Hey, b5 is looking for an online sales manager. here's our "official" pitch:

b5media Inc., a Toronto-based new media content network, is seeking a qualified and experience online ad sales manager to add to our growing team. b5media is a venture-backed company (J.L. Albright and Brightspark Ventures) focused on creating valuable content, primarily using blogs. We are seeking an individual with solid experience in online ad sales and valuable industry contacts who is looking for a challenging opportunity with growth potential, a solid base and commission package as well as performance incentives. If you, or anyone you know, is looking for an exciting opportunity in a fast-growing startup, please email Jeremy Wright at Jeremy AT b5media.com.

After months of anxious anticipation, Internet Explorer 7 is finally available. Now, we can abandon those pesky open-source browsers that have kept IE from cementing its domination of the market. I can't wait to uninstall Firefox, Flock and Opera. No more worrying about cool extensions and plug-ins from an army of developers, no more worry about Web sites that just don't look quite right, and finally no more guilt about trying to be one of those people who seeks out Microsoft alternatives. If I were you, I'd rumble over to IE7's download site immediately. Can it only be a matter of time before Firefox's 10% to 12% share of the browser market returns to a more reasonable level - say 2% to 3%? Then, we'd be back to normal again with a true king and lots of little wannabes wandering around to make it seem like competition is alive and well.

   Then again...what if IE7 isn't the be all and end of browsers? What if it's a simply much-needed improvment from IE6, which was still using Spyglass technology from late-1990s? What if Firefox 2.0 is just as good and user-friendly? (and less of a memory hog would help as well!) Surely, this would force Microsoft to deal with competitors (Firefox, Opera, Flock, Maxthon, etc.) that encourage innovation. What if all those Firefox users and all those Firefox developers just keep on doing what they're doing? Now, this could be interesting, very interesting.

   So what do you do as a browser user? Well, if you're curious and brave, download IE7. If you're happy with Firefox, Flock and Opera, just keep on doing what you're doing. For more view check out FactoryCity, Inside Microsoft and Matt Cutts.

If you thought the Recording Industry Association of America's legal battle against people who downloaded music for free was vicious, you ain't seen nothing yet when it comes to the war being waged against Russian's AllofMP3.com, which lets people buy CDs for $1 to $2. In the latest skirmish, Visa International has suspended its credit card service to AllofMP3, which in turn has decided to embrace an ad-supported business model that will see it give away music for free. If you've been using AllofMP3's service, you should cash in your credits soon because the company will also adopt technology that will force its users to play downloaded music on AllofMP3's software. And you'll only be able to play it on one computer at a time. The question of whether AllofMP3 is legitimate hinges on how Russian's copyright laws are interpreted. AllofMP3 claims it's operating by the law of the land by handing over 15% of its revenue to the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society. The music industry, which is still fighting the free phenomena seven years after Napster appeared on the scene, refutes this idea. Of course, AllofMP3's future could hinge on whether Russia wants to get into the World Trade Organization. If the WTO insists on AllofMP3's shutdown as part of Russia's admittance into the WTO, the little music service that could may be no more pretty soon.