Yahoos bold rejection of Microsoft
Yahoo’s board wanted more. On January 31, 2008, Microsoft made a bid for Yahoo for $44.6 billion, which equates to $31 per share. While many saw this as an opportunity, Yahoo executives saw an undervalued bid on what yahoo is potentially worth. While the price is certainly fair in terms of current market price, the value to Microsoft would be far more substantial. This would be the most ideal and fastest form of “attack” against Micosoft’s online competitor, Google. Microsoft is known for their stockpile of capital, which gives Yahoo a heads up on how freely that capital can be transferred.
To give a visual landscape of what this deal could mean, the following shows the marketshare of Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo in the most pivotal segment.
Online advertising marketshare through the use of search engines:
Google 40%
Microsoft 18%
Yahoo 6%
Google’s primary source of revenues comes from their online advertising through their searches. While they’ve made much headway in developing new technology, fronts, and investments, little has profited from those. If Microsoft acquires yahoo, it could gain a faster ground and take away the “ground” that supports Google’s feet.
Not surprising, the world’s major advertisers want the merger to happen so that they can have better deals from the tighter competition that is formed.
The yahoo’s board of directors sees all of this and thus rejected the outrageous offer. Shareholders of yahoo were outraged believing that they were losing a good deal, causing them (Detroit pension funds) to sue the company for not looking towards the interests of the corporation. Meanwhile, Microsoft executive, Kevin Johnson continues to court yahoo with memos for them to go through with the merger.
The memo explained what would happen through the merger including whether or now anyone would be downsized, how the corporate culture would be maintained, and how the various products would be positioned. Yahoo is most likely bidding their time for a better deal to come through.
Google, obvious displeased, made a comment on how it was anticompetitive for the merger to take place. Unfortunately according to antitrust laws, the union would fall below the threshold permitting the buyout to occur. Google was not the only one concerned from the idea of a union. Some microsoft employees have voiced their opinions through their blogs suggesting that such actions would be a mistake.
Cheapest Solution Voip: Its Wise to Compare
- Image via Wikipedia
Today, the Internet telephony solutions are ruling the corporate world. From large organisations to small enterprises, all have set-up their telephone lines on the Internet. The calling services through the Internet connection work out much cheaper than traditional PSTN phone line connections. The advanced feature of telecommunication allows users to make local calls, long distance or international calls at cheaper rates without compromising on voice quality.
The VoIP or Voice over IP services offer fast and excellent communication. Unlike, the traditional circuit switching technique, the advanced telecommunication boasts of packet switching technique. The packet switching technique digitalises voice signals into compressed IP packets. This voice over IP process is the cheapest way of calling across the globe. A VoIP solution provides a single cable for sending and receiving voice. In addition, the integrated IP network also enables users to transmit data, pictures and video over the Internet. There is a reduction in per minute call costs – which in turn translates into an efficient use of resources.
With all its benefits, VoIP solutions have made its mark among the business houses as well as residential users at large. As a matter of fact, considering the ratio of people switching over to IP solutions for their daily communication needs, there has been an increase in the importance of the VoIP solution providers.
To find the cheapest VoIP solutions, users must always compare the offers from various providers. The competition in VoIP field is quite high; it has motivated providers to come up with bundled services to attract users. Bundled services include call waiting, call forwarding, 3-way calling and call conferencing, among other things. Moreover, with additional services, providers are offering services at cost effective prices as well.
To conclude, it can be said that the VoIP business solutions result in significant savings for enterprises as compared to previous PSTN services. However, potential users should compare prices of the different providers before making final purchase decisions.
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The benefits of VoIP – Part 3
I have already used different kinds of VOIP and I see some big advantages of using them. There is a Computer to Computer, Computer to Phone and Lastly is Phone to Phone. In Computer to Computer, two or more parties can talk with each other using their computers. Famous applications that support this are the chat software such as Yahoo Messenger and the Microsoft Messenger. In Computer to Phone setup, one of the parties is using the computer to send or receive phone calls from or to a regular phone line. Some software that does this skype and Gizmo project. The last setup is a Phone to Phone setup. In this setup, one of the phone parties has a special VOIP phone and can call another VOIP or a regular phone. Some provider of this kind of service are Vonage and Primus.
In all these setups I find it portable. Anywhere there is an internet connection you can use VOIP. For the phone VOIP, you need a wired connection to the internet.
