Yahoo
targets local ads with new tools
Yahoo is trying to cut a slice of the local pie. The
internet portal has intensified its efforts to attract local advertisers
by introducing an improved mapping tool this week, called SmartView, that
lets people find local restaurants, movie listings, ATM machines or other
local services easily. The new tool combines Yahoo’s mapping tool with
its Yellow Pages and has more than 50 categories. The company hopes Yellow
Page loyalists will turn to the site when planning outings. Success could
also mean more advertising dollars for Yahoo, which will sell ads through
Overture and SBC Communications. The local phone company has a partnership
with Yahoo to sell broadband service, and SBC's Yellow Pages salespeople
would begin pitching Yahoo ad packages to their local business customers.
Visitors to the site will see sponsored ads for businesses related to
their searches.
Catch
22: Illegal gambling sites being extorted
Talk about March Madness.
Hackers are demanding $20,000 to $50,000 from online gambling sites for
“protection” from distributed denial-of-service attacks that they
themselves can control. When released, the attacks overload web sites with
data. Five million dollars in wagers
were
at stake when hackers forced
BetWWTS.com in Antigua to pay $30,000. The virtual
stick-ups started a few months ago, and a handful of smaller sites have
gone out of business or switched to phones to avoid the problem. The more
than 2,000 gaming sites have little legal protection because they are
illegal in the United States. Some security experts fear it could spread
to banking and other industries that seldom report computer breaches.
Gangs of computer crooks, allegedly based in Eastern Europe, reportedly
have collected protection money from 10 to 15 percent of the companies
they have threatened. Most issue ultimatums in email messages before major
sporting events. International gambling sites made $5.7 billion last year,
with projections of $11.6 billion in 2006.
'Survivor'
Sue's post-tantrum chat draws 25K
Susan Hawk left
"Survivor"
last
Thursday cursing like a sailor. Her outpour of expletives stirred
up great interest in her web chat the next day on CBS.com. More than
25,000 people logged in to find out Hawk’s version of the events, said a
CBS spokesperson. Previously the biggest “Survivor” chat was in season
2, with 10,000 log-ins. During Hawk’s chat she talked about how Richard
Hatch ticked her off by rubbing his naked body up against her in the
immunity challenge. Hawk walked off the show after the incident, even
though Hatch himself had been booted off after the challenge.
20-hour
gaming binge kills Chinese man
Too much of anything can be deadly—including computer
games. In western China, a computer game junkie collapsed and died in
front of his monitor after playing Saga, a popular online game, for 20
hours nonstop over the weekend. The 31-year-old gamer started playing the
game regularly at an internet café three months prior to dying. A café
employee said he would play for more than 10 hours at a time.
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