Micro Persuasion

When Less is More and More is Less

If you've been reading my blog for more than a year, I want to thank you. You may have noticed that it has gone through a significant change.

For nearly three years I blogged nearly every single day here and only here - often several times in a 24-hour period. Back in 2004 I discovered blogging was my calling; something I love to do. I really enjoy putting out valuable information and getting responses back - even when it's negative. Feedback helps me learn, which is primarily why I blog.

However, over the past several months things have changed.

For starters, the format I had relied upon - lots of short, newsy/resource-filled posts buttressed by longer essays once a week or so - doesn't work anymore here. There are many sites that fill this void better than I possibly can given my full-time gig. So, I adopted a new format in the spring that consists entirely of thoughtful essays plus link-posts. The substantive posts, while longer, were more meaty and opinionated, but far more infrequent.

Second, the world now tuns faster. The blogosphere has transformed from the NFL to a quicker style of play that more closely resembles Arena League Football. Thanks to micro-blogging and social networks Web 2.0 is now more about rapid exchanges and it's very mobile too. I am not the only one who notices how the sphere is changing. Jeremiah says MicroMedia is taking hold.

This is all transforming how I express myself online. I learn new things faster and easier than I did before through real-time microblogged conversations. Today on Twitter, for example, we discovered that Google is indexing some Twitter streams and blogs in under 30 minutes. Twitter was our science lab. We couldn't have interacted as quickly here. Nevertheless, I understand that only some of you follow me on Twitter and other sites so I don't plan to give up this site anytime soon.

So, net net, what does this mean? Well, by posting less on Micro Persuasion I actually am able to give you more. I am freed of the need to write here daily. This means when I do post on this site it is more substantive and meaningful and it incorporates my learnings from the conversations I have had elsewhere.

Further, micro blogging - especially because it is mobile - makes it easy for me to converse with a good number of you in real-time. This fits perfectly into a busy schedule where many days I use my iPhone more than I do a computer. It also flows with our growing need as a society for all that is brief.

So right now what I have is short game and long one. It's working but some of you may not notice because you only choose to read this feed and ignore me on other sites. Where this goes in the long term is unclear, but right now the short and long are working together in harmony - at least that's how I see it.

What's your view on the new format and the mix? Are you feeling the same or do you crave the old style?

End Mobile Browser Sniffing and Give Consumers Choices

Photo by John Pastor

The iPhone has completely changed how I interact with information on the go. When I travel I leave the notebook at home. I take the iPhone, an Airport Express for the hotel room (or anywhere) and an APC power pack for heavier use days. Everything else lives on a 8 GB USB stick or "the cloud." The exception is if I think I am going to need to create or edit rich content, like a Powerpoint deck.

Still, for all of the enthusiasm about the iPhone and it's ability to browse most of the broader web, it's made me realize that there will always be a place for the mobile Internet. More than two-thirds of the time I am accessing the web from my iPhone, I am connecting to mobile or "iPhonized" sites that are in between the stripped down versions and the real thing. This includes when I am using wifi. I have two bookmarks for many of my favorite sites - one for the mobile or iPhone-specific version, another for the real thing.

That's bad news for web developers who are hoping that one day they won't need to re-code sites for handheld devices. The problem is they will always have to even if broadband is truly ubiquitous. The reason is cell phones and other gadgets are designed to fit in your hand. It doesn't matter if it's a PSP, a Treo or an iPhone or whatever comes next. From a UI perspective, mobile sites work beautifully on phones - as do information apps if the platform supports it.

This means web sites increasingly need to give consumers a choice when browsing from a mobile device. Many do not. They "sniff" what browser you're using and then serve up the site that will give you the best experience. The problem is that browser sniffing, particularly on devices like the iPhone, doesn't work because it supports all page formats. (Big disclaimer here: Edelman represents dot-mobi, but I don't personally consult to them.)

