One almost thinks Jeff Bezos has come out with a one-click way for patenting everything on the Internet. With his beloved One-Click patent in tatters, Bezos got a consolation prize from the Patent Office. Patent No. 7,287,042 was issued today for a "Search engine system supporting inclusion of unformatted search string after domain name portion of URL". In other words, Amazon just patented something Google has been doing for years. (Photo by AP/Andy Rogers)

Maybe that last encore except from Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody was one too many. It's early, sure, but the book ranks way down at No. 1,432 on Amazon's bestseller list. Lesson? Fake Steve needs to send Moshe up to Seattle to have a chat with Jeff Bezos. [Amazon.com]

eBay is experimenting with cutting fees to list items for sale, a marked change from its history of price hikes. "We've not ever really decreased price, and it is possible that by decreasing price, we actually increase the revenues and vibrancy of this market in such a way that this price decrease is self-liquidating," said CEO Meg Whitman. Translation: The competitive threat from Amazon.com and Google is increasing. [AuctionBytes]

A New Zealander has gotten part of Amazon.com's "One-Click" patent revoked after he demonstrated several examples of prior art. Amazon is appealing the ruling, and has another patent that covers some of the same technology. The most interesting part of all this? The Kiwi in question doesn't have any real interest in Amazon or the patent. He thinks that Amazon "deserved to get slapped a bit around the head." [Yahoo Tech]

Looking for a copy of Options, Fake Steve Jobs blogger Dan Lyons's parody of the Apple guru? As I type this, Borders in San Mateo has 3 copies. The San Francisco stores in Union Square and Stonestown each have 5. Sometimes, people, you need to quit Googling and pick up the phone. Dial now and ask them to hold you one, which they'll do for three days.

Being an intrepid tech reporter, I buy books related to my work. I just picked up The Gawker Guide to Conquering All Media (obligatory: it is the greatest work ever put to print. You should buy copies for yourself and all your friends). I preordered Options by Forbes editor Dan Lyons, writing as Fake Steve Jobs, way back in July. I've been pantingly awaiting the arrival of my copy from Amazon.com. A few days ago, I got an email from Amazon saying my book arrival date was getting pushed back — to December 14. I thought it was just a mixup, but now we've heard from other sources that Amazon sent them the same email. What's going on? Here's what Fake Steve himself has to say about it.

Amazon.com, which already offers same-day delivery in New York, Philadelphia, and Seattle, is now offering the service in Boston, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. It's expensive: $14 to $19 per delivery, plus per-pound shipping fees. But for Amazon's core user base of the lazy and wealthy, same-day shipping is a no-brainer. Why no same-day service in the Bay Area, though? Unlike the East Coast, served by Amazon's Wilmington, Del., warehouse, and Seattle, which also has a local facility, northern California gets items shipped from Fernley, Nev., outside Reno. A bit too far, we suspect for economical same-day service. After the jump, the notice from Amazon.

All the record-label kevetching that the Internet is killing their livelihood may actually be true. But it's not college kids sharing files in broadband-equipped dorms that they need to worry about. Radiohead is releasing its new album sans label. Novel, but the interesting bit is that the band is giving a choice to consumers: Pay $82 for a super-fancy, boxed edition of In Rainbows, or download the album — for whatever you think it's worth. This follows a similar campaign by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails who says once his band's label obligations are completed, it will release digital albums for about $4. Of course it's not just the music industry that should be concerned.

NEW YORK CITY — "Amazon sells porn?" — Overheard in Gawker Media's world headquarters.

Well, maybe not everyone. But the tide is certainly turning against Apple's music and video store, which has held a near-monopoly on digital media distribution. Vivendi says the contract between its Universal Music Group and Apple is "indecent." We like the sound of that, but somehow it doesn't sound like Vivendi meant it as a compliment. Like NBC Universal, in which it holds a minority stake, Vivendi wants more control over pricing — the option to charge more for new, in-demand content than old library tracks. While Apple has a few stalwart supporters, like Fox, at the moment, it's likely that many content providers are waiting for enough key players to take the plunge before determining whether to abandon ship or demand more flexibility. Particularly if they're getting a better deal from Apple's new competitor, AmazonMP3.

