Are you tired of watching from the sidelines while everyone else is making money because you don't know exactly how the pros do it?

Are you ready to see what all the successful and experienced Internet marketers do each and every day to earn their massive incomes?

The key to your online success is having the same tools and weapons that experienced marketers use every day!

This must-have report is stuffed with the essential knowledge about how the pros are making more money than you could ever imagine by using basic and fundamental marketing tactics that anyone can do!

Check Daniel McGonagle's Internet Marketing ToolKit now!

Just a quick note to let you know that now, in addition to earning 50% of any credits purchased by Real Traffic Exchange members that you refer, you will also earn 10% of all of the credits they earn in the system.

The 10% will be taken from the 25% of credits available for sale, so the members of the sites will still be earning the same amount of credits.

So start referring people to Real Traffic Exchange and earn not only cash, but free visitors to your sites!

As an example of the potential here: let’s say you refer 100 new members, and each earns an average of 250 credits per month. That’s a total of 25,000 credits per month. Of that, you will earn 2,500 credits to your RTE account. That’s 2,500 free visitors EVERY MONTH being sent to your websites.

In case you are wondering what is RTE, see the ads above? It’s a new contextual ad program launched by Jonathan Leger, the one-man army against the Google Goliath. Read all about it here.

It's no secret if you can personalize a message in some ways, through the e-mail, on your sales page etc., you can triple or even quadruple your conversion rate.

I wanted to tell you about this sooner, but haven't had the time because I've been too busy actually using it. Anyway, now that I've managed to find some time, I wanted to share with you my experiences of using a new marketing tool so that you're armed with all the information when you come across it.

It's a CGI/Perl script called Traffic Personalizer by Paul Hancox. I first heard about this on a marketing forum, and quite a few people were recommending it, so I decided to jump in and buy.

Basically, I'll try and sum up its 3 main functions:

(1) You can create a "tag" to add to the end of your web address (URL). The tag is designed to grab someone's attention and urge them to click. When they do that, you can then display a completely personal message for that person on your own site!

I've set up an example right here on this page. Let's say you're Jane, you own a software company, and you've just received an e-mail off me. I end my e-mail to you with a "signature" which looks like this…

Myra View
Myra View Services
http://www.mysite.com/review.shtml?tag=JaneForYou

If Jane (that's you!) clicks on the link, she'll see a personal message right at the top of the page!

You can create an unlimited number of these tags, and you can basically do what you want with them. For instance, you can use them to track articles you've published – and then you can tailor your site based on the article they've just read.

(2) You can make your site display a unique message depending on where the traffic is coming from.

So, for instance, if you're getting a lot of traffic from WidgetLoversWorld.com, whenever someone comes from that site to yours, you could display a unique message, ie.

"We have extra special deals on Widgets this week, just for people who love their widgets. Quick, check out the Widget links before they sell out…"

One particularly good idea is to get a testimonial for your site from each site that refers to yours, and then put the testimonial at the top of the page for that traffic stream!

(3) You can personalize your offer links in email, and personalize your sales page with their first name.

It's well known that autoresponder services can personalize email, but that's usually where the personalization ends. Any links given are usually generic links, and you're usually taken to a generic sales letter or page.

With Traffic Personalizer you can use your subscriber's first name in any offer links, plus, you can have that first name displayed in your sales letter!

In other words, instead of a generic offer link, ie.

http://www.yoursite.com/offer/etc…

… your offer link for John would be…

http://www.yoursite.com/offer/John

This can vastly improve your click-thrus. Plus, when John gets to your sales page, you can display his first name on the page!

So far I'm using these techniques with good results. I'm definitely seeing more click-thrus because of this.

Good points: Easy to install, easy to make a new "tag", very effective.

Bad points: The only downside is the price…but at $97, I think you'd easily recoup that investment from one personalized campaign.

Overall, I think this is a great piece of software, which allows you to personalize your site in many different ways. I'd recommend grabbing it as soon as you can!

This news article was published on July 10th, 2007, in a supplement of Singapore's main English paper, The Straits Times. It talks about the eyeball conversion effectiveness of a slide-in (instead of a popup) and how it benefits the company, hardwarezone.com, which runs the advertising program to cater for other technological companies.

