MarvQuin Blog

People Seek Content Over Email and Instant Messanging On The Internet

While online, most people are watching videos, reading blogs, reviewing freinds Facebook and Myspace pages and viewing other social networking sites like Digg.

A new studied released on August 13, 2007, clearly shows that content account for just under 50% of consumers' online time. Neilsen / Net Ratings, has shown a progressive increase in users' viewing of content from just four years ago. Just 33 percent of time was spent online viewing content in 2003 and most time was sent sending emails and instant messaging. During this point in time, email and instant messaging accounted for 46% of online time. Now these communications account for 33% of online time. Search and e-commerce figures remained relatively stable.

As of August, 2007 search accounts for 5% of online time, up from 3% in 2003. Commerce accounts for 16%, up from 15% in 2003.

The Significance Of Content

The significance of these findings mens that the big Internet media forms, like Yahoo and Google, as well as more traditional companies like News Corp., owners of Myspace, Disney and time Warner will contiue to focus on creating media rich applications for their websites including photos, online video and music.

More and more ad dollars will continue to flow towards the web as more and more users spend a signficant amount of time watching YouTube Videos and sharing Flickr's pictures. Therefore, all of the big search companies inlcuding Google, Microsoft and Yahooo will continue to implement the online ad network presence.

Yahoo purchased online exchange Right Media. Microsft purchased digital ad agency aQuantive and Google is closing the acquisition of DoubleClick.

Reason

The possible primary reason for the increase in demand for content and the decline of communication is that content and communication have become inseparable due to the success of the social networking sites. MySpace and Facebook pages offer there own communication, effectively bypassing traditional E-mail and IM.

The primary question in this industry as is in most is just how effective advertising on Web content can be and how lucrative is the market.

Many companies cannot quite figure out the best way to sell ads on Internet videos and it's a huge challenge considering the ads must be tied to user uploaded videos. Videos that advertisers will be reticent to advertise behind based on the content.

Companies will be focused on figuring out how to advertise on this content as peoples consumption of the content will continue to increase.

Top 25 Startups On The Rise

1. www.stumbleupon.com

Launched in 2002 by three 20-somethings in a Calgary, Alberta, apartment, StumbleUpon now has 2 million registered users drawn by its knack for finding websites that match their interests and those of others with similar tastes as they "stumble" around the Net.

Co-founder Garrett Camp, who totes around a mid-'80s Nikon F3 (yes, with actual film), came up with the idea as he was working on a master's in software engineering.

Frustrated as he tried to indulge his hobby online - "There wasn't a good way to find the best photo sites," Camp says - he tapped his own background in clustering technology. With coding help from Justin LaFrance and Geoff Smith, he created an early version of StumbleUpon. Having nailed the photo problem, the team quickly saw how the technology could click with all sorts of media.

In the same way that it matches users with like-minded websites, StumbleUpon's technology also pairs online ads with targeted demographics and interests. Now StumbleUpon is attempting to do the same for online video and video advertising. In December the startup launched StumbleVideo, a service that offers the closest thing to channelsurfing that you'll find on the Web.

Funding: $1.5 million (Ron Conway, Mitch Kapor, Josh Kopelman, Brad O'Neill, Ram Shriram)

Headquarters: San Francisco

Employees: 12

Founded: 2001

Business model: Advertising, subscriptions

Bragging rights: Cash flow positive

Next up: New features like content controls and mobile video recommendations

Contact: Partners@stumbleupon.com

2. www.slide.com

Slide has developed customizable and easily assembled slide shows of photos that can be embedded in a blog or a MySpace page, sent out in an RSS feed, and streamed to a desktop as a screensaver.

Funding: Not disclosed (Peter Thiel, Vinod Khosla, others)

Founder & CEO: Max Levchin

Headquarters: San Francisco

Employees: 45

Founded: 2004

Business model: Advertising, subscription

Bragging rights: Actor Jamie Foxx and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner use Slide on their MySpace pages.

Next up: Doubling staff in 2007; expanding into Asia; adding mobile phone features

Contact: Partners@slide.com

3. www.bebo.com

Bebo has built a social network, more than 30 million members strong, that keeps users' pages private but still allows them to share things like video and drawings made on an online whiteboard.

Founders: Michael Birch (also CEO), Xochi Birch

Headquarters: San Francisco

Employees: 28

Founded: 2005

Business model: Advertising

Bragging rights: Profitable; advertisers include Disney, Alltel, Dawn and AOL)

Next up: Promoting new Bebo Authors channel (launched Feb. 22); hiring in-house sales team

Contact: Partnerships@bebo.com

4. www.meebo.com

Meebo lets users manage multiple instant-messaging services from one site. Meebo's killer app is a widget that places an IM window on your blog or webpage.

Funding: $12.5 million (Draper Fisher, Jurvetson, Sequoia Capital)

Founders: Sandy Jen, Seth Sternberg (also CEO), Elaine Wherry

Employees: 12

Business model: Advertising

Bragging rights: 5.3 million unique instant messenger IDs per month

Next up: Doubling staff in 2007

Contact: Daniel Bernstein, Danny@meebo.com

5. www.wikia.com

Wikia operates a hosting service for ad-supported community sites that use the same software and collaborative content model that made Wikipedia a Web phenomenon.

Launched in 2004, Wikia communities range from fans of 24 to politics junkies. Wikia is also working on an open-source, user-generated search engine.

Funding: $4 million (Amazon.com, Marc Andreessen, Bessemer Venture Partners, others)

Founders: Angela Beesley, Jimmy Wales

Headquarters: San Mateo, Calif.

Employees: 33

Founded: 2004

Business model: Advertising

Bragging rights: 500,000 articles in 45 languages

Next up: Hiring; expanding into Japan; adding more languages; developing open-source search engine

Contact: Angie Shelton, angie@wikia.com

6. www.joost.com

Forget the three-minute video blog. The 30-minute, broadcast-quality Web 2.0 TV show is coming in all its full-screen glory. And if serial disrupters Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom have their way, neither television nor the Internet will be the same.

The duo behind peer-to-peer services Kazaa and Skype will officially launch Joost this spring, aiming to merge the best of TV with the best of the Net.

The service provides more of a television-style experience than current online video sites, with channels you can flip through randomly or program yourself. Viewers can also share playlists of their favorite shows with friends or chat with them online while watching the same program.

Joost will be free, supported by highly targeted ads based on people's actual watching habits, their friends' viewing patterns, and information they volunteer. Ad revenue will be split between Joost and the content owners.

Joost can offload much of the heavy bandwidth and storage costs borne by Web video companies like YouTube because the service is a partial peer-to-peer system, with content distributed among viewers' computers. And to reassure Hollywood moguls who watched the music industry get burned by Kazaa's legions of illegal file sharers, all Joost video is streamed and encrypted.

Funding: Not disclosed

Founders: Janus Friis, Niklas Zennstrom

Headquarters: Luxembourg

Employees: 100

Founded: 2006

Business model: Advertising

Bragging rights: 40,000 beta testers; just beat rival YouTube by signing major content deal with Viacom; other content providers include National Geographic, Warner Music Group, and Dutch TV production company Endemol

Next up: Striking more content deals

Contact: Newyork@joost.com

7. www.dabble.com

Dabble has designed a tool for organizing videos into playlists of favorites. Users share them across the network, so, say, food lovers can dabble in one another's video collections.

