Good Week
The tension must have been unbearable last week for Yahoo shareholders. Just imagine the scene. “Hmm, this Microsoft offer is interesting but should we take it? After all, we were one of the pioneers of the internet. We have a popular email system, the best photo album, a much-read finance site. You have to understand that this web phenomenon is only just touching the fibrous crust of what is possible. We are like infants that do not realise the almost infinite return of being a leading property holder on the internet… Hold up. How much did you say Microsoft is offering? Sell, you idiots! Sell this piece-of-crap stock right now.”

Bad Week
Online auctioneers could be going, going (complete world’s most predictable opening ever yourself) if a new website is successful. Called TypoBuddy.com, and coming from the same stable that brought you discount code site DealLocker.com, the site discovers auction listings that have been misspelled and therefore do not appear on normal search listings. In theory, that means savings for bargain hunters. It could also be used by unscrupulous sellers to make an item out to be more valuable than it really is, of course.

Word of the Week
Sabotage. At first it seemed that there might be a plausible excuse for the recent telecoms disruptions. But if the loss of one submarine cable could appear careless, the third and fourth did not do very much for the idea that there was an innocent reason for the problems. Could it be a lost ship, a stray anchor, or an evil plot to destabilise the internet? As with Lord Lucan, JFK and Shergar, we will probably never know.