| Buck passed as mail binned
Web hosting companies are complaining that large numbers of genuine e-mails sent to thousands of small firms are being deleted without trace by an overzealous YahooXtra spam filter. The issue is affecting businesses that have not opted to set up an e-mail account for their website and have instead arranged for their e-mail to be forwarded to a Yahoo- Xtra address. Telecom outsourced its e-mail service to YahooXtra in August. Telecom spokesman Nick Brown denies there are technical problems with the service, and blames web-hosting companies for forwarding mail without filtering it first for spam. Simon McBeth, a spokesman for Domainz, one of the country's largest web hosters, says about 2000 of its customers may have been affected. But he says that because e-mail is being wiped completely, rather than sent to junk mail boxes or bounced back to senders, many businesses may not even know their mail is not being delivered.
Toral: Companies embrace blogging
IN the past months, I�ve been getting inquiries from companies that want to explore the possibility of having their own blog sites and gain understanding of how this can benefit their business.
I find that corporate blogs can be of value in the following ways:
Extension of a website. A typical corporate website is usually formal or shown in a brochure-type manner. A blog is used to share information casually and to converse with the reader. It provides an opportunity for them to respond and share insights as well. I always suggest that corporate blogs provide a link to all the pages of the company�s website so that it will aptly serve as an extension.
Beyond the product. Every company product has lots of beautiful stories behind them. It can be satisfied customer experiences, product creation journey, events where they participated, and people behind it.
Never easy, forecasting gets even harder
At the end of October, the Federal Reserve gave the financial markets just what they had been asking for: a quarter-point cut in the federal funds rate. But in early November, stocks plunged and the dollar hit a new low. Applause turned into hand-wringing -- then back to applause as the markets rebounded in the middle of the month. .
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