and 15% of the overall company,
which includes workers in its manufacturing factory. The corporate office
was hit hard, with over 30 *28* of 110 employees cut, primarily in business
development, marketing, and engineering. Cuts were also made in the
company's factories, which houses 140 workers (some of which are working
under contract).

In an official blog post, the company's founders
write<http://blog.zazzle.com/>that the site has seen strong growth
over the past year, but that the
sluggish economy forced them to make cuts in order to ensure the company's
continued profitability. The company says it will continue to sell products
currently available on the site, but has cut some projects that have yet to
appear and will continue to drop products that aren't performing well.

*Update*: Chief Product Officer Jeff Beaver says that the Zazzle
representative I spoke to earlier was misinformed, and that 28 out of 110
corporate employees were laid off, representing around 25% of the corporate
office. He confirmed that 15% of the staff overall had been laid off.

The news has been added to the Layoff
tracker<http://www.techcrunch.com/layoffs/>
.

*Crunch Network*: CrunchGear <http://www.crunchgear.com>* *drool over the
sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
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Video: Unboxing the JimmyJane.com Form 6
Massager<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/SGQPf4v8GVA/>

Posted: 30 Jan 2009 10:18 AM PST
Hey, guys, guess what just came in the mail? The JimmyJane.com Form 6
massager <http://www.jimmyjane.com/> with dual-action for those heard to
reach places. I'll do a full review shortly - WITH PICS! - but here's a
quick unboxing for you all. Note: This is for external use only. Click
through for the safe for work video.

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YouTube's Chad Hurley: "We Have The Largest Library of HD Video On The
Internet." <http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/bCdr926cD5U/>

Posted: 30 Jan 2009 10:02 AM PST

It is early days for HD video on the Web, but already we are starting to see
jostling for position in this nascent part of the Web video market. Less
than two months after YouTube started streaming high-definition
videos<http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/05/did-youtube-just-turn-on-hd-for-real/>in
a major way, CEO Chad Hurley is now claiming bragging rights as the
biggest HD video site on the Web. At a panel today at
Davos<http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/30/chad-hurley-craig-mundie-and-mark-zuckerberg-talk-mobile-at-davos/>,
he said:

* We feel we have the largest library of HD video on the Internet.*

If you look at YouTube's HD
category<http://www.youtube.com/browse?s=mphd&c=0&l=&b=0>,
five pages with about 100 HD videos come up. Hulu's HD
gallery<http://www.hulu.com/hd/>,
in contrast, only has six videos. Vimeo's HD
gallery<http://vimeo.com/hd?PHPSESSID=d4009539c37a7b60740360aed3c332e4>has
178 712 videos. But CBS <http://www.cbs.com/hd/> has at least 1,000 (and it
is not clear how many of those are on YouTube in HD quality).

But those are just the featured videos. Search on YouTube for
"HD"<http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=HD&high_definition=1>and
then select only results in HD quality, and you get 150,000 results.
That doesn't necessarily mean there are 150,000 different HD videos on
YouTube. But search on Hulu for
"HD"<http://www.hulu.com/videos/search?query=HD>and you get, once
again, six results. CBS and other sites, obviously have
more. But it seems likely that YouTube has the most.

Hurley also updated some other stats about YouTube. The site is now
ingesting 15 hours of video content *every minute*, up from 13 hours every
minute last September.<http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/16/chad-hurley-on-the-future-of-youtube-we-will-conquer-every-screen/>And
he gives some sense for what percentage of YouTube users actively
upload
videos as opposed to passively consuming them:

*Even on Youtube, you have a small percentage of the community uploading
videos, and the majority consumes. It is in the range of 2 to 3 percent. But
the audience is so large even that is a big number.*

That percentage is in line with participation rates for other social media.
It is only the very top of the pyramid that actually creates and contributes
content to any user-generated site. But is it the most talented 2 to 3
percent?

*Crunch Network*: CrunchBase <http://www.crunchbase.com>* *the free database
of technology companies, people, and investors
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