Consider weather.com, for example. The popular weather site determines your browser and then serves up a site that's best formatted for it. Enter the iPhone, however. There are times you want to browse the lite version and other times you want the big daddy. Unfortunately, they don't give you a choice and this in particular has caused some iPhone users to get upset.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is digg. You can browse the full version, a mobile site or an iPhone flavor. You get to decide.

The mobile web is far from dead but consumer choice is just as critical as these devices get more sophisticated.

links for 2007-07-26

• InformationWeek : Americans Use The Mobile Web For Weather While Europeans Prefer Sports Scores
  (tags: Mobile Stats Europe USA)
• Groundswell (Incorporating Charlene Li's Blog): I'm sick of users
  Josh is sick of the word users and I don't blame him.
  (tags: community Web2.0 culture)
• You the reviewer: bloggers the new critics in theatre land - Yahoo! News
  (tags: CitizenJournalism)
• Blogging Advice for the Next Level : [chrisbrogan.com]
  (tags: Blogs)
• Advertising Age - TalentWorks - Digitally Deficient CMOs Need Not Apply
  The same should be said in PR.
  (tags: career Marketing PR)

links for 2007-07-25

• Insanely Great News: Filemark Maker
  This is a great hack for iPhones.
  (tags: iphone Hacks)
• This Week's Featured How To / This Week's Featured How To
  A great set of how-to's from Wired, wiki.
  (tags: DIY wired Wikis Media)
• Accomplishment is What Matters : [chrisbrogan.com]
  Man is Chris right on with this one.
  (tags: lifehacks Productivity)
• BlogWrite for CEOs: Steve Rubel on CEO blogging on Canadian TV's Squeezeplay
  Comments on CEO blogging.
  (tags: Blogs CEOs Blego)
• Google & Other Search Apps For The iPhone
  All of my faves are here. Pressdisplay in particular is awesome.
  (tags: digg Flickr images iphone Mobile)

The PR Theater of Operations Will Flee Email for Social Networks

Quietly, perhaps without us even noticing it, a massive shift has taken place. Social networking is booming in 2007 and it's a far more mainstream activity than blogging or podcasting ever was. It's appeal is far greater because social networking fosters connections. Statistics bring this to light. However, the greatest evidence is anecdotal. (Note: MySpace, a major social network, is an Edelman client)

Consider, for example, that social networking has become fodder for mainstream outlets like NPR and the Today Show. In addition, I see it in my own online habits. I spend much more of my online time on sites that allow me to connect with my friends, some of whom are virtual. This is allowing content that I care about to surface and find me.

Further, many people are choosing to send emails through Facebook or Twitter. This annoys some, including me, but the cultural shift is what interests me most.

Content that finds you is a theme that Cisco's Dan Scheinman often talks about. He believes, as do I, that in the years ahead social networks will define media consumption for millions of connected citizens. Recognizing this, the media is slowly making a pivot, turning their own sites into platforms for participation or by embedding themselves into existing social networking sites.

This begs the question - if social networking is a backbone that will pervade almost all of our online activities, what about PR?

Most of the stories you see on TV, in print publications or, increasingly online, PR professionals had a hand in, at least in part. In some cases we were called to respond to supply information. Other times, we successfully generated the story. Relationships are what makes PR work.

Many PR professionals are good pitchers. They know how to sell a story to a reporter. Email is the primary way this happens. Thousands of story pitches are circulated daily.

However, I believe that as more of us in the trade join the massive movement to participate in social networks, big things will happen. Social networks will become the primary theater of operations for PR. It will be where  journalists and PR pros  connect, perhaps sometimes out in the open. Even better, it will be where journalists, consumers and PR pros work together toward a common goal. Journalists are already discussing these topics actively on a new Facebook group that popped up.