Funding: $750,000 (Hank Barry, Evan Williams, others)

Founder & CEO: Mary Hodder

Headquarters: Berkeley, Calif.

Employees: 11

Founded: 2005

Business model: Advertising

Bragging rights: 12,000 registered users to date; partnerships with MySpace, YouTube, Grouper, Brightcove

Next up: Hiring: a groups feature for users with similar interests to share video

Contact: Partners@dabble.com

8. www.metacafe.com

Metacafe's service ranks uploaded videos by popularity and feedback from a community of 17 million monthly visitors - and pays the creators for the success of their work. The auteurs get $100 after 20,000 viewings and $5 for every 1,000 subsequent views. Since September, Metacafe has paid a total of $250,000 to 200 contributors.

Funding: $20 million (Accel Partners, Benchmark Capital)

CEO: Erick Hachenburg

Headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.

Employees: 65

Founded: 2003

Business model: Advertising

Bragging rights: 17 million monthly users; revenues doubling each quarter

Next up: Hiring 100 employees in 2007; partnering with movie studios, record labels and producers

Contact: Business@metacafe.com

9. www.revision3.com

Revision 3 is a production studio for geek-oriented online shows. Started by Digg founder Kevin Rose and its CEO, Jay Adelson, Revision3 sells sponsorships to companies like Go Daddy, Microsoft, and Sony for as much as $10,000 per episode.

Funding: $1 Million (Adelson, Marc Andreessen, Ron Conway, others)

Cofounder & CEO: Jay Adelson

Headquarters: San Francisco

Employees: 7

Founded: 2005

Business model: Advertising

Bragging rights: 1.5 million monthly viewers; advertisers include Sony, IBM and Go Daddy

Next up: Launching up to 4 new shows

Contact: Info@revision3.com

10. www.blip.tv

Blip.tv has built a platform for syndicating serialized online shows such as Starring Amanda Congdon and TreeHugger TV. Blip provides producers with software, ads, and distribution to websites and blogs. A deal is already signed with Web TV service Akimbo, which lets producers send their videos to TV sets.

Funding: Not disclosed (Ron Conway, Mark Gerson, Ken Lerer, Peter Thiel)

Cofounders: Dina Kaplan, Mike Hudack, also CEO.

Headquarters: New York City

Employees: 12

Founded: 2005

Business model: Licensing, advertising

Bragging rights: 45,000 content creators; key advertisers include Dove, Paltalk; licensors include CNN, Oxygen TV

Next up: Doubling staff in 2007

Contact: Mike Hudack, mike@blip.tv

11. www.fon.com

In the freewheeling wireless era, the PC is in your pocket and the network is in the air. No surprise, then, that gadgets from Apple's iPhone to a SanDisk MP3 player are being built with Wi-Fi inside.

But finding a Wi-Fi signal when you need one can be a problem - and a big opportunity for Fon, a Spanish company that's building a global community of hotspots one router at a time.

The idea for Fon hit founder Martin Varsavsky in late 2005 while he was strolling through Paris with his PDA in search of a signal. Companies like T-Mobile were spending millions of dollars to build hotspot networks and charging dearly for access.

Varsavsky, however, saw the potential for a worldwide Wi-Fi network in the home broadband connections already in place. All that was needed was a service to tie them together.

Here's how it works: Fon sells a $30 wireless router to consumers. They hook it up, register their node, and agree to share their broadband with other "Foneros" for free. Those who want to charge outsiders for access can do so, and Fon gets a cut. Likewise, if someone wants to pay $2 or $3 to use the Fon network for a day, Fon takes a share of that revenue. Just over a year old, Fon's network boasts more than 70,000 hotspots. Initially focused on Europe and Asia, Fon plans a big push in the United States in the coming months.

Funding: $22 million (Google, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Skype)

Founder: Martin Varsavsky

Headquarters: Madrid, Spain

Employees: 90

Founded: 2006

Business model: Subscription, router sales

Bragging rights: 400,000 users (including 40,000 Americans added since October); signed as-yet unannounced deal with first major U.S. broadband service provider

Next up: In deal talks with U.S. cellular service providers.

12. www.loopt.com

Loopt offers around-the-clock friend tracking. Cell-phone customers are using Loopt to let their buddies see their locations. It's already a hit with some 100,000 Boost Mobile subscribers who want to know not just what their posse is up to but where it's at.

Funding: $5 million (New Enterprise Associates, Sequoia Capital)

Founder & CEO: Sam Altman

Headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.

Employees:18

Founded: 2005

Business model: Advertising, subscription

Bragging rights: Partnership with Sprint

Next up: Signing up sponsors; in talks with second U.S. carrier

Contact: Bizdev@loopt.com

13. www.getmobio.com

Mobio offers mobile-phone mashups and widgets that figure out where you are and serve up on-the-go services like movie listings. Other widgets will book a cab or a seat at a restaurant.

Funding: $9 million (InterWest)

Founder & CEO: Ramneek Bhasin

Headquarters: Cupertino, Calif.

Employees: 40

Founded: 2005

Business model: Advertising

Bragging rights: Sprint and Cingular customers will be able to download widgets to their phones this spring; working with OpenTable, an online restaurant reservation service.

Next up: Service launches Feb. 26

Contact: Info@getmobio.com

14. www.tinypictures.us

It's Flickr on the fly. Tiny's Radar service lets you snap photos with cell phones and send them to friends, who can both access and comment on the shots. Radar will be a built-in application on some devices made by Danger, creator of T-Mobile's Sidekick.

Funding: $2.8 million (Mohr Davidow Ventures)

Founder & CEO: John Poisson

Headquarters: San Francisco

Employees: 12

Founded: 2005

Business model:Sales of downloadable client, advertising

Bragging rights: 55 percent monthly user growth; 500,000 videos and pictures swapped on network per month; SunCom Wireless plans to distribute Radar

Next up: To have 1 million users by year-end; sign up more carriers; add premium subscription service

Contact: Amanda Krantz, amanda@tinypictures.us

15. www.soonr.com

Access your home or office PC from your mobile phone. SoonR allows you to use your phone to pull up and search data on your desktop - everything from Word docs to Photoshop files.

Funding: $6 million (Clearstone Venture Partners, Intel Capital)

Cofounder & CEO:> Martin Frid-Nielsen

Headquarters: Campbell, Calif.

Employees: 30

Founded:2005

Business model: Subscriptions

Bragging rights:Approx. 250,000 users; partnerships with Swisscom, WebEx

Next up: Premium services

Contact: Abbe Patterson, abbe@soonr.com

16. www.turn.com

Led by former AltaVista CEO Jim Barnett, Turn.com is offering online advertisers something many have craved for years: precise, automated ad targeting combined with a system that requires them to pay only for specific desired results.

Call it pay-per-play.

