Google launches on the same day delivery service

7:00 AM delivery, Google, launches, service No Comments

MICHAEL LIEDTKE - 21: 00

Internet search leader Google takes a further step beyond information retrieval in food delivery.

The new service called Google shopping Express, first same-day delivery of food and other products online from a small group of consumers in San Francisco and suburbs that offer South of the town bought. The company based in mountain view, Calif., did not say, how many people are part of the test.

If the pilot program goes well, Google delivery service plans on other markets to expand.

"We hope that this will help users, the benefits of a local, same-day delivery service and help us the tires on the new service to connect", Google said in a Thursday statement.

The delivery is in Google's effort to improve confidence in the Internet consumer, have more options, online viewing to generate its sales the most.

Google has learned, the more time people spend online, the more likely are using its dominant search engine or one of their other popular services, such as the video site YouTube and Google mail, contain advertising.

The delivery could buy more online advertising Distributor, if Google's encourages consumers about their online shopping to do this on the same day delivery service, also stimulate. Having days to wait, or in some cases is one of more than a week for the provision of online orders of the biggest drawbacks of Internet shopping.

It is a problem, the Amazon and eBay, which have tried to solve, most e-commerce sites to operate, by we the same day service in some U.S. markets. Wal-Mart stores, the world of largest retailer, offers even same day delivery in five markets.

Are a mix of national, regional, and merchants in Google shopping express enter neighborhood. The most famous names on the list are target and Walgreen's. All dealers in the Google program will sell certain items on a central Web site. Google save courier service to pick up the orders at the dealer and then deliver them set at home or in the Office of the customer.

Although the couriers on a contract basis, they are issued Google-branded vehicles and uniforms society.

It remains unclear whether Internet shopping and same-day delivery can be profitable. Online food retailers Webvan broke in 2001, mainly because there was no pricing to develop plan, which would pay for the cost of delivery on the same day, without antagonizing against unwilling to pay buyers too much extra for extra comfort.

Google is still trying to figure out how much for his on the same day delivery service for free. Consumers do not have to pay a fee for the six-month trial in the San Francisco area. Instead, Google will earn at participating retailers.

Expansion of delivery on the same day there at the same time, which is preparing to Google some of its older on-line services to close, allowing it to devote more attention and money to other projects.

The realignment has angered some Google users. Have biggest complaints on Google Reader, the people to automatically receive headlines and links from their favorite sites allows, centered, and iGoogle, a page, consisting of from the Google search engine weather reports and stock quotes design set up by other online functions such as local allows surrounded.

Google Reader is expected to close in July and iGoogle is closed in November.

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US Postal Service teeters at the edge of ruin

5:30 AM Postal, service, teeters No Comments

Martha C. White , NBC News contributor – 3 days

Even as the price of a first-class stamp rose a penny Sunday to 46 cents, the U.S. Postal Service is operating on borrowed time. “We are currently losing $25 million per day,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe warned earlier this month. The agency lost nearly $16 billion in its last fiscal year, and its line of credit with the U.S. Treasury is tapped out.

If lawmakers don’t act, it could run out of money “between six months and a year at most,” said Richard Geddes, associate professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University.

“There could be a period when mail is not being delivered,” said Michael Crew, director of the Center for Research in Regulated Industries, and professor of regulatory economics at Rutgers University.

The Postal Service said keeping letters moving is its top priority, even if it means defaulting on its retirement benefit funding again. “Although our liquidity situation remains a serious concern, the Postal Service is continuing to prioritize payments to ensure employees and suppliers are paid on time, preventing any interruption in our operations,” spokesman David Partenheimer said via email.

How did the Post Office get into these dire straits when the price of stamps keeps going up?

As it turns out, 46 cents is a really good deal. In the United Kingdom, for example, a first class stamp costs 60 pence, or roughly 94 cents. In Canada, it’s 63 cents (which is about the same in U.S. currency). Geddes said if our postal service was refashioned to be more of a delivery system for still-plentiful but lower-margin commercial mail — ads, catalogs and the like — Americans could pay 30 percent to 40 percent more to send that birthday card — which would bring the price of a stamp to about 64 cents.

The Postal Service is limited in how much it can raise the price of postage, but that’s only one of the factors keeping it from financial solvency.

“The other thing that’s hurt the postal service is it’s an industry where we have scale economies,” Crew said. The post office’s fixed costs — keeping the lights on at its huge network of facilities, maintaining its fleet and paying its employees — are amortized across the amount of mail it processes. “As you increase volume, unit costs decline.”

But volume isn’t increasing; it’s plummeting. First-class mail volume — which earns around three times the profit of bulk mail — has dropped by about a third in a little more than a decade, Geddes said. “That decline is just enormous in a historical context,” he said.

