Q&As

Readers who spend enough time on the beach this summer will probably see the following sentiment stretched across the front of a t-shirt: “Old age and treachery will overcome youth and idealism every time.” Today’s exercise in youth and idealism comes from Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, the twenty-something founders of YouTube.com.

For the uninitiated, YouTube is an online video-file sharing service. Would-be Martin Scorseses can upload video clips of pretty much anything, ranging from elaborately produced fantasies to random clips captured on a mobile phone’s video card. These can then be viewed and rated by anyone logging onto the site.

Canadian telemarketers have settled charges by the Federal Trade Commission that they sold phony healthcare discount plans and bogus credit card loss protection to U.S. consumers.

An Arkansas judge on Friday approved the $90 million settlement proposed by Google in a click-fraud class-action lawsuit brought by search marketers claiming the major search engines knowingly charge for clicks that did not come from genuine customers.

It’s like the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other. Newcastle Brown Ale’s latest sweepstakes feature one prize “that gets you into trouble and one prize that gets you out of trouble”.

Hershey’s Kissables is hitting the airways with a contest asking consumers to call into local radio stations and sing the Kissables jingle.

Time Warner Cable is rolling out a new sweepstakes to promote its super speed digital cable, Internet and phone services tied to NASCAR Nextel Cup Racing that will send a winner and guest right to the action.

Old Navy has found its latest spokesdog star in the form of a shaggy, free-spirited canine named Paco from Venice Beach, CA.

House Republicans have backed off from a bill prohibiting states from taxing mail order and other companies that do business in their states without local employees or offices, according to wire service reports.

Acxiom Corp. boosted its revenue by 8.5% to $336.7 million
during its first quarter.

Brookstone Inc. reported a net loss of $11 million for the second quarter compared with a net loss of $5.7 million last year.