To get started, advertisers first enter the prices they're willing to pay for various results - $5 for a sales lead, say, or $50 to $60 for a completed transaction. Next, they upload their text-or graphics-based display ads. Turn's software then analyzes the ads using more than 60 variables - including content, brand strength, and keywords - and determines the right publishers to serve up the ads. Turn splits the revenue (70-30, on average) with the publisher.

Since launching in beta in November, the company has signed up more than 1,000 advertisers and cranked more than 5 million ads through its analysis engine.

Twenty-five publishers are giving the system a tryout, according to Barnett, including a few large news sites and a big social network (which he declines to name).

As for competitive threats, Google has been rumored to be working on its own version of the pay-per-play model. But Barnett says the $16 billion-a-year online ad industry is growing so fast that he doesn't worry about Turn's ability to carve out a lucrative niche: "These days marketers need to use all the targeting approaches they can find."

Funding:$17.5 million (Norwest Venture Partners, Shasta Ventures, Trident Capital)

Co-Founders:Jim Barrett (also CEO), John Ellis

Headquarters:San Mateo, Calif.

Employees:26

Founded: 2005

Business model:Advertising

Bragging Rights:25 million unique viewers to date; 1,000 advertisers; 20 publishers

Next Up:Signing more publishers

Contact: Business2@turn.com

17. www.adify.com

Adify is an online marketplace for highly targeted ads. Businesses can sell ad space directly to advertisers; advertisers can target specific market niches while Adify handles the back-office work.

Funding:$8 million (Venrock Associates)

Cofounder & CEO: Larry Braitman

Headquarters:San Bruno, Calif.

Employees:40

Founded: 2005

Business model:Advertising

Bragging Rights:4,000 publishers have signed up, including The Washington Post; revenues doubling quarter-over-quarter

Next Up:Signing more publishers

Contact: 877-462-3439

18. www.admob.com

AdMob offers a place to buy ads for delivery to cell phones. That market is set to explode, and AdMob - which says it has sent out nearly a billion ads in less than a year - is poised to become its middleman of choice.

Funding:$4 million (Sequoia Capital)

Founder & CEO: Omar Hamoui

Headquarters:San Mateo, Calif.

Employees:22

Founded: 2006

Business model:Advertising

Bragging Rights:800 publishers, 250 advertisers

Next Up:Technology to deliver interactive ads to mobile phones

Contact: Info@admob.com

19. www.spotrunner.com

SpotRunner is a one-stop online shop for low-cost 30-second TV ads. Local businesses can browse a library of premade spots and personalize them for airing in their local markets.

Funding:$60 million (CBS, Interpublic Group, WPP)

Co-Founders:Nick Grouf (also CEO), David Waxman

Headquarters:Los Angeles

Employees:150

Founded: 2004

Business model:Advertising

Bragging Rights:Clients include Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Mozilla, and Warner Independent Pictures; partners include The Interpublic Group of Companies, WPP, CBS

Next Up:Extending the model to other media besides TV, possibly radio and the Internet

Contact: 877-287-2793

20. www.vitrue.com

ViTrue's platform lets corporate customers solicit, edit, and upload user-generated videos that promote their products. With companies like General Motors tapping the YouTube generation to virally market their wares, ViTrue is in a sweet spot.

Funding:$5 million (Comcast, Ron Conway, General Catalyst Partners, Turner Broadcasting)

Founder & CEO: Reggie Bradford

Headquarters:Atlanta, Ga.

Employees:38

Founded: 2006

Business model:Advertising

Bragging Rights:100,000 site users; site on VH1.com

Next Up:Developing new sites for youth-oriented media clients

Contact: Maria Sanzone, Maria@vitrue.com

21. www.successfactors.com

Even the corporate world is catching on to the promise of Web 2.0 technologies. After all, why can't enterprise apps be as easy to use as the latest Google mashup?

They can. And when they actually work, watch out. SuccessFactors, a profitable five-year-old startup in San Mateo, Calif., takes in an estimated $100 million in annual revenue by selling a suite of simple Web-based tools that automate important but previously paper-driven management chores - performance reviews, succession planning, and compensation.

Ultimately the service helps to match employee skills with company objectives. North Carolina-based Quintiles, a pharmaceutical services firm with 17,000 employees, deployed SuccessFactors last year to better pair worker aptitudes with jobs; its annual employee churn rate subsequently fell by nearly a third.

CEO Lars Dalgaard claims that SuccessFactors has some 2 million users and more than doubled sales last year. Its customers, which pay an annual fee of $50 per user, range from small tech companies to corporate giants like ConAgra Foods. That kind of growth has not gone unnoticed among investment bankers, prompting talk of an IPO this year.

Funding:$45 million (Canaan Partners, Cardinal Venture Capital, Emergence Capital, others)

Founder & CEO: Lars Dalgaard

Headquarters:San Mateo, Calif.

Employees:Approx. 400

Founded: 2001

Business model:Subscriptions

Bragging Rights:1,200 customers, including Wachovia, MasterCard, and Kimberly-Clark; 2 million users

Next Up:Expanding into Asia and Europe; developing web services tailored to specific industries, such as health care and retail

Contact: Info@successfactors.com

22. www.janrain.com

JanRain has developed a single sign-on service for multiple passwords that lets people hop freely from site to site. Business demand for JanRain's services is expected to grow as Web 2.0 entertainment and social-networking sites proliferate.

Funding:$1 million (founders)

Cofounder & CEO: Scott Kveton

Headquarters:Portland, Ore.

Employees:11

Founded: 2006

Business model:Advertising, subscriptions

Bragging Rights:50,000 users (nearly double the number in December)

Next Up:Partnerships with bigger websites; new product rollout by summer

23. www.logoworks.com

Logoworks automates the design of logos, business cards, and stationery. Proprietary software helps Logoworks streamline the process and charge less than old-line competitors.

Funding:$16.8 million (Benchmark Capital, Highway 12, Shasta Ventures)

Founders:Morgan Lynch

CEO: Paul Brockbank

Headquarters:Lindon, Utah

Employees:120

Founded: 2001

Business model:Fee-for-service

Bragging Rights:65,000 customers to date, including Toyota and Pfizer

Next Up:Selling services to small businesses through big box retailers

Contact: Info@logoworks.com

24. www.reardencommerce.com

Rearden Commerce sells a Web-based "virtual personal assistant" application that smoothly integrates hotel and flight reservations, meetings, and other events into your daily agenda. Some 150 companies and 500,000 employees use Rearden's software.

Funding:$100 million (American Express, Foundation Capital, Vinod Khosla, Burt McMurtry, Oak Investment Partners)

Founder & CEO: Patrick Grady

Headquarters:Foster City, Calif.

Employees:155

Founded: 2000

Business model:Subscriptions

Bragging Rights:Approx. 200 customers; new partnership with American Express

Next Up:Expanding into the mobile market

Contact: 877-778-2763

25. www.simulscribe.com

Finally, an effective way to convert voice-mail into scannable text. SimulScribe transcribes voice-mail messages and shoots them to your mobile device as text or e-mail messages. Targeting corporate customers, SimulScribe will integrate the service into company voicemail systems.

Funding:$5 million (Tom Iovino, Claude and Jan Nahum)

Founder & CEO: James Siminoff

Headquarters:New York City

Employees:8

Founded: 2003

Business model:Subscriptions

Bragging Rights:5,000 users

Next Up:Deal with major national carrier to be announced in April

Contact: Business2@simulscribe.com

Is the Dot Com IPO Dead?

