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Less than two weeks after the official launch of Google Base, Microsoft said it has been testing a free online classifieds service, code-named Fremont, that will allow users to list items for sale, events and other information that can be shared over the internet with selected groups or with all others, writes CNET (via MarketingVOX). Contextual ads would appear alongside search results.
“Basically, it will be a free listing service, with a bunch of twists to make it very unique, such as integration with social networks, in particular integration with MSN Messenger,” Garry Wiseman, MSN product unit manager, told CNET.
Listing can be searchable via the MSN search site or the standalone site. Users can specify that only those on their MSN Messenger buddy list or MSN Spaces network be able to view the listings. Searchers can target their searches to their buddy list or geographically.
Listings are integrated with MSN Virtual Earth and are viewable on a map.
“We started this [in February] before anyone knew about Google Base. Having seen what Google Base is doing, I don’t think they were aiming for a classifieds service,” Wiseman said. “They don’t have a taxonomy of listings like we do. They see it as an open database.”
All sectors of the media business will suffer from the weakened economy in 2008 and 2009, with a slump in local advertising particularly hurting newspapers and local TV, according to a new projection from Goldman Sachs.
Broadcast nets will experience…
The New York Times is shuttering its International Herald Tribune site; NYTimes.com will soon host the international news normally reserved for its sister website.
The move is not about cost savings, but rather about growth, NYTimes.com general manager Vivian Schiller…
Unilever’s Vaseline set forth on an unusual research project in a small town in Alaska. Setting up a storefront, the company began giving away free bottles of lotion and asking recipients to name the person who had recommended they come…
Meet the Press, the show hosted by Tim Russert for 17 years before his death last June, is beginning to slip in ratings.
Last month, CBS’s Face the Nation pulled ahead of Meet the Press for the first time in two…
Bloggers collectively create nearly one million blog posts each day, and half of bloggers believe blogs will be a primary source of news and entertainment in the next five years, according to Technorati’s 2008 State of the Blogosphere Report, MarketingCharts writes.…
Wal-Mart and Costco reported same-store gains in September, with sales rising 2.4% and 9% respectively. Sales at Target stores open at least a year fell 3%, writes Retailer Daily.
Below, fiscal results from the discount retail giants:
Sales of food and…
