One-third
of Oscar viewers were also online
Many people watching Sunday night’s broadcast of the
Academy Awards were also webbing. Claria Corp., the company formerly known
as Gator, found that 31 percent of internet users were online while they
viewed the Oscars on ABC, which is an increase of 11 percent since last
year. More than 750,000 of Claria’s 40 million active users logged onto
the Yahoo! Movies Academy Awards web site during the week before the big
show. Other research found Diet Pepsi, a sponsor of the Yahoo! Movies web
site, landed a 52 percent aided recall for the brand, while Cadillac,
which was linked to Oscar.com, scored a 74 percent recall for its brand.
Other advertisers such as Hewlett-Packard and American Express saw traffic
increases of 131 percent and 105 percent, respectively. Traffic to
Oscar.com hit a high of 700 percent more than its average daily hits.
U.N.
warns of major web drug trafficking
The sale of valium and diet pills has become big business
on the internet, with many of the main markets in Thailand, India and
Pakistan. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says the web has
given the green light to drug dealers to do business and has become a
nightmare for authorities trying to put an end to the illegal trade of
prescription and banned drugs. The UNODC says people abuse prescription
drugs more often than narcotics. It also says that fledgling drug dealers
look to the internet to learn the ropes. Governments are being asked to
monitor the shipment of potentially deadly prescription medicines and said
international participation is necessary to put an end to online drug
trafficking.
Feds
post anonymous pornsters' pictures
The FBI has hatched a new plan
to capture internet child pornographers. On Wednesday, it was announced
that the FBI will be posting photographs of unidentified child
pornographers on television and the internet to try to trace them. So far,
the plan has worked, with the first two suspects arrested after their
images were aired recently on “America’s Most Wanted.” The FBI says
thousands of pictures of anonymous adults and children are found online
every day. The plan is part of the FBI’s “Innocent Images” program
to ward off sexual exploitation of children on the internet. The updated
plan allows the FBI and Justice Department to seek “John Doe” grand
jury indictments of the unknown suspects, which has not traditionally been
done for fear of mistaken identity.
Up
for auction, California's Minkler village
Once every few months a town pops up for bid on eBay, and
here’s this quarter’s quotient. For just $600,000,
you could be a contender for the village of Minkler in central California.
The bustling town has a population of 30 and lies about 230 miles north of
Los Angeles. It was put up for sale by its 83-year-old owner, Sylvia
Ashcraft, after she retired. The town, which is home to four buildings,
including a general store that was started in 1920, has stirred a
surprising amount of interest. The eBay ad has generated approximately
20,000 hits; however, the tiny town has yet to receive a firm offer. The
town is apparently the third to be sold on eBay, which last year sold a
northern California town called Bridgeville, although the sale is not
final, and Tortilla Flat in Arizona.
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