"SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc., which dominates the market for Web search, is developing a service that could dramatically extend the reach of its lucrative keyword-based advertising by linking such ads to e-mail, people familiar with the matter said on Friday..."
"By moving into e-mail -- the Web's most-used program -- Google would open up a huge new market for its lucrative "sponsored links" advertising business that delivers ads tied to keywords in Web searches or on content pages, analysts said..."
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But this is not the matter actually. Why I am writing this message is that I am curious to know what you fine falks here think about having webdesign projects done in a form of a contest? Some people think that contest ruin the design industry and undervalue designers work. Do you have any other opinion?
www.DesignContest.net is a newly established community of designers centered around web graphics. With the contests they bring site owners in touch with site designers. The idea is simple, a site owner places his request and reward and any designer can enter. After the deadline the site owner will take the design in exchange for the reward. Prizes vary from hard cash to hosting accounts.
A few of these contests have been going on so you can hit their forum to have a look at how that goes. There are requests for logo's and full site templates. For enthausiastic designers this is definately a nice way to get something in return for your creative outbursts and site owners might get more than they bargened for and get to choose their favourite.
Though a young initiative, it's one to keep your eye on.
I was browsing through slashdot's pages and I have come across Robin 'Roblimo' Miller's home page roblimo.com He is a slashdot's author and he is obviously getting his email address exposed too much. Well, there are cons of working for slashdot, right?
But he is bravely fighting against all these guys who try to sell him free porn, viagra and pennis enlargement pills. I do receive a lot of unwanted emails too (right, we all do) and so far I haven't found an effective way to block them. In the very introduction Robin states "I am forced to charge $50 for each unsolicited bulk email I receive, plus an additional $50 fee per email for HTML or attachments, charged on your behalf to your ISP if you do not pay within 30 days or, in the case of non-US companies or individuals, to your country's US embassy."
This is very inspiring! Looks like we have found the cure for all these Nigerian emails! Being a Russian myself I could make a living (an average salary here in Kostroma, Russia is about $100 a month) by simply charging the senders of the bulk emails. But I am really interested to hear if this really works. I would really appreciate if Robin shared his experience in fighting against spam and telling us more about the process of charging the fee. I don't think I am the only one who wants to hear this, you know it too well that everybody has to deal with the problem every day.
I would also like to know if it helps in any way to send claims to the local US Embassy.
Measure twice, cut once.
