What the Bubble got right.... by Paul Graham. (thanks John Batelle). Something to really sink your teeth into ... which I haven't had a chance to do yet.

Tragedy of the Advertising Commons

from Marketing Profs

Google Overtakes Overture's Local Match

....or Media Post just goofed big time.

Poynter released their latest eye tracking study with interesting results for advertisers and architects.

Shut Up and Talk

Listening has been trumpeted as one of the skills that makes a great leader or manager. I think listening makes one a good blogger too. Stowe Boyd quotes James Surowiecki's "The Wisdom of Crowds," in a section which argues that those who are more talkative in small groups are perceived as being more influential. Stowe sees a correlation to this and blogging.

Curious Search

Just about to pick up The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, a story that is told through the voice of a young autistic boy, and noticed my new favorite blogger, John Battelle, has a great look into the allegory between the novel and search:

I'm not entirely sure why, but this really hit home with me, after a year or so of interacting with the engineers and mathematicians who drive innovation in search. It's not that, as a group or even as individuals, the geniuses behind search are autistic. But as a culture, and in particular, as a product, search certainly can be understood to be face blind in the very least - unaware and/or unable to discern the cues we as users give it.

And there is a certain...coldness to search, an aloof, detached, and passionless side to it, where all things which can be indexed, are indexed, and a certain arrogance with regard to those things or people who don't understand how to retrieve that which is in the index.

I can't put my finger on it in this passage, nor will I try any more than I have, but, in the end, this is why we read novels, to feel that which otherwise we might not even notice.

Viral marketing. Literally.

A Google Browser? Jason Kottke thinks so and it makes perfect sense to me too.

Democratic Marketing

Independence Air, the new low-cost carrier based out of Dulles, is putting its marketing in the hands of their customers. Members of their frequent flier club are asked to choose Independence Air's next promotion.

Stuart Henshall's beginnings of a Manifesto on Social Networking.

Dell and Gateway must not have learned how to differentiate in Advertising 101.

Reading Jeff Jarvis's continuous thoughts on transparency and mass media's lack thereof has made me think, does the lack transparency also make us stupid? The type of transparency Jeff talks about is that which enables people to gain a better understanding of a writer's, or for that matter a media organization's, point of view. But does opaqueness also shade us from knowledge, not just honesty and truth?

Another Scott Knowles has a blog.

Amy Blogs!

I've been trying to get my wife Amy to see the fun in blogging for a while now. Write what you're passionate about. Connect with others.

It wasn't resonating ....until now.

Amy has taken up the big challenge of running the Marine Corp Marathon. She has been sending out weekly updates to all her friends and family and her training. All of which have been written really well. I suggested she start a weblog. And she did.

So far she has 3 entries (number 1 is still my favorite). I'm still trying to get her to use a blog roll. There are tons of other running blogs out there I discovered via Google -- okay I'm passionate about blogs, and Amy is passionate about running. She doesn't get that part yet --- her audience is really just friends and family.

She is already up to 8 miles!

If you hold any value in the freedom of speach, read this.

Amazon Blogs... err... Plogs

If there hasn't been proof enough that blogging is mainstream, Amazon is toying the concept in a new content layout called Plogs. Right now I only see this as a new way of ordering content, but the potential is there, especially in the area of collaborative filtering across outside blogs and in the use of RSS. Rafat Ali says:

what I would like is that if Amazon can spider services like Technorati to see other references (from other blogs/media sources) to a new book released, and present that ecosystem as part of the "plog" recommendation...
As such, the blog meme is powerful than you think..the chunk-sized bites are about to take over the world...sorta.
I can see implications of this integrated into its A9 search engine

Stowe Boyd adds:

I can't tweak very much, can't change look/feel, move things around -- just toggling on and off the monetary value of purchases made -- and I can't actually add any content. Wouldn't it be sensible to have my own reviews, etc.?

Is this only a mechanism to push information to me? Even so I like the format. But there is no RSS feed, so I guess you have to actually go and read the damn thing.