On August 19, 2007, Google will celebrate its third anniversary since debuting on Nasdaq. Google has enjoyed an exceptional market dominance considering the stock is up more than 500 percent from its asking price. However, despite the success of Google, it has not ignited another round of significant dot com offerings.

Most of the more successful private Internet companies have chosen to either stay private while raising money from venture capitalists or completely sell out to well established online behemoths like Yahoo! and Google or even sell out to more traditional giants like Viacom, News Corp. or Time Warner

Many analyst question whether the IPO floodgates will ever open again. Companies like Bebo, Facebook, Brightcove and Joost continue to attract enormous buzz, however the talk seems to be focused around who might buy these companies and not whether they will go public. Looking at the latest acquisitions of Photobucket and Youtube give ideal example of companies sthat were good IPO candidates however sold to larger conglomerates, YouTube to Google and Photobucket to NewsCorp.

It should be noted that LinkedIn has stated through its CEO that it hopes to go public within the next your or two, however this thought and mentality is often the exception in the dot com age of today.

Problems of Going Public

Many private companies have stated that it is far more trouble that what is worth to go public. Much of this is do to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act passed on July 30, 2002 in response to the WorldCom and Enron corporate scandals.

Over the last five years under SarbOx, numerous private companies have seen Wall Street less likely to tolerate pre revenue, concept companies. Also the costs of going public are exorbitantly high especially with all of the new compliance laws governing accounting and corporate governance.

Perhaps the most compelling reason is that it is too costly for private companies to serve as standalone public companies, therefore leaving two options: 1: Sell out to a larger entity or 2: stay private and try to keep growing. Also, because there are not many private companies with annual sales in the hundred million dollar range, there will likely not be a wave of dot com IPOs.

Even Venture Capital company Sequoia Capital which ahs invested in two of the biggest dot com IPO successes ever, Google an Yahoo, will state how difficult it is to go public. The Internet however is a vast resource with enormous possibility and potential. Is the dot com IPO dead, I say no...but the opportunities are a lot smaller than the late 1990's.

Domaining to be a $4 Billion Industry by 2010 and Top Ten Most Expensive Domain Names of All time

With the recent sell of business.com for $350 million dollars, domaining has solidified itself as the new real estate of the 21st Century. Domaining is the business of buying and selling domains similar to real estate business people buying and selling property. Just recently, during a furious bid, partners Larry Fischer and Ari Goldberger purchased megayachts.com for $150,000.

Inside a midtown hotel, Larry Fischer is on his cell phone with a financial backer as his partner Ari Goldberger does quick research on a laptop computer and were ecstatic at the bargain and its potential value.

Currently, the domaining industry is at an estimated $2billion as people buy and sell domain names similar to stocks and property. When people type the generic names into their Web Browser's address field, many sites that generate pay per click advertising revenue appear. This direct navigation bypasses search engines.

Domainer Magazine's, managing partner, Jerry Nolte stated that the "industry is like the wild, wild West right now and people have no idea how fast it's growing."

Pundits and estimators believe that the industry's market will reach $4 Billion by 2010 as people and businesses continue to purchase about 90,000 domain names every day.

By April of 2007, more than 128 million domain names had been registered worldwide, which is a 31 percent increase over the previous year, according to VeriSign Inc., which runs some of the primary domain name directories for the Internet.

Top Ten Most Expensive Domain Names Ever

#10 CreditCards.com
Sold for: $2.75 million in July 2004
Bought by: Austin
Considering natural SEO and a strong link campaign can get a site listed for ‘credit cards’ $2.75 million might seem a bit steep, but as the revenue generated from the loans industry is so huge the high outlay on the domain has more than likely paid for itself.

#9 Wine.com
Sold for: $2.9 million in September 1999
For this sort of money you’d think they’d actually be trading globally, alas you’d be wrong. Wine.com sells only to the US market. Something of a missed opportunity there as I do believe some European countries are quite partial to a drop of wine.

#8 Shop.com
Sold for: $3.5 million
Sounds like a great domain name, but be honest, who’s ever bought from here? When you shop online you use sites like Amazon, eBay or Play. The domain names aren’t important when compared to the branding, link building and SEO.

#7 AsSeenOnTv.com
Sold for: $5.1 million in January 2000
At over $5 million I question the wisdom of this one. Bought at the height of the .com boom this was a lot of money for a very long domain name that is nothing more than a marketing slogan. If this comes up for sale again expect the owner to lose a considerable amount of his money.

#6 Beer.com
Sold for $7 million
Again this is a lot of money for a domain that won’t generate that much type in traffic. Primarily a lads’ site, beer.com is aimed at the Internet’s biggest user base.

#5 Diamonds.com
Sold for: $7.5 million
Guess what they sell? Not to be confused with a motor insurance company for women. Considering the high ticket price on their stock this is potentially a good price for such a prestigious domain name.

#4 Business.com
Sold For: $7.5 million in 1999
The former Guinness World Record holder for the most expensive domain name ever; business.com, sold back in the .com boom era of the late 90’s. After the crash in 2001 it was expected that no domain would sell for a greater amount. The predictions proved inaccurate.

#3 Porn.com
Sold for $9.5 million in 2007
Personally I’d have thought this one would have gone for more in a time of renewed Internet speculation. I don’t know what’s on this site, I’ve never looked ;)

#2 Sex.com
Sold for: $11 - $14 million (disputed reports) in January 19th 2006
Bought by: Escom LLC
The most expensive domain name until August 2, 2007 changed hands in January 2006 for an estimated $11 million, although some reports put that figure as high as $14 million. The type in traffic alone makes this domain worth the cash.

#1 Business.com, as of Thursday August 2, 2007
Sold for: $350 million
Bought by: R.H. Donnelley Corporation
R.H. is a publisher of Yellow Pages directories in print and online, said Thursday that it had signed an agreement to acquire Business.com, a business-oriented search engine, online directory, and pay-per-click ad network.

"It's not about words," said Monte Cahn, founder and CEO of Moniker.com, a company that specializes in domain asset management and held the Manhattan auction. "It's like real estate. This industry is only about a decade old. People looked at domain names as a commodity. It's a piece of real estate on the Web that can't be replaced. It's your stake in the ground, your stake in the Internet."

At the Manhattan auction, Fischer and Goldberger snatched up four names for more than $1.2 million and a fifth for a client, representing only a handful of the names sold for a total of $12.4 million during both the live and silent auction.

Prices

One name -- creditcheck.com -- went for $3 million but paled in comparison to the sale of sex.com, which sold for $12 million last year and $350 million for business.com, according to Cahn, who knew the site's buyer and seller.

Fischer, 44, of Brooklyn, New York, and Goldberger, 46, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, figured there was money to be made early.

Goldberger's entry into the business was unorthodox to say the least. In 1996, the Hearst Corp. sued him, alleging trademark infringement after Goldberger registered esqwire.com, which resembles one of the company's magazines.

