Former executive David Katz may have already left his post as the head of sports, entertainment and studios in Yahoo.com in 2006, but he never really left what he has always cared about and loved to do: write about sports and offer something relevant to sports enthusiasts.

 

A Healthy Competition At age 36, Katz will wage war against the other Internet powerhouses such as ESPN, Yahoo, Fox Sports, Major League Baseball, and AOL with his website, sportsfanlive.com. Sportsfanlive.com is looking to be released within the week, boasting of Katz’s versions of customized contents, social networking, and even fantasy games. Katz felt that the other competitors have become a lot more complicated and difficult to navigate, so sportsfanlive.com is what he thought would enjoy quite a good number of followers.

 

Everything But Traditional What sets sportsfanlive.com apart from the rest is that it is built for the next generation and with their evolving needs in mind. Katz stressed that the other sports websites have what he calls the “traditional media DNA”, fooling around with the site here and there but keeping them basically the same and generic.

 

Six months of planning in his Hollywood Hills abode have made him very positive and confident that the website is up to the challenge. The site’s features are naturally-flowing, allowing a visitor to create a community which is projected to have a viral growth. SportsFanLive is aimed to become the sports enthusiast’s Facebook, rather than connect to existing social networking websites.

 

Similar to MyESPN  and MyYahoo, the users can customize their site, mixing in together the teams they love and hate. Additionally, the users will receive news from 4500 aggregated sources which are regularly updated.

 

The Secret Sauce Katz believed that aggregation will be SportsFanLive’s secret weapon. Because unlike Google, which is definitely useful in searching for general needs of visitors, it has no clear perception of the specific sports needs of sports fans.

 

Through the FanFeed feature, sports-minded pals can easily share articles with one another or they can opt to use FanFinder application to alert their sports buddies to sports bars where they come together to cheer on their favorite teams. FanFinder is a zip code and map -based function which is a visual update of forums on rivals.com (which happens to be a Yahoo subsidiary).

 

A Sports Facebook Katz also commented that SportsFanLive aimed to be everyone else’s Facebook, at least for the sports enthusiasts, that is. According to him, without a doubt, Facebook is commendable for doing a really good job at connecting people all over the globe, but like Google, Facebook is not specifically geared towards sports-related matters. The site aims to be apart from the other social networking websites by keeping sports their focal point.

 

Traditional fantasy games are out of the question at this point as he feels that fans may not have a lot of time to tend to season-long fantasy games.

 

Gaming Features SportsFanLive offers gaming features that will enable them to challenge one another by posting or accepting wagers (this is akin to an online casino sports book which is user-generated) allowing them to either earn or lose Buxbets (SportsFanLive’s version of funny money). The feature is interesting (“they can compete on any topic they want against anyone at any time”) because he designed it based on the assumption that fans like to test their wits about anything they felt they know best.

 

Mouse Voting Jeff Price, Sports Illustrated Group president for digital, commented that Katz may very well understand and know sports fans’ hearts, but he has misgivings on how SportsFanLive can sustain traffic and engagements. Voting depends on a sports fan’s mouse. Price also noted how interesting it is the way people can embrace the games made available to them.

 

An analyst for Jupiter Research, Bobby Tulsiani remarked that if Katz succeeded in his plan, he would be similar to other new web entrants who will defy the pioneers in existing categories. The recent research on Internet sports users showed that evidence is yet to be confirmed regarding sports fans who wanted to switch to other online sports space.

 

Full of Hope Katz’s belief on his success remained unfazed. SportsFanLive may be self-funded for the time being, but then, he is positive that individual investors will be interested though he put off dropping a name for now. Samsung though, has already signed on as an early sponsor of Katz’s project.

 

He is happy to note that sports fans may not see it at present, but soon, they’ll realize that SportsFanLive is something they just have to use and will be unable to live without.  

    Admit it. At one point in time, you became curious, even a little interested. You want to know why people are so hooked on this tech-savvy social networking site people call “Facebook”.   Well, Facebook is free and what have you got to lose?   Sign up today! Here are some ideas to get you started.   More is more. Relationships are at an all-time high. At first glance it may not seem to matter, but it does. Your Facebook friends are your connections. The more Facebook friends you have, the more connections you are exposed to – thus the more opportunities. If you are managing your own business or are thinking of starting one, you may want to consider taking advantage of the endless possibilities that Facebook offers.   Facebook friends may not only be that; they can also be your future contacts or investors, or customers. It is a business tool that’s both cost-effective (it’s free!) and relatively convenient. Launch your companies, create jobs for people, introduce new industries, make a world of difference, the list just goes on and on. Now how good does that sound?   Facebook friends go beyond the word “friend”. We don’t mean just because you have the name of someone on your friend’s list does not mean that he or she is someone you are really close to. Some of them are just friends of your friends or someone you met casually at some place you probably have forgotten about already. The word here is “connection”. You connect with anyone and everyone in the World Wide Web. But at any rate, you may never know when that connection will come in handy someday.   Photos make you. It is never debatable to say that the photo application of Facebook is by far one of the most popular applications on the said social networking website. It is always recommended to show your own picture on Facebook. The whole point of social networking websites is to socialize, not to hide. People might think that you are concealing yourself and your identity by putting photos that are not exactly relevant to you (or that’s not you, simply put). It is also a good idea to change your photos and by changing we mean updating them or adding to them from time to time. Updating them gives the impression that you are dynamic and you like to move forward.   Facebook, surprisingly, can accomplish as much as your Rolodex can do. Sometimes, business executives won’t have time to communicate through phone calls and emails, but with the advent of Facebook, they found themselves making more room and time in their schedule to check their accounts. A message sent through Facebook provides a more refreshing change from the stiff business emails business executives get all the time. Take advantage of this and you might make more business deals than you normally do the traditional way.   Update your status, people care. Another tool made available in Facebook is the status of the account user. The status lets people in on your feelings and the current status of your life. This is mostly useful in terms of expressing yourself; but is also helpful for other people to know you more. Once again, use good judgment. Make it a point to express yourself simply and without much detail. It is possible to express yourself without losing your privacy.   Relationships are currency, so they say. There’s nothing wrong with thinking along these lines as long as one continues to be responsible and honest with his dealings with other men and women. Use it to build good and honest relationships, whether platonic, romantic, or business-related. Beyond the idea of not having a social network being ‘uncool’, it all boils down to being able to keep up with technology. Anyway, the whole point of technology is to make people’s lives better and more meaningful.