And the whole social angle -- seeing updates to your buddies' wishlists, for example -- isn't integrated at all.

It will be interesting to see how Plogs affects sales. Unless they leverage some of the ideas from above, I don't see them helping.

Looks like Plogs is only in beta, so some might not be able to see it in action.

Short Clutter Spans

I've always stated here that ad clutter has diminished the effectiveness of advertising. This seemingly common sense notion has had me perplexed for some time as to why agencies and advertisers continue to pack as many messages into a bottle as possible. Not only does this make the advertiser lose, it makes the media property lose as well. They are perceived as cluttered, annoying and disprespectful of a customer's needs. It would seem there would be less and less clutter as the audience demands it.

Of course, sometimes common sense doesn't win out. A study is needed to prove the obvious. BURST Media took that step today in releasing a study which shows that clutter not only makes advertising ineffective but also creates a negative brand impact.

Key findings included:
-1/3 of web users (34.2%) say they will tolerate a single advertisement per web page
-Another 1/4 (26.7%) of respondents say they will tolerate two advertisements
per page
-1/2 (51.2%) of respondents say they have a less favorable opinion of an advertiser’s product or service when their advertising appears on a web page they perceive as cluttered
-More than 1/3 (36.8%) of respondents say they immediately leave a site if it appears cluttered
-Fully 3/4 (73.4%) of respondents who remain on a site they perceive to be cluttered say they pay less attention to advertisements appearing on its pages

These findings should be extended to other advertising. We would find longer but less frequent TV commercials more effective, same with radio, and the list continues. It's not short attention spans that we have, but a need for clearer communication. Hopefully this is a first step in the market reacting to the overall shift to a more consumer empowered marketplace.

26.2 Miles!

Amy has decided to run a marathon. It started as a half marathon and she decided to go for broke. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is sponsoring her training and the money she raises we'll go towards their programs. Here's a bit from her website:

"I have chosen to run the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC on October 31, 2004. This will be the FIRST race I have ever ran in my life. Actually, this is the first major athletic event I have ever participated in. I could barely finish a mile in middle school gym class. And now I'm going to run 26.2 miles throughout the monuments of Washington, DC. "

Google Files for IPO: "A management team distracted by a series of short term targets is as pointless as a dieter stepping on a scale every half hour"

Looks like it's official. Google filed for its IPO today. I find myself wanting to quote their entire filing .... so instead of me doing that just read it. You will never believe how much you can enjoy reading an SEC filing. Typical Google, a breath of fresh air.

ESPN.com - NFL - Ex-NFL player Tillman killed in Afghanistan

ESPN.com - NFL - Ex-NFL player Tillman killed in Afghanistan: "'In sports we have a tendency to overuse terms like courage and bravery and heroes,' said Cardinals vice president Michael Bidwill, son of the team's owner Bill Bidwill, 'and then someone like Pat Tillman comes along and reminds us what those terms really mean.'"

The Web as Door-to-Door Salesman

Wish I had time to read this, but if the sub-head is any indication, this should be a good read:The Web as Door-to-Door Salesman. "Blogs and online communities force marketers to rediscover the human touch of old-style direct marketing relationships (first of three parts)."

The Trifecta

There's a reason things have been ... well... a bit non-existent here ... Besides getting married in two weeks (woe! [err .... whoa!]) and buying a new house a couple months ago, I just started a new job. At big bad AOL.

Besides my passion in p2p marketing (eg. blog marketing), I also have a very strong interest in the development of local search. I stumbled across a great opportunity to join AOL's Search & Directional Media Group. My experience at TMP, which I seldom talked about here, was tightly focused around local internet marketing. Specifically the field of internet yellow pages. Which is exactly what I'm focusing on at AOL along with its integration into the new field of local search.