In my case, I currently live in Canada. I got my self a Primus VOIP gateway. And we sent this to the Philippines, where my family is. So instead of calling a Philippine number in Canada. I call them using a Canadian number. So all my calls to them are just like local calls. So I only pay about CDN 20.00 a month instead of calculating the 15cent per minute call. My relative just had to get a cable or dsl internet to make this worth. But that is about CDN 30. So a total of CDN 50 a month and I can call them for unlimited time. If I was using conventional phone, we would be shelling out about 100 a month to make these calls. So I am very happy with the introduction of VOIP.
Common Questions Associated With VoIP
Having been immensley popular, the emergence of VoIP has proved to be a great new communication tool with many advantages over traditional phone calling. The rapid expansion of this new technology has also inevitably led to various associated problems, some of which have been answered here!
How does VoIP work?
Computers take samples of sounds via microphones at a very high rate (8,000 times per second or more). These recorded samples are not stored locally, but are sent over the network to another computer and played there, so that the receiver can hear them.
Computers often compress the sound samples so as to occupy less space. Limited frequency ranges are used. CODEC’s (compressor/ de-compressor) are algorithms that enable audio to be compressed. A huge variety of CODEC’s exist for all sorts of applications (e.g. sound recordings or movies). VoIP CODEC’s are fine tuned to work well for compressing voice. Bandwidths only include those sound frequencies associated with human voices.
So, when the sounds are recorded in the computer, then compressed to tiny samples, these are then aggregated into larger chunks/ collections and placed into data packets (known as ‘packetization’). Data packets are able to be transmitted all over the IP network. Typically, single IP packets have 10,000 milliseconds+ of audio.
Sometimes packets get lost. In this case packet-loss concealment (PLC) can take place. PLC involves filling in the sound gaps with noise acceptable to the human ear. Forward-error connection (FEC) fills in the gaps with then mathematically modified neighboring past packets. A kind of rough packet reconstruction.
Occasionally packets are delayed, especially bad when using VoIP since packets that are too old are discarded. PLC tends to smooth the audio out in such circumstances.
Variation in packet delay is called ‘jitter’. Jitter makes voices sound glitchy, it is combated with specific jitter buffer algorithms. What effectively happens here is packets are queued to reduce the number discarded, late or delayed.
An agreed protocol exists to allow computers to find each other and exchange information. Agreed contents formats (termed ‘payload format’) exist for the packets.
Is a computer necessary in order to use VoIP?
A computer isn’t required when using VoIP services centered around mobile phones. Adapters, which are often supplied by mobile phone VoIP providers, connect phones to the high-speed connections of the internet. Computers are able to be used to allow improved management of various features available from the provider, although this is not necessary.
What is the relation of computer software use in conjunction with VoIP?
Computer-to-computer calls are the easiest and cheapest of the VoIP calling methods. Calling plans are not required since this type of call is totally free. All that is required is the free software from the internet, a reasonable connection with the internet, speakers, a microphone and a sound card. Apart from the bill for the use of the monthly internet service no other call charges exist, regardless of call number.
Is it possible to mix hardware from different VoIP providers?
Typically the major providers of VoIP (AT&T, Verizon Voicewing and Vonage) “lock” their hardware, ensuring it only works with their own particular services. In some deals the service providers end up leasing the equipment to you and are able to refund a certain degree or all of, the set-up fee when you decide to terminate the service with them. Alternatively, you can buy all the hardware required from a retail store, which can then be used on any VoIP service.
Services that promote VoIP for running on your computer, e.g. Yahoo Messenger and Skype, don’t need any specific hardware. Many of these VoIP services can be run from the exact same machine, albeit not at the same moment in time.
I have ADSL. What should my internet connection speed be to allow VoIP?
Generally you should have a 512/128 connection speed or higher.
What are the advantages to using VoIP over conventional phone calling?
By far and away the greatest benefit to using VoIP services is that they tend to be cheaper than traditional phone services. In some circumstances they are even free. Additionally, not too much equipment is required and upgrades that are eventually necessary are typically done with no new physical equipment, only simple and easy to use software downloads. Many more features tend to be possible for VoIP, this being due to the ease with which information is transported about via the internet.
What is the quality of VoIP calls like?
In most instances the quality appears to be very good. Small problems sometimes occur then there is an excess of incoming and outgoing internet traffic along the phone lines. Poor quality on the phone lines can be improved through paying to increase the connection speed or prioritizing phone traffic through your network via setting up the ‘Quality of Service’ option.
Say No to 10000 Paid Links. Get the Good Ones
You got to understand that Search Engines have changed their algorithms years ago. Building links is still as important but it is more important to build relevant links than just having thousands of rubbish links to your website. Even Google has voiced its unhappiness in paid inbound links and has started on their campaign to penalize paid links. One important thing is that getting too many inbound links over a night or a week can also be penalized by Google.
