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This is funny. The Manila Bulletin reviewed the website ParentsPreview.com:
Have you or your children ever watched a movie or DVD only to be surprised by the amount of language, violence and sex it contained? If so, you’ll understanding of why you need to visit Parent Previews (http://www.parentspreview.com). (…) Parent Previews set out to offer extra information and take the guesswork out of finding appropriate family entertainment. The site classifies the movies according to: In Theaters, Upcoming movies, DVD/Videos …
But ParentsPreview.com points to a Hitfarm PARKING PAGE with nothing but pay-per-click ads. The article even contains a screenshot of the parked page. This shows that many people still can’t tell the difference between a developed site and a parked domain. Lucky domain owner, who has probably seen a nice surge in traffic. 
[via DomainNameNews.com; they have a photo of the article online]
Tucows Inc. yesterday announed the sale of 2,500 domain names from their domain portfolio for $3 million. In addition to that, Tucows will be paid up to $1.2 million if the sold domains meet performance criteria agreed upon in the deal. According to the company’s press release, Tucows thinks they got a fair deal, although there are traffic and revenue-producing domains among the 2,500 names sold.
“This sale indicates some of the latent value of our domain name portfolio,” said Elliot Noss, President and CEO of Tucows Inc. “As I have stated in the past, we will continue to be opportunistic with our domain name assets. While, this transaction does contain revenue-generating assets, we felt that the sale was appropriate. This transaction also provides us with an opportunity to step back and evaluate some operating possibilities. Accordingly, while we now believe our cash flow from operations for 2007 will likely be at the top end of the US$10 million to US$12 million range, we do not expect to be discussing any possible change in guidance until our next conference call at the earliest.”
Link: Press Release
There is a lenghty but very interesting article, written by John Heilemann, in the New York magazine that quotes an anonymous person saying that Google might acquire Apple.
“I think that Google is going to buy Apple,” this person says. “It would be a victory for Apple; they’d get major-league partners, money, and engineers. And it would be a victory for Steve – a huge win that lets him leave the stage.”
The speculation about Google has a ring of plausibility. Google CEO Eric Schmidt is now on the Apple board; engineers at the two companies are collaborating on Google Maps for the iPhone; and then there’s the YouTube deal for Apple TV.
Link: Steve Jobs in a Box
[via Frager Factor]
Hypergrowth of online sales might start slowing down. Online sales have grown 25% or more annually in the recent years, but growth in sectors such as book and ticket sales slowed down in 2006.
The reaction to the trend is apparent at Dell, which many had regarded as having mastered the science of selling computers online, but is now putting its PCs in Wal-Mart stores. Expedia has almost tripled the number of travel ticketing kiosks it puts in hotel lobbies and other places that attract tourists.
It seems that people aren’t ready yet to buy all of their stuff online. Major corporations such as Dell cannot only rely on online sales if they want to retain or increase their annual growth rates. Therefore, they start getting back to offline markets in order to make good for the loss in additional annual online sales.
The slowdown is a result of several forces. Sales on the Internet are expected to reach $116 billion this year, or 5 percent of all retail sales, making it harder to maintain the same high growth rates. At the same time, consumers seem to be experiencing Internet fatigue and are changing their buying habits.
Online Sales Lose Steam as Buyers Grow Web-Weary
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