I have been running around Europe the last three days -- Geneva, Luxembourg, Berlin and London and I am now back in New York City.

While in London I saw that the venerable TIMES is now printed tabloid style. I am sure the main reason for the change was to save on production costs, but I would wager that the Internet played a role in this change as well.

Many newspapers have lost ads to the Net. Going to a smaller print format is one way to continue publishing, but to save money as the Internet grabs more and more local ads. One day most newspapers (famous and not so famous)will go the same way as the TIMES of London.

Forbes European edition (29 November 2004) had a terrific article on a Search Engine company Quigo. Writer Chana Schoenberger reports that Quigo feels that its search platform and contextual ad service is equal to or better than the Google offerings. I have no idea if the claim is true or not, but the real point of the article (to me) is that there is always a better mousetrap waiting in the wings.