Business Networking Forum

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Bloggers are increasing in influence and that will upset many in the old line journalist news outlets. Rather of CBS news was taken down a notch but so has all of the old media. By time the networks like ABC, CBS, NBC and even CNN report something, it’s old news. If you can’t keep up in the modern world which has become known as “internet time” you will fade away. The old line media is a dinosaur, printing, like newspapers is even in a worse position. Change with the times and use the modern technology or fall. The horse and buggy industry ended as the automobile came on. Blogs will end the old media outlets.

——–
guest said,

on January 22nd, 2005 at 9:07 pm

Thomas’s admission validated the charges made in Bernard Goldberg’s book Bias: A CBS Insider
Exposes How the Media Distort the News, and capped waves of evidence from recent sociological
studies by the Pew Foundation, scientists at UCLA, and others that have scrutinized the establishment that the bloggers call “MSM” (Main-Stream Media). All the evidence shows that the
MSM is extremely left-wing compared to the U.S. population as a whole. Content analysis has
repeatedly demonstrated how this bias both distorts public perception of specific issues and makes most Americans grossly mis-estimate where the political center of popular opinion actually is.

Search engines don’t seem to be “fair”. Nothing has to be fair but at the
same time one or a few search engines shouldn’t have the power over all web sites. It’s web sites that created search engines by being their
“content”. Supposedly make a good site and it will rank high. The problem
is for individuals its not possible to “start” with a great web site. People start new web sites and hope to get some traffic so they can continue to grow their site while seeing some progress and even some revenue. The ranks are often largely based in incoming links. It’s very difficult to get others to link a web site. Some get incoming links with link trades or some gimmick of “viral” marketing. How is being an “expert” at SEO and getting incoming links prove a site is good and will continue to provide valuable information? How do people know something is of value until they read it or even try it?

Originally search was cool in a sense that people would find a new site,
something that never existed before. (the good old days of the net) There were limited amount of sites so every new site got its share of hits and could see they have progress and continue to upgrade and update their site. Only the few can continue to be motivated seeing a handful of hits a day or hit counts flat or in decline. Now it takes money to buy your way into search engines for paid keywords, expensive marketing, or SEO, search engine optimization, experience or paying someone for expertise. Few well established sites get large number of hits in search and even they
are taking a shrinking share each among more and more sites and those that
know how best to SEO or spam the search engines.
A new site has little chance to be noticed and all searches will result in
the same old established sites and nothing really new or different will rank
high unless the person knows a gimmick or has the money to pay.

Who created the search engines? Web site owners did promoting them and
linking to them and being the content for them. Now a few search engines have the power to sink or make a web site. More and more of the search results go to those paying for the listing. A new search engine can easily be promoted by web site owners if they get hits from it. SEO should be scrapped so people can be creative, put video, pictures or what ever without worry about how it will effect their site in search engines. Incoming links should mean nothing so newer sites can more easily be equal in rank all things else equal. Almost any web site owner can make a good site page equal to or better than any other and they shouldn’t be disadvantaged because they are new. What ever happened to meta tags or keywords? A site can decide what they are, what keywords they think their site is about. Meta keywords were the original determiner and was a good idea that can easily be used again.

If only the well established sites or money backed sites are going to be
able to buy their way to the top of search engines, imaginative and new
creative people will not be noticed or get a chance to gain enough traffic
to continue. No matter what determines how a site comes up in a search,
someone won’t like it. Opening it up to more web sites will increase choices
and keep the net interesting and allow changes to take place.

Wikia Search - A project by Wikia to create the search engine that changes everything.

Strong 2006 Performance and Growth Positions StarCite for Productive 2007

With 2007 Pegged by Many as a Watershed Year for Meetings Management Adoption, StarCite Ends 2006 with Nearly $6 Billion in Marketplace Commerce, Continues Strong Customer Growth and Rolls out New Solutions for Smaller Meetings

StarCite, Inc., the leading provider of On Demand Global Meeting Solutions(TM), today reported record 2006 results, highlighted by almost $6 billion of potential meeting and event business flowing between corporate buyers and meeting suppliers through its online marketplace, providing $16 million in daily lead opportunities. StarCite also saw nearly 50 percent growth in unique requests-for-proposal (RFPs) from corporate clients in 2006, and 30 percent growth in attendee registration transactions.

