Ask Dave Taylor: Tech and Business

Get started making money with Kontera contextual ads on your site

2007-06-05T09:10:00.000-06:00

Can you actually make money with a contextual ad network? This article explains exactly how one popular site added Kontera ads and is seeing a boost of over $50,000/year in revenue, through simple, inoffensive, Web 2.0-style pop-up ads. Includes a discussion of the style of advertising and an actual earnings report for the last week.

Check it out here: Get Started with Kontera.

How Angelina Jolie figured out the latitude/longitude of her children's birthplaces?

2007-06-04T15:05:00.000-06:00

Angelina Jolie has a tattoo on her arm that shows the latitude/longitude of the birthplace of each of her four children. If you wanted to do something similar, here's how you can figure out the lat/long of any given location, converting it from a common decimal format to the more traditional minutes/seconds value. Jolie's tattoo cracked within too:

Angelina Jolie's latitude/longitude tattoo explained.

How to create an "Add Me As a MySpace Friend" button for your site

2007-04-12T11:40:00.000-06:00

If you are a fan of MySpace you already know that the easier it is for people to be your MySpace friend, the more friends you will have. This article shows a simple and fun way to create "Add Me As A Friend" buttons for your email, blog or Web site, to help you get more friends.

Read it here: Create "Add Me As a MySpace Friend" buttons

Should films be censored and do the MPAA ratings actually work?

2007-02-27T23:58:00.000-07:00

I received an interesting set of questions from a student about film censorship: Do you believe that censorship is a good or bad thing and why? Do you believe that the current rating system is effective in controlling what people see? Should older movies be remade, edited for content or should they be left in their original form?

I've tackled all three of them in detail, including talking about the re-release of Star Wars, why director's cuts are so popular (with commentary on Blade Runner) and why there were two versions of Saturday Night Fever, one "R" rated and one "PG" rated. Finally, I also talk about whether the MPAA rating system works and why HBO and TiVo have kicked the legs out of ratings.

But why not just read my article? Check out On Censorship, the MPAA and the Movies and hopefully add your own two cents too.

EU decides all bloggers now liable for fake comments?

2007-02-12T07:46:00.000-07:00

In case we don't have enough to worry about as bloggers in the blogosphere, it turns out that the European Union is passing a new directive that makes it illegal for businesses to falsely masquerade as a consumer. Not just with fake blogs (also known as "sock puppet blogs") but with comments on blogs too. This will extend out even to reviews on Amazon.com and other review sites.

It all sounds good in theory, but in reality this could prove to be a nightmare for bloggers if we are then liable for verifying the identity of everyone who adds comments to our weblogs. Indeed, that's impossible to verify anyway, and even if you could, the nuances of identity are such that the system is trivially defeated anyway. For example, if my sister works at a company and I write a blog comment on someone else's weblog that defends that company, do I need to disclose that relationship?

It's a curious law and I surmise that the EU won't be able to enforce this new directive. But that's just me. What's your opinion of the new law that's just starting to surface in the online world?

Tip: More background and details can be found here: EU makes fake blogs and comments illegal: are all bloggers liable?

Does deleting weblogs break the Web?

2007-01-17T11:18:00.000-07:00

Apparently, IBM has been deleting the blogs of former employees, something that has gotten some of the weblog luminaries in a bit of an uproar. The issue is that these purists are claiming that companies deleting weblogs is somehow defacing history, somehow violating the sacrosanct nature of the Web and the blogosphere. I can't see it, because in my view once you leave a company there's no reason why they should keep a historical record of your works or writing, particularly in as personal a venue as a personal or business weblog. After all, companies are liable for the material on their sites, whether from current or former employees.

Anyway, it's an interesting debate and one worth checking out: Erasing Blogs Does Not Break the Web

What's your opinion on this topic? Do you ever go back and edit your blog entries or even erase entries completely? Have you ever started a blog - or web site - just to delete it later when you find it isn't relevant to your current efforts?

Wikiasari to compete with Google? I don't think so!

2006-12-28T17:39:00.000-07:00

If you've been following the exciting world of search engines (only said slightly in jest) you know that Google keeps increasing its market share, and that the only way that wanna-be MSN Live is even getting any traction is by forcing everyone to upgrade Internet Explorer to IE7, which conveniently resets everyone's default search engine to the Microsoft solution. Hmmm... okay.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Wales, the founder and creator of Wikipedia, has come out with news that he's building a human-powered search engine called Wikiasari (I have no idea what the name means, sorry) with funding from Amazon.com. Amazon, you might recall, have a failed search engine of their own called A9, and even with the offer of special discounts on Amazon.com purchased for A9 users, they still can't get anyone to use it. No wonder they're interested.

But should we be interested in Wikiasari?

I don't think so.

The problem isn't that the search engine might not be interesting or useful, the problem is that to even compete in the world of search engines you have to fight the incredibly strong powers of momentum, of people just not wanting to bother with something different. Regardless of how wonderful Wikiasari might be (and I'm skeptical it'll work at all because of spammers and other cons) (recall that they killed DMOZ, for example), the only way people will try it is if Google really starts failing as a search engine.

The weird thing is that the media is writing about it with the sort of hype usually reserved for Google itself, talking about how Wikiasari might be a "Google killer" and a "serious threat to Google's marketshare". I just don't see it.

What's your take? Would you switch search engines "just because", or do you find that your favorite search engine is hard-wired into your fingers at this point in the evolution of the Internet?

I have a longer article on this subject available on my Business Blog too: Wikiasari threatens Google? I don't think so. if you'd like to engage in a discussion on this topic too.

When did Wordpress become the Blog Police?

2006-11-11T11:54:00.000-07:00

One of the core questions that people ask when they decide to start using a weblog as the foundation of their business marketing and branding efforts is: where should I host my blog? My usual answer is that it doesn't really matter and that you can get started a lot faster by using a hosted service like Wordpress or Typepad, but I'm going to have to change that now.

Why? Because the team at Wordpress.com has come up with new regulations about what is and isn't acceptable on blog postings, and if you cross the line, they'll not only shut your site down with less than twelve hours warning, but they'll also ban you from ever signing up again.

It starts with banning PayPerPost and related, but that's a sticky slope and it's easy to move to other prohibited areas, including perhaps exactly what your business blog is about. Then what?

Are you hosted on Wordpress.com? And if so, what's your opinion on this clarification of their Terms of Service?

Tip: this is an excerpt of a longer article on this subject: Is Wordpress now the Blog Police.

Is DisclosurePolicy a first step towards a blogger code of ethics?

2006-10-30T09:32:00.000-07:00

If you've been reading any blogs at all in the last year, you've probably bumped into some facet of the 'should bloggers get paid' discussion or its stepchild 'if you're paid, should you tell your readers?' There's a definite tension in the blogosphere on this subject, and I htink that part of it is frankly philosophical: should blogging be "free" and unencumbered, or should commerce rear its head and bring us into the world of advertising, marketing, product placement and, in a word, commerce?

Blogs are an interesting publishing medium in this regard because they're new and they're reasonably egalitarian: you can start writing smart content and become a "player" in just a few months if you understand how the system works. You can't really do that in magazine publishing, TV production or commercial movies, by contrast.

Nonetheless, magazines have "advertorials", newspapers have the completely bogus mock-reporting of their "Auto Supplement", and even movies have crass and pervasive product placement now. We don't see Angelina Jolie stop and say "MMm... sure is a good can of Coke!" then whisper behind her hand "Disclosure: Coke paid me $3 million to say that!" but people don't seem to have a problem with it. Time magazine will have an eight page advertorial that's designed to look almost identical to the editorial content, yet people still subscribe.

So what i believe needs to happen is that us bloggers need to craft a Best Practices for Disclosure, but when PayPerPost, a company in the middle of this tiny tempest, takes a stab at it with its arguably clumsy DisclosurePolicy.com, do bloggers suggest smarter alternatives? No. Predictably, they just cast stones...

Please continue reading my long essay on this subject: PayPerPost Creates DisclosurePolicy, Bloggers call it Absurd?

What if Google bought Thomson Learning?

2006-10-25T07:17:00.000-06:00

Thomson Learning is a big, important division of global media giant Thomson and the big news today is that it's on the block, possibly for as much as $5 billion. That's quite an acquisition, but if you look at what Thomson Learning does, it sure seems to me that Google could be a likely buyer.

The WSJ details that "Thomson Learning's textbooks, testing and certification materials are used by colleges and distance-learning organizations, and include its Thomson Wadsworth, Thomson Gale and Thomson Delmar imprints. The unit also maintains a number of online learning courses and its own university, Universitas 21 Global, which issues graduate degrees through online instruction."

Google could be a good match here, gaining access to the invaluable content and online learning system, and another strong possibility in my eyes is Apollo Group, parent of the University of Phoenix.

How might that all spin out? Read my thoughts here: What if Google Bought Thomson Learning.

Edelman sponsors bogus Wal-Mart blog: no-one cares?

2006-10-16T20:36:00.000-06:00

I'm still amazed at this situation. Edelman PR, one of the premier public relations agencies in the world and a company that not only hired sharp blogger Steve Rubel but prides itself on really understanding the new world of Web 2.0 and the blogosphere, screwed up royally, and no-one seems to be particularly upset.