While I won't be talking too much about the field here ... as I never heavily covered local search in my blog, and I don't want to come across as a spokesman for AOL's local search plans.... I do want to say how pleasantly my outside view of AOL, which the press without a doubt shaped, has been smashed. From my first interview to my first 2 weeks on the job, I have met nothing but very friendly, approachable, smart and passionate people. Sure, I'm in the honeymoon stage, but a colleague from the recently AOL acquired Singingfish, shared the same sentiments as we were talking last night. There are a few things I might disagree with stategically, but I don't think there is any company the size of AOL that an employee wouldn't say the same thing about.

That's where I've been and where I am going. I'll throw a link of interest up here and there, but expect things to continue to be light here until after the honeymoon (that's the honeymoon after the wedding).

Wired News: Warning: Blogs Can Be Infectious

More of a bookmark to myself. But nevertheless an interesting study on how popular bloggers aren't usually the original creators of new ideas.Wired News: Warning: Blogs Can Be Infectious

No Candy

Now, this is effective advertising.

This made me laugh ... 10 worst album covers of all time:10 Worst Album Covers

Next-Generation RSS: Time-Shifted Streaming Media

Rich Media RSS? Sean Carton thinks so.

Doesn't the FCC have more important things to address than an investigation into Janet Jackson's boob? Like spread spectrum technology? Or the nearly monopolistic control of the airwaves? Or the chilling of innovation that the FCC's rules have caused for decades?

"Biological Changes Over Time"

is what Georgia is trying to make "evolution." Trying to appease the conservative right. Rep. Bobby Franklin, a Republican notes, "If you're teaching the concept without the word, what's the point? It's stupid. It's like teaching gravity without using the word gravity."

What other politically sensitive words can we make euphemisms out of?

Top Ten Mistakes Writers Dont' See (But Can Easily Fix When they Do) -- By Pat Holt. Every writer (bloggers too) should read this. (via John Engler)

Open Source Politics

Wonder why Dean has gained so much momentum and made so much progress? Someone asked me where he came from the other day. The old-school response would be grassroots. The new response would be open source. Doc Searls, co-authur of Cluetrain, spent some time with the Dean team. Here's what he heard:

During my time with the Dean team, I heard Cluetrain quoted a number of times. There was my "markets are conversations" line and David Weinberger's "hyperlinks subvert hierarchy." But the one that made the most sense for the campaign itself was Chris Locke's "networked markets get smarter faster than most companies". Exactly that principle, they said, applied in electoral politics today. That's why they were building or applying technologies that embraced their own networked markets.

Doesn't just apply to politics. It applies to business as well.

Google announces it has created social networking site: Orkut
(via marketingwonk) more here and here

The Industry Standard is back!
(via MarketingWonk)

A Dinosaur Evolves

Leading Internet Yellow Page site Superpages has announced sweeping changes to its site starting March 1st and is doing away with its current model. The new model will include a mix of pay per performance positions for national advertisers for the top 3 positions per page (bidding a la Overture). There will also be 3 pay per performance positions per page for local advertisers followed by 9 local fixed place/price advertisers per page. Additionally, (and my guess is because they have so many advertisers) they will be offering 15 pay per performance ads on the right hand side a la Google AdWords. [correction: these right hand ads will be fixed placement]

This is a big deal for the local search/IYP arena. Superpages has been the leader in the space both in terms of traffic and advertisers since the GTE/Bell Atlantic merger. Many (including myself) thought Superpages was to big and too old to adopt to the changing field. Superpages acquired pay per performance engine FindWhat late last year which is driving many of the changes to the site.

The change falls in line with a major theme that emerged from last Fall's Kelsley Conference on Local Search whereby national advertisers could handle the complexity of a bidding/pay per performance model and local advertisers would prefer a model that was more straight forward. My guess is this change will enable Superpages' ability to widen its scope of alliances to include major search players like Google and Overture and ultimately enable their product to be more easily integrated into any pure search engine. Currently, Superpages has alliances with MSN, Infospace, Lycos to name a few. These sites all have yellow page elements which are separated from their search function, but typically linked from the home page.

New House, New Wife, New Car, New...