“We are thrilled about the growth we’ve seen this year but even more excited about the value we’ve been able to provide to our customers,” said Michael Boult, StarCite President and CEO. “With all signs pointing to another year of fast-growing adoption for strategic meetings management programs, we’re focused on helping more companies achieve substantial savings and efficiencies with the help of StarCite’s on-demand solutions.”

“At the same time, we believe the industry remains in the beginning stages of meetings management technology adoption,” Boult continued. “We are enthusiastic about continuing to provide a solution that benefits buyers and suppliers alike. Throughout 2007, we’re looking forward to introducing innovative new products, promoting industry best practices and delivering value to corporate buyers and meeting suppliers worldwide.”

Customer Growth and Business Development

StarCite’s momentum continued during the fourth quarter of 2006 with the addition of a series of important new corporate customers, including Biogen Idec, Nestle USA, and Toyota.

StarCite’s new European headquarters was instrumental in securing a large European financial organization and rolling out StarCite technology throughout BCD Meetings & Incentives European operations. StarCite also expanded relationships with many of its existing clients, including Caterpillar, Eli Lilly, Longaberger, and Medtronic.

In August 2006, StarCite merged with OnVantage. The transaction was completed at the close of 2006. The merger more than doubled the resources StarCite can devote to continued product enhancement and global expansion to serve customer needs, while dramatically increasing the size of the company’s electronic marketplace. StarCite continues to focus on its global expansion and will be announcing several new strategic partnerships in the next several months.

Product Innovation

Early in 2007, StarCite reintroduced its EasyBook “Small Meetings Solution”, which allows corporations to efficiently arrange small meetings while capitalizing on their own negotiated corporate hotel rates and preferred supplier relationships. Small meetings of 50 attendees or less can comprise as much as 80 percent of some companies’ meetings spend. StarCite’s enhanced offering greatly expands the ability of corporations to identify and manage spending on small meetings by allowing users to search availability and receive instant rate quotes from the company’s expansive supplier community. The new Small Meetings Solution is the first tool to empower users to book small meetings quickly and efficiently utilizing fixed contracts and standardized rates. It provides increased visibility and control over this critical element of a strategic meetings management program.

StarCite also plans to soon introduce a new “Dinner Meetings Solution”, which will allow customers to manage smaller dinner meetings spend - an especially pressing need for the pharmaceutical industry. The new offering will help companies manage approval processes, communicate and enforce event policies, track costs, manage attendees and utilize negotiated rates.

Industry Recognition

Reflecting StarCite’s strong performance and industry impact during 2006, StarCite President and CEO Michael Boult was named as one of Business Travel News’ most influential executives of the year. Boult was specifically selected for this award after he “led a charge of aggressive growth and development - promising more partners and more business from partners, new products and acquisitions” and spearheaded a “barrage of new initiatives, organic growth, and partnerships”. Boult also recently received Emerald Asset Management’s E-3 Private Company Executive Award. Earlier in the year StarCite founder and head of StarCite International, John Pino was named one of MeetingNews’ “Roll Call of Top Movers and Doers.”

About StarCite, Inc.

StarCite®, Inc. is the leading provider of On Demand Global Meeting Solutions(TM). StarCite optimizes global investments in corporate meetings and events, delivering visibility, savings and control. StarCite provides process efficiency, enabling technology and proven adoption management support to drive significant cost reduction to buyers and enhanced revenues to suppliers. StarCite is based in Philadelphia. StarCite’s equity holders Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ: ICGE - News), TPG Growth, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), and TL Ventures. For more information about StarCite or its technologies and services, please visit www.starcite.com.

Blog Billboards. For advertisers and blog owners.

Blog Billboards is geared to blogs and other information web sites where readers are considered trend setters, knowledgeable, and influential.