The situation: They created the Walmarting Across America blog which pretended to be a couple of middle aged RV enthusiasts driving from Wal-Mart to Wal-Mart and blogging about their experiences, mostly with how wonderful Wal-Mart was. No surprise, the blog effort was a campaign paid for by Wal-Mart!

When it came out that it was a fake blog and that Edelman was being duplicitous and tricking people, it also became obvious that they'd violated the very code of Word of Mouth Marketing ethics they'd helped create.

The response of the blogosphere? Oh, Richard Edelman apologized, and Steve Rubel said he had nothing to do with the account or the campaign. And all is well. Or is it?

If you want to have an example of the class structure within the blogosphere, go and read how top bloggers like Debbie Weil, Neville Hobson and Robert Scoble are not just accepting Edelman's apology, but being apologists for the company themselves. What the heck?

I don't agree. I think that there's a much bigger issue of ethical consistency, of leadership and of hypocrisy, and I write about it at length on my main blog: Edelman screws up with Duplicitous Wal-Mart Blog, but it's okay?

The impact of McDonald's Drive-thru...

2006-10-13T00:20:00.000-06:00

I was driving around in Denver, Colorado a while back and was impressed by the architecture of a local McDonald's that they'd opened up in the Mayfair area. Here's a pic:

I usually don't go to McDonald's, frankly, but I was thirsty so I zoomed into the drive-thru and got a Coke and a small fries. Yeah, McD's fries are still darn good, as good as I remember from when I was a kid.

Sponsor of this blog post: CREAMaid

While waiting for my food, I couldn't help think about just how much impact drive-thrus have had on both popular culture and, frankly, on our growing problem with people being overweight. I read somewhere or other that something like 20% of kids are now significantly overweight, for example, and I know my kids really like the drive-thru (we usually get egg mcmuffins without meat, btw, when we're on road trips).

But, yeah, whatever. The fries were good and the Coke, well, let's just say that I MUCH prefer Coke to Pepsi, and am glad McD's is still a Coca-Cola restaurant!

How about you? When was the last time you popped into a McDonald's?

Nikon and eBay demonstrate new media best practices

2006-10-06T22:21:00.000-06:00

Wondering how large companies can tap into the popularity of social media, Web 2.0, and other contemporary trends in the online world? Well, they could just pay $50,000 and set up a commercial MySpace account (no kidding, that's the base fee for a fancy professional profile) or they could actually be inspired and tap into the popularity of YouTube or Flickr and do something really cool.

That's what eBay did when it created an admittedly cheesy 75 second introductory movie promoting an upcoming course they're offering to the eBay seller community. They filmed the movie then simply uploaded it to YouTube and mentioned it on the eBay Chatter weblog. Cool!

Nikon did something even more cool, though: it picked out a group of existing Nikon digital SLR photographers from popular photo sharing site Flickr and sent them brand new Nikon D80 camera setups. Their assignments? Take pictures, send us your best. The result? Stunning Nikon. A very savvy marketing effort!

You can learn more at: eBay and Nikon: Examples of New Media Marketing

Author Dave Taylor runs the popular Ask Dave Taylor Tech Support site and is also the author of the Intuitive Life Business Blog.

Keynote speaker at the Blog Business Summit

2006-09-30T21:25:00.000-06:00

Conferences and workshops tend to blur together when you travel and speak as frequently as I do, so I'm always glad when I am involved in an event that's focused far more on education and intelligent discourse than on selling products or services, either from the podium or the exhibit hall. Don't get me wrong, those conferences can be valuable and I've learned quite a bit attending those sort of events, but as a former research scientist, there's much I prefer about getting together with a few hundred of the best people in the industry and exploring best practices and opportunities together.

That's why I am delighted to share that I am not only going to be enthusiastically attending the upcoming Blog Business Summit in Seattle, but that I'm also going to be offering up a keynote talk on findability.

In fact, the line up of speakers for the Summit reads like a who's who of sharp thought and influence leaders in the blogging world, including ...

Please continue reading at Dave Taylor at the Blog Business Summit

Will bloggers write about stuff you send us?

2006-09-02T22:30:00.000-06:00

As bloggers and blogging has raised its visibility in the media landscape, and as us bloggers have become thought and opinion leaders, to a greater or lesser extent, it should be no surprise that we're smack-dab in the middle of the radar screen for Public Relations firms and individual companies seeking to gain "buzz" or visibility for their products or services.

What clearly isn't quite so obvious, however, is how to approach bloggers when you want to send them something to check out. Do you explicitly say "do you want to review this" or, even more blatantly, "will you say nice things about it if we send you one?" or is there a more subtle road you can travel, one that's more akin to "thought you'd find this cool. Want one?" without any expressed desire to have one of us actually write about it?

I would suggest that it's an unsolved puzzle and that when I was approached by a company that sells high-tech bean bag chairs to see if I'd like to review one, this all came to the fore because, well, because I'm a business writer, not a furniture reviewer or home decorating maven. (trust me, you don't want me decorating your home! :-) )

The key revolves around disclosure, and instead of actually reviewing the chair, I decided that I'd write somewhat of a meta-review, talking about how the chair ended up in my office and its implications for both bloggers and PR professionals seeking to have us examine their wares.

Oh, and my review? Here's an excerpt: "As it turns out, I don't particularly like the chair because while the fabric cover is clearly tough and durable, the rip-proof nylon isn't very comfortable and I really wish it had a cloth, cotton or even corduroy cover. But I'm in the minority. My wife..."

You can read more about this topic, including the email back and forth with Omni, the bean bag company, on my own blog: How to get bloggers to write about your product.

Why bloggers inevitably end up modifying old articles

2006-08-28T23:27:00.000-06:00

There's a school of thought in the blogosphere that suggests once a Weblog article is written and published for the world to see, it's done, cast in stone, and never to be touched or modified again. You can produce more recent updates or corrections, but there's a sense that the "historical archive" is more important than being accurate or correct or contemporary.

Sometimes that just doesn't work, though, and I experienced just this situation with a recent article I wrote on my weblog about the JonBenet Ramsey murder, an article that was reprinted in the local newspaper this morning, just hours before new revelations in the case were unveiled that made the entire article irrelevant and wrong.

What to do? Indeed, what should bloggers do when their material later becomes incorrect?

Why bloggers must be historical revisionists

The real question isn't whether you agree with me, but whether there's any way out of this Long Tail-inspired dilemma...

After ten years, JonBenet Ramsey can finally rest in peace

2006-08-17T11:11:00.000-06:00

It's been a long, strange and disturbing decade since six year old beauty pageant queen JonBenet Ramsey was found, beaten and murdered, in the basement of her parents upscale Boulder home. The court of public opinion, through books, innumerable magazine articles and even documentary movies, convinced many that the parents were to blame, even though a 1999 Grand Jury hearing concluded there was no substantial evidence of their guilt.

Now, after four years of drawing out the suspect via email, an arrest has been made in the case. John Mark Karr has been taken into custody in Thailand and has subsequently admitted his guilt in the case. But it's far, far more disturbing than that as he explained to interrogators that he drugged and had sex with this poor little six year old girl. The angels weep for this child, who would probably be a junior in High School if it weren't for Karr.

It's a long, complex story with various Internet overtones: JonBenet Ramsey can finally rest in peace.

MySpace Blogger busted by city council

2006-08-10T06:54:00.000-06:00

I'm always on the lookout for stories about bloggers who get into trouble with official government agencies, because I think that the freewheeling and fairly tolerant blogging community is one that's hard to understand when you're a government official. When we add MySpace to the mix, you know the result is going to be even more volatile because people who haven't been exposed to MySpace and its social networking ilk imagine a sort of prim and proper social chat community rather than the chaos, immaturity and just plain weirdness that is pervasive.

So when is a slightly sexually suggestive comment on MySpace grounds for an investigation from the City Council? When you're a volunteer committee member? Read on:

Boulder City Official in Hot Water over MySpace Blog

The problem with "The Long Tail"

2006-07-28T07:59:00.000-06:00

I've spent a few weeks thinking about Chris Anderson's Long Tail, the premise of his popular new book and his suggested implications for business in the future. Finally, a few days ago I read Lee Gomes' terrific column in the Wall Street Journal where he debunks some of Anderson's statistical analysis, which really helped me clarify my own thoughts on the book.

Let me say that I don't disagree for a minute with the idea of the long tail and find evidence of it even on my own Web site, but where I diverge from what's suggested in the book is that I find it difficult to believe the premise that "hits" won't be important and that the era of Best Sellers is over.

I believe, instead, that Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point is far more consistent with societal behavior that I see: thought and opinion leaders significantly influence what people decide to purchase or believe, and that by its very nature, these "tipping points" are the antithesis of "the long tail".

What do you think? Are popular hits over? Was the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie a fluke and last gasp from the Hit Machine, or will we always have a society that's built around the desire for a small number of highly popular items?

Dave Taylor runs The Intuitive Life Business Blog and the popular Ask Dave Taylor Tech Support site too. He recently wrote a long essay on The Long Tail entitled Why Companies Can't Profit From the Long Tail.

What's the story on the Amazon Omakase Program?

2006-07-25T00:15:00.000-06:00

I know, I know, you're saying "what the heck is the Omakase program?" and the answer is that it's Amazon's first foray into dynamic content-sensitive advertising, through its affiliate program. They call it the Amazon Associates program, but until the release of Omakase, your affiliate links were static and were whatever you built when you logged into their Associates system.