The two sides eventually settled and Goldberger, a lawyer, was allowed to keep the name. Word got out that Goldberger knew something about the thorny legal issues involving Internet domain names and people began approaching him for advice.

Goldberger's fascination with the burgeoning industry was sealed.

"I was an entrepreneur strapped into this suit-and-tie job," Goldberger said. "Kind of a square peg in a round whole and this lawsuit just kind of changed everything for me."

The Beginning

He eventually left the respected Philadelphia law firm where he worked in 1997 and joined a small startup in Manhattan called mail.com, which was buying up domain names.

Goldberger began collaborating with Fischer in 2001, building their portfolio of domain names. Together, they became a formidable yet quirky team.

Two years later, they created a company called smartname.com, which they sold earlier this year. The company took names and provided content and links for owners, getting a cut of the advertising revenue. At one point, smartname.com represented 150 owners with about 150,000 domain names, generating 50 million unique visitors a month.

Most the sites are lucrative for their advertising dollars. For example, megayachts.com isn't an actual yachting site, but it contains numerous ads and links for real yacht companies, boats and cruises. The owners of the site get paid each time a viewer clicks on one of those links.

Goldberger and Fischer declined to say how much money they make from pay-per-click advertising.

GoDaddy

Bob Parsons, CEO and founder of domain registration company GoDaddy.com, says this type of business is fairly straightforward.

"They make their money in two ways," Parsons said. "One way is through the traffic they get and the other is the appreciation of the name."

Parson didn't think there was anything wrong with the practice as long as those involved weren't using names trademarked by others.

"Domain names are becoming 21st century real estate," Parsons said. "Just owning a domain name as an investment, I don't see a problem with that."

Anthony Malutta, a lawyer who specializes in trademark law at a San Francisco law firm, sees fewer trademark infringement cases thanks to improved laws.

"Trademark law involving domain laws is much clearer and much easier to understand," he said. "It's pretty clear that registering a domain name that corresponds to somebody's trademark is actionable. As to generics, they're just hoping to capture traffic. You're just counting on people typing in generic names instead of using a search engine like Google."

Malutta said domainers like Goldberger and Fischer are not "gaming the system" which in his opinion would mean registering domain names and then cybersquatting -- driving revenue off somebody else's trademarked name like Coca-Cola.

Over the years, Goldberger and Fischer have sharpened their formula for acquiring domain names and developing the sites using a fairly simple template, relying on research, savvy and plenty of instinct.

"You either know it or don't by hearing the name," Fischer says.

They look for names that hit the "sweet spot" -- short words that describe a high-value product or services related to it. Words that allow them to own a category such as bald.com and cardiology.com, two of the domain names they bought at the auction.

To help figure out a word's potential value, they see how many hits it will produce using Google. They also troll lists of names with domain registrations set to expire, enabling them to get a jump on buying it.

They don't bother with dot-nets or the others.

"Dot-com is king," Goldberger said. "Dot-net is worthless."

But there's a big divide between thinking of a good name and getting it. There's usually a chase, with Fischer trying to persuade owners to sell the names after he locates the owners unless it's up for auction.

"He's kind of like a rhinoceros," Goldberger says about Fischer. "He chases them up a tree and waits them out. He has patience and determination. You got to be aggressive. It's a tough game now. It's like the gold rush. The first guys did really well then it became more difficult."

Expensive

And expensive. Five years ago, the duo could get a good name for $10,000. Now the minimum is more like $100,000 -- as the auction proved. The cheapest name they bought at the auction was blogging.com for $135,000. Other names sold for considerably less like irishwhiskey.com ($8,000) and Jewishdeli.com ($9,000).

At the moment, Fischer, Goldberger and Eli are sitting on their names. They've recently turned down million-dollar offers for stocks.com and home.com.

But as white-hot as this business has been, it might not continue to mint millionaires.

"How long will this model last?" Malutta asked. "It's definitely a temporal piece of real estate. As technology evolves, maybe direct navigation will fall off the charts and there goes your property."

Carlos Slim Helu tops Bill Gates as World's Richest Man

Carlos Slim Helu as succeeded Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the richest person in the world. First, reported by Fortune magazine, Carlos Slim's wealth is valued at US60 Billion.

Carlos Slim Helu

The exceptionally strong performance by Slim's holdings on the volatile Mexican stock exhchange in recent months propelled Slim past Gates. Gates has held the title for at least the past decade.

"By our calculations, the 67-year-old Slim has amassed a US$59b fortune, based on the value of his public holdings at the end of July," Fortune stated in its latest addition of the magazine.

"This number puts him just ahead of perennial number one, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, whose net worth is estimated to be at least US$58b."

Bill Gates

Sentido Comun, a Mexican financial website stated recently that the 67 year old Slim had passed Gates with an estimated personal fortune of over US$68 Billion.

It must be noted that Slim has bee rapidly expanding his mobile phone and numerous other business platforms throughout Latin America, whereas Gates has spent the majority of his time expanding the reach of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Foundation was set up in 2000 to assist in the areas of education, health and literacy problems throughout the world.

"Gates is selling off his single greatest source of wealth, Microsoft stock, to fund his foundation, while Slim's fortune is growing at a stunning clip. His net worth jumped US$12b this year alone," Fortune stated in the upcoming issue

according to Fortune, Slim's family riches represented more than five percent of Mexico's entire gross domestic product in 2006 and companies under Slim's control amount to one third of the Mexican stock market.

Fortune magazine labeled Slim a modern day John D. Rockefeller, in reference to the prominent US industrialist who acquired an enormous personal fortune in the early part of the 20th century.

Slim's holdings include, automotive, banking and an emphasis on telecom companies. His company, Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) controls 92 percent of Mexico's phone lines.

Similar to Buffet, Slim has a deserved reputation for frugality rather than flamboyance. Flim's wireless service, America Movil, which has a 70 percent share of the market is based in a converted tire factory. Slim is also known for wearing plastic watches.

Background

His father ran a store in Mexico City after migrating from Lebanon in 1902 and went on to buy commercial real estate during the 1910 revolution.

Slim studied engineering in the 1960s before starting a stock brokerage. He soon began to acquire companies, turning around a number of failing businesses during the crippling Latin American economic crisis of the 1980s.

By the end of the decade, he was one of Mexico's top businessmen.

He started buying into Telefonos de Mexico in 1990, when he partnered with France Telecom and what is now AT&T to pick up a 20 percent share of the state-owned Mexican company for some US$2b, according to Fortune.

The tycoon has brushed off criticism that Telmex is effectively a monopoly, saying earlier this year: "When you live for others' opinions, you are dead. I don't want to live thinking about how I'll be remembered."

He once derided Gates and fellow philanthropist and investment guru Warren Buffett -- until recently the world's second richest man -- for giving away so much of their wealth, reportedly saying: "Poverty isn't solved with donations."

Building businesses, he was reported to have said, did more for society than "going around like Santa Claus."

Internet Blogs VS Online Communities and Forums

I have been using the Internet for around 6 or 7 years now and I find it interesting how certain things change with time. One of those things that is beginning to change is the way people share information online.

Online Forums

Back 6 or 7 years ago the new and cool thing to do was become a part of a certain Internet community and post in online discussion forums. Being a web developer I naturally became part of a number of web communities to learn from and use as an aid for developing my skills.