Try to visit Hardware Zone again because for reasons best known to the HWZ staff they are not running Catfish as I type this post today.

At least you can see a very close demo on my site. Looks cool, doesn't it? It slides in, is unobstrusive and unblockable too, and you can have the software with which you can design your own slide-in. Download Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Popups Gold Edition.

Remember, as you run the program, always make backups of your original pages.

Do one of these 3 scenarios match your current business situation?

1) You’ve started a business, you’re making sales, and now you need to learn how to generate more sales with more consistent marketing so you can grow rapidly.

2) Your business is growing fast, and now you need to learn how to hire people and install systems so that your business can “scale up” smoothly.

3) You’re generating sales and growing, you’re hiring people and installing systems, and now you need to free up your own time to do the important work of leading your business (not to mention enjoying your life).

If you see yourself in one of those 3 specific situations, then pay careful attention.

I’ve described these 3 scenarios because I honestly believe that these are the 3 business situations that have the highest POTENTIAL for success when it comes to growing a large, successful company, but there are challenges.

Here are the problems that a business in each scenario faces:

Scenario 1: “Have a business, need more new customers to grow…”

If you have a business, but now you need more customers, you probably need to learn how to implement what I call “Scalable Marketing”. Scalable marketing is switching from only doing “one-off” advertisements and single-channel lead generation and moving to a “multiple source, multiple stream” scenario that gives you the power to turn your incoming flow of prospects and customers up or down as you need to.

Scenario 2: “Have a business and customers, need people and systems to grow…”

If you’ve reached Scenario 2, you’re having the dawning awareness that you are going to have to let many things go, hire and delegate to other team members, outsource repetitive tasks to others who enjoy them (and many people do), and put an infrastructure in place that can support multiplying your size. This is a serious transition point for any entrepreneur, and it’s a moment that is full of danger.

Scenario 3: “Have a business, have customers, have people and systems, need more of my time free to grow…”

Scenario 3 is actually very close to the end goal. If you can get here, then massive success is just around the corner. Now we just need to make minor ‘tweaks’ to the way you approach personal effectiveness, delegation, and leadership. You’re close, so stick with it.

If you’ve found yourself in one of these 3 scenarios, and you’re personally interested in learning how to become the successful CEO of a rapidly-growing, highly-valuable company, then I’d like to invite you to apply Eben Pagan’s Get Altitude training program that is beginning in October of 2007.

He can teach you the shortcuts to help you grow your business to the $10 Million level and beyond. Perhaps apart from Jay Abraham’s events, there is nothing else like it on the market, but you hear about this program right here.

You’ll learn the methods to:

- Recruit and hire ‘star’ employees to work with you, take over the ‘operations’ work from your hands, and help you grow your business.

- Install systems and processes so your business runs on autopilot (freeing up your time).

- Dominate your niche market and completely shut out your competitors.

- Create powerful “scalable marketing” systems that integrate direct response marketing, partnerships with large companies, and automatic qualifying techniques so you have the new customers you need to grow your business with.

Eben can show you how to double the size of your business every year on the fast path to $10 million, while building a strong foundation for even greater growth beyond.

If you’re ready, then I highly recommend that you apply for Get Altitude now. It is the single best investment you can make in yourself and your business if you want to grow fast and create a valuable company.

All of the details, along with the recent free video trainings he has released are here.

12 of the world’s best Internet Marketers are coming to speak at World Internet Main Event, a brand new seminar concept by the founders of “The Internet Marketing Main Event” and “World Internet Summit USA”!

You have one month to work out your schedules upon reading this, but an event like this WILL sell out within days! If you want the inside running on what’s working and selling on the Internet, you’ve got to be here.

NUMBER OF ATTENDEES
===================
450+ Confirmed
Max Attendees: 500

(Less Than 50 Seats Left)

NUMBER OF SPEAKERS
==================
15 (see site)

NUMBER OF VIPs
===============
52

No other event to date has this many VIPs to ensure you get the most out of your networking experience possible. Who knows million-dollar JVs will be made at this event.