 

 

EBay has admitted that it has been eyeing up the Korean auction site and Internet retailer, Gmarket.

About 40% of Gmarket is owned by Seoul-based Inter Park and the brothers Lee Ki Hyeong and Lee Sang Kyoo, who founded the online store in 1999. Gmarket went public a couple years back (in 2006), and just last June, it racked up a whopping $15.4 million on fees charged from the $927.7 million worth of goods sold over the auction site.

EBay’s pending transaction with Gmarket might seem minor, but is largely strategic as the stake would be a rich opportunity to reach the market of a region where the American-owned online store had some difficulties before.

According to eBay, it is true that the company (eBay), Interpark, and Interpark’s Chairman, Ki Hyung Lee have sat down together to discuss the probability of eBay buying up enormous shares of Gmarket. It is too soon to tell what the result of the discussions will be, but a voluntary preliminary filing has been made with the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) together with seeking KFTC’s preliminary approval. At present, no word is out about KFTC’s approval. Nor is there an assurance that a final agreement will be signed. Neither the people behind Gmarket nor eBay are set to give remarks on the issue, until such time, if opportunity permits, that a definitive agreement is reached.

 

   

What other things besides communication and education can technology redefine? For Polo Ralph Lauren, it’s the word “shopping”.

 

?Speaking of the “s” word, Polo Ralph Lauren plans to make it big this year, as the very first luxury retailer to revolutionize online shopping through a mobile e-commerce site. According to the retailer, the idea of buying train tickets and vending machine products for example, is not out of the ordinary in Japan. Ralph Lauren says phone shopping is not commonplace in the U.S., it’s something viewed to be only for people who are comfortable with technology, though not age-specific per se.

 

?Why phone shopping, you might ask? Being first in the U.S. to launch the technology is one thing, keeping up with the trend as a fashion mogul is another. Anyone would probably agree that in addition to feeling the need to keep up; Polo Ralph Lauren discerns that technology-savvy fashionistas would appreciate the convenience that phone shopping can offer.

 

?To counter the U.S. economy’s recession, a new-fangled inventory management system is definitely in order. The designer of the high-end apparel has thought of setting special codes in print ads, mailings, and store windows alongside the U.S. open tennis tournament beginning later this August. This means all the shoppers have to do is whip out their camera phones, download some special software, and use that to scan codes. Through this, they can access the Ralph Lauren website (which they have designed to be phone-friendly) to start shopping, read company profiles, or even watch tennis videos.

 

?The question still remains as to how much Polo Ralph Lauren invested on this technology or how this will either make or break their projected sales. This opens up a possible demand for mobile phones with built-in code readers; these phones are anticipated to be out in the market within the year, as per the apparel-maker’s heads-up.

 

?Phone shopping will definitely be groundbreaking; an event that will grace the morning papers and fashion magazines from here on. 

 

If you invested heavily in Apple around 5 or 6 years ago you’re probably feeling pretty financially savvy. And with the stock up 1,474% since 2003 you very well should. On top of this huge stock gain, Apple is sitting on 20.8 billion dollars in cash and short term investments. I’d like to take a brief moment to put the number 20,800,000,000 into perspective. Around 20.8 billion seconds (659 years) ago it was the year 1349. Right about the same time marked the beginning of the Ottoman Empire, the Hundred Years War, a few serious plagues that wiped out large portions of the population, the invention of a technique called knitting, and Mel Gibson played the heroic character Braveheart, who won Scottish independence from British tyranny. If Apple decided to give you 1 dollar for every second that you are alive, and you live to be 80 years old, they will only have to pay you 2.5 billion dollars. Think that is impressive? Analysts predict the company’s hoard of cash could surge to nearly $30 billion over the next year because of strong sales of computers, iPods, and iPhones. This would put Apple well passed Microsoft’s 23.7 billion dollar bank account. Don’t remember Microsoft? They had that innovative software back in 98’. They were also noted in the 1999 definition of oxymoron: ox·y·mo·ron. Noun. – “contradictory words in conjunction.” see: Microsoft Works. Also see: Government Worker”   So what is Apple going to do with all that money? There are a number of things. For one the company could seek acquisitions (For Microsoft Corp. we will start the bidding at 1 billion dollars do I hear 1 billion dollars?). The market is down, and Apple has the marketing ability to turn emerging technologies into the next big thing. Alternately Apple could take advantage of the dire straits that the major record labels’ are in. Or Apple could simply put some money into raw materials. As prices of everything rise, it would be nice for Apple’s suppliers to stock up. And what if Apple keeps putting it all away? Where they will go only Apple knows. If Apple needs a few ideas for what to do with 20.8 billion dollars, I have some ideas here: With 20.8 billion dollar bills placed side by side Apple could make an 18 foot wide path around Earth’s equator. Or placing 20.8 billion dollar bills end on end Apple could make a path to the moon and back 4 times. Maybe Apple is feeling generous? If so they could give every person on Earth $3.15.