The most helpful part about online forums is how they enable others to share their opinions and expertise no matter what their skill level. Forums allow beginners to post questions and learn new things in a certain interest while it allows advanced people to share their knowledge and expertise.

However, with time you start to see more and more of the same thing happening over and over again and after a while a lot of the value of an online forum is lost. People argue a lot, there are always different opinions, people who are not experts think they are, false information gets thrown around and tons of other things like this go on. Because of all this chaos that can be created online it tends to scare away the professionals, plus they are usually busy anyway and don't have time to help others unfortunately.

I have seen it happen time and time again. The top dogs of the forum will eventually grow to a level where they do not benefit as they once did helping others with the specific topic. They essentially "outgrow" a forum just as a child outgrows his clothes. So where then, do we find these experts once they move on past forums?

Welcome to the Blogosphere

The experts in their fields usually will move onto blogging. A blog is essentially an encyclopedia of somebody's opinions and knowledge. It allows professionals to collect their thoughts and share valuable information to web visitors. The reason why most people eventually turn to blogging is because it allows them to create their own asset and brand themselves, rather than having to build somebody else's asset and brand somebody else.

Blogs usually offer higher quality information than forums because it takes longer to set up a blog and it is a much more serious venture. Because of this, blogs usually have longer, higher quality posts that have had much more thought in a topic. Forums usually offer a small blurb and then a bunch of "me too" posts.

In Summary

For any questions you may have about a topic I would recommend posting it on a forum of your interest as these forums are generally very helpful at answering questions you may have.

As far as learning goes, I would highly recommend subscribing to blogs that cover topics in your areas of interest. Rather than having to order new books or search for new topics, with blogs you can easily have all the content delivered right to your browser. This form of hyper-learning is especially useful for quickly sorting through content that is of interest to you.

Blogs and forums do overlap in areas a little bit, but as a whole forums are much more community driven while blogs are more information driven.

Top (10) Ten Things You Need To Know About Credit Cards

1. Interest Backdating

Nearly all credit card issuers charge interest from the day a charge is posted to your account if you don’t pay in full monthly. However some credit card companies charge interest from the date of purchase. THIS COULD BE DAYS BEFORE THE COMPANY HAS EVEN PAID THE STORE ON YOUR BEHALF!

Remedy: Find a credit card manufacturer that does not interest backdate or pay the bill in full on the due date.

2.Two-Cycle Billing

Credit card issuers using this method of calculating interest charge two months worth of interest for the very first month you failed ot pay off your balance in full. The issue arises when you switch from paying in full to carrying a blance from month to month.

Remedy: Again switch credit card users or always pay your balance in full.

3. The Right to Setoff

In many instances you may have money on deposit at a bank as well as have your credit card issued from that bank. In the fine print of the agreement that you signed when you opened the account you may have granted the bank the right to take funds from your deposit account when you become delinquent on your credit card.

Remedy: Choose separate banks, or avoid being delinquent.

4. Fees Are Negotiable

On many of your cards you may be paying upwards of $50 per year as an annual fee on your credit card. Your cards may also be subject to finance charges of more than 18 percent.

Remedy: As a good customer, you can ask the bank to reduce the interest rate and wave the annual fee. Also, you can you can always switch to a lower priced card.

5. Interest Rate Hikes Are Retroactive

When you sign up for a credit card with a common low teaser rate similar to 7.7 percent, when that trial or low rate period expires, your leftover balance will likely be subject to the regular and substantially higher interest rate.

Remedy: Close the account or pay in full before the rate increases.

6. Shortened Due Dates

Most card issuers offer a 25-day grace period in which to pay for new purchases without incurring finance charges. Some banks have shortened the grace period to 20 days -- but only for customers who pay in full monthly.

Remedy: Ask to go back to 25 days.

7. Eliminating Grace Periods

As always, that magnificent offer you received in the mail for a platinum card with a $25,000 credit limit and numerous perks may not be so great. The most common problem or string attached is the card has no grace period. You are charged interest on every purchase from the day you buy it, even if you pay on time.

Remedy: Throw the offer out immediately!

8. Disappearing Benefits

Many banks persuade you to sign up with extra benefits such as a 6 percent discount on all travel or protection if an item is purchase or lost or a lifetime warranty. Many banks have actually cut back on these perks without announcing it.

Remedy: Read annual disclosure of changes and ask your bank, switch cards if need be.

9. Double Fees on Cash Advances

Many credit cards impose both finance charges and a transaction fee on cash advances. Also, interest begins from the day of the advance, and the additional transaction fee can be up to 2.5 percent of the amount taken. Be very weary of cards advertising “no finance charges.” Transaction fees will most likely still apply.

Remedy: Don’t do cash advances.

10. Misleading Monthly Minimums

It may seem to you to be beneficial to have a credit card where you only need to pay 2 percent to 3 percent of your monthly balance. It is just the opposite however. The bank stands to make far more money from all of the finance charges the longer you carry out these payments and of course you pay every penny.

Remedy: Pay all your credit cards off monthly.

CONCLUSION: Pay All Your Credit Card Bills Monthly.

Top Five (5) Best Non-Criminal Hackers of All Time

White Hat Hackers

Hackers that use their hacking skills for good are referred to as "white hat" hackers. Often referred to as Ethical Hackers, these non-criminal hackers are hired by companies to examine and test the integrity of their systems. Other white hat hackers, operate without company permission by bending but not breaking the laws and int progress have created some very cool features. This article examines and selects the Five Best Non-Criminal Hackers and the innovations and technologies that they have developed:

1. Stephen Wozniak

Nicknamed Woz, he is often referred to as the other Steve of Apple. Wozniak and Steve Jobs, co-founded Apple Computer. Woz started his hacking making blue boxes, which are devices that bypass telephone switching mechanisms enabling users to make free long distance calls. Woz and Jobs sold these blue boxes to their classmates in college and even used a blue box to call the Pope while pretending to be Henry Kissinger.

Wozniak dropped out of college and invented the compute that made him famous. Jobs had the idea to sell the computer as a fully assembled PC board. The idea was conceived and developed in Jobs garage. Wozniak and Jobs sold the first 100 of the Apple I to a local dealer for $666.66 each.

Woz currently focuses on philanthropy and no longer works full time for Apple. "Wozniak 'adopted' the Los Gatos School District, providing students and teachers with hands-on teaching and donations of state-of-the-art technology equipment."

2. Tim Berners-Lee

Berners-Lee is credited with being the inventor of the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee has been honored with numerous recognitions incuding the Millennium Technology Prize.

Berners-Lee was first caught hacking access codes with a friend while a student at Oxford University. He was then banned from the University computers.

Berners-Lee realized that hypertext could be joined with the Internet. Berners-Lee recounts how he put them together: "I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and – ta-da! – the World Wide Web."

Since his creation of the World Wide Web, Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium at MIT. The W3C describes itself as "an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff and the public work together to develop Web standards." Berners-Lee's World Wide Web idea, as well as standards from the W3C, is distributed freely with no patent or royalties due.

