Watch Out for the Fakes

For quite some time we have been told that watches are in decline. That cell phone, which also computes, searches the web, and serves several other functions (including facilitating conversations) is now also the standard time piece for the younger generations. In fact, at 46 I am anything but the "younger set," but I find myself simply not looking for my watch because I know I can pull out my phone to tell the time.

Now, a recent article by Business Week is finding that biggest brands of watches is taking a beating from the fakes. The problem of counterfit goods isn't limited to fakes, as seen by a recent slide show done by the magazine for AOL. See the link to the slide show above.

What items should you keep an eye out for by the person in the trench coat near the alley? Well, the winners of the "Plagiarius Awards" for best fakes include:

* The copy cat of the Fortis B-42, the watch worn by Cosmonauts. The original costs over $2,000.00, but significantly less by that guy named "Louie."

* The "Two in One" Salt and Pepper shakers from high end home good stores.

* "Trend Line V3 Vegatable Slicer." The fake comes with huge savings, but will it last as long? And what about the damage done to the innovator of the original?

* The PND Heating System Component.

* Others copied included the MEM faucet and very popular braided bracelets. Visit all of them in the slide show above.

From the time we were young we have been warned about the need for "buyers beware." With improvements in technology and, in my opinion, the even greater disregard of intellectual property rights than in any other time in history, the warning is more important now than ever.

Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at HoustonBusinessShow.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.

Run Gore Run

I am formally announcing my endorsement for Al Gore to run for President. As a Democrat, of course. Which means I will never vote for him, but he could do an excellent job of further dividing the Democrats for the '08 elections.

Since becoming something of a rock star and actually winning an Academy Award for best documentary (for his apocalyptic assessment of the environment called An Inconvenient Truth), many on the Left are hoping he might jump into the race. All of the Hollywood money that Barack Obama was receiving will quickly shift to "one of their own", in my opinion. (By the way, Gore has his own inconvenient truth, since the media is reporting that his own home consumes ten times the energy of the average house in the US. Can you spell hypocrite?).

Now we are being "tempted" by the idea on AOL, as they ask visitors whether or not Gore should run. Interestingly, he won overwhelmingly in the poll against Obama, John Edwards, and even Hillary, both in the Democratic nomination and the general election (at least compared to the other mentioned Democrats in the survey). I hope Al Gore drinks from this Kool Aid and jumps in, but I doubt the poll is accurate. I know many people, like myself, voted in the survey and was favorable to Gore on every question. Why? Because the other candidates are already in and the more competition the Democrats have, the better it is for Republicans. At least that's the theory.

I want to encourage you to go vote for Gore too at the AOL poll. Let's give the Democrats some of the chaos Republicans have recently suffered from.

John McCain Invades My Email

I know I am way behind the curve when it comes to technology. My geek friends kind of giggle at me when I tell them I still have an AOL account. I have had one for most of the last eight years and it has caused me far more pain than pleasure. It tends to be slower than other services, the pop-ups on a site I'm paying for is unbelievable, and the quality of the services for a premium service are quite week. But I feel stuck because so much of my information is wrapped up in this system.

Anyway, to add insult to injury, AOL has recently moved to heavy advertising and have begun to make some of their services free. Unfortunately, those of us who continue to pay for the services are seeing a lot more advertisements as well and I'm beginning to find them offensive. Just recently I opened up an email to send and found a photo of Sen. John McCain with a statement proclaiming he is "a common sense conservative." This bothers me on several fronts:

* Was his ad casually placed on my email or do they know I'm interested in politics and conservative politics in particular? AOL is already among the worse when it comes to pop-ups, are they spying on me too?

* It bothers me that McCain markets himself as a conservative. Other than his position on the war in Iraq, McCain is really quite liberal on social issues, loves tax increases, and is a big fan of regulations. Furthermore, his positions on campaign finance reform makes him an opponent of free speech, in my opinion. I admit, he's excellent on Iraq, but that is not grounds to make him President or even call him conservative.

* It irritates me that he is on something as personal as my email. And, what if he shows up on emails I send to others? I think that is terrible. I really don't want people to associate my correspondence with him.

Rather than winning people that he hopes are undecided and use AOL, I think his strategy is more likely to turn people off. It's bad enough that they put the latest brand of toilet paper in an ad on my email, but a candidate whom I ideologically disagree with, that's a disgrace.

WebProNews Internet Winners

WebProNews is weighing in on the 8 biggest Internet winners for 06, and I found the list most interesting and something others might wish to read. I like the list and will only add a few edits. I encourage everyone to go to WebProNews and sign up for their newsletter, it is one of my favorite sources. I tell you how they won me over, great headlines in the subject line works every time. Here's their list. What other winners and losers would you add?

