(CNN) — Attorneys general in 17 states have banded together to call on Craigslist, the online classified ad website, to discontinue its adult services section.

“The increasingly sharp public criticism of Craigslist’s Adult Services section reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution — including ads trafficking children — are rampant on it,” the attorneys general said in a Tuesday letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark.

The letter continued: “We recognize that Craigslist may lose the considerable revenue generated by the Adult Services ads. No amount of money, however, can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution, and the suffering of the women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by Craigslist.”

A Craigslist spokeswoman said Wednesday that the site agreed with at least some of the letter.

“We strongly support the attorneys general desire to end trafficking in children and women, through the Internet or by any other means,” Susan MacTavish Best, who handles media inquiries for Craigslist, told CNN Wednesday.

“We hope to work closely with them, as we are with experts at nonprofits and in law enforcement, to prevent misuse of our site in facilitation of trafficking, and to combat such crimes wherever they appear, online or offline.”

In their letter, the attorneys general highlighted an open letter, which appeared as a Washington Post ad, in which two girls said they were sold for sex on Craigslist.

When the ad came out, Buckmaster wrote a blog post in response that said, “Craigslist is anxious to know that the perpetrators in these girls’ cases are behind bars.”

The letter also highlighted a report in May by CNN’s Amber Lyon, who posted a fake ad in the adult section. She received 15 calls soliciting sex in three hours.

Earlier this month, Lyon interviewed a woman named “Jessica” who sells sex on Craigslist. She told Lyon a Craigslist ad was “the fastest, quickest way you’re for sure going to see somebody that day.”

In a later blog, Buckmaster said Craigslist implemented manual screening of adult services ads in May 2009. “Since that time, before being posted each individual ad is reviewed by an attorney.” He said the attorneys are trained to enforce Craigslist’s posting guidelines, “which are stricter than those typically used by yellow pages, newspapers, or any other company that we are aware of.”

Attorneys general from Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia made the request a week after accused “Craigslist killer” Philip Markoff committed suicide in jail.

Markoff was charged with the April 2009 killing of Julissa Brisman. Boston Police said that Brisman, a model, advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, and Markoff might have met her through the website.

In 2008, under pressure from state prosecutors, the website raised the fees for posting adult services ads. In 2009, it started donating portions of the money generated by adult ads to charity.

A CNN investigation of Craigslist’s “adult services” section, which replaced “erotic services ads” two years ago, counted more than 7,000 ads in a single day. Many offered thinly veiled “services” for anything from $50 for a half hour to $400 an hour.

Newmark has defended his site, saying it is doing more than any other site that hosts adult ads to help filter out underage prostitutes and report them to police. Best, the Craigslist spokeswoman, said that fewer than one ad in 10,000 meets the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s guidelines for anti-trafficking action.

“Only Craigslist has the power to stop these ads before they are even published, and sadly they are completely unwilling to do so,” Kansas Attorney General Steve Six said in a statement.

(A VC) — There was a great conversation Thursday at Y Combinator‘s AngelConf in Silicon Valley. Anthony Ha of Venturebeat had a couple posts on it that I just read, one on Paul Graham’s comments, and another onRon Conway and Mike Arrington’s comments. I would have enjoyed being part of that discussion, so I’ll join in now.

I second Ron Conway’s hope that “any entrepreneur that has ‘the guts’ to start a company gets funded.” That is my kind of thinking. We need more entrepreneurship, not less.

So I’m with Ron 100% on this. Of course, getting funded does not means tens of millions of dollars of funding for every entrepreneur. It means enough funding to actually build something and see if the idea works and the team has the right stuff to build a company. Then market forces should take over and determine what ideas and teams get more funding, and which ones should close the doors and think about what is next for them.

Mike Arrington expressed the contrary opinion, apparently held by many VCs (not me), that this mini explosion in angel investing is creating a bunch of “dipshit companies.”

I don’t know what a dipshit company is. I haven’t seen one. If you listen to the chatter on Techcrunch’s comment threads, you will see that people think Twitter and Foursquare are dipshit companies. Fine. Many great companies have been built on a wall of derision, and I personally think those two are going to join that list of laughed-at great companies (and maybe already have).

My point is you just don’t know what is a crazy idea and what is a brilliant idea. And you don’t know what is a great team and what is a weak team.

Read more of Fred Wilson’s blog, A VC
Of course, we have our opinions on that. We make those judgment calls every day. But we are often wrong. Venture capitalists are wrong more often than they are right. It is good for VCs if 10x or 100x companies get angel funding. That is more opportunity for us.

Paul Graham rightly points out that that there is a “larger trend where founders have more power than investors.” I’ve been saying that on this blog for a long time. And I also agree that founders are determining the financing structures that make the most sense for them. But I do not agree with Paul’s opinion that the notion of a “lead investor” is going away and that is good for entrepreneurs.