Why waste your dollars ?
I know it sounds tempting. 10000 links at only $10… But the real thing is whether these 10000 links are helping your website to rank better in search results or Page Rank. I can tell you that the answer would be a definite NO. So invest that $10 on some other more useful things or you can even choose to donate to the Orphanage. Be meaningful.
Getting Quality links NOT Quantity.
Getting 10 Quality Links is far better than getting 10000 rubbish links. Search engines value quality website that contains rich and helpful information and having such websites link to you, will be telling the search engines that you also deserved to be a quality website too.
Paid Links : The Grey Line
News of Google going down on paid links have been published all over the Web. Is it time for Google to step in and take control of the situation where by webmaster buys paid links to get high Page Rank and SERPs ranking? I am really unsure how Google is going to penalize paid links, but i have already started seeing decrease in my paid inbound links in Google’s indexes. Time to build quality links…
All That you Need to Know About Voice Over Ip
Voice over IP or voice over Internet protocol – also popularly known as VoIP among the industry and end user – has become a phenomenon in itself. It’s simply a procedure through which our voice which exists in the analogue signal form is converted into digital signal and compressed simultaneously so as to make it acceptable and readable by the computer. By the time it finally reaches the destination point it is decompressed and reconverted into analogue signal.
Voice over Internet protocol service helps in transferring data voice and images through the same lines. This saves precious time and cost incurred during the process. Besides VoIP providers seem to understand the distinct needs of corporate houses, resellers and end-users thus providing them with relevant plans which are tailor made to suit their needs.
Voice over IP phone system is offered to one and all owing to its adaptable and flexible nature which benefits all. Voice over IP providers are of essentially 2 kinds. One are those who cater to VoIP resellers and corporates i.e. B2B. The second kind would be those whose clients are end users or residential s i.e. B2C.
There are 3 levels of resellers. First level is for those who serve direct customers or individuals. Second level is meant for those who are free to provide their services to other resellers and direct clients. Third level is more or less like a giant company which has established a whole network of its own.
Depending upon their budget, cost inputs, infrastructure and level of technology required a company may opt for any of these 3 levels.
Along with the invention of VoIP telephony services, the competition among VoIP providers is reaching its peak. Everyone is trying to lure the clients through various features along with this technology. However, a client needs to be cautious with such schemes.
The best VoIP solution is the one where there is stability of network. This can be judged by ACD or average call ratio and ASR or average success ratio. ACD of 8 and above is considered be excellent and ASR above 80% is above average. So, next time before opting for a particular provider of internet telephony service, be sure to look for this.
Another criterion that needs to be looked into is the quality of voice. Before leasing the network of some provider, be sure to check the route of that network. This is important because eventually you will not be selling something tangible i.e. some product but a service. The quality of service will determine in the long run the success of your company and place you at a level above your competitors.
A reliable and strong technical support should be provided by the service provider. This would ensure maximum satisfaction resulting in word of mouth marketing which is the best and most effective way of promotion. At the end of the day it would be the service that you provide to your customer’s that would pave the path for your long and successful journey.
How Cool Bloggers Personalize Their Blog?
The new trend of online entertainment in 2006, I can say it is Weblog. So sorry that I have not found the statistic to backup my conclusion but what are happening around me these days can prove the truth. One of my friends spend at least 15 minutes per day to find beautiful and impressive pictures and themes to decorate her personal blog and another feels totally disappointed when his new entry has no comment and even worse no visitor . You may say those are some of my friends only and it is just a particular phenomenon. That’s fine! But please visit some sites such as Myspace, Yahoo360o, Blogspot, etc. and compare the number of members today with that last week or even yesterday, you can see the difference. Prove it yourself!
Oops, maybe there are some people who feel this is a quite new so I will talk a little bit about the definition, alright? Weblog, or usually shortened to blog, is considered as a place providing commentary or news on a particular subject, such as entertainment, politics, local news and some function as more personal online diary. Let put it in a simple way, just imagine we have a notebook used as a diary and each page of the book is for each person and remember we now have an online book so the number of pages is unlimited. Some famous brand names of Weblog can be listed are: Livejournal, Blogspot, Yahoo 360o, MySpace, Mindsay, etc. A typical blog usually combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual but with high creativeness, many web bloggers can make their blogs much impressive with photograph (photoblog), video (vlog) and audio (podcasting).
What are the advantages of a blog if we do not want to say it is a waste of time and even money (for Internet and electricity)? Hmm, please careful! Here is what a blogger said: “A certificate which says you are a citizen of the 21st century”. You may say it is an exaggeration but it is now a trend, you can tell! If we have more patience, let’s have a deeper look to see more from blogs and bloggers.
