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ZOOMING IN
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REPORT
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TREND HUNTER
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EBCENTER KNOWLEDGE
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USEFUL INFORMATION
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ZOOMING IN
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The Giants in a Fight for the Internet Search Engines
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Amazon, with its final version of A9, its search engine, pushes itself into the race to become the preferred Internet access point for users looking for information, products or services. The online macro store now competes with the other top portals like Yahoo!, Microsoft MSN, eBay and Google of course.
Search engines have become central to the control of the Internet. While Google, the indisputable king of search engines, is developing a tool that locates text and files stored in a computer, Bill Gates’s company is planning to integrate Internet and PC search engines in Longhorn, its new operating system. Moreover, in July Microsoft launched the new version of its Internet search engine called MSN Search with direct links to other products it owns, such as its Encarta encyclopaedia, Hotmail and Messenger.
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Commentary by Sandra Sieber, IESE Professor
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Online Search Engines: the Road to Success
Online searching has become one of the main activities of surfers, before reading any information or buying a product or service. This habit has placed the search engines very near the customers, which constitutes their main strength and has pushed the Internet giants into the online search engine business.
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REPORT
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More Chats and Fewer File Exchanges in Spanish Homes
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Title: Estudio de los usos de Internet en los hogares españoles. 2º Informe (abril-junio 2004) [A study on the use of the Internet in Spanish homes. 2nd Report (April – June 2004)]
Source: Red.es
Date: September 2004
Abstract: Red.es, who plans to publish its reports on a quarterly basis, has just published its second report on the use of the Internet in Spanish homes. Last quarter it discovered the greater use of chat applications and instant messaging, which had grown one and a half points since March 2003 and was used by 60.5% of Internet users. The average connection to these services remains at about 9 hours 17 minutes per month. On the other hand, the number of users of peer-to-peer (P2P) file exchange programmes dropped: in the quarter from April to June just 25.8% of surfers ran those programmes from home, which means a fall of 3% over the previous year. However, the average connection time rose by a significant 8.85%.
One of the most interesting points in this study is the possibility of comparing the results with six other European countries. The average connection time per home in Spain is approximately 9 hours a month or 27 hours per quarter. This places us in front of such countries as Switzerland (26 hrs., 27 min.), The United Kingdom (25 hrs., 38 min.), Sweden (22 hrs., 24 min.) or Italy (16 hrs., 13 min.) and behind Germany (30 hrs.) and France (32 hrs., 11 min.). The study also points out that time spent surfing by men in Spain (35 hrs.) was more than double that of women (17 hrs.). The age range of the most connected group (42 hrs.) was between 18 and 24. The most popular time range for Spanish surfers ran from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Full Story
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TREND HUNTER
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Electronic Vote, in the Testing Stage
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While the whole world is wondering who will win the next Presidential elections in The United States, the heads of Electionline.org are losing sleep over another question: will the electronic voting system work well? This is not a trivial question given that the electronic-electoral reform that this independent group supervises will allow almost one third of the 150 million North Americans to vote on a tactile screen.
On November 2nd we will see just how well these machines work and how safe against fraud they are. Their reliability has been questioned by those who say that this system has still not been tested on a large scale. After the controversial elections in 2000, the convenience of the electronic vote has led to an impassioned debate between those in favour and those against. While some think it is too vulnerable to manipulation and fraud, others see it as an antidote to the botched perforated vote.
In Spain, the referendum on the European Constitution could become the next big test for electronic voting, as hinted at by the President of the Government, José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero. However, until the General Electoral Law is modified any experiment of this kind, like the one carried out in Zamora, Toro and Pol (Lugo) at the General Elections in June, will be just that, an experiment.
News in Reuters, Computing and VNunet
Articles in The New York Times and Economist.com (Payment Service)
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The Sims Are Back
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Electronic Arts (EA), the video game giant, has launched the “Sims 2” for PCs, the sequel to the life simulation video game that has sold 40 million units. The company hopes to sell 2 million games in Europe this year, and so far it is number one in the United Kingdom and the United States. It is the most sought after game at Amazon and FNAC. Another of EA’s bets is on games for mobile phones and portable players, among which is Sony’s PSP.
One of the main assets of The Sims –and the presumable success of the sequel- is the number of casual players it has drawn to the shops. EA took that fact into account when it designed a powerful publicity campaign very like those for Hollywood premiers: it created expectation in the last few months with trailers and previews, advertising space in non-specialised press, billboards and sales premiers in each country with famous local people in attendance.
Another thing, most of the “Sims” public is female, which could also help with the success of the online version of the game. Not in vane, the studies point out that more women (60%) play online games than men (40%). We hope that this time round the failure of the online version of the “Sims” is not repeated. In spite of the fact of having the largest virtual community of users, it failed to win the confidence of the Internet surfers. There is still need to overcome the insecurity caused by not knowing one’s opponent.
News in CNet
Study in Pew Internet and American Life
Amazon and Fnac Web pages
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Firefox Version 1.0 PR: Better Than Expected
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The new version of Firefox was downloaded one million times in just one hundred hours. The people responsible for the open source browser of the Mozilla Foundation saw their own forecasts blown away. They expected to reach this figure in ten days; four days sufficed.
The success of this preview version of Firefox 1.0, launched on 14th September, means another success for the open source browsers and ratifies the increase in the movement in favour of open source software, amplified through specialised press and weblogs. Proof of this is that Firefox 1.0 is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems and there are also versions for other minority systems (Solaris, Sun´s Java Desktop Item, OS/2, BeOS and AIX) developed by selfless volunteers.
Just four days ago Microsoft recognised, for the first time, their fear of the growing popularity of Linux. Now there is the additional fear of its Internet Explorer losing market share to other open source browsers like Firefox. According to several studies this is in fact happening. WebSideStory, for example, states that Internet Explorer’s market share fell from 95.6% to 93.7% from June to September, while the users of Mozilla’s open software browsers went from 3.5% to 5.2% in the same period.
News in CNet, VNunet and Telcommunity
Articles in eWeek, Business Week and ZDNet
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EBCENTER KNOWLEDGE
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Basel II: Nearer Than we Think
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By Jorge Soley and Ahmad Rahnema, IESE professors
After five years of negotiations, there is green light in the banking sector worldwide. At last Basel II, which requires banks to apply identical risk measurement parameters to all companies by the end of 2006, has been approved. In order to fulfil this agreement, the sector will need to make an important investment in information technology.
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USEFUL INFORMATION
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Technology and Banking Strategy: Where Are We?
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IESE professor Eduardo Ballarín chaired the discussion between Ana Patricia Botín, Chairwoman of Banesto, and Juan Pi, Vice-president of IBM, about the strategic value of technology for the banking sector.
Full Story
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Copyright 2008 e-business Center PricewaterhouseCoopers & IESE Business School.
Copyright 2008 e-Business Center PwC&IESE. All rights reserved. This document can be redistributed, retransmited or copied without modifying for any but commercial use. This copyright comment and the URL http://www.ebcenter.org must be included at all times.
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