--- title: "Become.Com, AP vs Google News, del.icio.us" date: 2005-04-13 author: "Richard MacManus" categories: - name: "ReadWriteWeb" url: "/category/readwriteweb.md" tags: - name: "2005" url: "/tag/2005.md" --- # Become.Com, AP vs Google News, del.icio.us ![coffee fix](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063226im_/http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/coffee.jpg)Here’s a new feature I’m trialing on Read/Write Web. It’ll be a daily shot of Web 2.0 news. Each item will have a main link, one or two lines of commentary from me, and views of the story from other bloggers (if I have time). It’ll take a while to settle into a decent format, so bear with me while I experiment with this. Why the coffee picture? Well I’m hoping this feature becomes like a morning fix of caffiene for my US readers, as I’ll be publishing it in time for breakfast over there. For my non-US readers, maybe it can be a mid-afternoon Diet Coke or evening Hot Chocolate 🙂 ## Become.Com Goes Live [They claim to have](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063226/http://www.become.com/press/pr041105.html) the Web’s “Largest Search Engine For U.S. Shopping Information”. Key quote from CEO Michael Yang: “This shows the ability of our vertical search strategy to produce the first disruptive technology in internet search since Google” *Views:*[Susan Mernit](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063226/http://susanmernit.blogspot.com/2005/04/becomecom-32-billion-web-pages-from.html) is curious about revenue and customer acquisition models. [The Internet Stock Blog](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063226/http://www.internetstockblog.com/2005/04/becomecom_launc.html) compares Become.com with Shopping.com (and others). *My comment:* who knew spell check was such a crucial feature? (ref the press release) ## AP challenges Google News [ MarketWatch:](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063226/http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B087D292E%2D1D03%2D4013%2DB326%2DBCE7109BC866%7D&siteid=mktw&) “…the Associated Press is “concerned” about its material being distributed through Google and other news aggregators” and is “trying to persuade Google to buy a license”. *Views:* Here’s [ the original story](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063226/http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-news11apr11,0,6985808.story?coll=la-home-business) from LA Times, who frame it as Google vs Yahoo (the latter pays license fees for their content). [Threadwatch](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063226/http://www.threadwatch.org/node/2243) notes that whatever the outcome, it will set a legal precedent. [PaidContent says](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063226/http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/2005_04_12.shtml#013142) “this \[Content Providers looking for payments\] will probably become a trend.” *My comment:* On one hand, as a Content Provider myself, of course I’m backing AP. On the other hand, long-term I think AP (as a bigco content provider) is better off trying to build their own aggregation and syndication services, rather than worrying too much about other aggregators. ## del.icio.us funding round Joshua Schachter, creator of the popular social bookmarks tool [del.icio.us](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063226/http://del.icio.us/), [announced an investment](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063226/http://lists.del.icio.us/pipermail/discuss/2005-April/002801.html) by a group including Amazon.com, Marc Andreessen, Tim O’Reilly. Joshua says it’s “a minority stake, which will keep me in control of the future of del.icio.us.” *Views:*[Niall Kennedy](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063226/http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/archives/2005/04/delicious_takes.html), [softechvc](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063226/http://softtechvc.blogs.com/software_only/2005/04/delicious_close.html), [Om Malik](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063226/http://www.gigaom.com/2005/04/10/delicious-dollars/) (who thinks the funding was “less than $2 million”), [PaidContent](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063226/http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/2005_04_11.shtml#013126) (which notes of the investors: “Several already back or have backed tagging enterprises”). *My comment:* This has been heavily linked to today, so chances are it’s not new news for you. Let me just add that I still think one of the big companies will buy out del.icio.us at some point, probably before the year is out. Who can resist becoming a dot com millionaire? 😉 My money’s on Yahoo… ## Bonus Link (froth on the top) [Excellent post by Chris Anderson](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063226/http://longtail.typepad.com/the_long_tail/2005/04/media_meltdown.html) detailing mainstream media meltdown: music, tv, radio, newspapers, magazines, books were all **down** in sales last year. Movies, video games and the Web were all **up**. *Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/becomecom_ap_vs.php))*