1. Google. Every year for Google has been a breakout year for the eight-year-old company, but 2006 was a blockbuster. Besides adding user-generated video phenom YouTube to its roster for $1.65 billion in stock, Google remained a favorite of Wall Street, with stock catapulting over $500 per share. That spike was more than enough to cover the cost of purchasing YouTube. And then they moved in with NASA.

I couldn't agree more. Google has moved from a site, to a verb (in searches, thus googling), to a legend.

2. YouTube. If Google was a winner just for acquiring YouTube, then YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steven Chen, who created a site and flipped it for major moolah in just a year and a half, without even demonstrating how the site could turn a profit, are the biggest table scrap winners of the year. They still run their company and still got those stock certificates.

YouTube may be the first major television network for the 21st Century. What better place for it to be than online?

3. Broadband. Dialup Internet access has become akin to having outdoor plumbing. In the US, broadband access hit nearly 80 percent of the population. Because people no longer had to begin downloading a large file and then go to dinner while it finished, they spent more time actually enjoying video and audio content on the Web.

Broadband may be number 1, because YouTube and many interactive websites needed this technology to increase the Web's relevance. Without broadband, their would be very little market for dynamic content, in my opinion.

4. Lawyers. Happy days are here again for the corporate attorney. As Internet companies become Web giants, the window for lawsuit, valid or not, frivolous or not, gets a lot bigger. Google settles with advertisers angry over click fraud for $90 million - that's $60 million in advertising credit for the advertiser and $30 million cash for the attorneys who won that case. Yahoo's lawyers are so good, all they had to say was 'sorry about that' and write a check for $5 million to the complainant's attorneys.

Since I'm not a big fan of lawyers, I'll refrain from commenting much, but they have clearly been huge beneficiaries of the legal struggles related to the Web.

5. Social Media. For the end user it's been all about friends' lists, blogs, wikis, amateur videos, vlogging, podcasting, and instant messaging. From the consumer end, it's been a communication bonanza and the official creation of the citizen media. Ideally, the elite and powerful only provide the means by which the people communicate, not control the communication itself, and the people are eating up. And for the professional media, if we hear the words "MySpace" or "YouTube" one more time...

This is obviously huge and as important as the "social" part, is the participatory part, in my estimation. It is being able to influence media that has made such sites so huge.

6. Podcasting. The word "podcast" may have been Oxford's word of the year in 2005, but nobody really knew anything about it until 2006. Now organizations of all types - newspapers, corporations, educational institutions, radio stations, kids - have started their own virtual radio stations. Though Apple made threats to those audacious enough to use the term "podcast," a trademark infringement Apple said, all it took was a tongue-in-cheek one-dollar check to Apple head Steve Jobs to get official approval to podcast at will.

This, too, may be a little low on the list. Podcasting is creating a revolution that is striking fear in the heart of traditional media. People are looking for real, uncensored, and candid media; that typically cannot be done in a government regulated world of media. Traditional media, beware.

7. The Man. In all his incarnations, in government, media, or corporate America,The Man came out far ahead of the rest, even if he were scratched and bruised on the way. The G-Man, and his DOJ minions, strong-armed all the major search engines for their search data and got it, even from Google. Phones were tapped, records were seized, and online gambling, except that which is preferred by The Man, was banned. In China, The Man again forced Google to alter its search results to match the imposed cultural hegemony.

The government certainly was a big winner when it comes to the Internet in 2006, but in the top 8? I doubt it. I personally would put Rupert Murdoch in this spot for his ability to understand the power of the Internet and to transform his massive media empire into a responsive and dynamic media machine. This is being done through his very strategic Internet purchases.

8. The Proletariat. However, The Man hasn't always won this year. Though the telecommunications industry (one of The Man's most powerful front organizations) had Congress wrapped around its green finger, there were enough grass roots to forestall any legislation without meaningful Net Neutrality protections. With a massive Republican defeat in Washington, Net Neutrality has a fighting chance. When AOL tried to impose the equivalent of an email tax, the people revolted and AOL was forced to reconsider. When Britain proposed a blogger code of conduct, again the proletariat told The Man where to shove it. When TV wasn't as entertaining, when news wasn't as neutral or biased as it needed to be, when radio was too censored, and movies were far too polished, the people took the media into their own hands, which makes The Man very, very nervous.

I agree and so does Time Magazine which has called the Web contributor the "Person of the Year." That would be you and me! The world of the media is changing daily (maybe even hourly). Some, like Murdoch, are adapting and over time his traditional media will become a giant support to his Web media (just watch and see). Others are simply dead in the water, like the canal boat industry (no pun intended) that underestimated the power of trains, many in traditional media are still trying to charge for online content or are refusing to make dynamic media available (e.g., videos). Watch many traditional media go on the auction block and sell for cheap in the next few years.

This is a great list, but I would love your comments on this year's winners and losers. I would also like to know which companies or individuals you think will win big in '07.