I love vacations. And this has been one of those do-nothing except what you want to do vacations. I've finished two books ... a feat I never before accomplished in this short period of time. I had never read Huckleberry Finn and Amy thought I would really enjoy. What a classic. I also read Prey by Michael Creighton. Not nearly as good as Huckleberry Finn and more like watching an hour of television, but still pretty enjoyable. Especially with my gaining interest in social networks. I was going to read Linked next, but I'm afraid all I'm going to think about is how nano technology will take over the world through social networks. Better put that off.

I've also spent some time listening to music. Really listening to music. Usually I'm moving at such a quick pace that I can't take time to enjoy and really get into what I have on. I got a bunch of CD's for Christmas which I've really enjoyed. The Allman Brothers Live at the Atlanta International Pop Festival -- I wasn't sure how this was going to be, seeing how great the Fillmore disc is. How can you top a classic? The new disk is surprisingly different from Fillmore. It has more edge to it, and the jams take a different direction. The guitars are frequently out of tune, but it almost adds to the realness of the performance. The disc is actually to discs of two sets. It's interesting how the the first is more raw. While the second set which was performed around 3 am, is more subdued. I also was given the new Jimi Hendrix at Berkeley CD. This is also juxtaposed against another classic Fillmore recording. Whereas the Allman's Fillmore performance was more subtle and the Atlanta Festival more electric, it's Jimi's Fillmore performance that was more electric and the Berkeley show that was more subtle. Jimi starts off Berkeley with a very mellow and informal jam. Reminds me of my last Pearl Jam show where they started with the droning Release Me track and built into an incredible crescendo. Jimi does the same thing here. By the end of the disc, Jimi is ripping furiously through Voodoo Chile (Slight Return).

2004 is set to be an incredible year. Tomorrow marks Amy and my 3-month count down until our wedding. I've spent much of my vacation tying up loose ends for the wedding ... addresses, groomsmen gifts, etc. We are also set to close on our very first house on January 12th. It is a great end unit town house about 10 miles north of Bethesda, where we currently live. We're going to miss living in the middle of the action, but we're close to a town center which should give us plenty to do. Amy has been getting psyched for decorating. She's read this decorating book I got her for Chanukah twice already. I also got a new car. No more leasing! No more mile restraints! I chose a Honda Accord LX. So far I love it, although my only complaint is that it doesn't have as much leg room as my old Passat.

I'm not one for New Year's resolutions. I always believed if there was something you wanted to change, why wait. Just change it. Plus I think I have enough new things to keep me busy for a while. Things I'm going to keep doing ... going to the gym, lose more weight, keep improving this blog as time allows, keep loving my fiancee and do the best in everything I set out to do. Simple enough, right?

Happy New Year!

Monster's networking site has been launched. It's all over their home page. I've been playing around with it for a few days and still getting the hang of it. I'd love to hear feedback from all the social networking gurus out there.

Happy Holidays From Saddam

Not Kids for Long

According to Grunwald Associates and Media Post, over 2 million American Children ages 6-17 have their own personal websites. This has enormous ramifications for the future of the internet and the marketing that goes along with it, assuming the trend continues. When kids today become the adults of tomorrow, they will have an entirely different way of communicating. It hints towards an erosion of mass communication and a shift towards micro-communication and peer-to-peer communication. (charts here)

Peter Grunwald, President of Grunwald Associates, observes, “Previous generations of kids wrote earnest poetry, or joined rock bands to express themselves. Today’s kids do so by building personal websites. And they’re hungry for tools to help them build better, more engaging sites, and stay in closer touch with friends.”

Looks like there's a new (to me), not to mention pretty decent, marketing blog on the block by John Porcaro ... a marketing guy at Microsoft. John Porcaro: mktg&msft.

Weblogs and power laws (kottke.org)

Doing some research on social networks and power laws. Jason Kottke has a pretty good (and simple) explanation (this is from February)Weblogs and power laws (kottke.org)

For all you search engine newbies and gurus alike, check out this site. Looks to be thousands of threads on SEO and SEM related topics:Search Engine Marketing Forums