For blog owners: Run ads on your blog and in return have other blogs run your banner ad promoting your blog. Advertise and revenue for blog owners.

For Advertisers: Information to advertise on BlogBillboards.com.

Blog Billboards

Akamai solutions help you grow your online business, not your IT infrastructure. Our managed services give you instant global reach and consistent performance worldwide. Accelerate your Web-based applications and dynamically-generated content while providing fast and flawless media and software delivery.
Akamai solutions
Akamai

Akamai handles 20% of the world’s total Web traffic, providing a unique view into what’s happening on the Web - what events are generating traffic, how much, from where, and why. Bookmark this page to get a feel for the world’s online behavior at any given moment - how much rich media is on the move, the sheer volume of data in play, the number and concentration of worldwide visitors, and average connection speeds worldwide.
Real Time Web Metrics

Turn Online Browsers into Buyers
Channel Intelligence solutions convert marketing dollars to measurable performance by ensuring products are placed where shopping starts today - online - then leading the consumer to where they prefer to buy.

RETAILERS
Increase online and local sales, improve product profitability and enjoy a larger overall market share with the SellCast™ Retailer Solutions.

SHOPPING NETWORKS
Focus on the retail merchants and consumers and leave the data management and optimization to SellCore™ Platform Solutions and enjoy better product placement and increased revenues.

MANUFACTURERS
Capture incremental sales, reduce shopping cart abandonment and refine product flow through the channel with the SellPath™ Channel Solution for manufacturers.

Based in Orlando, Florida, with offices in Geneva, Switzerland, Channel Intelligence is a leading provider of innovative data solutions that make it easy for online shoppers to find and buy products, whether they start at retailer sites, manufacturer sites or destination shopping sites. CI’s patented optimization technology and data solutions currently manage and syndicate information on millions of products to over 50 shopping destinations every day. CI customers include nearly 200 of the best known retail and manufacturing brands such as Best Buy, Baby Universe, Black & Decker, Canon, Circuit City, Electronic Arts, eToys Direct, Fujifilm, HP Home and Home Office, ICE.com, Idea Forest (Joann.com), LG Electronics, Northern Tool + Equipment, Neiman Marcus Group, Olympus, Panasonic, PC Mall, PETCO, Smart Bargains, Target, The Inside Store and Things Remembered. For more information, visit the company’s website at http://www.channelintelligence.com.

Work.com is a new service from Business.com, the largest business-to-business search engine and directory. Business.com and Work.com help small business decision-makers solve their most pressing business problems and realize their most compelling opportunities. They make it easy to find the most useful business websites, products, and services saving our users time and money.

Whereas Business.com targets the ready-to-transact business-to-business buyer, Work.com is the entrepreneur’s owner’s manual to where to go, what to know, and how to get the most value from the ever-growing array of Web resources for the small business owner/operator. It is comprised of more than 1,000 How-to Guides written by business experts. How-to Guides are straightforward, quick-read descriptions of how to get something done, and where on the Web are the best places to help you check those tasks off your to-do list.

Work.com is a community of small-business owner/operators. Users may rate Guides on how useful the are to helping solve business tasks, participate in open discussion forums for each Guide, suggest new Guide topics, or write Guides in their areas of expertise.

Business.com is the web’s leading search and directory service dedicated exclusively to business. The goal of Business.com is to provide business professionals access to business resources including goods, services, news, jobs and information, enabling them to make the right business decisions.

With over 65,000 business categories and subcategories, the Business.com directory provides valuable utility to its users, while advertisers are afforded laser-focused targeting to reach only the most qualified prospects.

