Online credit card payments can hardly be authenticated, as anyone who
knows the credit card number could just fill out an online payment form
and pay. So there really is no way for the online store to verify that
the person who makes the order is really the owner of the credit card.
This is a huge problem on the Internet right now as far as I know.

If you want to buy some hardware from another country, you will mostly
have to somehow convince them that you own the credit card. They will
ask you to fax them for example the front and the back of your credit
card with you ID or passport next to it. That is really troublesome way
to authenticate. The best on line authentication I have seen is Paypal
and Ebay, which requires the user to check their bank account statement
for a secret very small payment amount or/and receive a code as a
physical mail. To verify that they own the credit card or/and to verify
their physical address. Those authentication practices cost time and
money and are really not efficient.

I found the solution that Google is probably waiting to implement next
month when it is launched globally for the first time, as far as I
know. It is the 3-D Secure credit card payment authentication system
for all credit cards Visa/Mastercard/JBC and later Visa Electron and
some other..

It will require the internationnal user to be connected with their
bank, for example with their Internet bank system. It will enable
somehow, probably with a digital signature or some kind of code which
Google will give you, which you have to copy and past at your Internet
bank connection, it will answer you with the authentication code, which
you past back to Google. Then Google will have authenticated your credit
card, it will mean they are now sure you are the one who owns the card,
thus you will be able to pay for as much video at Google Video Store as
you want. So this is a very cheap and very reliable way it seems for
future online services like Google Video Store to accept online credit
card payments finally in a very secure way!

http://partnernetwork.visa.com/pf/3dsec/testing.jsp

This seems to be the real solution for online payments that the credit
card companies have finally come up with. And it will probably quickly
be adopted by many online stores, especially usefull for online digital
services where no physical product is shipped like Google Video Store.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — She is a latecomer to the information superhighway, but 75-year-old Sigbritt Lothberg is now cruising the Internet with a dizzying speed.

Lothberg’s 40 gigabits-per-second fiber-optic connection in Karlstad is believed to be the fastest residential uplink in the world, Karlstad city officials said.

In less than 2 seconds, Lothberg can download a full-length movie on her home computer — many thousand times faster than most residential connections, said Hafsteinn Jonsson, head of the Karlstad city network unit.

Jonsson and Lothberg’s son, Peter, worked together to install the connection.The speed is reached using a new modulation technique that allows the sending of data between two routers placed up to 1,240 miles apart, without any transponders in between, Jonsson said.

“We wanted to show that that there are no limitations to Internet speed,” he said.

Peter Lothberg, who is a networking expert, said he wanted to demonstrate the new technology while providing a computer link for his mother.”She’s a brand new Internet user,” Lothberg said by phone from California, where he lives. “She didn’t even have a computer before.”
His mother isn’t exactly making the most of her high-speed connection. She only uses it to read Web-based newspapers.

A great Web Trends Map for 200 most successful websites in 2007 gathered by Information Architects.This map classifies the 200 best websites by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective.
Have a look at Web Trends Map for 2007 from iA

Hi Matt,
Would you be able to exchange your Dell monitors?
It happened that I do have similar Dell screens as Matt Cutts. Check Matts monitors here

Here it goes. Elias Kai is ready to send Matt Cutts his complete Dell monitors collections or should we switch?

I had come accross this result on the top position in Google and I do believe in message creativity.
When you know to be on top in Google results, you should also consider to higher your CTR against your competitor.
One way is to use your Meta description in a creative and attractive copy. Would you click if you saw this in Google.com?

SEO Company, Search Engine Optimization Services, Website Design …
On-site SEO - $150, PPC Management - $150/mo, Website Promotion - from $500/month ########################~contact@example.com~############################

I am one of the few Swedish Lebanese who loves to travel to Lebanon at least twice a year not just to see my parents, my brother and my sister but also to enjoy the family gathering, the weather, going out, beach partying and sit back with some old friends who also work abroad and are back for some vacation. I get help to find the best hotels rates in Beirut and Jounieh Lebanon-Hotels.com from Ronald who is managing SkiLeb.com and Lebanon.Travel.

US Federal court will make its decision during this month on Facebook and the stolen code. Mark Zuckerberg may need some supports.

The lawsuit, filed by brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra, accuses Zuckerberg, Facebook?s 23-year-old C.E.O, of stealing the source code, design, and business plan for Facebook in 2003 when he briefly worked in the Harvard dorms as a programmer for their own fledgling social-networking site, now known as ConnectU.

The plaintiffs have demanded that Facebook be shut down and that full control of the site - and its profits - be turned over to them.

This reminds me when Google gave 2.7 million shares to Yahoo because of a dispute between AdWords and Overture patent.

It is true that Gmail should stay under beta.
I have a Gmail that is pretty fully loaded with 99% sometimes and some other days with

You are currently using 2771 MB (96%) of your 2877 MB.

The problem that occurred today is an email that I receive from the same person at least 4 or 6 times a day, every day. But today i just checked that Google Gmail Beta put this person email under my spam folder.

Gmail should be careful about this feature because sometimes you can end up deleting your bulk spam emails without checking each name.