Make A Distinguished Blog, Just For Fun, And More
Generally, a blog is an e-diary. Why don’t people just buy a notebook and a pen and why do they publicize their personal life and open for even strangers? I can say that is the need of a friend network, free conversation and somehow a way to show “Me, myself and I”. Look at my friends, she has been trying to make her blog look beautiful and he has been putting effort into his writings, all for getting as many visitors as possible.
I can see the personal blogs with detailed profile, creative decoration, daily update and specific subjects such as music, movie, poem, etc. have more views. Text cannot be replaced in personal blog but now people, especially teenagers, have more ways to make their blogs more attractive. Podcasting video clips/audio clips is an example. Many young people can share music and short movie by this way. Some record their own real life with a camera and then show up. Another way is posting voice instead of typing. With a voice recorder, one person can speak to a microphone, upload audio file and then link to his/her personal blog. With the creativeness and the need to be not monotonous everyday, a very impressive blogger uploads his audio-stories with different voices to describe his different mood and emotion. Getting to know him through his personal blog with loads of audio files, I found that he has been using a Voice Changer Software which changes his real voice to many different voices and sounds (male, female and even animals). The software also changes the singer’s voice in some music files he uploaded. Sound so interesting!
Monetize A Personal Blog
I had a very interesting talk with Helen Le, Sales and Marketing manager of a software company named Audio4fun.com last week. She shared that an incredible huge number of downloads of a funny sound available on her website just happened in one day and came from a personal blog on Myspace (she added this had never happened before and even the number of download from Google could not compare). My curiosity pushed me to view that blog and a lot of new interesting things popped up in my mind. More than 1 million of visitors are in her site is a wonderful number. Should people monetize their blog?
Maybe you criticize how people can always place commerce everywhere, even in a personal room. But that is a matter of life! With the above case, if Audio4fun.com can utilize that personal blog to build traffic and get more downloads to its site, it is a simple and not costly way.
I want to end up my writing here with an interesting idea about making money with personal blog from Steve Pavlina: “If you do decide to generate income from your blog, then don’t be shy about it. If you’re going to put up ads, then really put up ads. Don’t just stick a puny little ad square in a remote corner somewhere. If you’re going to request donations, then really request donations. Don’t put up a barely visible “Donate” link and pray for the best. If you’re going to sell products, then really sell them. Create or acquire the best quality products you can, and give your visitors compelling reasons to buy. If you’re going to do this, then fully commit to it. Don’t take a half-assed approach. Either be full-assed or no-assed.”
Use Your Broadband Connection as a VoIP Phone Service
Voice over internet protocol has become a promising technology that grants you to have a telephone conversation over the Internet without actually having to use a conventional phone line. It has become available by a combination of the right equipment and a Voice over IP service provider.
Voice over internet protocol, also known as IP telephony, works by converting sound waves, like your voice (considered an analog signal), into a digital signal that can be converted and sent via the web. The person you are talking to on the other end hears the converted digital signal to sound. Since the conversion should happen almost instantly, it is very common to use a high speed connection.
As it is with a technology like Voice over internet protocol, which evolves at a fast pace, it is crucial for you to know what it is about as well as the latest developments concerning voice over IP. Being familiar with these ideas become useful when choosing what phone setup and service provider to pick.
A Voice over internet protocol service has a wide variety of options that depend on what kind of service and hardware you choose. Among these you will have
(1) being able to call only people who use the same service provider
(2) dialing long distance and even international numbers and mobile telephones
(3) dialing from a pc using a microphone or Voice over internet protocol phone
(4) using a conventional telephone that is linked to a device called an ATA (analog telephone adaptor).
Hardware Needed
Since you will need access to the Internet, it goes without saying that having an Internet connection is required. Other devices you will need depend on the kind of VoIP service you avail of. It can be as simple as a microphone and speaker set to a VoIP-compatible telephone. Sometimes, an ATA may be necessary as well.
Communicate for free
It is possible for you to use VoIP without the need of actually paying for the service. The most well known software program that allows you to do this is Skype. Users who have installed the software on their computers can make calls to people who have the same program installed in their pcs. It is also possible to calls land lines and cell phones but a fee is charged for that.
The only limitation lies in the fact that if the person you wish to call does not have Skype installed on their system (if they have a pc at all), you will not be able to make that free call. Nevertheless, this option is extremely popular among people who want to try out the technology without having to pay a service charge.