3. Linus Torvalds

Torvalds fathered Linux, the very popular Unix-based operating system. He calls himself "an engineer," and has said that his aspirations are simple, "I just want to have fun making the best damn operating system I can."

Torvalds got his start in computers with a Commodore VIC-20, an 8-bit home computer. He then moved on to a Sinclair QL. Wikipedia reports that he modified the Sinclair "extensively, especially its operating system." Specifically, Torvalds hacks included "an assembler and a text editor…as well as a few games."

Torvalds created the Linux kernel in 1991, using the Minix operating system as inspiration. He started with a task switcher in Intel 80386 assembly and a terminal driver. After that, he put out a call for others to contribute code, which they did. Currently, only about 2 percent of the current Linux kernel is written by Torvalds himself. The success of this public invitation to contribute code for Linux is touted as one of the most prominent examples of free/open source software.

Currently, Torvalds serves as the Linux ringleader, coordinating the code that volunteer programmers contribute to the kernel. He has had an asteroid named after him and received honorary doctorates from Stockholm University and University of Helsinki. He was also featured in Time Magazine's "60 Years of Heroes."

4. Richard Stallman

Stallman's fame derives from the GNU Project, which he founded to develop a free operating system. For this, he's known as the father of free software. His "Serious Bio" asserts, "Non-free software keeps users divided and helpless, forbidden to share it and unable to change it. A free operating system is essential for people to be able to use computers in freedom."

Stallman, who prefers to be called rms, got his start hacking at MIT. He worked as a "staff hacker" on the Emacs project and others. He was a critic of restricted computer access in the lab. When a password system was installed, Stallman broke it down, resetting passwords to null strings, then sent users messages informing them of the removal of the password system.

Stallman's crusade for free software started with a printer. At the MIT lab, he and other hackers were allowed to modify code on printers so that they sent convenient alert messages. However, a new printer came along – one that they were not allowed to modify. It was located away from the lab and the absence of the alerts presented an inconvenience. It was at this point that he was "convinced…of the ethical need to require free software."

With this inspiration, he began work on GNU. Stallman wrote an essay, "The GNU Project," in which he recalls choosing to work on an operating system because it's a foundation, "the crucial software to use a computer." At this time, the GNU/Linux version of the operating system uses the Linux kernel started by Torvalds. GNU is distributed under "copyleft," a method that employs copyright law to allow users to use, modify, copy and distribute the software.

Stallman's life continues to revolve around the promotion of free software. He works against movements like Digital Rights Management (or as he prefers, Digital Restrictions Management) through organizations like Free Software Foundation and League for Programming Freedom. He has received extensive recognition for his work, including awards, fellowships and four honorary doctorates.

5. Tsutomu Shimomura

Shimomura reached fame in an unfortunate manner: he was hacked by Kevin Mitnick. Following this personal attack, he made it his cause to help the FBI capture him.

Shimomura's work to catch Mitnick is commendable, but he is not without his own dark side. Author Bruce Sterling recalls: "He pulls out this AT&T cellphone, pulls it out of the shrinkwrap, finger-hacks it, and starts monitoring phone calls going up and down Capitol Hill while an FBI agent is standing at his shoulder, listening to him."

Shimomura out-hacked Mitnick to bring him down. Shortly after finding out about the intrusion, he rallied a team and got to work finding Mitnick. Using Mitnick's cell phone, they tracked him near Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The article, "SDSC Computer Experts Help FBI Capture Computer Terrorist" recounts how Shimomura pinpointed Mitnick's location. Armed with a technician from the phone company, Shimomura "used a cellular frequency direction-finding antenna hooked up to a laptop to narrow the search to an apartment complex." Mitnick was arrested shortly thereafter. Following the pursuit, Shimomura wrote a book about the incident with journalist John Markoff, which was later turned into a movie.

Also see the Top Five (5) Best Criminal Hackers of All Time

http://www.marvquin.com/blog/top-five-5-best-criminal-computer-hackers-a...

Top Five (5) Best Criminal Computer Hackers of All Time

The Black Hat Hackers - Criminals

These hackers are the ones that you've seen in shackles arrested for cybercrimes when they were just getting out of puberty. Some have done it for financial gain others just for fun.

1. Kevin Mitnick.

Mitnick is perhaps synonymous with Hacker. The Department of Justice still refers to him as "the most wanted computer criminal in United States history." His accomplishments were memorialized into two Hollywood movies: Takedown and Freedom Downtime.

Mitnick got his start by exploiting the Los Angeles bus punch card system and getting free rides. Then similar to Steve Wozniak, of Apple, Mitnick tried Phone Phreaking. Mitnick was first convicted for hacking into the Digital Equipment Corporation's computer network and stealing software.

Mitnick then embarked on a two and a half year coast to coast hacking spree. He has stated that he hacked into computers, scrambled phone networks, stole corporate secrets and hacked into the national defense warning system. His fall came when he hacked into fellow computer expert and hacker Tsutomu Shimomura's home computer.

Mitnick is now a productive member of society. After serving 5 years and 8 months in solitary confinement, he is now a computer security author, consultant and speaker.

2. Adrian Lamo

Lamo hit major organizations hard, hacking into Microsoft and The New York Times. Lamo would use Internet connections at coffee shops, Kinko's and libraries to achieve his feats earning him the nickname "The Homeless Hacker". Lamo frequently found security flaws and exploited them. He would often inform the companies of the flaw.

Lamo's hit list includes Yahoo!, Citigroup, Bank of America and Cingular. Of course White Hat Hackers do this legally because they are hired by the company to such, Lamo however was breaking the law.

Lamo's intrusion into The New York Times intranet placed him squarely into the eyes of the top cyber crime offenders. For this crime, Lamo was ordered to pay $65,000 in restitution. Additionally, he was sentenced to six months home confinement and 2 years probation. Probation expired January of 2007. Lamo now is a notable public speaker and award winning journalist.

3. Jonathan James

At 16 years old, James gained enormous notoriety when he was the first minor to be sent to prison for hacking. He later admitted that he was just having fun and looking around and enjoyed the challenge.

James hit high profile organizations including the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which is an agency of the Department of the Defense. With this hack he was able to capture usernames and passwords and view highly confidential emails.

High on James list, James also hacked in NASA computers and stole software valued at over $1.7 million. The Justice Department was quoted as saying: "The software stolen by James supported the International Space Station's physical environment, including control of the temperature and humidity within the living space." Upon discovering this hack, NASA had to shut dow its entire computer system costing taxpayers $41,000. Today James aspires to start a computer security company.

4. Robert Tappan Morris

Morris is the son of a former National Security Agency scientist named Robert Morris. Robert is the creator of the Morris worm. This worm was credited as the first computer worm spread through the Internet. Because of his actions, he was the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Morris created the worm while at Cornell as a student claiming that he intended to use the worm to see how large the Internet was at the time. The worm, however, reproduced itself uncontrollably, shutting down many computers until they had completely malfunctioned. Experts claim 6,000 machines were destroyed. Morris was ultimately sentenced to three years' probation, 400 hours of community service and assessed a $10,500 fine.

Morris is now a tenured professor at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His focus is computer network architecture.