The golden age of transparency in PR is coming. It will be painful, but the social networking genie is out of the bottle and with that the venue for PR will shift out of email into such open platforms.

links for 2007-07-22

• You could look it up: He changed the world / Eye of the storm: A popular online information source, Wikipedia has been at the center of a number of controversies
  "Wikipedia has been at the center of a number of controversies"
  (tags: Wikipedia)
• C.E.O. Libraries Reveal Keys to Success - New York Times
  (tags: Books CEOs)
• Net: Storyboards As A Business Plan
  I love this idea not just for business plans but all creative thinking toward a desired outcome.
  (tags: Creativity Mindmapping Productivity visualization)
• Net: Join My Advisory Board on Facebook
  Another smart idea - using Facebook as a way to start open advisory boards.
  (tags: lifehacks SocialNetworking facebook)
• Social Media Versus Traditional Media: Brand Impact Analysis
  Interesting way to analyze media.
  (tags: Media influence Web2.0 Analytics)
• Get More Out of Google Reader
  (tags: GoogleReader Google rss)
• MediaShift . Digging Deeper::Your Guide to Widgets | PBS
  (tags: Widgets)

links for 2007-07-19

• Susan Mernit's Blog: Fads of the moment: 10 things we can learn from Facebook
  As usual, Susan imparts words of wisdom.
  (tags: SocialNetworking community Web2.0)
• UMass Dartmouth - Center for Marketing Research - CMR Blog Study II
  "College Admissions Outpace Corporations in Embracing Social Media"
  (tags: Education)

Wither Blogging? Not Yet, But Perhaps Soon

Earlier this week we chatted - here and on Twitter - about Shiny Object Syndrome (SOS). Our appetite for new technologies and channels is certainly insatiable, but it points to a larger trend. Perhaps we're in search of a new format (or formats) to replace the almighty blog.

What, wither blogging? Not quite. I believe blogs remain extremely powerful and I plan to be a multi-format contributor. Still, a perfect storm is brewing that could one day mark the decline of the long form blog as we know and love it today.  BL Ochman and Michael Tangeman are two that are pondering the same trend.

Let's take a closer look at what's happening. There are three big forces at bay here.

First, there's the Attention Crash. The demands on our time, be they work, family, shiny objects or all of the above loom large. This is changing our media habits. We crave what's pithy and fun. That's one reason why YouTube and widgets got hot.

Second, there's the proliferation of mobile Internet usage. I don't have the statistics handy but my gut is that the upper strata of Forrester's participation ladder includes many smart-phone owners.

As a reporter from MSNBC found, you can increasingly do a lot with these devices by themselves. On my next short trip I plan to leave my laptop at home in favor of my iPhone, especially if I can plan it all so that I am around wifi.

What this all means is that mobile platforms and devices encourages people to publish more often, but in a far shorter format.

Last but not least we have social networking. These sites and services make it easier for us to tune into "signals" - e.g. people and topics we care about - and tune out noise.

So what does this mean all for blogging? I imagine over time some erosion. We will unsubscribe from low quality blogs written by strangers that we truly don't have time for, in favor of tuning into friends and their mobile streams. Perhaps it's already happening.

Crowdsourcing a New System for Measuring Influence (Beta)

When I started blogging a few years ago I quickly got to know Steve Gillmor. I love Steve. He consistently says things are dead - Office, TV and links, just to name a few. Sometimes Steve is right, other times he is way off. But he missed a big one.

The practice of measuring online influence by links is truly dead. Link authority, as it was called, was good while it lasted. When blogs were where all the action was, this system was king - even though many of us hated it. Good for Technorati for building its own brand around it. Nowadays, however, link authority is a meaningless metric. Jeff Jarvis touched upon the broader measurement issue last week.

The main reason link authority is dead is that there are so many places where people can publish and connect with peers. Often, many of us are active in more than one at a time. You might not think some of these networks are influential, but in fact they are.

Take Twitter, a small example. Lots of people who are on Twitter don't write blogs and vice versa. Still, it's influential. Thousands of people track their friends and the site is incredibly well optimized for search. The TV nets are checking it out too.

