UAL Corporation (NasdaqGS: UAUA), the parent company of United Airlines saw it’s stock plummet to low of $2 per share in trading on Monday, due in part to a mis-dated article concerning UAL’s 2002 filing for bankruptcy which appeared on Google News on Monday. The six year old article was made to appear current to Google News users and the mis-dated story was blamed for a steep drop in UAL’s stock price and lead to the airline releasing a clarification for worried investors that they had not filed for bankruptcy.

Infoweek elaborated on the fiasco :

The problem started when Googlebot, the software program that Google News uses to index news sites, mistook one of the most popular stories on the Web site of The Sun-Sentinel, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for breaking news. The story, “United Airlines Files for Bankruptcy,” was then posted on Google News as a new story, even though the original news story was published on Dec. 10, 2002.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will be opening a preliminary probe into the drop in UAL’s stock, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday afternoon. Although the robe is in the preliminary stages and may not result in a full investigation, the SEC will still be looking at if there was any negligent or improperr behavior behind the release of a six year old story as current news.

The problem began when a single internet visitor in the wee hours of Sunday morning, a period of low traffic to the newspaper’s business section, bumped it into a “Popular Stories” section of the newspaper’s Web site. A subsequent visit to the story resulted in the Googlebot crawling the story again.

“This time, despite the fact that the URL to the old story hadn’t changed, despite the fact that Googlebot had seen this story previously, it was apparently treated as though it was breaking news,” it said.

Tribune (NYSE: TXA), the parent copany of The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, said it asked Google “months ago” to stop using Googlebot to crawl its Web sites after it identified problems with the program. But Google denied such a request was ever made.

“Despite the company’s earlier request and the confusion caused by Googlebot and Google News earlier this week, we believe that Googlebot continues to misclassify stories,” Tribune said.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal today, the US Justice Department has hired power hitting litigator Sanford Litvack for a possible antitrust case against search marketing giant Google :

The Justice Department has quietly hired one of the nation’s best-known litigators, former Walt Disney Co. vice chairman Sanford Litvack, for a possible antitrust challenge to Google Inc.’s growing power in advertising. Mr. Litvack’s hiring is the strongest signal yet that the U.S. is preparing to take court action against Google and its search-advertising deal with Yahoo Inc. The two companies combined would account for more than 80% of U.S. online-search ads.

While it’s rare that the Justice Department calls on outside litigators in these type of cases, Mr. Litvack is no stranger to antitrust laws as he was the Justice Department antitrust chief under President Jimmy Carter.

Things could be getting sticky for Google. It seems the majority of complaints to the Justice Department regarding the search-advertising deal with Yahoo Inc. were not from competitors but from The Association of National Advertisers, a trade group that represents major companies like Procter & Gamble Co. and General Motors Corp.

Full article here : Top Lawyer Is Selected As U.S. Mulls Google Suit

I was browsing through ezinearticles.com today because I usually do that when I need a good laugh. The vast majority of “article marketers” who write the dribble that is published on the afformentioned article database are usually pumping and pimping some “get rich quick” schemes that are surely destined to make you less rich in the amount of the ebook or system they promoting.

One particular article, written by a person named Matthew James O’Connor particularly caught my eye because it was using a very popular technique of baiting readers by asking the likely question “DoublingStocks - Is it a Scam? Read Our Detailed Reviews”. Here is the laughable article reprinted below…

DoubleStocks is not an eBook, but rather a newsletter one receives roughly every week. This newsletter is backed by “Intelligent Software” called Marl.Marl is a stock-picking robot that was designed by 2 computer geeks and apparently analyzes every stock out there, giving Carl and Michael (aka Marl’s inventors) content for their “never wrong” newsletter. By using certain math formulas, proven methods and individual stock history, Marl can correctly predict the outcome of most stocks on the market. Marl searches its online database for the best stocks to invest in, and displays the outcome on table format in the newsletter. How Exactly does DoublingStocks work? Not only does Marl predict which stocks to buy, but it also states the stocks entry point and target price/selling point. Is DoublingStocks a Scam? Note: DoublingStocks is a Legal Product. DoublingStocks claims a 84% success rate and I confirm this to be true. But what I can also reveal to you is that many traders (probably because it is so cheap) believe this product to be a scam- These traders believe Marl to be a fake, and say you, as the subscriber, are being used to help pump the stock value of unheard companies that pay DoublingStocks to promote their stock. If this scam is true, DoublingStocks still manages to boast a 84% success rate due to 1000’s of their subscribers investing in a company overnight- therefore it is obvious that the company’s stock price will rise. So I find myself in 2 minds about this product: If you want to make cash, it will definitely work, but if you believe it to be a scam-stay away. At the end of the day, the ball is in your court… just keep it rolling.

