Today marks Money Complex’s 100th consecutive daily blog. To be honest I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be blogging daily, but, I’ll be shooting for another 100 if possible. Today’s blog is going to be a bit short though. I’m going to be prepairing for a long hike tomorrow so chances are tomorrow’s blog won’t be too exciting either. Maybe though.

Anyway, check out Yahoo for a recent story about Google’s new site search engine feature for businesses. They are going to allow companies to pay $100 a year for a custom Google search function for their specific website. It doesn’t seem like something most companies will use right away but you never know.

“Air mice” have been around for a while now. The most common use for them has been in power point presentations. Just last year Nintendo brought a new functionality to the concept with the “Wii-mote” for the Nintendo Wii. Gamers who use the Wii can move the controller in the air to control the on screen movement. The idea wasn’t 100% new, but it was the first time it had been used in gaming. Now PC gamers can possibly enjoy the same air movement controller system. It will all depend if developers like the idea enough to include support for such a feature in future game releases.

Logitech has created the “MX Air Mouse” which is essentially a sleeker more high tech looking Wii-mote. It’s black, slick, curved, and costs around $150. It might not take off as quickly or as successfully as the Wii-mote concept, but, it does open the door for possibilities for more similar “Air mice” gadgets for the PC.

Source: Business2.com

Vista, which means “View” in Spanish, has turned out to be a little blurry for most. Microsoft’s new operating system was hyped up as the next big “must have” for businesses, home, and really any computer use, however, many people who have made the switch are still waiting for their computers to work as well as they did when they used XP. Furthermore, many XP users are wondering why they ever considered the switch, and frankly if they will even be needing Vista.

I’m still using XP and doing just fine. The idea of my hardware not working properly doesn’t excite me. The idea of me paying $400 to have my hardware stop working REALLY doesn’t excite me. As far as I’m concerned XP is all I need for now. It is very stable and for the most part doesn’t have any significant drawbacks at all. Microsoft has sold around 40 million copies of Vista so far. With all of the bad publicity surrounding Vista I wouldn’t be surprised if a good chunk of those 40 million are wondering why they bought it. I almost grabbed a copy myself back when it came out. Even 6 months later now I am glad that I’m still running XP. I haven’t had a problem with XP since then and expect to continue using it without any real issues.

I came across some interesting news today about a Starbucks franchise in China’s Forbidden City. It seems that the locals felt that Starbucks was too “western” to be accepted into such an ancient city. From what I can tell, the store was forced to close down after they refused to sell generic non-Starbucks coffee alongside their brand. The catch was that Starbucks would not be aloud to use the name “Starbucks” anymore. The Chinese government doesn’t have a problem using custom American-made Microsoft Windows software, but, apparently drinking an American-made cup of coffee is jut too much. Something doesn’t quite add up. Maybe it’s just me.

I find it hard to believe that there is a place in the world that would oust Starbucks, but hey what can you do. It’s not like there aren’t already too many Starbucks coffee shops in the world. I’m not a big fan of coffee in general, so I’m not too worried about this whole situation, but, I do find it funny that a Starbucks was shut down when there has been a McDonald’s in the SAME city for years. If McDonald’s isn’t “western” culture I’m not sure what is. Now, granted the McDonald’s in the Forbidden City has also undergone political scrutiny and has been forced to make some changes, but, they are still in business as of today.

Source: The Times of India

It seems like the Dow Jones has been setting pretty much left and right over the past few months. Just today it finished over 13,900 for the first time. The Dow Jones is up 11.50% so far in 2007.  You’d think with all of this recent movement that its’ owners wouldn’t be looking to sell anytime soon, but, as far as I can tell the Dow Jones is still very much available for sale if the price is right.

Interestingly enough, regardless of the record setting Dow Jones stats, the US dollar has been dropping in value. Sure the two are not directly related, but it’s still an interesting coincidence if anything. Apparently Europeans have been visiting the US recently to take advantage of the decrease in our dollar’s value. One of the factors behind the recent decline in the dollar is due to a spike in yen. I guess now is a good time to buy some gold. Who wants actual money anyway.

Source: CNN

Once again social networking is where it’s at. Google co-founder Sergey Brin said today that Google would be interested in talking with social networking giant Facebook about setting up “potential ties”. In plain English, Google would like to order one Facebook to go please. Hold the pickles.