Last night on Twitter my friend Robert Scoble and I got into an intense discussion regarding Facebook. Arguably, some 6,000 people (Robert's 4,400+ followers and my 1,500) witnessed it. That's small compared to the reach of our blogs.

However, one of those folks was Dwight Silverman, a veteran tech reporter from the Houston Chronicle  He took it all in. (Dwight had to put up with my PR pitches from 1996-2004. Pity him.) Had Dwight written about this, then conceivably hundreds of thousands more would have been influenced. And link authority or impressions doesn't measure any of it.

With this in mind, lots of smart people in our firm have been thinking about online influence and how to measure it. This is a critical issue not just for PR pros, marketers/advertisers, but everyone who wants to monetize content. We're experimenting with a new weighted blended approach and would like your feedback. (When I learned that I ranked highly in their calculations I told David Brain, our Europe CEO, that he fixed this to psych me into relaxing so I Twitter less. My rankings would fall and his would rise!)

The model we have developed is far from perfect, but it's a start. The key is to develop a system that can grow as the channels change. We want a system that we all like - or at least a majority. Feel free to leave comments here or on David's site. Our intent is to create this in partnership with you out in the open. It's in beta but now we need your help. Together we can find something that's workable.

links for 2007-07-17

• Groundswell (Incorporating Charlene Li's Blog): Soliciting entries for the Groundswell awards
  Are you doing something special with social technologies? Forrester wants to reward you.
  (tags: Blogs Wikis Podcasting rss SocialNetworking awards Forrester)
• Wikipedia ranks first for online news - Editors Weblog
  "Wikipedia is the top news and information destination on the Internet, gaining 20 million unique monthly users in the past year."
  (tags: Wikipedia Stats CitizenJournalism)

Why We're Like a Million Monkeys on Treadmills

Lately I have been thinking a lot about channels. Every day it seems there's a hot new Web 2.0 site that captures our attention.

In 2003 it was Friendster and Linked In.

Then in 2004, thanks in part to the election, blogging began to get really big.

The year 2005 brought us photocasting (Flickr) podcasting (iTunes) and vodcasting via YouTube.  By the way note the headlines "Internet craze" headlines listed here circa 2005.

In 2006 we saw a big revival in social networks with MySpace (a client) as well as the virtual world boom.

This year it's all about micro - Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce plus little web apps everywhere, on widget platforms, Facebook, the iPhone.

All of this leads me to the photo above. The Web 2.0 construction boom is bigger now than it ever was. Techcrunch, Scobleizer and Mashable leave me all breathless. It's like watching the cranes of Dubai rise. We're a million monkeys running on treadmills, chasing the latest banana. Myself included! The breathing apparatus in the photo above reminds me of my Google Reader stream!

Surely, channels are where the action is at. However, it's important to remember they are just that - and they change. Circa 1998, perhaps when many of you were 10, The Globe.com, GeoCities and Tripod were all the rage. They faded from our horizon over time. The same thing will happen to many of today's hot sites. In fact, I advise marketers not to invest too much time in creating "a Facebook strategy" as much as they don't have "an NBC strategy" or "a New York Times strategy." Instead, I encourage them to people watch, learn and then plan based on their audience and the big picture.

The most interesting action is in sociology. In other words, how does technology change our culture and how we interact with media, the web and each other - and to what end? This was a major realization for me a few months back and you have probably noticed it in my writing, which is less channel focused. These days, I am far more interested in what people do with technology rather than on what the latest new "shiny object" is. My friend Brian Reich calls this "Shiny Object Syndrome." That's why I am writing longer pieces once per day rather than many short posts.

For an example, consider this new study by the Shorenstein Center (PDF) that tracks how teens interact with news. Most of them do not make it part of their day. Surely new channels brought about the change but it's the shift itself rather than the technology that's most important and interesting here.

So my advice is definitely play with new sites. Channels are good and so is curiousity. But the bigger story in the long run is how these sites change business and our society.