To begin with, most of this article (and I use the term loosely) is copied and pasted directly from the DoublingStocks promotion page with a few minor changes to keep the article relatively safe from being labelled duplicate content. Second, the person writing this article sheds no new light on the topic he has created, does not answer his own question and does not provide any factual evidence to support his positions on the topic he intends to lure victims readers into buying the ClickBank product he is promoting here.

Why do I feel a need to enlighten anyone reading this blog to these hucksters and teach you how to avoid deception? Simple, as an avid affiliate marketer, I tend to only promote products and services I have first hand experience with and feel will be of added benefit to anybody who bothers to take the time to read my blogs in search of factual information. The main reason is that once people trust your recommendations, you will reap more as an affiliate than if you alienate your readers by turning them onto scammy products or services.

Not to mention, I myself have been tricked into buying some of these “get rich quick” ClickBank products which never, ever work as they proclaim. As far as “DoublingStocks” is concerned, the thing any sane person sane person should ask themselves is “Why is the author taking the time to write an article about the product?”

The second thing any educated consumer can do to research if they are being conned is to search Google for the target product or ebook’s name plus the word scam, (ie : doubling stocks scam)

In this case, over 392,000 results are returned by Google, and most of them return linkbait articles such as the one above that regurgitate the product’s pitch page with absolutely no screenshots of trading accounts, no proof of returns, no examples of stocks the MARL application has picked, nothing whatsoever that would validate this program as anything other than another ClickBank scheme that will pick your pocket faster than the artful dodger.

Once upon a time there was a village named Egoville hidden away in the mountains. Now, this village, like most villages, had their own idiot. His name was Hugh Millety.

Hugh, the village idiot, was the ridicule of Egoville. The towns folk would often set him up with silly choices in order to laugh mercilessly at him when he made the wrong choice.

“Hugh,” they’d say, “would you rather have this shiny new quarter or this dirty old torn dollar bill?”

“I’d like the shiny quarter,” Hugh would reply. His tormentor would give him the quarter and walk away laughing, declaring Hugh a true village idiot. Hugh would just shrug and go about his business.

Even though it was a poor village with little opportunity, this was repeated several times a day by many people. As the years went by, the ridicule became a ritual that dozens of townies took part in. The towns folk had little to their names, but at least they could feel better about themselves in comparison to the village idiot this way. It was their small comfort in the lap of poverty.

Not everyone would make fun of Hugh though. A few felt sorry for him and gave him hand-me-down clothes, leftover food, and even an old shack to live in at the edge of town. Hugh lived off of the handouts of the charitable few.

One day, Hugh showed up at the village square wearing a brand new suit. Everyone was amazed, for few people in the town could afford new clothing, let alone a nice suit. The small village didn’t even have a new clothing store, only a used clothing store.

One of townsfolk asked Hugh where he got his new suit, thinking he must have stolen it. He bought it, he told them. And furthermore he added, the fine new house being built on the mountainside that everyone was wondering about, that was his.

When questioned where he got the money, he told them it was the money they gave him. With people giving him food, clothing, and shelter, he simply saved and invested everything they gave him. “I may be your village idiot,” he smiled and said, “but I’m no fool.”

But why then, they asked, did he always take the lesser amount of money they offered him if he was so cunning?

Hugh replied that if he had taken the greater amount of money, they would have stopped offering it to him. He earned his money by letting them laugh at him, but he knew the first time he took the greater amount they’d stop offering him money and find something else to laugh at him about.

“Now,” said Hugh, “I’m the richest person in town and have all the money I need. I didn’t waste money amusing myself at the expense of someone I falsely perceived to be a lesser person. And you, all of you, have little more now than you had when you started ridiculing me. So tell me, who is the village idiot now?”

Hugh smiled again, then handed out hundred dollar bills to those who had been kind to him. The townsfolk were shocked. It was true though, they had frittered away their money a little at a time, trying to make themselves feel big by comparison to the village idiot.