Omakase is new, however, and works a lot like Google's AdSense program, actually. You add a single line of code to your Web pages and then Amazon dynamically analyzes that individual page each time someone requests it, and injects ads for products that their system believes are the best fit and/or the most likely for your visitors to purchase. Very cool!

One big caveat, however, is that it is incompatible with AdSense itself, because Google limits you with the AdSense terms of service: you cannot include any other context-sensitive advertising on AdSense pages, so do be careful.

Ready to learn more about Omakase? Then check out the Amazon Associates program (it's a link off the Amazon home page, 4/5 down on the left side) or go and read Amazon Omakase Program.

Author Dave Taylor writes about business and technical issues on his two weblogs: The Intuitive Life Business Blog and Ask Dave Taylor Tech Support.

The problem with affiliate marketing

2006-07-07T23:29:00.000-06:00

Affiliate sales account for over one billion dollars in revenue last year, according to the folk at Marketing Sherpa, so why on Earth would I suggest that maybe, just maybe, affiliate programs aren't a smart basis for a sustainable online business?

In a word: differentiators. Successful businesses in the long term have "sustainable differentiators" so that they can not only compete effectively today, but also in the long term. If you're selling the exact same product for the exact same price as dozens or hundreds of other sites, how the heck can you possibly differentiate?

Continued at:

Maybe affiliate marketing isn't such a good idea after all?

Installing Windows XP on a Mac with Boot Camp

2006-06-20T11:35:00.000-06:00

I've been a Mac user since about 1985, starting with a little 512K Mac that was portable, self-contained, and not much more than a toy. But I loved it, and I have owned a never-ending parade of Macintosh since then, upgrading about every twelve months or so. Man, that's a lot of hardware!

All along, however, I've also had to buy PCs, whether laptops or desktop systems, because, well, you can't run Windows on a Mac, can you? Yeah, there's Virtual PC from Microsoft but I've never had good results running it, even on the fastest Macs I've owned.

That's why when Apple released Boot Camp for its Intel-based computers, I was thrilled. Imagine, a single computer that ran both Windows XP and Mac OS X fast!.

The problem was, it was pretty confusing to figure out how to install and configure the program and dangerous too: do it wrong and you'll trash your new Mac along with having a messed up Windows installation.

Further, there are all sorts of limitations, including the requirement that you have a brand new one-disk version of Windows XP that incorporates the SP2 updates (that's 'system patch 2' for you non-native Microsoft speakers out there).

After looking at all the factors, I ended up buying a new Intel-based Mac Mini specifically so I could experiment with Boot Camp and the new virtualization technologies coming out, and now have what's likely the single most detailed tutorial on installing and configuring Boot Camp and Windows XP on the entire Web.

If you'd like to see what's involved in installing Windows XP on an Intel Mac, I encourage you to check it out:

Install Windows XP and Boot Camp on your Intel Mac

Much to my surprise, once I accepted the chance that I would trash my Mac, everything went very smoothly and it all worked out delightfully!

Jakob Nielson nags yet again about Web usability

2006-06-13T16:40:00.000-06:00

Maybe I'm tilting at windmills with this particular discussion, but when usability guru Jakob Nielsen comes out with his list of Eight Problems That Remain, an excerpt of his newly published book Prioritizing Web Usability I can't help but yawn and marvel at how he's so out of touch with the reality of the modern Web and blogosphere.

For example, he believes that sites that don't have visited links a different color to unvisited links are committing a critical, three skull-and-crossbone error, yet I can't think of a site I visit with any frequency that doesn't violate this "guideline".

I admit, some of what he highlights remains a genuine problem with Web usability, but so much of his criticism seems to be from a place of some antiquity and I have to wonder what sites he visits on a daily basis, actually.

Please read my much longer commentary on the piece: Jakob Nielsen on Web Usability

Top Blogging Site Attacks Law Firm over Copyright Protection Efforts

2006-06-05T00:51:00.000-06:00

Maybe it's just that I'm a huge fan of the World Cup and have been known in the past to shut down my business during the last few games of what is easily the most popular sporting event in the world, but I am appalled by the sophomoric response of the Boing Boing team to a letter from law firm representing the online rights to the games.

Here, read my thoughts on this, and, hopefully, add your own two cents about this situation:

Boing Boing attacks FIFA World Cup copyright protection efforts

Honestly, in many ways I see this as yet another blogger assault on business itself and another reason why companies continue to ignore or fear the blogosphere as a communications channel.

But, please, go read what I've written and decide for yourself.

Cool addition to AdWords: video advertising

2006-05-22T23:15:00.000-06:00

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it on the weblog run by the Google AdWords folk, but apparently, yes, coming to a site near you - very soon - will be advertisements that will include video content, all as part of the AdWords network (e.g., if you're subscribed to Google AdSense and you allow image advertisements that are sufficiently large for the video box to fit, you might just suddenly start getting video ads too).

Me, I think it'll be very cool and an interesting example of how Google is really pushing advertising into a hybrid space where television and the Internet are surprisingly similar, perhaps one day completely converged.

Of course, the challenge now will be for advertisers to produce useful and informative video content, but there are so many businesses where this could be a huge boon. Imagine you sell formal clothes, for example. Wouldn't it be a nice advert for you to show some people dressed rather sloppily but looking enviously at some other folk with high style, then you see the company logo and they're dressed in the height of fashion themselves?

There are lots of examples, perhaps even one for your own business. My advice: check it out if you're involved with AdWords and see what you can create. After all, why not try something new and see if you can create more more effective ads for your company??

Dave Taylor has been blogging about online business for years now, and runs the popular Ask Dave Taylor Tech Support blog. A related article on Google AdWords Video can be found there.

How to avoid dull and tedious Powerpoint presentations

2006-05-15T13:37:00.000-06:00

It's an all-too-common phenomenon at workshops, seminars and trade events, and even creeps into the most critical of business meetings: Boring Powerpoint Syndrome.

You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Those interminable dull slides that have 8-15 bullet points on them, each smaller than you can read, all against a plain white background and all with too many transitions and too much glitz to let you really focus on the important part of the presentation: the speaker.

Of course, I'll admit that not every public speaker can command the attention of their audience, so for many the Powerpoint slides serve just as much as a crutch, as a safety net, as they serve as a helpful reminder of the key points that the presenter wants to enforce. But if that's the case, then surely you'd agree with me that the problem is with the presenter's skills and the presentation, and that the Powerpoint is just a sort of virtual attention flypaper, dangling out there and pulling eyeballs (and brains) away from what's being said and off into neverland, down the rabbit hole of daydreams, or, in modern events, into the Internet via that handy wifi connection.

Blech. There's a better way and I encourage everyone who gives presentations to read through my own tips on this subject: How to enhance your presentation with Powerpoint, not cripple it.

Oh, and as a listener, as an audience member, your best response is to call presenters on it if you see they're suffering from BPS (Boring Powerpoint Syndrome). Otherwise things will never get better. :-)

How Blogging is just like Dancing the Hula

2006-05-03T22:47:00.000-06:00

After two weeks soaking up the Hawaiian sun, it was hard for me to remember the Internet, let alone worry about blogging, but once you start focusing on business communications, it's impossible to completely let go. As a result, when we started hearing so much about the international Merrie Monarch hula festival taking place on the Big Island while we were there, I started to get quite intrigued by hula, not as dance, but as a communications channel, as a method by which the Hawaiians transmit their own oral history and culture.

Hmm... blogging's all about inventing and creating communications channels too, isn't it, and the best bloggers are storytellers who are focused on the culture of technology, business and society just as much as on the specifics of their story.

And so...

The Surprising Similarities Between Blogging and Hula Dancing

I hope you enjoy it!

What the world of RSS lacks: innovation

2006-04-03T09:58:00.000-06:00

It's not just that RSS readers are becoming more boring, and it's not that I can't find a Web interface that lets me have multiple columns to pretend I have that "custom newspaper" that people have promised for years, there are bigger problems in the lack of innovation in the world of RSS readers, problems that are beginning to hobble the very promise of this new information dissemination technology.

The most critical example is an inability to really give control to the reader, to let me customize, really customize, my reading experience. The specific straw that broke the proverbial camel's back? The constant stream of duplicating content.

Read it for yourself: I'm Fed Up With the State of RSS Readers

There must surely be a better way...

Why Google is still far better than MSN Search

2006-03-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

You know what "ego surfing" is, right? It's when you look for references to yourself on various Web sites, in search engines, etc. What caught my attention today in this regard is that doing a wee bit of ego surfing on both MSN Search and Google really highlights to me the fundamental difference between the two search engines and shows why Google is still the clear market leader in this space.

Wait, don't run away yet. The issue isn't the search results, but rather the ability of the search engine to intelligently target advertising on the results page. If you do a random search, which site produces the best, most relevant, most contextually useful advertising and "sponsored links" for you?

I contend - and demonstrate - that in this one instance, at least, Google far outshines MSN, with two out of the three matching adverts being very good matches, while MSN has a far worse result, with only two of its seven ads even remotely relevant for the search.

You can read more and see the specific advertisements here: Google still beats MSN on ad targeting.

Cell phone photo printers coming to Walmart?

2006-03-30T11:09:00.000-07:00

This is just as much a backend infrastructure story as it is a sheer wicked functionality story: In a story about a completely different topic, Wal*Mart let spill that it's working on a solution that will let people take their cellphones to a Wal*Mart photo center and print the pictures off their phones with zero fuss.