(PS: For more on the monkey, read this related piece!)

links for 2007-07-12

• TwitterMail.com
  Fantastic tool for getting replies via email, scheduling Tweets, etc.
  (tags: twitter Email)
• Twitter for TypePad
  Easily add your lastest Twitter updates to your blog.
  (tags: Typepad Widgets twitter)
• Top 4 Success Strategies for Decentralized Content « SoV-Share of Voice
  Highlights from my talk at Widgetcon.
  (tags: Widgets Blego)

Turn Your iPhone into a Mobile Nerve Center

I have been a happy iPhone user for about 10 days now. It didn't come easy. I waited on line for several hours (unnecessarily) and then had a big hassle getting it activated. But it was all worth it. The iPhone is a terrific web device and it's great to see that already it has spawned some outstanding apps

However, the iPhone doesn't go far enough by itself. You can make it go even further with these free undocumented techniques I have implemented over the past few days. It will turn your iPhone into a mobile nerve center that allows you to keep essential information at your fingertips. These tips can be used by themselves or in conjunction with the GMail Nerve Center techniques I wrote about in February.

Read on and share your tips too in the comments.

Turn Your iPhone into a Hard Drive Using a Free IMAP Account
Requires: An IMAP account, desktop mail program like Mail.app for OS X, Thunderbird or Windows Mail

If you have an IMAP mail account and a desktop mail program, you can turn your iPhone into a hard drive that stores Word and Excel docs, Powerpoint frames (in the form of Jpegs) or MP3 files.  If you don't have an IMAP account you can get a free one from AOL. I have tested this successfully using Mail.app.

First, set up your IMAP account in your desktop app and on your iPhone. Then, create a folder in your account and call it @Files. Now, all you need to do to store a file on your phone is to send yourself a new message and attach the file to it. Then simply drag that file out of in into your @Files folder and it's ready to be accessed anytime. Even better, you can always ship it elsewhere via email. I tried to accomplish this using a draft email but it failed.

It gets better. You can also use this technique to send yourself MP3 podcasts without having to sync them through iTunes. Simply send then delete the message when your done. No mess.

Why IMAP? Because you have access it to the file from everywhere - the desktop, Web and iPhone. You can even set up a filter that automatically files away an attachment you email yourself into the files Folder by setting up the following criteria: from: (your email address), to: (your email address), has: attachment.

Turn your iPhone in to a Notebook

Requires: An IMAP account, desktop mail program like Mail.app for OS X, Thunderbird or Windows Mail

The iPhone has a decent note taking app. However it doesn't sync with the desktop. Enter IMAP. If you simply create notes in your desktop program and save them as draft they will show up in your draft folder on your iPhone. Then you can drag these to a @Notes folder either on the desktop, web iPhone. Again, like with files, the advantage here is that the note follows you everywhere.

Send Takeout Info to Your iPhone
Requires: Any email account, Google Reader

I do a lot of reading as part of my job. Often it can be overwhelming. A lot of this information comes from Google Reader that I come across while scanning my feeds. I don't have time at the moment to read the longer posts but I send them to what I call my "takeout" folder using this special technique.

First, I set up a special email address in Gmail labeled iPhone that I use to send stuff to my IMAP account. At the bottom of a Google Reader post you will see a link that says Email. Click on that link and type the word iPhone or your secret address. Then in your desktop mail program, set up a filter that sends any message with the phrase "Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites" into your @Reading folder. That's the viral tag Google puts on all of these messages. If you have an IMAP account all of your articles will be get filed for reading later on. The folder on your phone will look identical to the desktop and web.

Here's another similar tip. I send myself reference information like train schedules to my IMAP account. I take these with an @Reference subject. These all get filtered to my @Reference folder and sync to my iPhone.