The Site

Laser-precise, business-only search results
65,000 business categories & subcategories in our directory
Web’s leading B2B search and directory service

The Audience

The web’s highest concentration of business decision makers from all major industries
3.2 million monthly unique users on Business.com*
28 million monthly unique users on the Business.com Network**
The Network

Comprised of carefully-chosen partner sites that serve the needs of business professionals in a wide variety of industries
Search results on leading business publication sites powered by Business.com
Expands the reach of Business.com Featured Listing clients beyond the Business.com site

Oracle OpenWorld 2006 Overview
Oracle OpenWorld 2006 is the world’s largest event dedicated to helping enterprises understand and harness the power of information. Connect with the people, products, and trends at the forefront of business and information technology in San Francisco.
Experience the latest in Oracle applications, technologies and solutions
Network with your peers and business partners
Gain inspiration from industry thought leaders and featured keynotes
You’ll get more than ever before at Oracle OpenWorld 2006, including:

More Content
Keynotes from Oracle executives and key partners
Over 1400 sessions across all Oracle applications, technology, industries and solution areas
More Exhibition Space
Two Exhibition Halls with increased access to partners and demos
Over 450 Oracle partners displaying the latest products
Oracle Demogrounds showcasing over 400 live demos for product experts
More Networking …and More Fun
Many chances to meet with Oracle developers, product experts and peers
Time to mingle at the welcome reception, OTN Underground, daily happy hours, and the popular It’s a Wrap Party
A performance by Sir Elton John at this year’s Appreciation Event, sponsored by Network Appliance, Inc.
Oracle OpenWorld 2006 will be here before you know it. Register now to secure your spot at the most exciting technology and business event of the year.

GoIndustry

Market leading position in Europe and Asia plus significant presence in North America
Huge opportunity in highly fragmented market
Blue chip client case
Experienced management team
Innovative use of the Internet and intelligent marketing techniques

Auction sectors:
Audio Visual & Broadcast
Automotive
Chemical & Pharmaceutical
Complete Plants & Lines
Computing
Construction & Mining
Electronics & Semiconductor
Energy & Utilities
Factory Utilities
Food & Beverage
Live Auction
Materials Handling
Medical & Healthcare
Metalworking
Office Equipment
Other Industries
Packaging and Bottling
Plastics and Rubber
Printing
Pulp & Paper
Steel & Foundry
Telecommunications
Textiles
Transportation
Wire & Cable
Woodworking

Clients
GoIndustry’s main clients are insolvency practitioners, corporations and finance houses. They include Ernst & Young, PWC, GE, Barclays, HSBC, Bosch and General Motors. Multinational companies have developed long-term relationships with the Company that involve GoIndustry managing their equipment assets and surplus equipment disposals.

Mergers and Acquisitions
In 2001 GoIndustry acquired a number of international auction houses:
Henry Butcher International, the UK market leader and a major international player.
Karner & Co and Plohmann, two of Germany’s leading equipment auctioneers
Appelboom, the market leader in Belgium
Michael Fox International, one of the largest equipment auctioneers in the US

GoIndustry has integrated these acquired businesses into one global organisation, retaining both their experienced staff and established brands.
The company is poised at the beginning of an exciting growth phase as it seeks to cement its market leading position.
More information:
www.goindustry.com
GoIndustry English
Customer Support: in USA call +1 888 457 4533

StarCite and OnVantage Merge, Creating The Largest Global On-Demand Meetings Management Company

New Company Greatly Increases Capacity To Apply On-Demand Software Approach To Largely Unmanaged $300 Billion Global Meetings Market

PHILADELPHIA, PA and SANTA CLARA, CA – August 9, 2006 – StarCite, Inc. and OnVantage, Inc. today announced a merger that creates the largest on-demand meetings management company in the $300 billion global marketplace for corporate meetings and events and positions the company for accelerated future growth.

“On-demand global meetings management is the future of the meetings industry,” said Michael Boult, President and Chief Executive Officer of StarCite. “With only about three percent of meetings spending currently under management, this business is a virtually untouched frontier of corporate spending. The new StarCite has the opportunity to bring buyers and suppliers together electronically on an unprecedented scale, saving millions for corporations and delivering lucrative meetings business directly to hotels. We have doubled the resources we can devote to continuously improving our solutions, expanding our global footprint and broadening our ability to promote best practices in meetings management.”