NUMBER OF DAYS
==============
4

DATE
====
September 13, 14, 15, 16

LOCATION
========
San Francisco, CA

HOST’S
========
Mike Filsaime
Tom Hua
Donna Fox
Brett McFall
Paulie Sabol

PRICE
=====
$497 Early Bird (Expires This Week)
$1497 Regular Price

I know San Francisco is always a great city to visit, on top of meeting some of the best Internet Marketers who have cracked the code with new and fresh ideas to actually teach you new ways to make money online and how to apply it to your business.

Come see why so many people call this the best event in Internet Marketing. Everyone else is already going…How about you?

* Harris Fellman’s Big Challenge *

Harris Fellman is still at it: his mission to raise $100,000 for fighting poverty between September 13-16 as part of World Internet Main Event. He’s now also looking for product contributors and REAL products to sell, not just some 6-page report.

Join in this noble endeavor as a partner.

This is the submission form in case he does not tell you in his follow-up mails, but please join as a partner first.

Don’t expect to build up subscribers for this one…This event has no need for opt-in forms.

But It’s Charity! With more funds, who knows what opportunities will arise when you can get another part of the world a little more educated. A little contribution from us can go a long way…

* Can You Make A Difference *

Can you make a difference to 10, 25 or even 50 micro-entrepreneurs by helping them get out of poverty?

Harris Fellman’s grand mission to raise $100,000 for fighting poverty between September 13-16 as part of World Internet Main Event has finally gone into promotion phase.

You’ll find thousands of dollars worth of ORIGINAL products. Under the “MICRO LENDER” option, you’ll find my never-before-seen e-book “The Million Dollar Observation”. It’s worth getting it, not only because I wrote it, but it’s part of a value-for-money bundle with other products from great marketers and—what’s more—you can help in a noble cause started by Unitus, Inc, which aims to create entrepreneurial opportunities for folks through micro-lending, an initiative made famous by 2006 Nobel Prize winner for Economics, Muhammad Yunus.

You can read about Mr. Yunus’ book “Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty” here.

This sale WILL disappear when the World Internet Main Event is over. You don’t want to have second thoughts and buy some of what you need at stand-alone price.

You'll be pleased to place your ownership on the next copy of what Jason says is the "ultimate exposé of every dirty little secret that some marketers hold near and dear to their heart".

Jason James is the real deal and even though he came on board Internet Marketing slightly later (but he's been on eBay like a seasoned pro for a long time) than me, I'm just as glad to learn much from him while he is at it full-time for a little over 2 years now.

He is certainly one of the brightest marketers around, yet through trial and error, he admits that he learned many things the hard way and now to "give back" he's determined to help you avoid the same mistakes he did…

In Untold Marketing Secrets, he reveals to you everything he has learned over the last couple years that has helped him achieve over 2.5 million dollars in sales, build a customer list to over 10,000 and a subscriber list to now over 80,000 in this very short time.

He also knows there are people out there quietly making a killing online. They're the ones who stay under the wire, the ones who listen and learn more than they talk, and for this fact he interviewed a handful of them like:

Mike Filsaime – Butterfly Marketing
Rob Cowie – The Blair Witch Project
Heather Vale – InternetMarketingUnwrapped.com
Sterling Valentine – JVFormula.com

…and 16 others…

…who reveal some of the most controversial and damning online business secrets imaginable.

If you think you've heard it all before, trust me, you ain't heard nothing until you've heard these interviews. Everything else out there is already DATED compared to this.

It's time to get real information that works and that helps you finally breakthrough and make the REAL money you have always dreamt of.

If nothing else, Jason has also prepared a special report which details some of his best secrets for making money online. This appetizer alone is good enough to whet your appetite. Wait till you come to the main course!

Selling products online is both your biggest goal and your biggest obstacle.

It’s the very thing that can make the difference between being profitable and having a complete financial catastrophe.

But, this simple objective seems to be much easier said than done.

If you are unable to move products, make sales and draw buyers, your entire business can be wiped out at any moment…even overnight.

For some, that could mean bankruptcy while for others it means staying in the 9 to 5 and never experiencing the freedom and financial success that having a profitable online business can bring.

The truth of the matter here is this, being able to make money online is not as hard as it may seem, but it’s also not as easy as many marketers claim it to be and would have you to believe it is.

There’s a balance between being “hard to do” and “easy to accomplish”.