Last but not least, I do the same using Google Docs, where I keep my GTD lists. I click on the email this file link in Google Docs and add @Lists to the prefix. Then these messages get filtered to my @Lists folder in my desktop mail program and also on the iPhone. I also write docs on the iPhone and send them into Google for later editing.

Bookmark Mobile Sites and Regular Sites
Requires: Web browser that syncs your bookmarks to the iPhone

Although the iPhone browser displays regular web sites nicely, it really is only effective when you're in a wifi zone. So, I keep a folder of mobile sites that I use when using EDGE (for example bofa.mobi - my bank) as well as another for when wifi is available (bankofamerica.com). I keep the mobile ones in a special iPhone folder.

Ok, but what if your favorite web site - like a blog let's say - doesn't have a mobile site? Easy. Bookmark the RSS feed. It will load in the iPhone's reader much faster than it will if you loaded the normal page. If you're on wifi you can indulge in the full glory of HTML.

Build and Store an Arsenal of Bookmarklets
Requires: Web browser that syncs your bookmarks to the iPhone

Here's a little know fact - most bookmarklets work beautifully on the iPhone. So add a bunch to your browser and make sure they sync to the phone. Some of these add incredible functionality to your iPhone. For example....

* Search and highlight finds every instance of a word on a page and colors it yellow. The iPhone doesn't have a find in page button so this is the next best thing

* Flickr Search opens a Flickr search box and will whisk you off to find photos

* Wikipedia Look-up pops open a Wikipedia search box right on your iPhone

* TwitThis takes a link you're looking at and feeds it into Twitter. You need to be registered for the site

Most bookmarklets will work on your iPhone. Start with these. Also check out my Mini-Me pop-up bookmarklets too. They open up new browser windows.

Those are my initial tips so far. As I come up with others I will share them.

links for 2007-07-10

• AjaxLife - Second Life In Your Web Browser | Metaversed
  The future of virtual worlds is browser based. That's when it will really take off.
  (tags: secondlife Ajax metaverse)
• BarCamp / iPhoneDevCampApps
  Great list of apps for the iPhone
  (tags: iphone Mobile)
• LeeAnn Prescott - Hitwise US: Flickr Traffic up 38% in Past Four Weeks, Now #2 Photo Site
  (tags: Flickr Stats)
• Firm using Facebook to recruit in Toronto / NeilMcIntyre.ca
  (tags: facebook HR SocialNetworking Careers Canada)

The Page View is Officially Dead

As predicted late last year, the page view is officially irrelevant. Nielsen is no longer measuring sites this way thanks to widgets and online video. ComScore needs to follow next. Further, both companies need to open up their auditing process across The Long Tail.

The Golden Age of Individualism

William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson have written a great op-ed about the rising value of personal brands in business. They also offer a handy calculator that helps assess your online profile.

Personal branding isn't a new idea. As the two say, Tom Peters wrote about this 10 years ago. It's hard to believe it has been that long.

Of course, even before it became a popular online, personal brands dominated the sports world. Think Aaron, Namath, Jordan, Marino, Montana, Navratilova, Reggie, Nicklaus, Comaneci and it conjures up famous images - e.g. number 12 walking off the field at the Orange Bowl shaking his finger with a "we're number one."

The difference between then and now is that it's easier than ever before to become a micro celebrity. It still takes talent and hard work, but really anyone can do it. The benefits are certainly nice, yet it certainly does come with challenges - usually in the form of external detractors (whom I call distractors).

Beyond "micro fame" if you will, the rise of personal brands really reflects something deeper in society that's changing. In American culture in particular we have always been proud of individualism and expression. Before Web 2.0 we might dress a certain way or do something to stand out. Nowadays, that happens online and it's being driven in large part by the maturing of the Net Generation - Gen Y.

Individualism today means so much more than having a micro brand. For most it's about using the web to flatten the playing field so they have the freedom to chase passions and live their lives, their way. Sometimes this comes even as one continues to work inside a ginormous company. Hence the rise of corporate blogging, The Four Hour Work Week, Web Workers, 20% time and a workplace that need not have a place.

