Archive for June, 2007

Ebay stopped running text ads on Google two weeks ago, just as the annual eBay Live was about to kick off in Boston. The decision was widely seen as retaliation for the “Let Freedom Ring”-party Google had planned to stage in Boston to promote Google Checkout, a payment service eBay doesn’t allow sellers to use. [...]

The Boston Globe‘s Donovan Slack reports today that the acoustic gunfire-detection system ShotSpotter won’t be in place in Boston “until October, months later than expected and too late to stave off the usual summer rise in gunfire and homicides.” I’m neither surprised nor disappointed. I’m not surprised because Boston, like most cities in the Northeast, [...]

Boston Police Department put out a suspect-wanted notice early this afternoon for the man suspected of holding up Truly Jörg’s Pattiserie in Kenmore Square on May 9 this year. Three hours later, BPDnews.com announced the suspect has been apprehended. That is great news. In other news, the BPD has opened a “community office” at Landmark [...]

At about 6:40-6:45 this morning there was a two-vehicle accident in the northern half of the intersection of Charlesgate East and Commonwealth Avenue. Neither driver seemed to be particularly hurt. I don’t know what or who caused the accident.

E-comm consultant Randy Smythe finishes a post on eBay Live with an interesting bit of speculation: Of course if Meg Whitman’s buddy Mitt Romney is elected President that might help delay [government] action [against eBay]– I’m just saying. Here’s a thought OT (off topic) With Meg reaching 10 years at the helm of eBay and [...]

EBay Live 2008 will be held in Chicago, which I think will make it the first eBay Live convention in the Mid-West. Updated June 25, 2007, and January 22, 2008. EBay Live 2008 in Chicago When: June 19 -21. Where: McCormick Place West Building. Registration opens on March 14, 2008: – Early Bird Registration – [...]

Today was the last day of eBay Live 2007, and what a terrific day it was, just like the Live was in general. Two authors on hand at Live were set to sign books, but both of them had had theirs books sell out in the eBay Live bookstore the first day, meaning there weren’t [...]

EBay’s decision to cancel all advertising on Google remained a major talking point at eBay Live in Boston, in spite of eBay staffers gamely insisting that the decision is nothing out of the ordinary, merely a routine test of the “incrementality” of the effectiveness of so-called paid search on Google, and not at all retaliation [...]

As Bill at Switchback reported earlier today, there is “visible progress on the renovations” of the Kenmore Square bus station. Below are no less than five pictures of this stunning development. From the south-east corner of the square: From the west: From the north: From the north-east corner: Finally, a view from the south-east corner [...]

Last week I wrote about an early-morning assault on a young woman in Kenmore Square. Such assaults are rare in our neighborhood, thank God. This morning I was roused from my not overly deep sleep by a much a more frequent occurrence: A loud and profane argument between two (presumably) drunk people in the street. [...]