FANTASY M&A —The buzz is all about Microsoft, or possibly Google, taking a stake in Facebook, the popular social network, at a lofty valuation as high as $15 billion. But the logic of those deals is driven by advertising — the more targeted, the better. But what, exactly, are advertisers hoping to target, and why? Besides crude demographics and geographies, the most logical hooks for ads are Facebook users' expressed preferences — the books, music, and movies they're increasingly listing on their profiles. And who has the best data on what consumers will buy? Why, Amazon.com, of course. The logic of a combination — a merger of the two giant databases of consumer preferences is, at least on the surface, compelling.

The Internet retailer has finally launched its long-awaited digital music store as a public beta, with prices that undercut Apple's iTunes by a dime. The music also comes free of digital-rights-management software, which raises the question: What will Boing Boing editor and anti-DRM crusader Cory Doctorow do with all his free time? [Amazon]

Silicon Alley Insider blogger Peter Kafka thinks e-books are doomed — even a monolith like Amazon.com won't spark excitement with its new Kindle reader, he argues. The problem, as he points out, is that there's nothing wrong with how consumers read books. Adopting e-book readers would force everyone to change their consumption habits — a big step that even something the iPod didn't require. [Silicon Alley Insider]

Book publishers will face the same disruption with electronic book readers as the music industry did with the iPod, says The New York Times. Amazon is prepping an October unveiling of its e-book reader, The Kindle, which will wirelessly sync with its e-book store. Later this fall, Google plans to charge for access to books scanned into its database. [The New York Times]

The Apple-NBC Universal spat continues. Shortly after NBC announced it wouldn't renew its iTunes contract, Apple decided to kick the upcoming NBC season off its digital shelves. In a counterstrike, NBC has announced its shows will appear on Amazon Unbox as soon as next week. Burnnnnn. [Ars Technica]

Broadcast network NBC has inked promotional deals with almost every major Internet player to distribute the pilot episodes for its new fall lineup. Almost, that is, because it appears to be shunning Google's YouTube online-video site, as well as the News Corp.-owned MySpace. According to The Hollywood Reporter, episodes of new shows "Chuck," "Life," and "Journeyman" will be available for download on Amazon beginning September 10. If you'd prefer to download using Apple's iTunes software, sign up for the Apple Students group on social network Facebook. Members of that group get a one-week headstart on downloading the pilots. Prefer to stream your entertainment? Beginning in mid-September, you can catch "Life" on AOL, "Journeyman" on MSN, and "Chuck" on Yahoo. But it's the omissions that are really interesting.

For an hourly rate (PDF) of $245-$465+ per hour, most people would be champing at the bit to start work at 6 o' clock in the morning. Not the high-powered but sleep-deprived attorneys of Fenwick & West, however. They'redefending Amazon's 1-Click patent, which covers Amazon's vaunted click-and-buy ordering process. Not only are Amazon's San Francisco-based attorneys unwilling to travel to D.C. for a September 13 hearing they requested, they've asked the Patent and Trademark Office to move the hearing time from 9 a.m. Eastern to 1 p.m., lest they be forced to endure what a Fenwick & West partner characterized as the "undue hardship" of being ready at 6 a.m. Pacific Time. Just another way Amazon's making good on CEO Jeff Bezos's pledge of making "less work for the overworked Patent and Trademark Office."

Here's what no one's saying about Blockbuster's acquisition of Movielink, the Hollywood-backed movie-download site: It's a desperate move to shore up Blockbuster's online failures. Blockbuster, remember, has been promising video downloads for most of this decade. First came a deal with Enron's broadband division, and, well, we all know what happened there. Since then, Blockbuster has said that video downloads would be coming soon for years. But Hollywood studios, burned by past negotiations with Blockbuster for sharing video rental fees, are understandably loath to cut favorable online deals with the video-rental chain. And it's hard for Blockbuster to compete technologically with the likes of Apple, Amazon.com, and Netflix. Buying Movielink gets Blockbuster deals with studios and ready-made tech — all of which gives it merely a place at the online-video table, not the ability to eat everyone else's lunch.