The new company, which will operate under the StarCite name, plans to provide substantial documented cost-savings for corporations and over $5 billion in revenue opportunities for the new company’s supplier community. The new StarCite expects to:

Work with leading global corporations across industries, including AIG, Amgen, Caterpillar, Cisco, Motorola, Nestle, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Shell.
Deliver over $5 billion in revenue opportunities to its supplier database, up 50 percent from 2005.
Operate a greatly expanded global meetings marketplace that links buyers with 93,000 hotel properties and meetings suppliers in every key market around the world.
Work with all major hotel chains including Accor, Fairmont, Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental, Marriott, Omni, Starwood, and Wyndham.
Process over 2.5 million attendee registrations per year, an increase of 50 percent over 2005.
“Implementing a strategic meetings management program is critical to a corporation that wants to maximize the value of the dollars it spends on enterprise-wide meetings, as well as increase its visibility into that spend in an efficient and scalable way,” said Michele Snock, Global Manager, Meeting Services, Cisco Systems, Inc. “With its global reach via the Internet, on-demand solutions, and unmatched supplier database, the new StarCite enables a company to do just that.”

“The time is right for this merger,” said John Chang, Chief Executive Officer of OnVantage. “OnVantage and StarCite have long shared a vision of reshaping the meetings business through on-demand meetings management solutions. Together, we will clarify the choice for buyers when selecting a meetings management partner and significantly accelerate adoption of this technology around the world.”

The new StarCite will continue to offer best-in-class technology to power lead management and RFP traffic for “private label” hotel websites - historically an area of strength for both OnVantage and StarCite. The combined company’s technology will power private label meetings sites for hotel brands such as Adams Mark, Aramark, Carlson, Destination Hotels, Fairmont, Hilton, Hyatt, LXR, Morgans, Omni, Starwood, and Wyndham.

“StarCite will directly deliver over $5 billion in meeting revenue opportunities to hotels that would be almost impossible to identify, aggregate and capture otherwise,” said Fred Shea, Vice President of Sales for Global Hyatt. “By significantly increasing the number of potential opportunities flowing through their combined online marketplace solutions, we believe the new StarCite will become an even more valuable partner in the future.”

Another area of continued growth for the new StarCite is its strong partner relationships with many of the world’s leading travel agencies and meetings management companies. These worldclass partners include American Express Business Travel, BCD Meetings and Incentives, Conference Direct, Conferon Global Services, HelmsBriscoe, Maritz Travel Company, and Navigant Performance Group. The new StarCite is backed by leading investors that include Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ: ICGE), Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), Texas Pacific Group, and TL Ventures.

The new company will be headquartered in Philadelphia and will retain offices in Santa Clara, CA. Michael Boult will serve as President and CEO of the new StarCite. John Chang will serve as Chairman and drive integration efforts, and John Pino, StarCite’s founder, will serve as President, StarCite International, with a focus on international growth and partner strategies. The company will have offices around the world, including the U.S., London, Dusseldorf, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.

The company expects to move forward rapidly with business integration, bringing together best-of-breed technology and business practices from both organizations. Customers of both companies will proceed under the current terms of their contracts, using their respective OnVantage or StarCite technology and service solutions, through December 2007. The transaction is anticipated to close in the fourth quarter of 2006. Terms of the merger were not disclosed.

About StarCite, Inc.
StarCite, Inc. is a provider of On Demand Global Meeting Solutions™. StarCite optimizes global investments in corporate meetings and events delivering visibility, savings and control. StarCite provides process efficiency, enabling technology and proven adoption management support to drive significant cost reduction to buyers and enhanced revenues to suppliers. StarCite is based in Philadelphia. Investors in StarCite include Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ: ICGE); Maritz Travel Company; Seaport Capital; and TL Ventures. For more information about StarCite, or its technologies and services, please visit www.starcite.com.