Individualism is as old as American ideals, though it's certainly not a global phenomenon. However with the Net Gen taking over the work force, the value of personal brands will continue rise and perhaps be a prickly force to be reckoned with. This means big changes in the workplace and a critical importance for everyone to be team players even as their stars rise online. It also means that personal brands will become unofficial spoksepeople at times (perhaps involuntarily).

Still, something big has changed. It's ok if you're not vanilla. Maybe more of that will rub off on more companies too that have big brands under their roofs. Taking chances can be good. As Richard Edelman, my CEO, says, you can only learn by skiing downhill.

Your Content is About to Be Worth $4.3B

MediaWeek reports that advertising on social networks, blogs and other venues where consumers produce content is about to become a much bigger business than it is now. It's on pace to be a billion-dollar business this year. However, by 2011 it will grow to a whopping $4.3B, eMarketer says.

Unfortunately, it's not all candy canes and lollipops. The picture is not so rosy when you think about it.

For starters, the people who create all this content that's getting monetized - you, me, your Aunt Tilly - are not going to continue doing so for free. If the platforms are getting all of the financial gain, then the community should stand to get a significant share of that money. Sites should start to implement these systems now in a fair and ethical way.

Second, people are getting a lot more sophisticated when it comes to ad blocking technology. Younger, more technically adept users have extensions installed. Take a look at digg, for example. However, it's going more mainstream. For example, the new version of Camino on the Mac has ad blocking built right into the browser. There will be an arms race between those who serve banner ads and the ad blockers that's similar to the spam wars of today.

Finally, above all, advertising ROI on community sites won't work so well in a vacuum. They will need to be buttressed by other initiatives that engage the audience around a shared desired outcome. These are more risky than banner ads but have a higher payoff when executed in a meaningful way.

links for 2007-07-04

• Twitter / LiveEarth070707
  Marketing initiative to promote Live Earth on Twitter.
  (tags: twitter Marketing socialmarketing)
• TwitterGram: Home
  Dave Winer does it again. Send short MP3 messages via Twitter.
  (tags: twitter voice Audio)
• LeeAnn Prescott - Hitwise US: Social Networking for Moms, Retirees, and the Ill
  (tags: SocialNetworking Stats)
• Official Gmail Blog
  (tags: google blogs gmail)

links for 2007-07-03

• Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive Powncing on the Twitter bird… or not «
  Overview of Pownce, which I have signed up for.
  (tags: pownce IM SocialNetworking Blogs)
• The Ebb and Flow of Social Networking
  (tags: SocialNetworking cycles culture)
• Calling In Pros to Refine Your Google Image - washingtonpost.com
  Google's ubiquity as a research tool has given rise to a new industry: online identity management.
  (tags: reputation Google Search PR)
• Project Red Stripe » Blog Archive » And the idea is…
  The Economist is developing a web service that harnesses the collective intelligence of readers to contribute to international and local development organizations.
  (tags: crowdsourcing Collaboration Economist Innovation Journalism)
• New Media Meets Old: A Look at Redesigned Mainstream News Sites
  A look at AOL News, CNN.com and USAToday.com
  (tags: Journalism Web2.0 usatoday CNN AOL)
• 8 questions to… Josh Bernoff, Forrester « Technobabble 2.0
  (tags: Forrester Marketing)
• Apple - Batteries - iPhone
  Good set of tips for maximizing battery life.
  (tags: iphone Tips)
• Where The Hell Is Matt?
  If you haven't seen these, they are great.
  (tags: culture Video Fun)

No Respect

I can't believe I am still reading this in 2007. It would have been fine in 2004. Obviously my profession is not evolving fast enough.

Philipp Lensen, among the world's most influential bloggers, posted his list of the top 10 replies to "Are You a Journalist?" question. Clearly, when Philipp reaches out to company PR reps he gets the brush back or, worse, blank stares.