This may just be me being defensive and protective of my chosen role. I am a lead investor. It is what I do. I don’t follow very well. I like to get behind an entrepreneur and company and help them raise capital, hire a team, and build the business.

And I think the entrepreneur needs a lead investor to play this role. Obviously they should pick a lead investor that will not “screw them over” — and sadly, too many times lead investors do just that. But there are many high quality VCs out there. Thanks to the power of blogging and social media and the Web, you can find out who they are and who to avoid.

Roger Ehrenberg had a great post on this yesterday. He says: “Coming to the table as a two- or three-headed syndicate beast without a clear leader is a big, big mistake. How many VCs like investing into situations where there is ‘management by committee?’ Answer: zero. Why should syndicate-building be any different?”

Just like the entrepreneur needs to run the business, he or she should find an investor to run the investor group. If you don’t want a lead investor, then don’t knock on my door, because I don’t know any other way to be.

via: CNN

Google has added a "Call phone" function to Gmail that will put Google in closer competition with Internet phone service Skype.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Google announced Wednesday that it will allow users to make phone calls over the Internet through its Gmail service, encroaching on territory that has thus far been dominated by Skype.

The service will appear in Gmail users’ chat windows with a “Call phone” button. When clicked, a telephone dialer will pop up on the screen, and users can place calls using an internal microphone or connected headset.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) said calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of 2010. The company said it will roll out the service to its U.S. users over the next several days.

Calls to other countries from the U.S. will be billed at Skype-like rates: Calls to the U.K., France, Germany, China, Japan, for instance, will be offered for 2 cents per minute.

Google also said it plans on making the service available for international users to initiate calls, but it didn’t offer a timeline for when the service would be introduced abroad.

The company said the feature will be useful to make quick calls when a user is on a computer, or for placing calls in areas with poor reception.

“Given that most of us don’t spend all day in front of our computers, we thought, ‘wouldn’t it be nice if you could call people directly on their phones?’” Robin Schriebman, Google software engineer wrote in a company blog post.

Customers who use Google Voice, Google’s free telephone service, will be able to make calls in Gmail using their Google Voice numbers. They will also be able to receive calls made to their Google voice numbers inside Gmail if they choose.

The move positions the company in a battle with Skype. It won’t be easy to overtake Skype, however: In its recent government filing for an initial public offering, Skype said it has 560 million registered users. That compares to nearly 200 million Gmail users, according to Google.

Still, Gmail is becoming a communications hub for its users. Prior to the phone service, Gmail already allowed users to e-mail, instant message and video chat on PCs. Users can also use Gmail to post to social networks through the service’s Google Buzz feature.

Some analysts say the convenience factor could drive some would-be Skype users to Gmail’s new phone service.

“Google Voice in Gmail will gain some traction, simply because it’s there — some people live in Gmail,” said Vanessa Alvarez, analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “It will steal some share from Skype, but Skype has been in this space for a while, so it will be a long time before Google’s share becomes significant.”

As always, the question with any new Google product is how the company will make money on it. Like Skype, Google has an opportunity to sell its service to corporations. Google said a paid version for business customers will be coming out soon.

But Google hasn’t had much success with business customers so far. Its Apps services are slow to be adopted by corporate customers, and the company recently killed its Wave collaborative tool for businesses.

With Voice in Gmail, some experts believe business adoption and revenue from the service will be equally poor.

“Google is taking the easy road of arming their army of fans and users with something just good enough to use — but not necessarily good enough to meet enterprise requirements — and standing back and watching to see how they can shape the market,” said Tom Austin, Google applications analyst at Gartner.

As a result, Austin said he believes Google’s paid revenue stream for the service will be quite small: just $20.3 million per quarter, or 0.3% of Google’s second quarter revenue.

“How important can it be if it’s so insignificant?” Austin asked.

“Criticism is something you can easily avoid by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” ~Aristotle

At the end of the day, when I feel completely exhausted, oftentimes it has nothing to do with all the things I’ve done.

It’s not a consequence of juggling multiple responsibilities and projects. It’s not my body’s way of punishing me for becoming a late-life jogger after a period of cardiovascular laziness. It’s not even about getting too little sleep.

When I’m exhausted, you can be sure I’ve bent over backwards trying to win everyone’s approval. I’ve obsessed over what people think of me, I’ve assigned speculative and usually inaccurate meanings to feedback I’ve received, and I’ve lost myself in negative thoughts about criticism and its merit.

I work at minimizing this type of behavior—and I’ve had success for the most part—but admittedly it’s not easy.

I remember back in college, taking a summer acting class, when I actually made the people around me uncomfortable with my defensiveness. This one time, the teacher was giving me feedback after a scene in front of the whole class. She couldn’t get through a single sentence without me offering some type of argument.

After a couple minutes of verbal sparring, one of my peers actually said, “Stop talking. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

Looking back, I cut myself a little slack. You’re vulnerable in the spotlight and the student’s reaction was kind of harsh. But I know I needed to hear it. Because I was desperately afraid of being judged, I took everything, from everyone as condemnation.