The decline was sparked by the rise of the Internet and exacerbated by the recent recession, when companies cut their budgets for mailings. “About a quarter of their traffic has been lost in the period since 2007-2008,” Crew said. The agency has shed thousands of workers, but it’s losing business faster than it can save money by shrinking its work force.

Crew also blamed “a flawed governance structure and flawed business model” for the agency’s woes. “Any significant changes that have to take place have to be approved by Congress. This is not a way to run a business if you’re in a fast-moving environment,” he said. The Postal Service has expensive benefit obligations for retirees, a bill the agency is currently putting off and on which it owes $11.1 billion.

“The main problem here is Congress had introduced too many conflicting and inconsistent demands,” said James I. Campbell, an attorney and consultant on postal policy.

The USPS has to deliver mail six days a week to everybody in the country who has been sent mail, and it has to maintain a network of around 32,000 post offices — a much bigger footprint than other industrialized nations have. The post office wants to eliminate Saturday delivery, which Partenheimer said would save $2.7 billion a year. But to do this, it needs Congressional approval, which — so far, at least — it hasn’t received.

“Essentially, Congress has got to rethink the legislation that establishes the post office,” Campbell said.

That is easier said than done, even with dire consequences looming. “The information I’ve gotten is not looking good,” Geddes said. “The reason they’ve been able to last this long is because they have gotten the low-hanging fruit … but they’re at they’re bare bones now.”

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Service industry picked up the pace as 2012 ended

11:00 PM ended, industry, picked, service No Comments

Reuters

The vast U.S. services sector grew at its fastest clip in 10 months in December, boosted by a rise in new orders, according to an industry report released on Friday.

The Institute for Supply Management said its services index rose to 56.1 last month from 54.7 in November. The December reading was the highest since February and was well above economists' forecasts of 54.2, according to a Reuters poll.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector.

New orders rose for a second straight month, with the sub-index hitting a 10-month high of 59.3 in December after 58.1 the prior month. Hiring in the sector also picked up, with the employment index jumping to 56.3 - the highest since March - from 50.3 in November.

U.S. government bonds slipped after the stronger-than-expected report while Wall Street held slight gains seen after a separate report showed the economy added 155,000 jobs last month, close to estimates by economists.

"Overall a good number, especially when combined with the wage improvement in the jobs report," said Joseph Trevisani, chief market strategist at WorldWideMarkets in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

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Postal Service offers buyouts to 45,000 workers

11:30 PM 45000, buyouts, offers, Postal, service, workers No Comments

The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service will offer buyouts this summer to nearly all of its 45,000 mail handlers, part of a plan to consolidate operations at 140 mail-processing facilities in the next year.

The mail agency, which lost $3.2 billion in the first three months of 2012, plans to begin this summer moving mail-processing activities away from smaller sites to reduce annual costs.

As part of that plan, the Postal Service will offer $15,000 in two installments to full-time mail handlers who take early retirement or leave the agency, USPS spokesman Mark Saunders said on Friday.

Mail handlers are workers who load trucks and move mail containers between processing operations. Part-time employees also will be eligible for separation incentives in amounts based on the number of hours they work.

"The agreement with the Postal Service is intended to provide a financial cushion, and added peace of mind, for mail handlers who might be prepared to move on to the next chapter of their lives by leaving the Postal Service," the National Postal Mail Handlers Union said on its website.

The Postal Service has been hit hard by tumbling mail volumes as more Americans communicate online and by massive payments for future retiree health benefits. The agency has asked Congress to let it end Saturday delivery and make other changes. In the meantime, USPS officials have been looking for ways to cut costs.

The agency needs to reduce its workforce by 150,000 people by 2015, Saunders said. Consolidating and closing processing facilities, which will continue through 2014, could eliminate up to 28,000 jobs and save $2.1 billion a year, the Postal Service has said.

Saunders said he could not speculate how many mail handlers would take buyouts this year, but added that the change "will not affect mail service."

The Postal Service also has said it will offer buyouts to more than 21,000 postmasters this year. Postal officials scrapped a plan to close thousands of money-losing post offices and instead, will reduce hours at 13,000 of the nation's smallest offices. (Editing by Jan Paschal)

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters.

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Postal Service posts $3.3 billion loss

5:17 AM billion, Postal, posts, service No Comments

The U.S. Postal Service reported quarterly losses of $3.3 billion, and says that at the rate it's going, it will run out of money by October.

The agency was hurt by declining mail volume and mounting costs for future retiree health benefits.

From October through December of 2011, losses were $3 billion more than during the same period in 2010 — even though the final quarter is typically the strongest, due to increased holiday shipping.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe is warning of a possible suspension in postal operations this fall unless Congress acts to address long-term money problems.