Here's the quote I found on the subject:

"Wal-Mart is working on a solution to allow camera phone users to upload images from their phones to nearby locations for printing."

What's extraordinarily cool about this is that Wal*Mart is one of the very few companies with enough leverage to force cellphone providers Verizon, Cingular, etc., to actually open up their phones so that it'll be easy for people to print the currently almost inaccessible photos on their phones.

Toss in some Bluetooth, sprinkle in a nice HP-powered photo printer, and you've got one solid reason to make Wal*Mart a must-visit after your next party.

To read more about this story, please go to Future Photo Plans for Wal*Mart, as reported at The Intuitive Life Business Blog.

Proctor and Gamble push the advertising envelope with SecretSparkle

2006-03-29T23:20:00.000-07:00

This is the kind of stuff that's impossible to make up: consumer goods giant Proctor and Gamble have introduced a chatbot, a program that communicates via instant messaging with potential customers. And who are the customers for a deodorant? Well, if you guessed adults, you're terribly wrong. This chatbot is aimed squarly at teen and tween girls, and presents what I can only say, as a parent, is a darn insulting and cloyingly stereotyped view of what girls are interested in.

But let's let SecretSparkle talk for itself. (You can play along on this game by connecting via AIM to SecretSparkle or via MSN Messenger to secretsparkle@botmetro.net.

Dave Taylor says: (10:30:05 PM)
hi

Secret Sparkle says: (10:30:19 PM)
Hi Dave Taylor! I'm secret sparkle.

For the latest scoop on TV and movie gossip, awesome beauty and fashion tips, music, games and more, I'm ur girl!

continue reading about SparkleBot

VOIP lets you have your phone number ring anywhere

2006-03-01T10:12:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I'm quite psyched. Thanks to some help from the folks atVoice over IP provider, I now have my business line ringing in multiple physical locations. Call me up and your call will ring on phones in different parts of Colorado. If I power up Vbuzzer on my laptop (Vbuzzer is my VOIP provider), I'll also be able to plug in a traditional phone or headset and have that ring too, regardless of where I am.

This isn't particularly rocket science, I admit: most of the VOIP systems on the market naturally ring wherever you plug in, but what's surprising to me is that this feature, what I consider a killer feature, is barely mentioned by VOIP providers like Vonage and even the third-party VOIP resellers who are popping up like mushrooms after a heavy rain don't talk about this capability.

What happens when phones are no longer geography?

I'm just delighted to finally have my phone numbers travel with me, not be nailed to a wall plug.

Send money to your friends via cellphone with TextPayMe!

2006-02-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

This is a cool new "Web 2.0" feature that our parents just wouldn't get: you can now use a service very similar to Paypal to easily transfer money to other people with SMS or text-message capable cellphones. Next time you're out for pizza with your buddies and one person picks up the bill, everyone else can now easily transfer a few bucks to them with just a few strokes of your cellphone keypad, for example.

Even better: sign up through the below link and you'll get a free $5 credit to get started, and who can complain about getting free money?

Sign up: Sign Up For TextPayMe, Get $5 Credit Instantly

Read more about it: Send Money to Friends with your Cellphone using TextPayMe

Yes, that's an affiliate link, so if you'd rather just go to the site directly and not help feed my gadget habit, I understand. Just go to www.textpayme.com directly.

Music retailers vie for dominance while their segment slowly dies

2006-02-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

It's not really big news, per se, but it's darn interesting to read that the owners of Coconuts Music and Movies, Strawberries Music, Wherehouse, CD World, Spec's, Second Spin and Planet Music have proffered an offer to buy the now-bankrupt Musicland Holdings, owners of the audio and video retail chains Sam Goody, Suncoast Motion Picture Co., and MediaPlay.com. Seems to me that these people haven't noticed the writing on the wall, that the combination of the iTunes Music Store, Walmart, Amazon and other 21st century media distributors have doomed traditional media retailers to the dustheap of obsolescence:

Wherehouse buys Musicland: why bother?

To me, it's like dinosaurs wrestling in a tar pit or passengers fighting over deck chairs on a sinking ship. What do you think? When was the last time you walked into a traditional media retailer and purchased a CD or DVD?

Waiting for "Olympics 2.0"

2006-02-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

it's quite trendy to use a weblog as a bully pulpit to complain about something or other, and every so often I can't resist the siren song myself. It's hard not to be upset, though, when watching the 2006 Winter Olympics coverage on NBC TV, however, with its endless commercials, insipid background vignettes and idiotic commentary. But even the way the Olympics programming is made available is terribly behind the times, completely missing the usability and viewer-friendly programming guides most of us now have. There's a lot about the Olympics to love and who doesn't like watching the world's best athletes competing for national glory and cool medallions anyway? Yet ratings are down for the Olympics. Maybe, though, it's all related...

Terrible Olympics Coverage by NBC

I really just want to be in Torino for a few weeks, attending the events myself. But that's not exactly realistic.

Blogging for Market Research?

2006-02-16T00:06:00.000-07:00

Paul Gillin of "BtoB Magazine" is earnestly seeking non-tech company bloggers who are using weblogs for market research, specifically to collect research about customers and markets for an upcoming column. I know that there are companies whose blogs serve as market research - indeed, don't just about all of these weblogs end up being customer research tools anyway, from which pages are most popular to the specific comments left?

Anyway, no pundits! He's just looking for concrete, specific examples. Can you help him out? Please see:

Are you using blogs for market research?

Surely a couple of you will step forward and help?

How Prentice-Hall uses blogs and podcasts to improve sales

2006-02-14T22:54:00.000-07:00

This is one of those great "some companies really 'get it'" stories, the kind of thing I love to hear about as someone riding the very tip of the technology rocketship (think Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove and you'll have my mental image exactly). Prentice-Hall Business Publishers have the same challenges that any company today faces, including motivating the sales force, identifying the key message or messages for marketing and making sure that the team stays on message rather than wandering off into pointless information that isn't going to close any sort of deal.

But unlike most companies, PH decided to tackle the problem with blogs, podcasts and simulation games. It's darn interesting:

Blogs, Podcasts and Simulations Improve Sales at Prentice-Hall

What have you done to help your sales team succeed today?

What are the best ways to make money in RuneScape?

2006-02-11T00:33:00.000-07:00

I'm not a gamer, but I have a fascination with massively multiplayer online role playing games nonetheless, muchly because it's hard for me to wrap my brain around how many zillions of hours are spent annually by people who ARE really into these games. One of the most successful of these is RuneScape, which has four million active users. If each user just logged in for 30 minutes per month, that's 24 million hours or 2,739 fulltime person-years of time spent in the RuneScape universe. Amazing indeed!

But rather than just write about the game, I received a question about how to actually make some money in RuneScape, so that you can advance levels, buy stuff, and generally enjoy the game more. With millions of players, it's a sure bet that some folk have mastered different ways to earn money while others plod along in relative poverty. Problem solved!

How do you make money in RuneScape?

Don't look for me in the world of RuneScape. It's the kind of thing I have to avoid, lest I be sucked into the slick 3D graphics and ability to interact with thousands of other players, never to be seen online again. :-)

Learn how to solve Sudoku puzzles

2006-02-09T10:26:00.000-07:00

I'm not a huge fan of puzzles like sudoku, but there's no question it's a hit in Japan and the United States both. The basic premise is that you have a partially populated grid of numbers and that you need to fill in the blank spots so that the final grid meets certain characteristics. Sound fun? You might well be surprised!

Getting started can be a bit tricky, however, so a simple tutorial explanation is a good starting point, and that's what a colleague contributed to my site this morning. Check it out:

How do I play Sudoku?

There are lots of books and Web sites focused on this addictive puzzle too, just Google 'free sudoku puzzles'.

Maximizing your Google AdSense results with "Channels"

2006-02-08T18:15:00.000-07:00

I hear from a lot of different Google AdSense participants about their results with the program, and it's surprising to me how many say that they're quite dissatisfied with their ability to monetize their traffic. Some will share comments like "I earned $18 last month, so I've decided to just drop out of the program entirely". It's their decision, but I have to say that a little bit of effort put into customizing your AdSense ad blocks and learning about how to fine tune your use of the AdSense system can really pay big benefits in terms of you truly understanding what is and isn't working on your site.

A great example of this is Google's "Channels" with AdSense. By using these channels intelligently, you can differentiate between different ad block layouts on your pages, different areas of your site, and even different domains if you're running AdSense on more than a single domain. And y'know what? It's pretty darn easy to do, as detailed here:

Maximize your AdSense Income with AdSense Channels

It's well worth reading if you're an AdSense participant, and if you're not, well, maybe the figures in my example report could motivate you to sign up?

The scoop on the Amazon Sponsored Links Program

2006-02-08T00:02:00.000-07:00

Google AdSense is the cornerstone of the Google empire in many ways and so it's no surprise that lots of other companies, from Yahoo to Microsoft, are trying to hone in on the business with their own contextually sensitive text ad blocks. But Amazon? Who would have thought that the Seattle book company was busy building a sophisticated program of its own, called the Amazon Associates Sponsored Links Program. Never heard of it? Oh, you will.

And you can start here:

The Amazon Associates Sponsored Links Program

The information I share is all directly from Amazon. It's a must read if you pay attention to the world of online advertising.

Gmail adds "Chats" feature: Another privacy problem lurking?

2006-02-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

Google never stops experimenting and adding new features to its software systems, so it's no surprise when major applications change without any notification or comment from Google. The latest? Google's Gmail application now includes a convenient mechanism for you to browse and search through your Google Talk chat transcripts.

But are you comfortable with Google having an archive of not just your email and searches, but of your instant message transcripts too? I think there's yet another privacy problem that'll arise once people find that contextually-sensitive ads are displayed while reviewing chat transcripts:

Google Gmail Chats Feature?

I'm less paranoid than some of my colleagues, but still...

Grow your business with some great books

2006-02-04T22:55:00.000-07:00

From blogging to eBay, I have some really great books on my shelves nowadays, and it's darn cool to say that I wrote the foreword for one of them and served as technical editor for another. The books? "Blog Marketing: The Revolutionary New Way to Increase Sales, Build Your Brand, and Get Exceptional Results" by Jeremy Wright, "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars: Tools and Techniques to Make More Money on Every Transaction" by Ina Steiner, "Blog Wild: How Every Business Can Harness the Power of the Internet's Most Explosive Marketing Tool" by Andy Wibbels and the mystery novel "Navigating the Growth Curve" by James Fischer.

What makes them such good reading?

Find out for yourself!

Yeah, it's a cheap 'jump', but I have written a fair bit about each of these books, including why I think it's well worth your time to find them (caveat: Blog Wild! isn't available quite yet) and read them yourself too. :-)

Memeorandum: the future of news or simple popularity contest?

2006-02-03T22:35:00.000-07:00

I admit it, most bloggers seem to really like the blogosphere tracking site Memeorandum, but don't count me as one of that group. I admit that the concept is interesting, in the same way that Google offers interesting results based upon its academic reference citation model, but there are some fundamental problems with any site that's built around popularity.

The site's referenced in a lot of weblog postings - indeed, I've linked to it once or twice myself - but the more I look at it and the more I think about the implications of its core premise, the less comfortable I am with it:

Why I don't like Memeorandum

Maybe I'm clueless about how it really works or misunderstand the implications of popularity based on relevance, but I don't like it. Do you?

Become a technology evangelist for Amazon?

2006-02-03T15:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a cool job opportunity, and a lot of interesting information about a job that almost all of us would covet: being a technology evangelist and traveling around the world talking to interested folks in different companies and at trade shows. Imagine, life's a big party, and you're paid to do it!

Well, maybe being a technology evangelist isn't quite that glorious, but it's still a pretty cool job and you'd have peers like Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble and Jeff Barr. Not bad company at all!

Here's the scoop:

What's a Technology Evangelist?

Me? I'd sure be interested in the opportunity, but I think I'd want to be a consumer products evangelist, all in all.

Google China reflects a new, healthy pragmatism at Google HQ

2006-01-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

One of the hot topics of debate in the media this week has been whether Google should have launched its new Google China service, a search engine built atop servers located within mainland China that have content filters based on the laws and requirements of the Chinese government. While many people have criticized Google's decision, along with other firms that also opt to meet legal requirements for doing business in the Chinese market, I actually believe that this decision marks a turning point in the growth and maturity of Google as a corporation. It's the beginning of Google the pragmatic corporation, and it's a trait that suggests that the company is recognizing the difference between idealism and success:

Google gets pragmatic and enters China

There are lots of interesting parallels that I draw in this article too, including companies that opted to do business in South Africa and helped destroy apartheid, and even eBay's meeting the requirements of the German government in terms of Nazi memorabilia sales.

Actually, no, Yahoo isn't "conceding search to Google"

2006-01-24T10:53:00.000-07:00

The big discussion right now in the blog space is whether the recent comments from Yahoo's Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker mean that Yahoo has "given up" on the search space and "conceded" it to Google. The problem is, I think everyone's misinterpreting what Decker said because they're all succumbing to the "win or die" philosophy that's so prevalent in the industry. But if you can put that aside, there's nothing particularly concerning, alarming or even distressing about what Decker is exploring. It's the Ferrari Solution:

What do Yahoo, Apple and Ferrari have in common?

It's far too early to write Yahoo off or somehow conclude that the company is irrelevant to the world of search. Search is the future of the Internet and there's still lots of space for innovation.

Of speaker fees and truly great presentations

2006-01-20T22:54:00.000-07:00

Curious about what it takes to be a really world-class public speaker, where you can not only have people eating out of your proverbial hand, but also event organizers happy to pay you a fee to get involved? If you can't attend a workshop on how to speak well, then the next best thing is to study some of the best, as I write about in this recent blog entry:

What makes a truly great public speaker?

Have you seen a wonderful speaker? Who was it, and what made them so engaging?

How can I incorporate an RSS feed onto my web site?

2006-01-20T11:49:00.000-07:00

It's a question I hear with some frequency; how can you add an RSS feed to the pages of your own web site, home page or weblog? Many of the solutions are pretty complex, but it turns out that Newsgator Online - a free RSS aggregator and tools service - makes it incredibly easy for you to accomplish just this, even letting you customize the format of the content and intermingle multiple feeds rather than being constrained to just one RSS source.

Even better, the example i show also explains how to set it up and customize it, with detailed steps, meaning that even if you aren't handy with a computer, you'll be able to get everything up and running in no time:

Add an RSS feed display to your Web site

It's a very cool feature of a very nice application!

Sync your Mac with a Motorola RAZR V3c? Sure!

2006-01-16T23:40:00.000-07:00

I just got a fancy new cellphone from Verizon, a Motorola RAZR V3c, and was darn frustrated to find that it wouldn't work out of the box with Mac OS X, either via USB cable or bluetooth. Apparently, it's just too new for the OS to know about. Blech. Meanwhile, though, I spent hours digging through various net resources and managed to find out everything I needed to know to enable my phone to upload and download photos, ringtones, wallpapers, etc with my Mac and sync my phone book with Address Book too, all neatly via bluetooth. Darn cool.

Motorola RAZR V3c and Apple Mac: pictures, wallpaper and ringtones

Now if i can just figure out how to have the RAZR V3c work as an Internet access device, I'll be one happy cellphone user!

How do I get started with affiliate marketing?

2006-01-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

It's one of those modern business questions that never seemed relevant until the last few years: how do you learn which of the many different affiliate marketing (commission-only sales) programs offer the best payout and opportunity to monetize your blog or web site traffic? After having attended a huge trade show focused on just this topic (the Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas earlier this month) I have some new ideas on how to accomplish this task:

Get Started with Affiliate Marketing

What kind of success are you seeing with your own affiliate programs?

Lots of new articles from Ask Dave Taylor!

2006-01-14T00:30:00.000-07:00

It's never quiet at my Ask Dave Taylor tech support site, and it's just about time for a roundup of the latest articles on a wide range of topics, from Sony PSP to Windows XP, eBay payment fraud to search engine optimization. Here's the full rundown:

• How do I detect the Sony PSP Web browser on my site?
• Check free space on Windows XP?
• Auction payment to false name at Western Union?
• Why don't I rank highly for all relevant searches?
• How do I associate a file with an application?
• How do I deal with angry customers?
• What is a "Universal Application" on a Mac?
• How can I avoid having Apple kill my shareware app?
• How can I run an app if another app is running?
• Are there any good collaborative editing tools online?
• What's the performance trade-off with partitioning a SATA drive?
• How do I find all child processes in Unix?
• Convert WMA from Windows Media Player into MP3 files?
• How do I disable MusicMatch Jukebox?

Lots of great reading, I'm sure!

Why I won't be buying a Lenovo X41 Tablet PC

2006-01-13T23:20:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to like the Lenovo X41 Tablet PC, I really did. I like IBM, I like their partnership with Lenovo, and I love the ultra-lightweight form factor of this delightful 3 pound computer. Heck, I even liked Windows for Tablet PC as an operating system for on the road or in meetings. But at the end of my two month evaluation period, I've come to the conclusion that I will not be purchasing the X41 Tablet PC after all. There are a number of reasons for this, but the two that are uppermost are battery life and wake-from-standby performance. Read more:

Won't Be Buying a Lenovo X41 Tablet PC

If you know of a better choice for an ultra lightweight Tablet PC, please, let me know. I'm sure that there's one in the market that has these frustrating performance problems solved.

How affiliate marketing will greatly impact sales

2006-01-13T23:13:00.000-07:00

After having spent years exploring the world of affiliate marketing and online commerce, it was very informative to finally attend a conference focused exclusively on this multi-billion-dollar sales engine, Affiliate Summit 2006. Without question, there's no greater change in the world of sales and marketing than affiliate marketing, and companies from Amazon.com and Best Buy to little Mom and Pop stores are recognizing this fact. Whatever you think your customers, market segment or visitors will buy there's some sort of affiliate program that will make it easy to match them with high quality products.

The future of sales is affiliate marketing

It's worth a read whether you're interested in adding affiliate sales to your existing marketing and sales mix or just want to learn about a new way to monetize your Web site.

The Consumer Electronics Show, or the Commodity Electronics Show?

2006-01-13T23:05:00.000-07:00

I just returned from an enjoyable few days exploring all the new technologies introduced at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, and while the huge plasma TVs, high-def video, movie-friendly cellphones, Skype-everywhere and iPod peripherals were all impressive, the biggest reaction I had after the conference was that electronics have all become commodities. Not just a few years after introduction, but now almost as soon as it's on the market, it's commoditized, with technologies from companies large and small indistinguishable other than the logo and the sales outlets. It's a remarkable change in this industry, and one that shows the road down which we're heading with all manufactured goods:

CES becomes Commodity Electronics Show

If you're paying attention to this segment of the economy - and you should be - this article will give you pause.

Microsoft + MCI for Voice over IP telephony? Smart!

2006-01-13T22:50:00.000-07:00

I've been watching the VOIP marketplace for months now as we get to see the evolution of telephones from fixed wires and crazy, confusing charges to Internet-based phone systems that offer all-you-can-call dialing for a flat fixed fee, or even without any charge if you're lucky enough to have the person on the other end also using the same service. From Google to eBay/Skype, Vonage to Vbuzzer and Jingle, there are more VOIP solutions than you can shake a stick at. But what about Microsoft? Finally, in a classic Microsoft corporate maneuver, its intentions can be ascertained:

Microsoft partners with MCI for its VOIP solution

Me? I use both Vbuzzer (they're offering a free trial period too!) and Skype, for North American and overseas calling, respectively. It's a brave new world and I like it!

VOIP news from Microsoft, MCI and Om Malik

2006-01-06T10:04:00.000-07:00

One of the business segments I track is the emerging field of Voice over Internet (VOIP) telephony. It's a sea-change in a billion dollar industry and competitors in this space range from open source developers like Gizmo to huge traditional telephone companies like MCI, cable TV companies like Comcast and just about anyone else who can craft a dozen lines of code and get some decent distribution.

Yesterday was an interesting day in the VOIP world, spurred on by the Consumer Electronics Show, no doubt, and I wrote two articles that I think you'd be interested in reading:

• Are VOIP solutions proprietary and insular, or not?

• Microsoft Partners with MCI for VOIP solution

I use a number of different VOIP solutions in my office, ranging from Skype with some USB headphones to Vbuzzer plugged directly into a multi-line telephone, so if you have questions about VOIP and telephony, please don't hesitate to ask me about VOIP.

Plagiarism incident reinforces that journalists aren't so different from bloggers

2006-01-03T23:28:00.000-07:00

Us bloggers have been debating whether we should get the same rights and be held to the same standards as professional journalists for at least a few years now, and it seems like whenever we're about to end the discussion something else comes along to add oil to the proverbial fire.

This time the incident is the well-respected Toronto Star ripping off content from a friend of mine, writer Randy Cassingham, and publishing it in the newspaper without either fact-checking or any sort of attribution. Perhaps this isn't an uncommon incident, but this time they were caught out by a blogger who tracks newspaper gaffes and that article was picked up by industry publication Editor & Publisher:

Of Lazy Journalists and Wanton Plagiarism

The Toronto Star? No word from them yet, but I'd like to think they'll publish some sort of retraction or apology. And journalists? Are you really going to claim that you're the professionals in this situation?

Cool Computer Audio Tricks!

2006-01-03T23:20:00.000-07:00

You wouldn't think that there needed to be more than one or two different file formats for audio content, but in fact there are dozens of 'em. And every program seems to have its own favorite, incompatible with the others. As a result, I often see questions about how to convert from one format into another. The most common conversion?

Convert WMA audio files into MP3 audio files

And while we're talking about audio files and audio players, a little digging found out more than you might want to know about Yahoo's MusicMatch Jukebox and why it's so darn hard to get rid of this program once it's installed:

Disable MusicMatch Jukebox?

Useful? I hope so.

Can you motivate kids by paying them for results?

2006-01-02T23:38:00.000-07:00

It's an interesting question whether you're a parent or a child: does money work as a motivator, and if so, what's the best way to use it to get the desired results in older children and even college-age children? You might have a strong belief that motivation should be internal, not external, but then again, you might be a pragmatist and feel like if it works, it's a good thing.

Either way, take a moment to read what I've written on this subject:

Can you pay kids for results?

And while we're talking about parenting, don't forget to take a moment to check out the Attachment Parenting Blog too!

How do you change your AOL password?

2006-01-02T23:33:00.000-07:00

You might not be a big fan of America Online, but it still has millions of users, and even with the terrific online help system that's included with the AOL system, users have questions. Sometimes a lot of questions, actually.

The latest?

How do I change my AOL password?

Not an AOL user? You can keep moving along, then... :-)

PSP Internet puzzles and music downloads

2006-01-02T22:34:00.000-07:00

With the growing popularity of the Sony Playstation Portable (PSP), lots of people are learning about its many capabilities, but are also finding that it's not the easiest device in the world to work with. Further, for all that Sony still knows how to make cool gear, the company still hasn't mastered customer service, so it's no surprise that when someone searches for psp help they end up on my site.

As a result, here are the two most recent informative postings for you PSP fans:

• Internet connection with Sony PSP help
• How to get music to play on your Sony PSP

The site has lots more help too, if you're stymied about how to work with your PSP!

Alaska Airlines and the Blog version of "telephone"

2005-12-31T00:55:00.000-07:00

There's a lot to really like about how blogging and citizen bloggers are changing the world of communication, whether it's the ability to connect with like-minded folk through your writing or whether its how individuals can now help keep companies in check as they publicize bad experiences, inappropriate employees and just plain stupid business tactics.

But there's a line that it's important to stay behind, in my opinion, a line that's labeled "truth", and as demonstrated in a recent incident that fellow blogger Jeremy Hermann wrote about with Alaska Airlines, it's darn easy for us denizens of the online world to cross, sometimes without even realizing.

Read about it, and see how allegations become truth, become a public relations disaster all without anyone ever ensuring the veracity of the situation:

Alaska Airlines and the death of truth

As always, I'd be most interested in your thoughts on this subject!

Change your password on America Online (AOL)?

2005-12-29T10:59:00.000-07:00

It's a basic, simple question, but one that a surprising number of AOL users still have: how do you change your password? Now, be nice, not everyone can be a computer genius like you blog-reading fanatics. Trust me, I get lots of email from AOL users about quirks of the AOL interface. :-)

Anyway, here's exactly how to do it:

How do I change my password on AOL?

Remember, while lots of people migrate from AOL to other services, there are still millions of AOL users.

Change iTunes to save audio files in MP3 format?

2005-12-28T00:13:00.000-07:00

It's a question I hear time and again: I've been ripping music CDs with Apple iTunes and it's been working fine, but now that I have an MP3 player of some sort - a cellphone, MP3 device, iPod or even Sony PSP - all of a sudden I realize that the files are in the wrong format (usually AAC). How do I change iTunes to save the audio files in MP3 format in the first place, rather than worrying about any sort of conversion necessary?

iTunes saving audio files in MP3 format

It's surprisingly not hard at all once you know where the preferences are stored...

Tips on downloading songs to MP3 players

2005-12-27T16:12:00.000-07:00

While it's not the most complex technology in the world, I'm still rather amazed at the number of queries I see about how to download songs onto various types of MP3 players, whether they're cellphones, tiny pendants, or even Sony PSP game units or iPods. Rather than address each one (which would require me to own them all, which sounds fun, but overwhelming), here's a general how-to on working with MP3 players and downloading songs:

How do I download songs onto my MP3 player?

I hope it's helpful!

What's the best satellite radio service?

2005-12-27T16:05:00.000-07:00

If you haven't been living under a rock, you've heard the ads for both XM Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio and, perhaps, wondered how the two really compare and which is a better choice for you. A colleague of mine is a big fan of both (yes, he subscribes to both each month) and wrote a helpful tutorial on just this topic, something that is bound to help you make this decision. It's the perfect way to spend that new Christmas gift certificate from Circuit City or Best Buy, isn't it?

Sirius versus XM: What's the better satellite radio service?

I'm still enjoying Internet radio, personally, but that's another story entirely!

How to create multiple accounts in Thunderbird

2005-12-27T15:59:00.000-07:00

At this day and age it's no surprise that people have more than one email account, but if you've been using the Mozilla Thunderbird application, you might well be unsure how to set it up for more than one account. Fortunately, here's a quick primer on exactly how to accomplish that:

Create Multiple Accounts in Thunderbird

A useful page to bookmark if you're a Thunderbird user!

Useful and interesting Windows tips and tricks

2005-12-27T15:51:00.000-07:00

If you're like me, you probably spent at least some of your Christmas holiday puttering about on your computer, either playing games or just trying to keep up with the never-ending tsunami of email. In the midst of the chaos, however, I did have a chance to push Santa aside and write up some useful Q&A articles on common Windows topics:

• Changing the default font Size in Wordpad

• Prevent messenger programs from saving usernames and passwords

• Changing the default font size in Notepad

• Removing Norton Antivirus

• Adding applications to the Windows Quick Launch Bar

• Teaching Windows Media Player to save MP3 audio files

Phew. When the heck did I even have the chance to open some presents? Sheesh! I need a clone for Christmas next year, I think! :-)

The fallout of the Wikipedia wars: credibility

2005-12-27T15:44:00.000-07:00

A lot of people have been writing about the back and forth editing battles on specific Wikipedia entries, including certain well-known figures - including the founder of Wikipedia - inflating their roles in historical events, and similar, but it's not the editing that is the problem, it's the result that all this wanton editing has produced, the assault on all online content credibility. Wikipedia is an easy target because it has for years been somewhat of a media darling, a shining example of citizen collaboration at its best. But no more:

What Wikipedia Lost: Credibility

Can it recover? I dunno... I just don't know...

Everything you wanted to know about, well, everything! :-)

2005-12-22T23:29:00.000-07:00

Lots going on in the last few days on my weblogs, so I thought I'd just share a wave of links for you to enjoy.

How do Weblogs manage with multiple authors?

How do you create a Web site just for buyers of a book?

How do I customize Google Adsense's "Advertise on this site"

How do I produce MP3 files with Windows Media Player 10?

How do I add an application to the Windows Quick Launch bar?

And, finally, in the spirit of the season: Last Minute Christmas Gifts!

I hope you find these articles useful, informative and something that helps you move into 2006 smarter and better able to wrestle control back from your computer. :-)

Is there really a Santa Claus?

2005-12-19T00:14:00.000-07:00

It's the time of year for more unusual questions to start appearing at Ask Dave Taylor and so it's not a huge surprise that the most interesting question of the weekend was Is Santa Claus Real? Rather than dismiss it, I decided to dig into the myth, legend and story of Santa Claus (more formally known as "Saint Nicholas of Myra", actually, but I'll let you read through what I found out and decide for yourself whether there's a Santa Claus:

Is Santa Claus Real?

And, yes, I end my piece with an observation about why we need someone like Santa Claus in modern day society, whether you believe he's real or not. As for us? Well, we hedge our bets with cookies and milk on the mantel every 24th of December.

Inside the world of Neopets

2005-12-18T22:53:00.000-07:00

An innocent question sent in to Ask Dave Taylor this weekend gave me a chance to peer into a whole 'nother world online, the amazing world of Neopia, a 25-million-member Web site known as Neopets.com. It's more than just a destination with a lot of users, though, because, well, first off, 80% of members are under 18 and the average user spends over six hours per month on the site. But much more interesting is what Neopets.com says about the future of advertising and commercialization for the under-18 set. Here are two articles on Neopia:

Welcome to Neopet's Neopia

Finding Neopet Guild Layouts

The latter is much more nuts and bolts, but both give you a glimpse into this amazing online world, and explore some of the problems of Neopia as well as its benefits and positive aspects. If you're not already a Neopets fanatic, you'll find this very interesting reading!

Not Showing up in Google: Sandbox or Delisted?

2005-12-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

It's one of the great puzzles of the Age of Findability: is your site listed in the major search engines or not? And if you can't find your site in the search engine is it simply because the search robot hasn't made it to your domain or for a much worse reason? What's worse than not being on the search engine yet, you ask? Being in the search engine then getting kicked out, a process known as "delisting". If you are in the search engine but aren't showing up for specific topical searches, you might well be in the Google "sandbox".

When a reader asked about why his site isn't showing up in Google, even though he's been building it out for months, a little bit of detective work and some educated guesses reveals something that he might not want to hear:

Google Sandbox or Delisted Completely?

This is one very good reason why it's important to play by the rules...

Yahoo Search redesign coming in early January

2005-12-16T09:56:00.000-07:00

With billions of dollars at stake, the major search engine players are constantly jockeying for position, trying to create that perfect mix of great search results, useful additional material and effective advertising slots. Get it right and you too could have a market cap greater than most of the Fortune 500, but don't rest, because everyone's constantly changing. That's why when I received a copy of a memo from Yahoo Search about an upcoming change to the design of their search results pages, I thought it was darn interesting news and worth disseminating:

Yahoo Search results redesign details

It's not earth-shattering, but it does remind us that search engines are the center of the universe right now and that the company that can produce the best search engine is going to win big time!

Memory Leaks are Eating My PC Alive!

2005-12-16T09:24:00.000-07:00

A reader sent me in a question about the amount of available memory on his Windows computer, surmising that the reason that there was such a disparity between the installed memory and the available memory was some sort of rampant memory leak. Odds are that's not the reason why his system is showing a different available memory figure than he expects, as you can read for yourself:

Memory leaks are ruining a Windows PC?

As Sherlock Holmes would say, eliminate the impossible and whatever's left, however improbable, is the likely explanation.

Add Weather to your Site and Groups to your Gmail Account!

2005-12-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

Alright, two topics that are really completely unrelated, but since they're the two most recent letters received at AskDaveTaylor I thought I'd be efficient and point you to both of them here in the same message.

First off, if you've ever thought that it would be cool to show other people visiting your Web site (or blog!) the weather in your neighborhood, you'll be interested in reading my article about two of the best choices in this area and how they compare:

Add a Weather Bug Report To Your Site / Blog

Good weather or not, if you're a fan of Google's Gmail service, you'll be excited to learn that they just released a groups capability to the existing address book contact system. Learn how to work with it here:

Contact Groups in Google's Gmail Service

Stay tuned - more fun and interesting Q&A coming all the time. :-)

Google AdSense reports via email? Cool!

2005-12-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

A lot of people on the Web have become part of the Google AdSense program, with generally good results, but unless you're a fanatic, it's easy to forget that you should really be keeping an eye on AdSense, checking your reports and making sure you can begin to draw meaningful correlations between what you're writing about, how you're writing, and what kind of results you're seeing with the AdSense program. I certainly know of colleagues who have let their ad revenue stream help them successively refine their blogging style to maximize their income within the context of their desired market space, for example.

One way to keep on top of things is to have your Google AdSense reports automatically mailed to you, and it turns out that this feature was just added to the AdSense system, as detailed and explained here:

Google AdSense Reports Via Email

If you haven't signed up for AdSense, I encourage you to start by reading my earlier article Get Started with Google AdSense too.

Screensaver asking for a password?

2005-12-15T00:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a pretty common Windows question: what do you need to modify so that your screensaver doesn't automatically prompt you for a password each time you want to go back to using your computer after it's kicked off? And, for that matter, how do you fix it if the screensaver starts up way too fast, just minutes after you stop using your computer? Both are answered here:

Configuring your Windows screensaver

The solution is simple, but if you don't know how to modify it, this kind of thing can definitely drive you crazy!

Is there such a thing as Plaxo spam?

2005-12-13T15:08:00.000-07:00

I've been noticing that spammers are a wily lot, always subverting any popular tool to their own nefarious (or just plain annoying) purpose. While I've never been a fan of the Plaxo address book management site, I haven't actively disliked it either, until I realized that spammers had subverted it and are now sending out fake 'update your address' requests that can only be from spam address databases. When someone asked me a question about it, all the sticks lined up (think "i ching" :-) and I realized just how it all must work:

Can I get Plaxo Spam?

The sad fact is that, yes, when you design software or a web-based service nowadays, you have to pay just as much attention to how people can subvert or twist it to their own needs as how well you're serving your customer. Just another facet of the selfishness and lack of looking at the common good that's too prevalent in certain business segments, I fear.

Debunking the myth of Kryptonite and the blogosphere

2005-12-13T11:52:00.000-07:00

If you've read any of the recent wave of books about blogging or even attended a workshop or conference on the subject, you've doubtless been told the harrowing tale of Kryptonite locks and how bloggers created a major crisis for the firm, muchly because the company just wasn't paying attention to us bloggers and was broadsided by the news that someone had figured out how to pick one of their bike locks. I've always been skeptical of this story, and when I finally had a chance to sit down with Donna Tocci, Public Relations Manager of Kryptonite, I was delighted that she consented to help clear up the many myths and falsehoods about the situation.

You can read the long, involved interview here:

Debunking the Myth of Kryptonite Locks and the Blogosphere

If you're at all interested in blogging as a business communications tool and particularly in how companies need to be prepared for damage control and crisis management in the online world, Donna has lots of good insights too.

How do I split my Typepad blog postings into two parts?

2005-12-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

A reader who uses the Typepad weblog tool -- which I recommend to my small business clients -- asks whether it's capable of breaking a given weblog article into two parts so that the first section can be shown on the home page and the rest of the article only shown on the continuation / permanent page. The answer is that you can definitely do that, but it's rather unintuitive how to make that change and have it work through your weblog. Fortunately, I've documented the process:

How do I split my Typepad blog entries up?

If you don't use Typepad, you might find the solution a bit convoluted, but keep in mind the level of power built in to this remarkable tool before you run in terror. :-)

Help craft a blogosphere damage control strategy

2005-12-12T10:12:00.000-07:00

Just about every company has a bad day, an inferior product and some disgruntled customers. It's inevitable, whether you're running a restaurant or building million-dollar homes. What's new is that unhappy customers now have a greater reach than they ever did in the past, and companies can no longer easily ignore these grumblers, but have to actively address their public comments.

I've been asked to help one company with just this challenge, to help them come up with a response to critical reviews of their service on some well-known blogs. The company knows it's losing sales because of these critiques (the power of blogs!) but how to respond?

Building a blog damage control strategy

Even the most rabid anti-business folk must agree that it's best to have both sides of a situation presented, but there's a lot more to it than that. Please, read what I suggest and add your own ideas on this topic.

Early education computer: Mac or PC?

2005-12-12T00:08:00.000-07:00

Talk about opening up a can of worms! I received an email question over the weekend that is a facet of what must be one of the most heated debate topics in the online world: whether a Mac is better than a PC for a student. In this particular case, the person writing is interested in early education, but the question - and the answer - is the same regardless of age group or skill level, in my opinion:

PC versus Mac for education and schools

There's a lot of heat, but if you have a useful perspective, please, feel free to pop over and add your own thoughts on this topic.

