Though a good move, allowance may be made for small businesses operated from home by fixing a ceiling on turn over for tax exemption, for small businesses can not afford sales promotional costs.
Story:
Colorado is considering becoming the fourth state to force online retailers like Amazon to charge state sales tax.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/02/05/technology-specialized-consumer-services-financial-impact-us-colo-tax-breaks_7333507.html?partner=alerts
Category: internet
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Sales Tax on Online purchases.
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Google Chrome steals usage share from IE/Firefox, Win 7 breaks 10%
Before coming to a definitive conclusion it might be relevant to know market growth,untapped market potential and tapped market potential. With out these matrices , one can not conclude Google has grabbed the share(I think ‘stealing’ may not be the correct term to use.)
Further in a market. a product does not achieve the market share, that too an astounding increase in terms of %, by Advertisement alone;especially in Internet related soft ware for product usability, ease and performance have a big role to play.
Another point worth considering is to why Firefox is losing the market share.May be too much “add ons‘!
Story:
Net Applications’ data for January is out, and there are some interesting trends displayed.First, the data shows that Google’s Chrome browser has managed to snatch usage share from Internet Explorer and Firefox.
Here’s the data:
* Chrome: 5.20% (up from 4.64% in Dec ‘09)
* IE: 62.18% (down from 62.69% in Dec ‘09)
* Firefox: 24.41% (down from 24.61% in Dec ‘09)Note: While we may debate as to whether Net Applications is a reliable metric or not, Mozilla both accept and use its data in its PR propaganda.
Note that this is the second month in a row that Net Applications has shown a decline in Firefox usage.
I noticed over the holiday period that Google was aggressively pushing Chrome through ads, even going as far as to offer customized downloads that could be sent as gifts via email.
The top browser spot has also changed hands, now belonging to IE8, with 22.31%, beating IE6 (20.07%). Still far too many people browsing the web with IE6 … UPGRADE PEOPLE!!!!!
In other news, Windows 7 global usage share hit 10% on January 31st. Overall, Windows 7 ended January with a 7.51% usage share (leaping ahead from 5.71% for Dec ‘09). Also interesting is the data that shows that Redmond WA, home of Microsoft, shows the highest Windows 7 usage share within the US, a robust 42%.
Overall, Windows usage is down to 92.02% (from 92.21% in Dec ‘09 – even strong Windows 7 gains can’t halt the slow erosion of Windows’ usage share), Mac is up to 5.13% (from 5.11% in Dec ‘09), which I admit probably isn’t significant, and Linux is unchanged at 1.02%. iPhone OS platform is also up marginally to 0.47% (up from 0.44% in Dec ‘09).
Net Applications measures operating system usage by tracking computers that visit the 40,000 sites monitored for clients, which represents a pool of about 160 million unique visitors each month. This data is then weighted based on the estimated size of each country’s Internet population.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=7102 -
The Malware Crisis
Akin to classic thief vs Cops.Thieves are always ahead by one step.
Story:
One way that security vendors have attempted to reassure customers is through third-party lab testing. Antivirus products typically sport a stamp of approval or check mark as validation from one of the major testing bodies. The problem: Traditional testing methodologies that rely on the WildList and the VB100 list are no longer effective. These lists test against worms and viruses in a stagnant environment and are now largely meaningless against new forms of malware. These current testing methods are often based on static lists, and the vast majority of malware is not even included in that list. I first introduced this topic in “Where the Wild Things Aren’t,” but the situation will not be solved overnight and therefore bears repeating so that CIOs don’t have a false sense of security.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/31/rsa-conference-cybercrime-technology-cio-network-malware.html?partner=alerts -
Google phases out support for IE6
Google has drawn first blood.Let’s see what Micro Soft does in retaliation.
Story:
Google has begun to phase out support for Internet Explorer 6, the browser identified as the weak link in a cyber attack on the search engine.The firm said from 1 March some of its services, such as Google Docs, would not work “properly” with the browser.
It recommended individuals and firms upgrade “as soon as possible”.
Google threatened to withdraw from the Chinese market following the “sophisticated and targeted” attacks, which it said originated in China.
Hackers used a flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) browser to target the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
‘Key functionality’
Following Google’s revelations, the French and German governments advised their citizens to switch to a different browser until the hole had been closed.
Microsoft reacted by quickly updating the browser, nearly three weeks ahead of its regular security update.
However, Google has now said it is going to phase out support for the browser “starting with Google Docs and Google Sites”.
It said that as a result, some “key functionality” of the applications would not work when used with IE6.
Google Docs is the firm’s answer to products such as Microsoft Office, whilst Google Sites allows people to create web pages.
“The web has evolved in the last ten years, from simple text pages to rich, interactive applications including video and voice,” wrote Google’s Rajen Sheth in a blog post.
“Unfortunately, very old browsers cannot run many of these new features effectively.”
Threat downplayed
Around 20% of web users still use the nine-year old browser, including many UK government departments.
But many developers want to see the browser phased out as soon as possible.
The online campaign ie6nomore, supported by more than 70 web firms, says that because the browser does not support modern web standards it restricts what developers can do and is “holding the web back”.
Microsoft has said that it will support the browser until 2014.
Microsoft has released a fix for Internet Explorer and recommended that customers install the update as soon as possible or update to the latest version of the web browser for “improved security”.
Microsoft normally issues patches monthly but the high-profile nature of the attacks led it to act more quickly.
Market share
The UK government played down the threat and said there was “no evidence that moving from the latest fully patched versions of Internet Explorer to other browsers will make users more secure”.
However, Microsoft took the unusual step of patching the hole nearly three weeks ahead of its regular security update.
The new patch is available via the Microsoft Update site and will also be fed out to those who have their machines set to update automatically. All versions of Internet Explorer will receive the update.
Microsoft has admitted that it has known about the vulnerability “since early September” 2009 and had planned to patch it in February.
The bad publicity has allowed rivals such as Firefox to gain market share.
According to web analytics company StatCounter, Firefox is now a close second to Internet Explorer (IE) in Europe, with 40% of the market compared to Microsoft’s 45% share.
In some markets, including Germany and Austria, Firefox has overtaken IE, the firm said.
Mozilla, the foundation behind Firefox, has just released the latest version (3.6) of the open-source browser.
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