Google took one giant step forward with Google Apps last week by offering a mail migration API for companies that want to move to Google Apps. The API allows administrators to move email from any system to Google - calendars and contacts can also be moved.

PC World has some coverage…

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In the next three to five years Microsoft hopes to be one of the top two players in the online advertising market. This is according to Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft’s platforms and services devision, which he laid out at a recent UBS investor conference. The plan breaks down like this:

• Increase MS sites from 6 percent to 10 percent of all Internet page views
• Increase the percentage of minutes spent on MS sites from 17 percent to 20 percent of total time spend on the ‘net
• Increase online search using MS sites from 10 percent to 30 percent
• Increase the percentage of all ‘net advertising dollars from 6 percent to 40 percent

Lofty goals Microsoft. Some innovation is going to be key to their strategy. Meaning, they are going to have to bring something new to the market, instead of simply playing catch up with Google.

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LiveRail offers an interesting model, but will it work? The company serves two primary groups: publishers and advertisers. LiveRail allows publishers to upload and serve their video content from LiveRail servers. LiveRail is using Amazon S3 for storage and delivery. When a visitor views a video, the visitor is also presented with two small ad video previews below the content. If a visitor selects one of the ads, it is displayed, and then they can return to the video content they were watching. Advertisers only pay for actual ad views, and LiveRail shares this revenue with publishers.

I question if this model can really work. We all know that visitors don’t like advertising. But publishers need a to generate revenue. Generally, advertisers pay per page view. Page views are not optional — if the visitor wants to see the content, they are going to see the ad (unless they block it, but let’s not go there). With LiveRail all ad views are optional.

Does opt-in advertising really work? LiveRail’s site says, “To make sure this opt-in advertising model works, LiveRail prioritizes which adverts to offer viewers based on a large number of very carefully balanced criteria, including the ad’s relevance, popularity, reputation and of course advertiser’s budget. This ensures that when a viewer is offered an ad, they can be sure that it’ll not only be relevant to their interests, but that the ad itself will have had the seal of approval from other users as being cool and worth watching.”

LiveRail is currently in public beta and I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.

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According to a recent Harvard Business School blog by Charlene Li, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, it does. Many don’t find social networking sites relevant to their business and/or professional career. However, as the article points out, social networking applications (as we see on Facebook) are new — just starting to be developed in the last 6 months. Charlene points out examples of business effectively communicating with customers via social networking sites: Ernst & Young answers accounting questions from college students on Facebook, and Victoria’s Secret has downloadable badges for MySpace.

Social networking sites are a good place to talk to your fan base, recruit talent, and expose yourself to new customers. Not to mention the networking opportunities within your profession and market.

Kelly Shaw, a commenter on the site, points out that Serena Software has implemented “Facebook Friday”. Shaw says “As Ms. Li points out in her article, business is personal. When I need some help from one of my co-workers in Singapore, is it more or less likely that I will get that help, that a co-worker will go the extra mile or work the extra half-hour or find the right contact if I have interacted with that colleague socially?”

Steven Di Pietro points out “At the very least these sites allow you to track business contacts who have left your client company to go elsewhere.”

But social networking sites shouldn’t completely take over, as posted Erik said “These sites should facilitate connections, but they should neither be the majority of the connections nor replace true person-to-person discussion.”

As I see it, these sites are a good addition to business on all sides - B2B, B2C, and any other relationship you can find in business.

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The Get Rich Slowly blog has done a nice review of Mint, an online financial management tool. Mint combines all of your online financial information into one handy dashboard. It’s a good idea, although not an original one. The readers at GetRichSlowly did bring up some valid concerns though… not the least of which is the security implications of handing over all of your online banking passwords to a third-party. Now, I’m sure that we don’t have to worry about bad intentions by Mint. But, their database has to be a gold mine for identity thieves (or thieves in general). They also partner with Yodlee which adds another party of the mix.

I love the idea, but I don’t see how it can be executed to the level of security that most people would feel comfortable with. Maybe with deep integration in to the banks, but the banks wont likely go for that as they have competing products of their own.

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iPartee came out of beta today. They join the pool of social event and invite services that includes Evite, Eventful, Upcoming, Windows Live Events, Zvents, Socializr, MyPunchbowl, Skobee, Renkoo, MadeIt, ImThere, and even Facebook. According to TechCrunch, iPartee will be adding the ability to sell tickets through the site soon.

Read more at TechCrunch

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About two years ago, Upcoming was acquired by Yahoo. Today, founder Andy Baio announced his departure from Yahoo this Friday. Baio is leaving on good terms and said it’s more about fulfilling a pragmatic entrepreneurial calling than finding the next hot ticket.

Baio will be working on his long term side project Waxy.org and related coding projects.

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