Shareware meets books.

A new shareware trend comes into being? Not quite, but this is a curiosity of some kind...

Norman Spinrad has decided to offer his entire novel (yes, this is a BOOK), He Walked Among Us, as a shareware experiment. Coming hot on the heels of Charlie Stross's recent free offer for his entire novel Accelerando, one can't help but wonder if this is the start of a significant trend in internet marketing in general, not the shareware industry in particular.

The explanation for this move for Spinrad could be the fact, that the novel has already been seen, and rejected, by several big publishing houses. "You'd have to read the whole novel to understand why this has happened, probably," said Spinrad. "There are three or four major thematic thrusts in He Walked Among Us, and four or five characters that carry them and interact with each other.

The novel was originally only available via email but the project is gathering its own momentum. "You now can download it directly from my site too, since it's already on another web site which I've linked to, and I'll link to any site that does likewise," Spinrad explained. "But the idea of an email rtf file upon request has several reasons. First and foremost, my idea is to spread the novel like a benign virus, that is geometrically, encouraging people to email it to other people, post it on their web sites or newsgroups, etc. And because I am experimenting in what I call viral distribution, it's an rtf file because that's not an executable file or a format like pdf which can hide real viruses. Also it can be read by almost any word processor, not just running under windows, but Mac too."

Maybe this is the time to mix books with software? Once there were illustrated books, now we can think of books illustrated with sound and even animations. This could be interesting... what do you think?

see Spinrad website

eBay acquires Skype for US$4.1bln!

This is a thrilling news from eBay and Skype - the rumours were true! This is how eBay announces the news:

I’m excited to let you know that eBay plans to acquire Skype, the leader in online voice communications.
Skype has set a new standard in online voice communications with outstanding sound quality and unmatched ease of use. And like eBay, Skype has a fast-growing community -- some 54 million Skype users around the world already use their PCs to talk with one another.

And best of all, conversations between Skype users via PC are free. You can get up and running on Skype in just a few minutes. Just go to http://www.skype.com/go/x.home to learn more and download the free Skype software application. Try it – it’s fun!

Over time, we eBay intends to make voice communications a part of the eBay marketplace – a huge step forward in making transactions faster and easier, as well as bringing even more interactivity and humanity to the eBay Community.

You can include your Skype ID in your About Me page. For now, however, Skype links may not appear in View Item pages. We’ll be working with you, our Community, over the next few weeks to thoughtfully work out the details of how eBay and Skype will interact, including any policy changes that may be required.

We expect this acquisition to be finalized soon. In the meantime, you can learn more about our Skype plans in the news release we issued just a few minutes ago.

Working together, eBay, PayPal and Skype will redefine online trade and community. I hope you’ll join us in this exciting new chapter in eBay’s history.

Do You Code Sign?

Lately Saqib Ali asked on SlashDot: "I am a regular reader of Bruce Schneier's Blog, Articles, and Books, and I really like what he writes. However I recently read his book titled 'Secret and Lies' and I think he has done some in-justice to the security provided by the 'Code Signing'. On page 163 of his books, he (Bruce Schneier) basically states that: 'Code signing, as it is currently done, sucks'. Even though I think that Code Signing has its flaws, it does provide a fairly good mechanism for increasing security in an organization."

What are your thoughts on the current methods of code-signing in existance, today? If you feel like Bruce Schneier, how would you fix it? If you feel like Saqib Ali, what have you signed and how well has it worked?

Read more about it on SlashDot

AISIP Book Club

The Association of Independent Software Industry Professionals (AISIP) will launch a new online book club on September 1st, 2005. The AISIP book club will enable software industry professionals to discuss books related to internet marketing and business. A different book will be featured each month.

The first book to be read and discussed will be "Search Engine Optimization for Dummies" by Peter Kent. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a hot topic for website owners. It is what you do (or don't do) to help your website achieve higher rankings in search engine results.

SEO is vitally important to the internet marketer. The higher your website ranks for your relevant search terms, the more targeted visitors will come to your website, and see your products. There are simple things you can do to make your website more search engine friendly - and equally simple things you can do that may get your website banned by Google.

During the month-long discussion, book club members will begin with the information outlined in the book, and then continue to explore the ideas and methods of search engine optimization put forth. Some members may choose to discuss the book's ideas from a theoretical standpoint, and some may discuss them in practical terms, as they relate to specific websites. Some members will be revising their websites as the discussions progress, to immediately take advantage of their newly learned search engine optimization techniques.

For those who implement the books' ideas during the book club discussions, search engine rankings for certain search terms will be noted before optimization work begins, and then again at the end of the month.

If you want to learn more about Search Engine Optimization, or increase your website's position in the search engine rankings, then September's AISIP book club discussion is for you.

The AISIP book club discussions will take place in AISIP's private newsgroups/web forums. Any AISIP member may join in the book club discussions. AISIP was founded only two months ago, and is growing rapidly. Membership costs US$24 annually, and is open to anyone working in the independent software industry. AISIP members include people from all over the world who sell software products and services online.

Google loses China market share

Baidu is taking on the big dogs of the internet search engine world Google, the most used search engine, is under pressure in China and losing market share to its biggest local rival Baidu.com, a survey has found.
According to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), Baidu is making gains in the main cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The company has increased its slice of the market in the three towns by at least 10% in the past six months.

Internet use is growing and China has the potential to become a world leader.

State-run newspaper China Daily - citing research by Analysys International - estimated that China's search engine market is expected to be worth about 3bn yuan (£207m; $370m) by 2007, up from last year's value of 700m yuan.

Internet search users are predicted to increase from about 100 million currently to 187 million in two years' time.

Getting exposure

Investors had a chance to buy into the predicted boom when Baidu listed on the tech-heavy Nasdaq stock index in New York earlier this month.

Google is among those who have bought into Baidu and now owns a strategic stake of just under 3%.

Baidu was valued at $850m (£478m) ahead of its flotation and its shares, which sold for $27 each, quickly surged to $120.

However, since the share sale questions have been raised over the speed of its future growth - despite it reporting net profit of 12.1m yuan on sales of 69.7m yuan - and the stock has dipped back to trade closer to $83.

It currently has a market capitalisation of $2.7bn and Tuesday's survey has helped reassure investors.

Baidu shares jumped 6% to $83.35 in New York on Tuesday

Carving it up

According to CNNIC, Baidu now has 52% of the search engine market share in Beijing, compared with Google's 33%.

In Shanghai it has a 44% slice and in Guangzhou it is 48%, compared with Google's 38% and 29% respectively.

Three months ago, Google had the biggest market share, CNNIC said.

The rest of the market was split between Yahoo!, Sina and Sohu.com.