Facebook’s owner and founder Mark Zuckerberg has already confirmed that there will be no deal. Facebook turned down a $900 million dollar bid from Yahoo last year. This time around even before an offer was laid out it seems that Facebook has already closed the book. It’s obvious that Zuckerberg has learned from the MySpace sale. MySpace sold for $800 million and is now worth around $10 billion just a few short years later. Maybe Zuckerberg is looking to follow in a similar light.

Facebook seems to be headed in a very unique and exciting direction. They have recently formed many partnerships with developers of “widgets” that will soon be used by millions of Facebook users to enhance and improve their “profiles”. They are taking the social networking platform where no competition has gone before and just in the past few weeks their total member count has rocketed to 29 million active members. With all of the anti-MySpace talk lately it looks like a good deal of social networking fans are looking for a new face.

Source: CNN

If any of you have ever used AOL, you’ve probably experienced the dreaded cancellation phone calls, and how difficult it sometimes was to actually get the rep to cancel your account. I used AOL back in the end of the Dial-Up days when I was out of town and needed to get online on my laptop. Most hotels at that point didn’t have Ethernet wired throughout and sometimes I just needed to get online to keep things afloat.

In a recent $3 Million dollar settlement AOL has agreed to make it easier for customers to “get out” if they want to. AOL had originally paid employees bonuses of up to $3,000 if they were able to keep customers from canceling. As part of the settlement requires, AOL will now make it possible for subscribers to cancel online, without having to talk to a phone rep.

I blogged about a month ago about Rupert Murdoch and the offer his News Corp made to buy the Down Jones. There’s a new development in this story that involves another bid, and two others who originally had shown interest in helping the Dow Jones AVOID being purchased by New Corp.

a committee of Dow Jones directors met with supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle and Web entrepreneur Brad Greenspan earlier today to apparently discuss possible deals. It seems that the two billionares could possibly be working on a mutual bid, in which they both would put their money together in hopes of outbidding Murdoch’s offer of $5 billion dollars.  A $5 billion dollar bid is not something that is generally beaten easily.

Today is the three month checkpoint for MoneyComplex.com. I’ve blogged daily for the past three months without missing a beat. Don’t bet on me giving up anytime soon either. I think I am starting to like this blogging thing.

Also, Money Complex is coming up on 100 consecutive daily blog posts. If you’ve read this blog from the beginning then I would love to hear what your thoughts are on my subject matter and topic choices. If you want to see more stock and investing related posts by all means let me know. If you want to see more webmaster and online marketing related posts then I’d be glad to hear your input. Anything is fine with me really. I like talking about it all and I can go on for a long time about quite a few money related topics.

Lately I’ve been focusing on business news for the most part. I like to follow business and stock related news mostly because I find it very interesting to watch how news and announcements effect stock prices. I’ll probably key in on business news more in the future because I’ve been getting some nice feedback on the news related blogs. Either way though like I said earlier, if you want me to cover something here just drop me an email through the contact page, or post a comment on todays blog post and I’ll see it here.

Lastly, if you like this blog then be sure to comment regularly. Top commentators will receive a free backlink from the side menu of every page on this site. With the PR update coming this month (supposedly), and this site predicted to be a PR5+, it certainly won’t hurt you to have some free backlinks from this blog.

Boeing unveiled it’s newest airplane model since 1995 today, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. 07-08-07 seemed to be the perfect day for such an announcement. The new plane is expected to make air travel much cheaper due to better lightweight construction. Approximately 210-250 passengers can travel on the 787-8 model, while the 787-9 will carry 250-290 according to Boeing.com. Another model, the 787-3 will hold 290-330 passengers.

Airbus, another airplane manufacturer at the forefront of air based transportation has officially congratulated Boeing on the success of their new launch. This shows that while the two are obviously competing within this niche market, they still have enough class to give credit when credit is due.

Boeing stock has continued to go up during this past week. It opened Monday at just under $97 and closed Friday at $98.88. It will be interesting to see what happens with it during this next week. Chances are it will stay pretty solid as the 787 Dreamliner continues to receive praise in the industry. As of right now Boeing has already received 677 orders for the new 787.

Source: Yahoo Finance