Amazon

The lawsuit filed by Amazon against Statsaholic is making its way around the blogo' today. I haven't read the entire 43 page filing yet (see Mashable for the filing and boycott info), but many around the 'sphere are calling for a boycott of Amazon.

See StartupMeme, Andy's Marketing Pilgrim and TechFold for more specifics on the boycott.

Some have called out Amazon for bullying. Frankly, I don't understand why Amazon didnt offer Ron (Statsaholic founder) some purchase option. I can only imagine that Ron never expected this when he created his popular service. It is also odd that Amazon/Alexa has complimented Ron several times on their blog. While I am not an attorney, I can only imagine this will help Ron's case.

Will the land of the blog be able to help sway Amazon to drop the lawsuit? Will some larger media outlet pick up the story? Stay tuned! You can also read our past coverage of Alexa...

Would you be worried about building a widget or service based on another's technology based on the Amazon filing today?

Amazon Web Services and Madrona Venture Group would like to invite you to an exclusive half-day event for tech start ups and VCs. Join us on Thursday, April 26th, 2-7pm in Seattle for this free event. (I received this as I am part of the Amazon dev network, no idea if the event is worth it or not)

Reasons to attend:

• Learn how to integrate Amazon Web Services into your business
• Find ways to cut fixed infrastructure costs while increasing reliability and scalability
• Network with VCs and hear what they look for in a start up
• Hear from successful entrepreneurs about their use of Amazon Web Services

When: Thursday, April 26th, 2007, 2-7pm

2-5pm: Main Event featuring presentations on Amazon Web Services, how to attract VCs and real world implementations of Amazon Web Services

5-7pm: Networking and Wine Tasting sponsored by Madrona Venture Group

Where: PravdaStudios Loft. 1406 10th Avenue, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98122

RSVP today - send an e-mail to RSVPstartup@amazon.com with your name, title, and company name.

More details here

Amazon announced today to its affiliates that their new PPA model has moved into Beta. Named "Context Links" the program most resembles those by Kontera and Vibrant Media. I have used Vibrant Media's Intellitxt offering on HTMLCenter and it has provided some additional revenue for the site without being overwhelming.

With Amazon's program, you just add code to your page and Amazon takes care of the rest. You are not technically "supporting" a specific product; Amazon figures out what to show. And the links are based on the words already within your content. So you might be wondering how this differs from the announcement from Google last week about their PPA offering. Pretty simple actually. With Google's PPA program, you add content to your page pushing the links. I believe Google's setup is more along the lines of the Payperpost model.

I have placed the code within some of the tutorials on HTMLCenter but it is not showing links yet (links are now showing). The Context Links setup is very easy and flexible... (come inside for the screenshot).

Will these contextual (PPA) ads work long-term? I know they have worked for me for a couple of years and so far I have not had lots of pushback on HTMLCenter. You might be wondering if I will add them to CN... not yet, still working on the optimal setup for ads for CN.

It is interesting to think about how ads have evolved. We started outside the content, then moved inside with the 300 boxes and so forth and now we are linking the internal story content. Not sure we can go any much deeper than that!

About a month ago, Jeremie from Zlio sent me a note about their upcoming release. Mashable had a great writeup of the release so I decided to see if Jeremie was interested in discussing his app in more detail. Jeremie and I discussed Zlio, how you can benefit, how they make money, and what's next. Jeremie also discusses what Web 2.0 life is like in Paris along with what you need to be successful with your startup. Have a look below and don't forget to grab the RSS feed to be notified when we post new interviews.

Shelfari is an online destination for those that are passionate about books.  Their tools allow you to create an extensive virtual bookshelf, and their most recently added function enables you to create or add value to an exitsing book club.  Several tools are included in Shelfari to encourage discussion around books, and their inclusion of Amazon links with which to buy the books you find on Shelfari must have paid off.  The start-up may have just received $1 million in investment from Amazon.

I recently spoke with Josh Hug, president and co-founder of Shelfari. (Editor note: we are have requested some notes regarding their vc deal and will update this post once we receive the update)

Looks like we continue the weird but true posts today. I was just browsing through some of the reviews on CN to check for updates. When I clicked onto the Digg review, the Amazon affiliate box down on the left menu showed some interesting products.

The products include: Hellboy volume 2, an Adobe CS book, NY Giants Book, and a Calvin Klein thong. Wait a minute. A THONG. What in the bloody heck is a THONG doing on a content site about Web 2.0 and Social Networking?

Clearly the site has nothing to do with thongs unless somehow Digg is associated with Calvin Klein or if Jay or Kevin wear them? LOL! Anyway, just shows that matching technology is not perfected yet. Come inside for more commentary and the screenshot »

Jason Calacanis posted today about trying to show how easy it is to game Alexa. Would rather see more productive articles out of the web/blog leader than to see gaming Alexa articles which have been done over and over since Alexa began.

There is one easy way to game Alexa: create good, original content.

ShopNBC products will now be listed on Amazon. What a waste of database rows for Amazon.

a9 has changed their search partner and removed the 1.57% discount they were offering on Amazon purchases.

A full report is coming soon on Amazon's new video service, Unbox. But for now, they are offering a free coupon for $1.99 off your purchase which makes a tv show free.

Check out the coupon details here: