From Joe Kraus’ post on the Official Google Blog

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/spot-on.htm…

JotSpot is now part of Google … It was pretty apparent that Google shared our vision for how groups of people can create, manage and share information online. Then when we had conversations with people at Google we found ourselves completing each other’s sentences.

Sounds like they believe the’ve found a great home for JotSpot and made some money in the process.  Rock On …

Dan Renfer provided me great instruction on how to load the Attention Trust extension into Firefox 2.0  – I believe these steps will work for any extension.

1. Type “about:config” in the address bar
2. Create a new boolean value called “extensions.checkCompatibility” & set it to “false”
3. Restart firefox.

Once I did this, I was able to use the Attention Recorder. 

Thanks Dan!  I hope others find this useful.

Steve Rubel has a post this morning that describes ESPN’s new offering - myESPN.  He reviews the site very favorably and it certainly is an interesting example from a great media pioneer. 

However, more interesting is Steve’s comment:

I see a start page battle shaping up in the months ahead between the mainstream news outlets and the search portals. The stakes are high. These are going to be the places where people increasingly initiate their browsing. This means that the start page will become a critical funnel for advertising.

I believe he is correct - this is VERY important.  However, not ONLY because it is where people will initiate their browsing experience.  Also, because I believe this will ultimately become part of our ‘digital identities.’  You can tell a lot about some one by what they have as their start page & with the movement toward social media we will need to figure out an efficient & effective way to share this.  Don’t believe me … Think what you would know about someone based on the following start pages …

• Local News Site
• ESPN
• myWSJ
• Yahoo / Google
• Comcast.net (Ok - fine in this case just that you’re lazy or don’t know how to use a computer

I’m including this in my ‘attention’ posts because we need to capture this attention.  In many ways you could argue it is just implictly included in what you click on, purchase and search for.  However, I disagree.  Here are a few examples:

• If get highlights daily for the Cleveland Browns on myESPN - it is still part of your online attention stream (in my humble opinion)
• If review 10 stocks performance every morning on myWSJ — they are still part of your online attention stream (again in my opinion)

… this is true even if you never click on one of the links to read more.

This is not just important academically, we also need to make sure this part of our attention stream recieves some value for sharing it.  This could be financial or other things as I’ve written about before.  For example a non-financial value - would be receiving personalized search at results that incorporate your sports / finance preferences from your startup page on another site. 

As a follow up to my post & many many others last week, Greg Reinacker (CTO & Founder of NewsGator) wrote a simple post yesterday explaining what happened.

The explanation:

We have a configuration switch in our system to turn ads on/off, which we use in internal testing; that switch was inadvertantly set to “on” on our online systems.  A simple mistake, which was quickly corrected.

Interestingly, he earlier does comment that ads are coming to the NewsGator Online …

At the same time, we’re experimenting with advertising in the online reader experience.  In some of the new GUI models, they are pretty unintrusive, and at best they even add something to the whole experience.  But you’ll have to wait and see for more details there.

I definitely will be waiting - hopefully they’ll be relevant.  And yes, if they want some help - I know just the company to contact

Charlie O’Donnel, formerly of Union Square Ventures and now at OddCast, has a really good post (Blogging as the Industry Cocktail Party) that provides 10 tips on business blogging all pointing back to the analogy of a cocktail party. 

This is a great piece for anyone who wonders why you spend time writing a blog.  My favorite advice - number 9:

Like a cocktail party, what you do outside of the blogging is a lot more meaningful than within the blog.  Some people are a lot better at working a party than they are at their actual job.  At the same time, though, I think you’re a little bit limited in how well you can work a party if you aren’t passionate about what you do, work hard to stay on top of your industry, etc.  That’s going to show through at a cocktail party, and a blog.  People who “mail in” their jobs also tend to be boring bloggers and worse party guests.

That definitely is the key — be passionate about being remarkable, leave it on the field, & be open/transparent and you’ll be a more interesting blogger.  (Oh yeah, it also helps if you can find time to do it well — but that is a topic for another post.)

Joseph Jaffe, author of “Life After The Thirty-Second Spot“, is getting ready to launch Crayon.  He describes the company as

“mash-up of the best of the agency, consulting, advisory, thought leadership and education worlds rolled into one shape-shifting package”

While Joseph is the founder, they have recruited a number of other thought-leaders in the new marketing communication landscape including Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz, (from PR podcast For Immediate Release) & C.C. Chapman. 

Potentially the most interesting thing is that they will launch on Thursday in Second Life on an Island they are calling “Crayon Island”. If listen to Jaffe Juice or FIR, you know this is the type of thing they recommend all the time.   It is nice to see them practicing what they preach. 

Now for the interesting question: Can they get their clients to practice what they preach?  They don’t lack for ambition, as Neville says:

We’re a solution provider. We’re an extension of your team. Consider us a new breed of partner – one that keeps everyone honest and on the right path. Our client is not the consumer: our client is the truth.

It seems like they’ll meet some resistance from clients - who may not understand the web 2.0 world as well as they do, but I wish them the best & look forward to seeing the work they come up with.

I have been seeing Google AdSense ads run along the side of my feeds today in NewsGator Online. 

I hope this is just an experiment gone bad at NewsGator.  Otherwise, it may be time for a new feed reader!

The timing seems like it couldn’t be worse - with the whole IE 7 Release.

So I have been avoiding writing this post all week.  The reason, I LOVE my Verizon EVDO card and Motorola Q.  I actually would recommend the Q to anyone interested in However, the customer service experience I have had over the last week has been absolutely terrible. 

As I already wrote, I went straight from NYC to the Bay Area on Sunday last week.  When I landed late Sunday night / early Monday morning in the Oakland airport (after another FANTASTIC Jet Blue flight - my fourth of the last seven days with 2 more coming later in the week) I called my fiance and then headed to the hotel.

Unfortunately, when I woke up (3 hours later) Monday morning at 5:30 Pacific for a weekly conference call with a customer, I couldn’t use my cell phone.  So I did what every person does when they have technology problems … turned off the phone and turned it back on.  Unfortunately, the phone never again would go beyond the Verizon startup screen.  So I dialed into the conference call from the hotel phone and went off to a day of meetings.

On my way back to the hotel on Monday night, I stopped by the local Verizon store.  I assumed I’d get great service - after all I pay approximately $160 / month between my phone and EVDO service and I have the phone insurance which I was bought for purposes just like this.  In fact, I believe this was the basic scenario used to get me to buy the insurance, if your phone ever breaks we will just give you a new one for $50 deductible. 

Well, unfortunately after an hour in the store & on the phone with customer service, I was told they would have to ship me a phone which would take 3 days.  This meant I would be without a phone for the entire rest of my trip.  FRUSTRATING!  So I asked to buy a phone and return it when I got back to Pittsburgh - for a litany of Verizon policy reasons this wasn’t an option.  MORE FRUSTRATING!  Then I ended up talking to someone about overnighting a phone (which I would have paid for) unfortunately it was to late in the day so it would still take 2+ days - therefore it would be in transit while I was heading to the airport EVEN MORE FRUSTRATING!   At this point, it was better to go back to the standard shipment which should have arrived when I returned home yesterday.  Except, that I asked if someone needed to sign for it, they told me I wouldn’t and in fact surprise surprise I do.  Therefore, FedEx didn’t leave it at my apartment, so still don’t have a phone!  EVEN MORE FRUSTRATING!  Hopefully, we’ll connect today!

Anyway, as I said at the beginning of this post, I didn’t want to write this.  However, still without a phone this morning at 1:30 am I received the following SPAM email from Verizon.  “Special Invitation to Data Demo Days”  The punchline is that when I opened the email it was a promotion for the Motorola Q (see ad to left) - a phone I already own.  LAST STRAW — REDICULOUS!  I don’t know who is managing their CRM system, but they should be IMMEDIATELY fired!  It is obvious that they don’t have any insight into their most valuable customers & this morning I realized they also don’t even filter their email to pretend they are personalized. 

However, even after all of this I’m still hoping to get a phone today. Why haven’t I switched?  Well, it isn’t because I’m loyal to cellular carriers.  In fact, I have switched from Sprint, to Cingular to Verizon over the last 3 years.  However, I do love the Q and my EVDO card!  That will keep me with Verizon.  But if anyone from Verizon is reading this, PLEASE consider improving your customer service.

Let’s hope Tom Hespos’ column gets some momentum behind the most obvious elephant in the interactive media room …

http://publications.mediapost.com/?fuseaction=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=49054

The quote of the column:

The interactive industry is finally beginning to come into its own, and to play a serious role in the marketing mix of A-list players. We’re at a critical point in our development, in which I think we would be better served by showing a unified front.

The posting has been a little light over the last 2 weeks.  The reason: I went straight from a CRAZY schedule through advertising week to a set of meetings on the west coast with a very important customer.  That said, one career thought has been sticking with me over the last week …

On Wednesday of Advertising Week 2006, the Chief Media Revenue Officer of Microsoft Joanne Bradford, gave a lunch presentation on corporate responsibility.  She interviewed the President of LRMR Marketing, Maverick Carter.  The firm is LeBron James’ advertising and marketing firm.  The presentation was certainly interesting in general, but what really stuck out was a quote Maverick shared from LeBron.   When talking about his role as a leader on the team, he said:

I don’t have to make the last shot, but I do have to make the last play

As soon as I heard the phrase, it stuck in my head and I keep going back to it.  It really is a great summary of the paradox that is being a leader.  If you are too selfish, you’ll always want to take the last shot.  This is certainly dangerous as anyone playing with a ‘ball hog’ can tell you.  However, you can also just be absent - which is no better. 

Therefore, next time you’re trying to figure out your leadership role in a situation — look to see where you can make the last play — even if you don’t take the last shot.