Don't shoot the (Yahoo) Messenger!Written by Jakob Jelling
By Jakob Jelling http://www.sitetube.comMost anyone whose kids have become teenagers over last few years has almost certainly at least heard of "IM". It's become a verb among not only teens, but many adult surfers too. As in "IM me later!". For anyone who doesn't know, IM, or Instant Messaging, is software that lets people communicate over Internet, well, instantly. Or nearly so - with only slight delays most of time, instant messaging has always allowed users to type messages back and forth over Internet. It's a lot like passing a note in class, with new parts of a conversation added on to end of previous parts. Yahoo Messenger was one of first to offer both IM software and a lane on information superhighway for IM messages to travel. But as kids have grown, so has Yahoo Messenger. It's a lot more than a mere teen toy now. Yahoo, in an effort to attract and retain loyalty to it's brand, offers email, a personalized My Yahoo Portal, an address book, calendar, maps, bookmarks, a toolbar, and other services, many of them integrated to work together. But they seem to have paid special attention to Yahoo Messenger, especially recently. As more surfers have moved to high-speed internet connections, Yahoo has upgraded Yahoo Messenger to include Launchcast Radio, Yahoo Games, and of course, a considerable selection of customization options.
| | Paypal primerWritten by Jakob Jelling
By Jakob Jelling http://www.sitetube.comTo conduct business on Internet, whether informal, one-time only transactions between two friends, or a full-fledged business selling products or services, payment arrangements have to be made. Before 1998, this often meant either checks sent through snail-mail, or very expensive, and often hard-to-obtain, merchant accounts for online credit card processing. In 1998, PayPal was introduced to fill payment processing gap. PayPal now has about 50 million members, but was originally introduced to provide a payment processing service for online auction buyers and sellers, in particular, eBay. Since then, PayPal has grown into premier third-party payment processing service. In fact, PayPal was so successful that eBay bought company in 2002, replacing their own Billpoint service with far superior PayPal service. PayPal is free to join, although buyers are no longer required to join in order to pay for goods and services from seller members. Many people are still afraid to do business online, and won't provide their credit card information. Scams certainly abound in cyberspace, but PayPal is a solid, reputable company, and there is little to fear.
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