5. Kevin Poulsen

Frequently referred to as Dark Dante, Poulsen gained national recognition for his hack into Los Angeles radio's KIIS-FM phone lines. These actions earned him a Porsche among many other items.

The FBI began to search for Poulson, when he hacked into the FBI database and federal computers for sensitive wiretap information. Poulsen's specialty was hacking into phone lines and he frequently took over all of a station's phone lines. Poulson also reactivated old Yellow Page escort telephone numbers for a partner who operated a virtual escort agency. Poulson was featured on Unsolved Mysteries and then captured in a supermarket. He was assessed a sentence of five years.

Since his time in prison, Poulsen has worked as a journalist and was promoted to senior editor for Wired News. His most popular article details his work on identifying 744 sex offenders with Myspace profiles.

Did we miss any?Tell us your thoughts

Also See the Top (5) Non-Criminal Computer Hackers of All Time at the link below:

http://www.marvquin.com/blog/top-five-5-best-non-criminal-hackers-all-ti...

Top 7 Convicted CEO's and the Harsh Penalties They Face

In many United States Corporations, the CEO has an enormous influence over the company's success or failure. With that influence comes an often unchecked and unfettered access to knowledge and bank accounts. When a CEO undermines the profitability of a company he /she often destroys thousands of families life savings. Following is a list of the top 7 corporate CEO fraud cases and the harsh punishment that followed.

1. Bernard Ebbers, WorldCom

Bernard Ebbers was the CEO of WordCom and elevated the company to an enormously profitable US Corporation during its prime as America's long distance giant. Ebbers was ultimately found to be the mastermind behind an $11 billion accounting fraud and was then sentenced in July 2005 to 25 years in federal prison. Ebbers was instrumental in pushing his company into the largest bankruptcy at the time in U.S. history and was ordered by the court to forfeit his Mississippi mansion and an additional $45 million in assets.

The sentence received by Ebber's is believed to be the longest ever handed down to a CEO for committing corporate crimes while guiding a Fortune 500 Company. WorldCom filed for bankruptcy in 2002 and is now known as MCI.

Ebbers was 63 at the time of his sentencing and will most likely spend the rest of his life in a federal prison. His convictions include nine felonies that carried a masximum prison term of 85 years. Ebber's lost his appeal in July of 2006 and began serving his sentence in September of 2006.

2. Jeffrey Skilling, Enron

On February 12, 2001, Jeffrey Skilling was named CEO of Enron, receiving $132 million in a single year from the Nation's largest energy giant. However, just five years later, on October 23, 2006, Jeffrey Skilling was sentenced to 24 years and 4 months in federal prison, and fined in excess $45 million for securities violations and corporate fraud violations leading to the largest bankruptcy in US history and the loss of 20,000 jobs. Skilling's case is currently under appeal. In December of 2006, Skilling's request to remain free during the lengthy appeal was denied. Skilling began serving his sentence on December 13, 2006 in Waseca, Minnesota at a low security prison. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, lists Skilling's release date as February 2008.

3. Dennis Kozlowski, Tyco

Dennis Kozlowski is the former CEO of Tyco who led Tyco to enormous profitability and then ultimately was sentenced in September 2005 to a maximum of 25 years in state prison for his role in looting hundreds of millions of dollars from Tyco. Kozlowski was also ordered to pay back to Tyco $134 million in stolen money and was fined an additional $70 million. Therefore with restitution and penalties, Kozlowski owes $204 million.

Kozlowski narrowly escaped conviction in his first trial which was thrown out by the judge, when reports surfaced that a juror was holding out for acquittal because the juror had received a threatening lawyer and had flashed "OK" signs to Kozlowski and his lawyers during the trial.

The second trial was a different story however and Kozlowski was found guilty on 22 of 23 counts of conspiracy, grand larceny, falsifying business records and violating business law. The convicted CEO is oft best remembered for the opulent birthday party he threw his wife on Sardinia that cost approximately $2 million dollars of Tyco's stolen money.

4. John Riggas, Adelphia Communications

John Rigas was the CEO and founder of the cable behemouth Adelphia Communications. Rigas was ultimately sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2005 for his part in the multi-billion dollar fraud scheme that bankrupted the nation’s fifth-largest cable company.

Riggas, who was 80 years old at the time of the sentencing, had run the company for over 50 years. Riggas' son Timothy, Adelphia’s former chief financial officer, was additionally convicted in the corporate looting of Adelphia and, at age 49, received an even harsher sentence: 20 years. Father and son's sentences are to what prosecutors had requested: 215 years for each individual. Both were convicted on 18 felony counts of conspiracy and fraud.

As a result of the Riggas' actions, Adelphia collapsed in 2002 and investors lost billions. Shortly thereafter, Time Warner and Comcast purchased Adelphia for $16.9 billion.

5. Sam Waksal, ImClone

Sam Waksal is the founder and former CEO of the biotech ImClone. Waksal was the pioneer behind ImClone's multi million dollar success however is now currently serving a seven-year, three-month sentence for his role in an insider trading scandal that involved his good friend Martha Stewart.

Waksal pleaded guilty to sharing with relatives in 2001, that ImClone’s bid to win regulatory approval for its cancer drug, Erbitux, was not going to succeed. This information was not yet known to the public. Waksal and Stewart shared the same stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic. Bacanovic then tipped off Stewart and she then sold nearly 4,000 ImClone shares.

Waksal began serving his sentence in 2003 and agreed to his sentence to pay a $4.3 million fine. The drug Erbitux has since been approved by the FDA.

6. Joe Nacchio

Joe Nacchio is the former Chief Executive of Qwest Communications, a media powerhouse throughout the United States. Nacchio was sentenced to six years in prison in July of 2007for making $52 million in illegal stock sales while a multi-billion dollar accounting scandal within Qwest brought the telecommunications giant to near bankruptcy.

7. Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

Martha Stewart is the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia who served a relative to this list light sentence of five months in prison followed by six months of house arrest for lying during an insider trading probe of ImClone in 2001.

Stewart was convicted in 2004 on charges of obstruction of justice, conspiracy and making false statements about her sale of 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems stock. Her legal issues forced her to step down as CEO of her company.

Stewart, in 2006 agreed to pay $195,000 in fines and accepted five year ban on directing a public company. Bouncing back quickly, Stewart was named as one of Fortune magazines 50 most powerful women in the world in 2006.

Honorable Mention

Kobi Alexander, Comverse - ON THE LAM

Jacob “Kobi” Alexander is the former CEO of Comverse Technology who is wanted in the U.S. on charges of criminal fraud and bribery. Alexander evaded arrest and fled to Namibia.

U.S. prosecutors have since added the new charges of obstruction of justice, bribery and witness tampering to Alexander’s roster of accused crimes. Alexander allegedly proposed a $5 million payment to someone to take the fall for his fraud charges. Kobi's earlier fraud charges stem from the manipulation of stock options, and he also been charged with conspiracy and money laundering.

Alexander is an Israeli citizen and a permanent U.S. resident. He was arrested in Namibia, but was ultimately released on bail. U.S. prosecutors are seeking to have him extradited.

In Summary

Great leaders are often overcome with greed. Watch your CEO's closely and insure that there are proper checks and balances in place to prevent corporate abuse.