In an article in the Wall Street Journal in April last year Chris Zook, a colleague of Mr Rigby's at Bain, drew a comparison between Amazon, a diversified Internet retailer, and American Express, a company that had stuck to its core business of providing financial services.

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An expert on the First Amendment and the Internet, Speta says students who express themselves on the Web do face greater risks than earlier generations.

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However, they also express understandable worry that the internet is filled with predators and cyber-bullying.

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Now this is a San Francisco-based tech loving guy who tried every trick the internet offered, and then called his American Express Platinum Card travel agent, and none of it got the fare down one cent.

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"That's nuts, " said Toan to his chief financial officer, George Paz, as he watched his company's stock price jump 40% on news that Express Scripts planned to open an Internet drugstore to compete with much-hyped startups such as drugstore.com and PlanetRx.

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Budget conscious travellers should seek out hotel chains such as Best Western, Country Inn, Hampton Inn or Holiday Inn Express that include extras like breakfast, parking and Internet in their nightly rates.

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