That balance can be found on a very fine line. A line so thin you can thread the eye of a need with it.

But the line is so critical it can make the difference between your business being profitable next month, or completely gone next month.

That fine line is…”the truth about Internet Marketing”.

Let me tell you a story.

Alicia sells Beanie Babies online at eBay. They come in and out of our house like pizzas at Dominos.

I mean she moves these products.

However, what many people don’t know is that all Beanies are not created equal. There are many fake Beanies out there.

If you hold a fake Beanie next to a real Beanie, chances are you will not be able to pick out which one is fake. That’s because the false ones are that good.

That’s precisely what happened. Alicia made a purchase and when she sent them to be authenticated and certified as real Beanies, two of them came back earmarked as faked Beanies and not made by TY (the manufacturer of the real Beanies).

She contacted the guy she bought them from and he said he had no idea that they were fake Beanies.

Be that true or not (that he didn’t know), the point here is a very simple one, but a very powerful one.

Point #1: The only way you can be sure…be 100% certain that a Beanie Baby is a real Beanie is to have it authenticated by someone certified by TY.

Point #2: Until someone starts to authenticate the Beanies, they will never know if what they have is a fake Beanie or an authentic Beanie.

With Internet Marketing, it’s the same story.

A ton of information is circulated online about how to make money with Internet Marketing, running a successful online business, etc.

The ads sound good, the websites sound good, the product looks good so you think it’s good, true and worth buying.

The truth of the matter is, there is more false information circulating on the Internet about how to make money, than there is true information.

Believe it or not, more than 97% of the e-books were garbage and contained recycled, old, outdated, false, unusable, erroneous information.

Just like fake Beanies get into circulation and moving from buyers and sellers into collections without many people knowing they are fake.

So it is with Internet Marketing information. Lies are in heavy circulation and those lies continue to work against those trying to use them.

The only way to get the truth is to make sure your source of information is authenticated.

The way to make sure that the source of your Internet Marketing information is authentic is to have the source of that information provide you with solid proof.

Undeniable proof that not only the information, products and/or services work, but that they themselves use them, have benefited from them and continue to benefit from them.

Unless you authenticate the source of your marketing information you can never be sure that what your doing actual works.

You will then find yourself a few months from now, still having made no money online, asking yourself…

“What will I do now?”

There is now a way for you to be sure you receive authentic Internet Marketing information, tips, strategies and methods with undeniable proof that they work.

“Under Oath—The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But The Truth About Internet Marketing” was prepared by Stephen Pierce.

Stephen consistently makes over $30,000 per month in net cash profits from selling his own products and services as well as those of affiliates.

After being fed up with collecting and reading all the garbage information being circulated about internet marketing, it was clear to Stephen why so many are failing to make money.

They are being sabotaged and blindsided by misinformation and out right lies.

As one of ClickBank’s top 5% product movers and money earners, Pierce saw the need to speak up with the truth about Internet Marketing.

And so, he prepared “Under Oath—The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But The Truth About Internet Marketing”.

Virtually everything that makes money for Pierce and how he does it is revealed in very specific details.

When you own this book, you own an authenticated pool of information that is proven to consistently produce over $30,000 per month in net cash profits.

If you are in desperate need of targeted traffic to your website, you can now start getting it in no time. Just follow as instructed.

It works!

Here’s just a sampling of what you’ll discover:

* How to ignite rapid buying of your products like a shark-feeding frenzy!

* The one ideal magnetic follow-up e-mail that pays big dividends…all the time!

* The right kinds of products to sell online! (Knowing the right kinds of products to sell can immediately save you time and make you money!)

* The only 2 things that create wealth on the Internet!

* The hidden e-zine traps that can paralyze your profits!

* The key to a high sales conversion from your list! (Just this one change to how you handle your list can be worth tens of thousands even hundreds of thousand of dollars and more!)

Plus, you get other amazing marketing truths, like:

* The 1 little known thing that oftentimes makes the difference between the success and failure of an ad, and it’s not the headline.

* The 1 thing Internet Marketing wealth builders and millionaires have in common.

* Where the big money is really being made online, and it’s not with e-books.

If you want to stop wasting money on ads that are doomed to fail before you place them, then get “The Truth” and start getting a waterfall of product sales week after week, month after month!

