Mercator Advisory Group is pleased to announce that its review of its latest report, Solving the Micropayment Problem, Online and at the Point of Sale. The report reviews both the history and challenges of electronic micropayments and examines how the existing rails have evolved to address under $5 electronic payments at both the point of sale and for online transactions.

In particular, the report examines the evolution of multiple micropayment models and how they have shifted the economics of micropayments, especially online.

Google Backs Down from eBay Spat

Reuters is reporting that Google originally planned to hold a Google Checkout party in Boston during an important eBay partner conference, an apparent playful gesture that eBay took seriously.

The plan was to drum up support for Google Checkout, Google's new shopping service, but the plan backfired: eBay took the protest seriously. As a result, eBay pulled its ads from Google's AdWords.

Either in response to a significant loss of revenue or a recognition that a joke had gone too far, Google decided to cancel its event.

Writing on the Google corporate blog, Tom Oliveri of the Google Checkout team notes:

"eBay Live attendees have plenty of activities to keep them busy this week in Boston, and we did not want to detract from that activity. After speaking with officials at eBay, we at Google agreed that it was better for us not to feature this event during the eBay Live conference.

Google and Salesforce.com team up for business online advertising

Search engine Google has teamed up with online software Salesforce.com as it looks to thwart Microsoft and Yahoo in expanding their online advertising networks.

The tie-up will combine Google's AdWords program - which allows marketers to place ads alongside search results - with Salesforce's customer relationship management applications. It will be targeted at small businesses.

"Combining the power and simplicity of Salesforce with Google AdWords helps businesses find and keep customers to ultimately drive their continued success," said Google's Eric Schmidt in a statement seen by the Financial Times.

Salesforce.com's founder, Marc Benioff, believes that the alliance will persuade more companies to choose AdWords as they will not have to deal with complicated software programs that have to be installed, but can subscribe to a more flexible online service.

MS Wants To Identify All Web Surfers

Moochman writes "New Scientist reports on a technology Microsoft is developing to identify users based on their browsing habits. Quote: 'The software could get its raw information from a number of sources, including a new type of 'cookie' program that records the pages visited. Alternatively, it could use your PC's own cache of web pages, or proxy servers could maintain records of sites visited. So far it can only guess gender and age with any accuracy,' but the aim is to be able to identify name, occupation and location as well. On a related note, The Inquirer reports on Microsoft's plans to widen the use of its identity-verification technology CardSpace, which is built into Windows Vista and available as an add-on to XP. It's being envisioned as an identity solution for the entire internet: says Kim Cameron, pioneer of the technology, 'We feel it has to solve all use cases.' (Aha, so the anonymous use cases, too, eh?) One might ask, with all of this user-ID information on hand, how long will it be until the Feds come knocking on Microsoft's door asking for help? They already have." .

Affiliate Programs as a Business Model

The affiliate program can add some great incremental value and growth to your business plan, but to put all of your eggs in one basket is a bit risky.