GBuy (Google online payment processing service), direct PayPal competitor, is to be released on June 28. The entire process works much the same as of PayPal: the buyers will be taken off the merchant’s site to complete the transaction. Google will collect payment information and in the future will provide improved personalized search results for that particular individual. Added to that in the search results the top search engine plans to designate each merchant accepting GBuy as a “trusted GBuy merchant.”

Google did not announce the rates yet, but it is believed that they will be just a bit below PayPal rates.

Read the full story here.

Summary:
Many online sellers that do not have a merchant account will get an extra option (added to PayPal). No doubt, Google will offer a great service. I am not sure GBuy will operate on eBay.com. In fact, I am sure it won’t – eBay owns PayPal and will not let the direct competitor to penetrate its key market. But owners of small and mid sized stores are likely to benefit from GBuy. It is too early to say if the service will be available to the international members from the start. I think it is a question of time.

[tags]paypal, ebay, GBuy, online store, e-commerce, google[/tags]

There was a web search workshop held back in May in Europe (Barcelona, Spain). Organizers: Yahoo! Research Barcelona and the Web Research Group of the Department of Technology, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

You might be interested to explore its materials that are available online (most in PDF). Selected topics cover:

Link Analysis

Algorithmics

Retrieval Foundations

Structured Retrieval

Search in Other Environments

Web Search and Mining

Summary:
Internet and Web search are popular sources to find a freelance job or home work. Many individuals generate their entire income online. Search Engines progress at a fast pace. The academic papers of the workshop should give you an idea what direction they will follow.

[tags] yahoo, web search, workshop, search engine, seo, link popularity, internet marketing[/tags]

With so many websites and blogs writing on Web 2.0, it is not easy to keep track of the new projects and tendencies in this sector. I have compiled a short list (that will save you some time) of the best (in my opinion) resources to keep an eye on (if you follow Web 2.0 development in general).

The list is not exhaustive. If you think I missed some great links – let me know in your comments.

TechCrunch.com – reviews new web 2.0 products and companies. In addition to new companies, profiles existing companies.

Dion Hinchcliffe’s Web 2.0 Blog

eConsultant.com – great collection of categorized lists

Web 2.0 awards – SEOmoz company (a well known SEO specialists) special project. Great design and presentation.

Summary:
Internet business becomes more complicated. One needs some great ideas to succeed online. Web 2.0 is a trend that helps new ideas be noticed and funded. Web 2.0 is not failure proof and some projects close down, but it is sort of fresh air – attempt to bring new ideas.

[tags]web 2.0, techcrunch, seomoz, econsultant[/tags]