Get The Truth now!

Looking for a real quality FLV video conversion software so you can upload your sharp-looking videos on your site in minutes? FLV Producer is easy to use, and one good thing about it is the conversion process takes minutes and sometimes seconds for long videos, unlike others with which you may have to wait through the day and it would still not finished the bext day.

For those of you who do not know the difference between the SWF and FLV formats of flash video, FLV is the new format from Macromedia that eliminates the 1500 frame limitation of the older SWF format as well as offering superior compression and video quality.

If you recognize the player buttons, you know this is what the IM masters are using to produce the videos on their sites.

But this one tops the cake. If you see this for the first time, we bet you’ll laugh your head off. It’s definitely better than “Elvis has just entered the building”.

How about walking in and out of a web page?

Here are the 30 largest social bookmarking sites ranked by a combination of Inbound Links, Google PageRank, Alexa rank, and U.S. traffic data from Compete and Quantcast.

“How do I get traffic?”

Sounds familiar? It’s that same old question again.

There’s a new flavour to the answer. Stanley Tang has put down on e-paper everything he knows and quotes from real-case examples about the dynamics of viral marketing.

The result is the Viral Marketing Blackbook.

If you’re on a tight budget or prefer free methods, mastering viral marketing techniques is your best bet to great traffic volumes.

And of course, traffic funneled into a list brings the dough out of your faithful customers’ pockets. If you’re fed up and want to end your traffic drought then check this out.

You can download a leaked chapter too.

One of the frustrating things about being an international affiliate that wants to sell into the United States using Google Adwords, is the inability to easily find out which ads are showing to US surfers.

Let’s say that you are in the UK. If you search for “car insurance” on Google, the ads that appear are related to your UK IP address. Now if you wanted to promote a US targeted CPA offer on Adwords, how can you find out what your competitors ads look like?

In the past there where tricks like adding “&gl=us” to the end of the search string, but I found that it wasn’t always that reliable.

Well Google have their own tool to help you out called Google Ad Preview Tool.

Take a look, because you can now see what the adverts look like in any country in the world. Yup, even Mongolia!

One of the biggest expenses in creating your own digital products are graphics. And if you’re someone who creates different info products on a regular basis, these designer fees can really add up fast.

Of course you can do the graphics yourself. But that’s usually NOT a good idea if you don’t know what you’re doing. Because you’ll just struggle for several hours and will end up with silly looking graphics in the end.

But what if there was an easy way to create these complex graphics yourself, in a short amount of time, and actually end up with good looking designs in the end?

There is a tool out there that I highly recommend that will allow you to do just that. It’s called 1ClickCovers.

This tool is an absolute life saver when it comes to creating covers for your digital products. It will litterally save you dozens of hours of struggle and frustration. And hundreds of dollars in designer fees.

Just follow the simple, step-by-step instructions, and you’ll have a killer looking cover in no time. Even if you’re “graphically challenged.” :)

Some of of the biggest names in Internet Marketing use this tool. There are dozens of testimonials on the site from happy customers. So it’s a quality and proven product. I wouldn’t recommend it if it wasn’t.

You might have already seen 1ClickCovers around, but chances are you haven’t. Although it’s been around for around 2 years, it didn’t really have an official launch. So not that many people even know about it.

The reason I’m emailing you now about it, is because the owner, Max Rylski, decided to do a little re-launch.

And that’s when things get even better for you…

You see, Max just updated the package for 2007, and added more new features to make the package even better. So now is the best time to get it if you don’t already have it.

AND…

To make the re-launch more special, Max added a major bonus that has never been offered before that’s worth easily as much as the 1ClickCovers itself.

This bonus will only be available for a short time while the re-launch is going on. So you have to act fast to get the special bonus.

With the 2007 update, and the special bonus, the 1ClickCovers package is bigger and better then ever.

It’s a truly great deal. And if you’re at all interested in creating your own graphics, you should jump on this offer.

Homer trys his hands at setting up a home-based business, registered CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet.com and gets Bill Gates’ attention to “buy him out”…the Mafia way. Doh!