Indiana University's decision to partner with "human-powered" search engine ChaCha shouldn't have been controversial. ChaCha's based in Indiana and was founded by two IU alumni. Universities often have ties to local startups. Did anyone question Stanford's use of Google, or a professor's investment in the company? No, the controversy comes because no one actually believes that ChaCha is a better search engine than Google, and, more importantly, the partnership conscripts the university's library and IT staff into working for the search engine for free. And it's always the coverup, never the cime. In attempting to downplay university president Michael McRobbie's ties to ChaCha, university officials made the situation much, much worse. Someone's lying. It's just a question of to whom, and when.

Notable bombs like Pets.com and Kozmo.com at the height of the Internet bubble scared Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos out of the acquisition business. But he now appears to be cautiously filling up his cart again. So far this year, he's done three publicly announced acquisitions of or investments in startups — more than he did, as far as we can tell, in the Internet-depression years of 2002 through 2004. And that's just through Amazon.com — we're not counting any of the deals he's made on his own through Bezos Expeditions, his personal investment vehicle.



Data

8/6/2007 - Amie Street (demand-based pricing music download service)

2/25/2007 - Shelfari (book-centric social networking)

2/16/2007 - Atomic Moguls (fantasy sports)

12/5/2006 - Wikia (search)

10/2006 - TextPayMe (wireless payment system)

2/27/2006 - Shopbop.com (women's apparel retailer)

6/1/2005 - CustomFlix (download and burn DVDs)

4/10/2005 - Del.icio.us (social bookmarking, later sold to Yahoo)

4/4/2005 - BookSurge LLC (on-demand book-printing)

4/1/2005 - Mobipocket.com (eBooks for mobile devices)

2/9/2005 - 43 Things/Robot Coop ("goal" blogging/social network)

8/19/2004 - Joyo.com Limited (Chinese web retailer)

12/1/2001- Egghead.com (electronics retailer)

12/1/2001 - OurHouse.com (online hardware retailer)

11/9/2001 - Catalog City (catalog merchants)

2/1/2001 - Living.com (online retailer)

4/18/2000 - WineShopper.com (win retailer)

3/28/2000 - eZiba (handicraft retailer)

2/18/2000 - Basis (internationalization technology for web sites)

2/3/2000 - Greg Manning Auctions, Inc. (collectibles)

1/31/2000 - Audible (audio books)

1/24/2000 - Drugstore.com (online drugstore)

1/21/2000 - Greenlight (online car retailer)

1/11/2000 - Kozmo.com (grocery delivery service)

12/1/1999 - Ashford (luxury web retailer)

11/4/1999 - Convergence Corporation (mobile connectivity)

11/1/1999 - Tool Crib of the North (online and catalog tool and home improvement retailer)

11/1/1999 - Della.com (gift registry and suggestions)

11/1/1999 - Back to Basics Toys (toy store)

7/14/1999 - Gear.com (sports merchandise)

5/18/1999 - HomeGrocer.com (online grocer)

4/25/1999 - Accept.com (financial transactions)

4/24/1999 - e-Niche Incorporated (Exchange.com, Bibliofind.com, and Musicfile.com - online marketplaces)

4/1/1999 - LiveBid.com (live internet auctions)

3/29/1999 - Pets.com (online pet supplies)

2/1/1999 - Drugstore.com (online drugstore)

2/1/1999 - Geoworks (wireless communications)

1999 - MindCorps Incorporated (web applications - exact date unknown)

8/4/1998 - Sage Enterprises/PlanetAll (web-based personal management)

8/4/1998 - Junglee (web-based databases)

4/27/1998 - Bookpages (UK online bookstore)

4/27/1998 - Telebook (German online bookstore)

4/27/1998 - IMDB (movie and television directory)