I realize criticism doesn’t always come gently from someone legitimately trying to help. A lot of the feedback we receive is unsolicited and doesn’t come from teachers—or maybe all of it does.

We can’t control what other people will say to us, whether they’ll approve or form opinions and share them. But we can control how we internalize it, respond to it, and learn from it, and when we release it and move on.

If you’ve been having a hard time dealing with criticism lately, it may help to remember the following:

The Benefits of Criticism:

Personal Growth

1. Looking for seeds of truth in criticism encourages humility. It’s not easy to take an honest look at yourself and your weaknesses, but you can only grow if you’re willing to try.

2. Learning from criticism allows you to improve. Almost every critique gives you a tool to more effectively create the tomorrow you visualize.

3. Criticism opens you up to new perspectives and new ideas you may not have considered. Whenever someone challenges you, they help expand your thinking.

4. Your critics give you an opportunity to practice active listening. This means you resist the urge to analyze in your head, planning your rebuttal, and simply consider what the other person is saying.

5. You have the chance to practice forgiveness when you come up against harsh critics. Most of us carry around stress and frustration that we unintentionally misdirect from time to time.

Emotional Benefits

6. It’s helpful to learn how to sit with the discomfort of an initial emotional reaction instead of immediately acting or retaliating. All too often we want to do something with our feelings—generally not a great idea!

7. Criticism gives you the chance to foster problem solving skills, which isn’t always easy when you’re feeling sensitive, self-critical, or annoyed with your critic.

8. Receiving criticism that hits a sensitive spot helps you explore unresolved issues.Maybe you’re sensitive about your intelligence because you’re holding onto something someone said to you years ago—something you need to release.

9. Interpreting someone else’s feedback is an opportunity for rational thinking—sometimes, despite a negative tone, criticism is incredibly useful.

10. Criticism encourages you to question your instinctive associations and feelings; praise is good, criticism is bad. If we recondition ourselves to see things in less black and white terms, there’s no stop to how far we can go!

Improved Relationships

11. Criticism presents an opportunity to choose peace over conflict. Oftentimes, when criticized our instinct is to fight, creating unnecessary drama. The people around us generally want to help us, not judge us.

12. Fielding criticism well helps you mitigate the need to be right. Nothing closes an open mind like ego—bad for your personal growth, and damaging for relationships.

13. Your critics give you an opportunity to challenge any people-pleasing tendencies.Relationships based on a constant need for approval can be draining for everyone involved. It’s liberating to let people think whatever they want—they’re going to do it anyway.

14. Criticism gives you the chance to teach people how to treat you. If someone delivers it poorly, you can take this opportunity to tell them, “I think you make some valid points, but I would receive them better if you didn’t raise your voice.”

15. Certain pieces of criticism teach you not to sweat the small stuff. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter that your boyfriend thinks you load the dishwasher “wrong.”

Time Efficiency

16. The more time you spend dwelling about what someone said, the less time you have to do something with it.

17. If you improve how you operate after receiving criticism, this will save time and energy in the future. When you think about from that perspective—criticism as a time saver—it’s hard not to appreciate it!

18. Fostering the ability to let go of your feelings and thoughts about being critiqued can help you let go in other areas of your life. Letting go of worries, regrets, stresses, fears, and even positive feelings helps you root yourself in the present moment. Mindfulness is always the most efficient use of time.

19. Criticism reinforces the power of personal space. Taking 10 minutes to process your emotions, perhaps by writing in a journal, will ensure you respond well. And responding the well the first time prevents one critical comment from dominating your day.

20. In some cases, criticism teaches you how to interact with a person, if they’re negative or hostile, for example. Knowing this can save you a lot of time and stress in the future.

Self Confidence

21. Learning to receive false criticism—feedback that has no constructive value—without losing your confidence is a must if you want to do big things in life. The more attention your work receives, the more criticism you’ll have to field.

22. When someone criticizes you, it shines a light on your own insecurities. If you secretly agree that you’re lazy, you should get to the root of that. Why do you believe that—and what can you do about it?

23. Learning to move forward after criticism, even if you don’t feel incredibly confident, ensures no isolated comment prevents you from seizing your dreams.Think of it as separating the wheat from the chaff; takes what’s useful, leave the rest, and keep going!

24. When someone else appraises your harshly, you have an opportunity to monitor your internal self-talk. Research indicates up to 80% of our thoughts are negative. Take this opportunity to monitor and change your thought processes so you don’t drain and sabotage yourself!

25. Receiving feedback well reminds you it’s OK to have flaws—imperfection is part of being human. If you can admit weakness and work on them without getting down on yourself, you’ll experience far more happiness, peace, enjoyment, and success.

We are all perfectly imperfect, and other people may notice that from time to time. We may even notice in it each other.

Somehow accepting that is a huge weight off my mind.

via: TinyBuddha