Stephanie Mulac and Reed Floren outline exactly what you can do to start building a massive opt-in list in no time by submitting a gift and participating in FREE GIVEAWAYS…and many creative ideas to turn that pile of PLR products that have been collecting e-dust into e-goldmine with “How To Turn PLR Into Cash And Build A Massive Opt-In List Overnight!“

Rhys Wynne wrote:

I am writing to you is to help me promote a new service that I offer.

It’s called “Fair Review“.

It is a review scheme that instead of helping some A-List Blogger get more money with no return for you, you will be promoting yourself.

You review one blog on the directory, and then you will be included in the directory, where you will receive multiple reviews back (some have already been reviewed 4 times since last Friday, (and these people have been converted into readers—more subscriptions, more comments, bigger network, more money. However you look at it, it’s a good thing for your blog).

Click here to find out how to participate and what the directory is looking for, and feel free to browse the directory. I cannot promise your John Chows, Darren Rowses or Shoemoneys will be in there, what I can promise is some of the best undescovered blogs on the blogosphere.

The first 100 reviews will also get a backlink on my blog.

I so happened to bump into the Infektia website and found a section nicely filled with WordPress-related information. Malin the webmaster has produced free WP themes for download as well as highlighted some useful plug-ins, but this WordPress Theme Generator takes the cake. Bookmark Infektia for more updates from a WP fan.

What do Fortune 500 companies and Hollywood studios know about name branding? The names fulfill one or more of the following criteria:

* They don’t have more than 4 syllabus.

* They rhyme to specific vowels or sounds (Coca-Cola, BlackBerry, OshKosh B’Gosh, Humpty Dumpty, SimpSons, RugRats).

* They end with ‘-er’ (equalizer, submitter), ‘-or’ (terminator, predator, generator), ‘-us’ (plimus, janus, del.icio.us) or ‘-o’ (pro, commando, manifesto, studio, audio, video).

* When the marketing pros run out of English, they turn to Greek and Latin expressions!

There are some good websites that explain the meaning of Greek and Latin words. Incidentally, you may already know some Latin words as the English language significantly derives from them. However, don’t expect to find literal translation for specialized words(!) like ‘viral’ or ‘affiliate’, but keep hunting and you will find interesting terms to play around with.

1) In this English-to-Latin translation tool by University of Notre Dame, I am able to find meanings for ‘list’, ‘auction’, ‘design’ and even ‘advertise’. The Latin word for ‘advertisement’ is ‘proscriptio’. You might as well name a product as a ‘proscriptor’!

2) Another version of UoND’s translation tool.

3) “Words For Our Modern Age” is a comprehensive list of prefixes and suffixes with roots in Greek/Latin origin. Great to surf through when you have little ideas on what to search for.

4) More Latin resources.

Because the Greek language by itself has its own set of characters, it’s harder to find another English word as a direct expression of a Greek meaning (forget about googling “english to greek translation”). You are likely to turn to “Words For Our Modern Age” for reference most of the time. More often than not, we have seen businesses naming products and services and even our planets after Greek gods and other people. Here’s a page profiling thousands of gods and goddesses from various cultures. If only you can find the name of the “god of riches”…

* Sly combinations of prefixes and suffixes.

About this last point, as an example, Jolly has reserved the following 2 domain names:

1) finggle.com: It’s a combination of ‘finger’ and ‘google’.

2) xagora.com: ‘agora’ is ‘marketplace’ in Greek and is in popular demand. Not to be outdoned, he put an ‘x’ in front and registered his very own agora.com!

So the truth is we are really hardly in short supply when it comes to names. The competition is not going to heat up just because more people are reading this post. Fanciful names or not, they are not be-all-and-end-all. I’d come across a good number of fantastic domain names that lay dormant either because the webmasters have no idea how to position them for business or they are just squatters waiting to make a quick buck.

Of course, the long term requires that you find a way to position a name with the selling angle. Twentieth Century Fox registered simpsonsmovie.com on April 22nd, 1997, nine years before the movie finally was green-lighted. The important fact is they hold fast to it and did not abuse it while Fox concentrated on the series. In this respect the studio demonstrated foresight towards the long-term goal which is the movie.

At the end of the day, which is more important: a name or the business? This is no trick question, for the answer is already known to those who can append a value with a ‘name’, provide that value and get paid for it.