He wants new leeway to eliminate Saturday mail delivery, raise stamp prices and reduce health and other labor costs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Netflix provides service in Brazil Latin America

2:05 PM America, Brazil, Latin, Netflix, provides, service No Comments

SAO PAULO - Netflix started his film and TV streaming service in Brazil on Monday, the bridgehead for a push in Latin America, which is key to the continued growth of the company after recent setbacks in the United States.

Netflix Inc. said that it is planning in 43 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean soon, the online movie rental company largest international expansion can extend.

"What is looking for Netflix, to do, combine to offer the World World World content", CEO Reed Hastings said as he opened the service in Brazil on Monday.

Netflix service in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay will be on Wednesday and then expands to Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean within a week.

Movement brings challenges not seen in Netflix core markets, the United States and Canada.

Broadband reaches a far smaller percentage of the houses in Latin America as in the United States, and speeds are slower. Piracy of films is the most widespread on the planet, which means that many consumers can pick up a DVD or CD of the latest movies for less than a dollar. Also, Netflix has little brand recognition in the region and it is already a local competitor for Brazil.

"This will work only in Ecuador, Costa Rica or even Mexico, as it has in the United States,", said analyst Michael Pachter of Webbush securities. "It will depend on how many households to broadband access have and how the quality of the content will be."

Only 20 percent of Brazilian 42 million Internet users a connection speed of 500 kilobytes per second, according to a may report by Ibope Nielsen Online. A speed of about 800 kilobytes per second is the minimum required movies to stream online.

Netflix subscribers across the region will be able, TV shows and movies, which streamed on a variety of gadgets. Domestic and foreign content in Brazil, with some titles in Portuguese, Spanish or English, synchronized offered are, and people will also be able, for subtitling.

The service in Brazil cost 14,99 Reals per month (approx. $9), and new subscribers will receive the first month free.

In the United States a streaming subscription costs $8 per month, and customers more to pay to get DVDs by mail. As in Canada are the Netflix service in Latin America streaming-only, without the DVD option. Netflix streaming library in the United States is about one-fifth the size of the 100,000 selection in the DVD section.

Hastings rejected to say would be how many film and TV titles for the Latin American consumers. He also would not say how much has invested in the company the company.

Headquartered in Los Gatos, California, working on the expansion of its international nature, such as the service, which it launched in 2007 in the United States more ubiquitous is and how it is new pressure. March Netflix had 22.8 million subscribers in the United States, about 34,000 more than the number of households that subscribe to Comcast Corp. cable TV service.

The company tried to calm down, the Internet video with DVD subscribers about a price increase of less than 60 percent on plans outraged-to bundle distribution.

It is also scrambling to a potentially large gap in the video library, created in March, when it the rights to stream movies and TV shows by Starz Entertainment, part of liberty Media Corp. loses

Netflix had tried, Starz offer to renew, the recently-released movies from various Studios Walt Disney Co., to the talks last week to reduce, if Starz announced that it, published a contract with the Netflix streaming recently under the annual 30-million dollar deal to renew movies and TV shows online not, included.

These developments have fears, could lose Netflix subscribers in the United States, and that has the share price of around 25 percent of the company, increases, wipe from about $4 billion in shareholder wealth, since the price increases were in July.

Anti-piracy advocates hope that Netflix is a entry in Latin America market-based instrument for the rampant infringement of intellectual property rights in the region, that can provide by many watchdog groups as the worst in the world in place.

Kelsey Zahourek, Director of Washington-based monitor function property rights Alliance, hopes that Netflix can change consumer habits in Latin America.

"When you give consumers a relatively low-cost choice to all movies that they want for a relatively low prices, it goes to lower piracy rates," she said. "Increasing enforcement along with consumer habits change a long way in reducing piracy can go."

Hastings said that the use of peer-to-peer sharing networks to pirated movies in Canada spread has fallen since Netflix is, that entered the market, but he was doubtful, the service, that alone was the answer.

"We're going to eliminate not piracy with Netflix, but you can make a dent," he said.

___

Associated press writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Copyright 2011 of the associated press. All rights reserved. This material cannot be published, sent, rewritten or redistributed.

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Egypt of ISPs to offer refunds for cutting service

2:57 PM cutting, Egypt, offer, refunds, service No Comments

CAIRO - Egypt's main Internet service provider customer for the interruption in Web access two weeks during the early days reimbursed the country's insurgency, the State news agency said on Sunday.

Internet access was by Jan. 28 to Feb. 2 in the interests of the pro-democracy movement which cut off finally forced to resign Friday quash President Hosni Mubarak.

Vodafone, Etisalat, Telecom Egypt TE data and Mobinil's LinkDotNet would grant customers suffered, disrupting a half month free service, told the news agency MENA.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

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