Service Providers
If a customized service (such as being able to call land line and mobile phones) is what you want, then you would need to have a subscription from one of the many service providers out there. Among the best recognized players are Vonage (Who apparently will be going out of business after the jury hearing the case awarded Verizon $58 million in damages and announced that the VoIP service provider must pay royalties of 5.5 percent to Verizon if it wishes to continue using Verizon’s IP as of March, 2007) and AT&T as well as other voip companies. Some of them are listed below:
• Net2Phone
• AOL Internet Phone Service
• BroadVoice
• Dialpad
• GalaxyVoice
Whether you choose a free service or subscribe to a voip service provider, getting in touch with someone in the neighborhood or across the planet has become not only easier and faster but cheaper as well. All you need is to know what you want and the amount of money you’re willing to spend to avail of it – there is bound to be service that will meet your requirements. Once that is taken care of, it’s just a matter of reaching out and touching someone.
Long Distance Phone Service – Choose the Best One
Various advances in technology have changed how they make long distance calls. From traditional landline phones to cell phones, computers and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) devices, the technology has affected the way in which everyone communicates. This led to a distance telephone services that are not only different in terms of reception quality, but also, the costs of making long distance calls. Today, even has an option to practically phone calls long distance, but with a much lower as compared with traditional long distance services using a regular landline phones. Nevertheless, is worth saving decreased quality for many people.
The long distance telephony services can be categorized broadly into four groups. These include landline to landline and mobile phone service, cellular, cellular and landline service to, calls made on a personal computer or device VOIP to landline or mobile phone service PC to PC services and voice communication.
The leading traditional service providers distance (where the calls come from the land) in the U.S. are Sprint, AT & T and MCI Worldcom. Traditional long distance phone calls are still the most expensive option, despite the fierce competition between suppliers.
Calls made using a computer or a device to landline VOIP handset, or use the service Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) to allow a distance voice communication. They use the Internet to transmit voice and offers a cheaper alternative compared to landline and mobile phone based on a distance services. Nevertheless, reception quality is not as good and sometimes there is a time lag in transmission of voice. Market leader providers of this category of long distance services include DeltaThree, Dialpad, MediaRing, Net calling, and Skype.
PC to PC voice communications and also, using VOIP is usually free. This service is available via instant messenger applications offered by MSN, Yahoo, AOL and Google. This is not the best quality and do not use a telephone handset how voip phone service. To communicate using chat the voice over instant messaging programs, so users will need a headset and microphone.
Dialogue With Friends Using VOIP Telephony
VOIP telephony is changing the way people make their telephone calls around the world. Global communications are changing because Voice over Internet Protocol is transforming the way people talk on the phone over long distances.
Thanks to technological advances in the field of communications, it is now possible to transform audio signals and turn then into digital data, enabling the transmission of the data over a network to take place.
As people around the world learn to bypass traditional phone companies with VOIP telephony, they learn to use their existing internet connection and hook their phone unit up to it. With a simple software package, usually free, people can hook up their existing phone system to a program such as Skype and can use Voice over IP phone software to make calls around the world from their computer.
There are essentially three different ways that people can use VOIP telephony services. The first is through the use of a device called an Analog Telephone Adapter or an ATA. An ATA enables VOIP phone system users to connect to a standard telephone through a computer or internet connection.
The ATA is what is called an analog-to-digital converter in that it converts the traditional analog digital symbols of your conventional telephone into digital symbols or data through the internet, thus transmitting your telephone call across the information superhighway’s network. Many service providers of VOIP systems include an ATA with their package, negating the use for an actual VOIP phone for the user.
The second way people can use VOIP service is through an IP phone. These phones actually look just like normal phones, complete with a handset and buttons. Instead of having standard telephone connections, however, the IP phone has an Ethernet connection and can connect directly to your router.
They also have all of the hardware to go with it and include a software package to enable the user to go online immediately for their first calls. The IP phone is evolving to include Wi-Fi technology, enabling its user to get or send telephone calls from any Wi-Fi hotspots around the world.
The third way people can use VOIP service is through computer-to-computer service. This is often the preferred line of VOIP telephony service because, frankly, it is free to the user. Several companies are offering free software packages that enable connection to a network that, in turn, enables connection to other computers thus including computer-to-computer calling.
The user simply needs a computer (obviously), software packages, a microphone, speakers, and a soundcard along with an internet connection. The faster the internet connection, the better it is for the user of computer-to-computer VOIP telephony. There is usually no charge for calls on these programs, amounting to great savings on your long distance bill.
VOIP telephony is becoming a popular way to talk on the phone and send voice messages over a network. It is rapidly changing the way people are having conversations and changing the way people make their long distance calls, too. VOIP telephony will certainly prove to be advantageous as we progress in an era of global communications.
