Legislative bills attempting to address digital goods taxation
For any small business, navigating tax laws can be a difficult challenge. A new set of legislation working its way through both houses of Congress attempts to address the patchwork of state tax laws for online merchants. The bills aim to address only digital goods, but the implications are huge. The problem with taxing digital [...]
Could cloud-based Chromebook be good for business?
One of the biggest pieces of news today is that Google is officially releasing the Chromebook. These cloud-based laptop/netbook hybrid machines will be offered to businesses at $28 per month. The Chromebook may be a great solution for some businesses, but not for everyone. The basics of the Google Chromebook During the Google I/O conference [...]
Internet sales tax bill resurfacing thanks to Senator Durbin
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois is planning on introducing the Main Street Fairness Act to the Senate. The bill will pair with H.R. 5660, introduced in July of last year, and require online retailers to pay state sales tax on purchases made on their websites. Current state of sales tax In 1992, the Supreme Court [...]
Political unrest doing damage to online brands
Claiming the right name online is a big part of creating and developing a brand. For some startups, the unrest in Libya is causing damage to their businesses. Country-specific domain names may be clever but may not be the best choice for a new company. Fate of letter.ly Letter.ly is a small startup that specialized [...]
Google +1 button marks another attempt at social search
This week, Google has soft-launched its latest new product, +1 search. It has long been rumored that Google would be launching a new social network, and while +1 is not directly a social network, it integrates connections with search. Some are calling +1 a “game changer” in search, though it is truly just an extension [...]
Amazon App Store could be both good and bad news
Rumor has it that the Amazon App Store will be launching on Tuesday, March 22. The Amazon App store will offer several exclusive new applications, including the newest Angry Birds app. This new app store appears to be placed to start a price war — and a security war. The Amazon App store Last September, [...]
Rumor says Google may give social networking a fourth try
Google Circles is, at the moment, just a rumor. Officially, Google has offered several non-specific denials, indicating that it will not announce a social network at the South By Southwest tech gathering. Google has attempted three separate social networks in the past, and privacy concerns could kill Circles before it gets off the ground. The [...]
Google issues security warning for Internet Explorer exploit
In January of 2011, a major security hole in Microsoft Internet Explorer was publicly posted. Today, Google issued a warning that this security hole was being “actively exploited.” This MHTML exploit apparently shows a “high level of sophistication.” MHTML exploit in Internet Explorer Google’s security warning, issued Monday morning, indicated that anyone using Google’s [...]
