Wow-a big week for online marketers! Let's get right into it.
The big (BIG!) story this week is of course SOPA. SOPA is the Stop Online Piracy Act. This act was proposed as a way to protect copyright holders from online piracy, however, as written, it could change the way the Internet functions, by shutting down, and banning companies from doing business with, sites that have been flagged as hosting copyrighted material. This would mean sites which allowed user-generated content, including comments, would need to monitor that content to be sure it was not copyrighted. The fear is this would be overwhelming, and sites would simply stop allowing user-generated content. This week, numerous web sites went dark in protest of SOPA, and encouraged users to contact their government representatives. It seems to have worked, since the sponsor of the bill has withdrawn support and it looks the bill will be revised to address some of the issues. Check out this article for a good overview. Also, you may want to take a look at Mashable's round up of their coverage.
In Facebook news, they announced this week that sixty apps are now integrated with Timeline, including Pinterest, the new darling everyone is talking about, plus eBay, TripAdvisor, Zynga, and others. These apps use Facebook's OpenGraph for what they call "frictionless sharing" which is similar to the way apps like Spotify share what music you're listening to. Fab.com will apparently reward you for enabling Timeline posting and doing some social shopping. If you enable friends to see when you make a Fab.com purchase, you get a $5 monthly credit. If you also reveal your Fab.com username, another $5 credit, for a possible $10 per month. This looks like it is going to be valid through May 2012, so it looks like you could possibly get $40 total in credits to spend on the site. The email below was sent to customers. It's a little light on details, IMO.
For retailers, this week was the National Retail Federation's Big Show in NYC. e-Dialog was there along with GSI Commerce, PayPal and Milo. You can take a look at NRF's blog posts from the show here and be sure to check out eBay Ink as well.
Well, that's it. Another busy week gone by. Until next time!
Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications associate
e-Dialog, @eDialogLiz
Oh so that's what SOPA is about? Is this the reason for Wikipedia blocking their site last week? I guess were not ready for SOPA yet. I wonder if we'll ever be, in case it gets re-considered and proposed as a bill again. What about PIPA? Is that the same as SOPA? What does this speak of? Thanks!
Posted by: Dante Yeyest | January 26, 2012 at 02:14 AM