LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Michael Jacksonlost the will to live in recent years, a former close confidante said on Friday, as scores of fans camped out to be the first to see the singer’s final appearance in the “This is It” movie.Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, appearing on NBC’s “Today” show, unveiled lengthy conversations he taped with Jackson during their 1999-2001 friendship, and said the “Thriller” singer suffered deep emotional pain.”He lost the will to live,” Boteach said. “I think he was just going through the motions of life toward the end.”Boteach also said that Jackson, who had plastic surgery several times,…

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If a report from TheStreet.com has it right, Verizon won’t be picking up the Palm Pre after all. Showcased at this year’s CES, Palm’s flagship phone garnered quite the following, and was praised as a potential iPhone killer. Just prior to its official debut on Sprint’s network in June, Verizon said it would offer the smartphone within six months.Sprint replied by saying it held exclusive rights to the Pre through 2009, which left most with the impression that the handset would be available via Verizon in January 2010. Palm’s CEO Jon Rubinstein recently fueled that anticipation when he said the…

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There are two primary types of online advertising: direct sales marketing and branded ad campaigns. Direct sales models like online affiliate marketing or email marketing have already been proven. However large brands have only begun spending billions of dollars online, because there have been very few ways to monitor the effectiveness of campaigns. Let’s say that you set up a Facebook application which millions of users interacted with. How do you then measure the ROI of that program once it’s complete? Given that large companies spend hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars on advertising everywhere, it’s difficult to…

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Credit granted by commercial banks to the private sector in Mexico is expected to decline by 3% in real terms this year due to the effects of the economic recession on the demand and supply of credit, according to Eduardo González, analyst at financial groupBanamex. The credit contraction has deepened in recent months, with direct performing loans to the private sector decreasing by 4.2% in the year through July, following a 3.7% drop for the 12 months through June, according to the latest data from the central bank. “We are close to seeing the worse in terms of annual credit…

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BANGALORE (Reuters) – Tata Motors, India’s largest vehicle maker, plans to raise about $412 million soon through a sale of global depositary receipts to reduce its debt, the Mint newspaper reported on Monday. Tata Motors is working with a group of investment banks including Japan’s Mizuho Corporate Bank to raise 20 billion rupees, it said, citing merchant bankers and analysts familiar with the plan. The company, which controls about 60 percent of the world’s fifth-biggest truck and bus market, would raise the fund this month itself, the daily said. A Tata Motors spokesman told Reuters the company was committed…

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Global Gaming Factory X, the company that in June said it planned to buy beleaguered file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, has been delisted from the Swedish smallcap stock exchange Aktietorget. The Swedish Shareholders’ Association claims GGF mislead the market by overstating the commitment of its investors. GGF says it’s still prepared to buy The Pirate Bay even if its investors jump ship.The would-be buyer of Swedish file-sharing Web site The Pirate Bay has been kicked out of the smallcap stock exchange Aktietorget for misleading the market, the Swedish trading platform said Wednesday. <script language=’JavaScript1.1′ src=”http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N3382.ectnews.comOX2364/B3854875.5;abr=!ie;sz=160×600;ord=12527572247015?” type=”text/javascript”><!–//<![CDATA[ //]]>//–></script> <noscript> <a href=”http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/N3382.ectnews.comOX2364/B3854875.5;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=160×600;ord=12527572247015?”>…

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For some time now I have been aggressively marketing myGeocities website without the prospect of any financial return.The site is content based so I did not expect to generate anyproduct sales and neither was I able to lure potential sponsors.But that has quietly changed. Google has decided to rewardwebmasters with quality free websites the chance to rake in somecash for their hard work.Google’s contextual advertising program Adsense has been aroundsince June . Back then the program was open only towebmasters with their own domain names and many quickly took upthe opportunity to cash in on their labor of love sites.When…

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Facebook has been beta testing its new search since June 16th and more recently the company began displaying search engine result pages (SERPs) that have a greater emphasis on Bing results. While many of you are looking for a little more bling to add to your attire, Facebook thinks that for the time being you’ll be satisfied with a little more Bing. The Bing results used to be displayed primarily in the “Sponsored Results” area but now they have their own section of the results page.

So how significant of a change is this? Very big (I’m currently holding my…

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