About OnVantage, Inc.
OnVantage™, Inc., headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., is a technology provider for the $300 billion global market for the professional meetings and events industry. OnVantage offers flexible solutions to help corporations save time and money by automating the planning and procurement of large and small meetings with unprecedented cost control and spend visibility. OnVantage also makes it easy for meeting suppliers to grow their groups and meetings business by offering increased visibility with Fortune 1000 meeting planners as well as helping them efficiently manage and track the RFP process. A global corporation, OnVantage has sales and customer service operations in the U.S., UK, Germany and Hong Kong. OnVantage and OnVantage Marketplace for Meetings are trademarks of OnVantage, Inc. All other names, brands, or products may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

StarCite Media Contact:
John Hartz
Sloane & Company
212-446-1872
jhartz@sloanepr.com

With the dot com bust a few years ago companies may not think of the
importance of a web site and may not be doing all they could on the
internet. Those that don’t will lose a competitive advantage. Those businesses or companies that use the internet best will take larger market share from competitors. Take a look at google. It owns a large part of the advertising market on the net, over half. Business needs to advertise to keep and grow its sales and they are increasingly in need to go to google or a few other large internet sites to buy advertisments. They could have had a bigger stake on the internet and be running their own marketing on their own sites. Multi-billion dollar companies did little to nothing on the net and now they have to pay others for ads. It will be keep getting more important to be on the net to do business. Many have fallen behind in this important marketing tool. What is your business or company doing on the net?

To stay ahead of the competition you are going to need to know what is going on in your field to stay competitive. You will need to know what changes are taking place. One way to keep ahead and know what’s going on is to have continuing allies, friends or otherwise known as a business network. Connections are not simply if you need a job or sales but to keep ahead and aware of what changes are taking place. Keep your business network strong and get constant feedback from others. Ask questions, listen to what others say, you will learn and be the best in your field.

StarCite was founded in 1999 by a team of industry leaders who share a passion for helping all parties realize the huge opportunities available in the effective management of meetings and events — whether it’s cost savings and control, or customer acquisition and loyalty.

StarCite’s team identified ways to use technology and exceptional service to offer the following benefits to buyers and suppliers in meeting and event procurement and planning:

Streamline
Automate
Consolidate
Leverage

FOR BUYERS, StarCite has found that:

More than 70% of the total spent on meetings and events in organizations is unmanaged. Managed meetings and events typically represent less than 30% of the total dollars spent.
Unmanaged meetings and events expose corporations to financial and legal liabilities, due to the lack of standardized processes and procedures in contracting meeting space. This is more important than ever in the era of Sarbanes-Oxley legislation.
Using our solutions, most companies can realize savings of 10% to 15% of current spend in the first year.
Most companies do not have standardized tools and processes to consistently leverage technology consistently to make productivity gains.
StarCite offers technology solutions for these and other challenges, in addition to the industry’s most exceptional support.
StarCite

Place classified ads for free. Classified ads.

Big money pro is a new group put together that searches for internet money making opportuities. It seems to me that there are many internet business deals out there but I think all would guess that few are really good. Many are probably just a pipe dream. But how do you sort it out? How much experience is required to know if something is worth takinga chance on. If you’re like me you would be more upset wasting time of something than a small amount of money. Time is money. Of course money is money also and you don’t want t just throw it away like it’s dirty dish water. Big money pro has an idea that may just be the answer to the sorting it all out. We can figure that they will gain knowledge quickly as to what are good opportunities for internet businesses and what are just not worth the time and money. Big money pro is putting together a group of people that are trying internet business opportunities If they are successful with one opportunity they will gain knowledge and continue to get people involved init. If the business idea doesn’t work out they can end support for it. Sometimes you just don’t know what to give up in an business idea. You may be making a few dollars and not want to quite when you may be close to a break through, but Big Money Pro has many people into the business idea and they can see if it’s working. They have a larger group to see the results than if you are the only one making the investment. You can find out more about it here. About the internet business opportunities of Big Money ProandWritten by Billy McDermott.
Look into it yourself and see if it’s something you are interested in. For information purpose, I am not involved in it and will not likely be. That’s not because I don’t think it’s good but rather I just do not have the time to do more internet businesses. I’m involved in many myself. Time is valuable to me and my time is all spent. If you decide to join the Big Money Pro, like all investments or business opportunities, if there is something about it you don’t like or it begins to lose money cut your loses. You will likely learn something that will help you on other business ideas but don’t risk more than you can easily afford.