It just goes to show you, if you live in Egoville, take care not to become the village idiot by your vain perceptions. On the other hand, if you follow the wisdom of Hugh Millety, you might just become the richest person in town.

Most all of us use search engines on a daily basis with the majority using either Google or Yahoo! to find what we want on the internet. Experts say the average internet user makes almost 500 searches per month so why not make money while doing so? Is it possible? Absolutely.

Scour is a meta search engine which combines results from Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. Registered Scour user get points for each search that you carry out. Each search gets you 1 point and you can make money by commenting on results or voting for sites in the search results.

Once you reach 6,500 points, you can redeem it for a $25 VISA gift card. It might not be much, but at least its $25 more than any other search engine

Yes, you heard that right. Scour will give you a $25 Visa gift card if you earn 6500 points in the system. Points can be earned by searching, voting for websites in the search results as well as commenting on sites in the listings. Yes, they have voting and comments for search results which is an added feature sure to make Scour the most interesting aggregate search engine on the planet.

If you use search regularly, why not give Scour a try and who knows, maybe you’ll get one of those $25 Visa gift cards.

Join Scour and Earn From Searching

  What exactly is financial planning and why do we hear so many experts heralding it as being a cornerstone in any financial gameplan? Why is it important to undertake meticulous financial planning when considering investing in anything from the stock market to precious metals to the real estate market ?

Financial planning is the process of determining how to manage credits, debits, savings, earnings and wealth in general. It is absolutely necessary for anybody who is serious about setting financial goals for their future and it is essential for anybody who is a head of household with a family that relies on them.

Because our goals and desires change as we grow older, financial planning and investing is a task that is never finished. How we are financially able to reach these goals, and the risks that we are willing to take to get there means that any reasonable financial plan must be specifically tailored for an individual or family. Financial planning begins by taking into account the individual assets and liabilities at that particular point in time and balancing them against anticipated assets and liabilites.

An individual’s assets can include their current earnings, life insurance and all speculative investments along with any physical assets such as your home, automobiles, tangible valuable goods and other items that are of value.

Liabilities can include mortgages, car payments, personal loans, credit card debt and recurring bills such as electricity, water and other utilities that are common to household operation. Additionally, there are always hidden liabilities such as medical expenses, home repairs and other unforseen costs which may arise from normal day to day life.

Entering into the equation are other sources of ongoing income and increases in hard asset wealth earned through employment but can also include other sources such as possible inheritances and settlements from lawsuits. These factors must also be considered when calculating a financial plan. Increases in hard asset wealth, such as rising home prices, can also be affected by general economic conditions such as rises and falls in the current economy or changes in the real estate market.

Depending upon our particular stage in life, whether we are young, old or somewhere in the middle, will usually lead us to calculate a desired set of particular goals influenced by our current situation. Financial planners will often break down an individual’s life and earning cycles into several distinct phases to maximize the importance of setting time oriented goals. The particular phase that we are in is often determined by age but will also be dictated by how much risk we are willing to take on our path to prosperity.

Quite often, when speaking of younger people, they are most often described as being in a wealth accumulation phase. Their earnings have not yet peaked but at the same time they are laying ground to obtain both hard and soft assets through career advancement.

Examples here include younger couples saving for a new home or saving in anticipation of a child’s future education. Risk assumed here will be tempered by the time constraints of these goals as well as individual risk tolerance. In general, the longer the time frame, the more investments in the aggressive category may be considered because assuming risk and volatility while young gives one far more time to make up for past mistakes than assuming great risk at an older age.

Futher planning phases extend our goals into middle age and beyond into the retirement years. The middle age years often find individuals and families at the peak of earning power with many former goals already met and satisfied. This will mean a greater possibility for increased savings and as time progresses towards retirement, the tolerance for risk will diminish.

Financial planning takes all of this into account and more. Other factors, including planning for health care and other insurance needs, preparation for emergency expenses, tax and estate planning and the like will all be part of the ongoing strategy. Unexpected windfalls may also enter into the picture as an individual grows older, however, saving for retirement will always be an important aspect of financial planning for the day when the earning cycle slows down or stops completely.

All of these variables and equations will add to the importance of financial planning across all of the stages of an individual or families lifespan. Financial planning is a ubiquitous concept that encompasses your total wealth picture both in the present and for the future.