You really don’t have to be some big-name guru to make thousands a month selling niche information products online.

All you have to do is focus on delivering products that people really want and DESPERATELY need…

Have you ever thought about offering products that fill the void for people in desperate situations?

Because the demand is so great that people are searching to find solutions to desperate problems, and YOU can be the one selling it to them…

“Desperate Buyers Only” addresses how YOU can sell to people in desperate situations. And it opens up that whole market W-I-D-E for you…

A lot of members like this one for the real potential it brings to the table…You may also like it too…

Visit this page today if you want to see what we’re talking about…

But new multimedia search engine Theseus may end up another doomed EU project.

LONDON – THE European Union (EU) has authorised Germany to start developing a new Internet search engine designed to challenge the US giant Google, which currently dominates online searches.

The proposed German search engine—named Theseus, after a Greek mythological character who used a rope to trace his way through a maze—claims to be a true “killer application” for Google.

Almost everyone knows Google for what it is—a search engine originally conceived as BackRub by its developers, which hit the market in 1998 with backing from rival search engine Yahoo.

Now the world’s most popular online search tool, it gets funding of about S$1.5 billion a year.

In contrast, few details have been released about Theseus as yet.

What is known is that a consortium of more than 30 different German research companies will develop the product which, supposedly, not only classifies online content—something all search engines do—but will also be able to “draw logical conclusions”, creating new links between text, sound and pictures.

The project sounds impressive, but Europe’s recent history has been littered with many technological efforts which consumed a lot of cash, only to end in total failure.

Dr Hartmut Raffler, one of the bosses of the Siemens technology company—which is part of the consortium developing Theseus—said the project “will make it possible to generate new knowledge from what is already available”.

Theseus will become the “world’s most advanced multimedia search for the next-generation Internet”, said another member of the development consortium.

However, if the promise is so great, why are companies not financing it out of their own coffers?

Short answer: This is Europe, where it is always easier to persuade politicians to spend taxpayers’ money on any idea which promises to confront America’s technological prowess.

Back in 1982, for example, Britain and France developed the Minitel, an online service accessible through telephone lines. It was revolutionary then because the French were able to check stock prices, buy train tickets and chat more than a decade before Americans discovered the joys of the Internet.

But the Minitel was state-funded, and bureaucrats knew little about the need for constant innovation. So, far from retaining its lead, France was actually held back from the early adoption of computers due to Minitel terminals which were useful only as museum displays.

Other disasters followed: European computer companies which were meant to take on the likes of IBM or Dell but invariably ended in bankruptcy, and the Galileo system that aimed to provide an alternative to the US Global Positioning System, but had to be rescued last month with the injection of more government money.

The Airbus commercial airliner project is often trumpeted by the Europeans as their success story; it did break Boeing’s monopoly. But it remains the exception rather than the rule.

Given this poor track record, one would have assumed that Europe’s governments would be weary of similar adventures.

But not a bit of it.

The Theseus search engine idea started as a joint project between France and Germany called Quaero (Latin for “I search”).

Quaero was started not so much in response to a serious commercial need as it was to a political desire to catch up with the US.

The two governments had pledged to contribute S$1.1 billion to ‘kick-start’ funding for ‘ice-breaker’ companies.

Now, however, the German government has decided to forge ahead on its own, promising to pay S$250 million.

The French are set to proceed separately with Quaero, and have allocated about S$170 million to that end.

Already, it bears the hallmarks of another potential European flop. And it has already encountered political difficulties.

Theseus’ claim to be able to search inside video and audio clips sounds truly innovative.

However, similar technologies are already being developed by others, and the amount of money the Germans are putting into their effort is paltry compared to Google’s capital spending of around S$1.5 billion a year.

Also, it will take the Germans another five years to complete their effort. Yet neither Google nor other competitors are likely to stand still in the meantime.

So, Theseus may end up as a commercial failure.

Europe’s dream of leapfrogging America’s technological edge can be realised only by improving its entrepreneurial spirit and liberating small companies from reliance on state funding.

What Europe needs is a radical change, not a vain rush for “killer applications” bearing Greek or Latin names from ancient history.

This news article by Jonathan Eyal is extracted from The Straits Times dated July 31st, 2007.