What's the new "Web Clip" service in Google's Gmail?

2005-12-09T11:13:00.000-07:00

The folks at Google never seem to stop adding neat new features and capabilities to their many cool tools, and the latest addition to their popular Gmail service is no different: Web Clips allow you to have a little "ticker" within the web-based email program that features the latest news and updates from whatever RSS information sources you'd like to track, from the BBC World Service to my own Ask Dave Taylor. Very cool idea, and it's a relatively easy task to configure it to your liking:

All About Gmail Web Clips

Since I spend a lot of time in Gmail, I'm sure I'll be spending time configuring and tuning my Web Clips too.

Is blog tagging becoming more mainstream?

2005-12-08T16:33:00.000-07:00

There seem to be two major camps in the blogging world, one that believes strongly in the value and utility of "tagging", whether through a third-party service like De.licio.us or directly on a blog through applications like Technorati, and a separate camp that believes that the lack of standardization in the keywording / tagging community dooms it to inevitable failure and that it's a waste of time and effort.

Figuring out which side is correct might well be something that can only be accomplished from a distance, however, and that distance might well be in time, not geography. But there are a few interesting data points that I've seen in the last few weeks...

Is Tagging Growing in Importance?

Just about everyone who reads or writes for blogs has an opinion on this subject. What's yours?

Cool Linux command line and shell script tricks

2005-12-08T15:46:00.000-07:00

As the author of a bunch of books on Unix and shell script programming (most recently Teach Yourself Unix in 24 Hours and Wicked Cool Shell Scripts) I see a lot of interesting questions about how to be more efficient with the Unix / Linux command line and how to do neat things in shell scripts. In fact, I have an entire category on my weblog all about Shell Script Programming if you're really into it.

Last night I received two questions within minutes of each other, and both are great examples of how the Linux operating system is powerful and fun to work with:

• How to delete directories in Linux
• Can shell scripts check User ID?

Here's another helpful tip too: both of these are directly applicable to Mac OS X users too, since modern Macs have a complete and fully capable Unix operating system neatly tucked behind the beautiful Aqua graphical interface!

What's the difference between a software patent and copyright?

2005-12-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

It's a question that many developers ask, whether they're open source fans working on re-implementing a particularly smart commercial idea, or commercial developers seeking to be directly inspired by the work that other companies have already accomplished: what's the difference between a software patent and a software copyright? You might be surprised at the answer:

About Software Patents and Copyrights

The answer included is from a patent and intellectual property attorney, the chap who helped me get a registered trademark for my domain name many years ago, as it happens.

How do you integrate Paypal buttons into weblogs?

2005-12-07T09:02:00.000-07:00

Paypal is a popular ecommerce solution for many online merchants, and its button builder interface makes it pleasantly easy to create various buttons that you can add to your Web site, but if you want to drop them into specific weblog articles or posts, how do you do it? More specifically, how do you tuck some text immediately adjacent to the button to help visitors make that all-important purchase decision? Read on...

Adding Paypal Buttons to Blog Posts

It's not too hard once you understand the underlying HTML and how it relates to the other content in your post.

Do you need help raising venture capital for your startup?

2005-12-06T18:20:00.000-07:00

I'm surprised how often I get requests from entrepreneurs asking me to help them raise money for their startup enterprises. No, I'm not surprised at that, actually, I'm surprised at how rarely these entrepreneurs have thought through all the facets of a successful business and how rarely they demonstrate any sense of how an investor decides whether or not to invest in a company. The latest request was from an organization based in South Africa that is building a company around a nice open source software application. But can you build a fundable company giving away open source software? Read on...

Raise Money from Venture Capitalists VCs

As with many startups, the seeds of a great business are there, but can it all be put together?

How do I use Paypal for micropayments?

2005-12-05T15:36:00.000-07:00

If you're selling products online, you've already figured out that just about every online transaction system is geared towards selling a smaller number of higher-priced items. But what about if you want to sell lots of $2 or $3 widgets or information products? It turns out that while they don't promote it too much, Paypal, one of the most trusted online commerce vendors, offers a micropayment solution, as detailed here:

How to use Paypal for micropayments

It's a simple and straightforward solution for small transaction amounts.

Mac email attachments aren't encoded properly?

2005-12-04T23:44:00.000-07:00

While interoperability between Mac and Windows systems has come a long way in the last decade, and it's rare to have Mac users wishing they were using a Windows system so things wouldn't be messed up on transfer, there are occasional hiccups and glitches that can prove frustrating problems, particularly with email applications. A reader wrote in asking about a strange incompatibility with his attachments when sent from his Mac to other Mac users and Windows users, and it turns out that the most probable answer is pretty easy:

Mac email attachments are broken

Windows zealots will particularly appreciate my answer. :-)

Export your address book from Google Gmail

2005-12-04T23:24:00.000-07:00

If you've ever tried to save your address book from a Web-based or proprietary email service like America Online, you might have felt like you'd fallen through the proverbial looking glass and entered a universe not quite centered around you, the customer. Too many companies think that if they make it darn hard for you to leave their service, you'll stay forever, pay your monthly toll and not complain too loudly.

Fortunately, Google doesn't feel that way, and one of the many things that you can do quite easily in Google's Gmail service is export your Gmail address book. The first step can be tricky, but after that it's a breeze:

Export Gmail Contacts / Address Book

And if you haven't signed up for a Gmail account yet, please also read How do I invite people to join Gmail?

The scoop on "Check 21"

2005-12-02T16:22:00.000-07:00

The world of physical check writing and check clearing periods changed dramatically in the United States in October of last year with the passage of the "Check 21" financial act. If you don't know about these changes and their ramifications on how you write checks and pay bills, you might be bouncing more checks than you used to, and your fees and penalties for NSF (non-sufficient funds) might be quite a bit higher than they were too. Even if you don't write checks, some of this also applies to electronic checks. Get the news at:

Everything You Need to Know about Check 21

Remember, a knowledgeable consumer is a safe consumer, even with financial products.

Chitika audits commissions, axes up to 40% of money due?

2005-12-02T15:43:00.000-07:00

From the outside, it seems like an easy business being the middleman between advertisers who want to pay for traffic brought to their Web sites and ad publishers who want to get a revenue stream from allowing companies to host advertising on their sites. Seems easy, but with the proliferation of 'bots and other ways to spam pay-per-click programs, it turns out to be very tricky to accurately set expectations with both parties, get paid, and distribute commissions accurately and in a timely manner. Worse is when you tell publishers that they've earned a certain amount of commission from their traffic, then dramatically lower that figure at the end of the month when the traffic data is audited. That's exactly what Chitika has done and it's causing some serious unhappiness in the online community:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/why_did_chitika_audit_my_ppc_payment.html">Why did Chitika audit - and reduce - my commission?

Whether or not the algorithm for calculating fraudulent clicks is accurate, this is unquestionably a challenge that the new company must face with its customers, lest Chitika fans move on to the next vendor with nary a look back.

The negative impact of too many open source licenses

2005-12-02T10:36:00.000-07:00

I've been paying more attention to the problem of open source licenses recently and thinking about - and writing about - the adverse impact that overly nuanced open source licenses and zealous open source community members are having on the evolution and development of commercial software. My belief is that the two need to work cooperatively in the larger software "ecosystem" to give us the best possible options and solutions.

Two recent events seem to reinforce my position on the adverse impact of open source licenses too, one regarding the astonishing amount of time it's expected to take for the next generation of General Public License to be released, and the other a prime example of the pitfalls of having plug-ins, extensions, skins, icon packages, and other add-ons released under separate - and different - software licenses rather than as part of the main application license.

You can read my thoughts about the situation here:

Too Many Open Source Licenses are a Significant Obstacle

Don't forget to bookmark it and come back in a few days too; I'm sure there'll be a passionate debate.

Sell a can of soda, go to jail?

2005-12-01T23:48:00.000-07:00

Anyone who pays attention to the media can't help but bump into news about class action lawsuits brought against the largest and wealthiest of corporations in the United States. Some are undoubtedly legitimate and important, but others can only be described as frivolous, stupid or worse. And so the Washington Post is reporting that a team of lawyers are preparing to bring a class action lawsuit against soft-drink manufacturers like Coke and Pepsi for committing the heinous crime of having their products available for purchase in schools. Their logic? Soda on campus serves as an "attractive nuisance" and is therefore a liability under nuisance laws. I kid you not:

Coke and Pepsi Liable for selling soda in schools?

If that's a legitimate lawsuit, what's next? A class action lawsuit against bloggers who don't use a spell-check program? :-)

How do scammers exploit store gift cards?

2005-11-30T23:56:00.000-07:00

There's always an angle, right? Always a mechanism by which criminals can exploit the system for their own gain, often at the price of innocent consumers being hurt or defrauded. The rise of plastic gift cards that you see at stores like Victoria's Secret and The Limited make it incredibly easy to give gift certificates of any value to your friends and family, but there's a definite risk involved, a tricky scam that you should know about:

Gift Card Scams?

Maybe those old-fashioned $20 certificates weren't such a bad solution after all...

The Sony PSP Question: Upgrade, or Not?

2005-11-30T16:01:00.000-07:00

With most operating system upgrades, there are very few features you leave behind that you'd want. Most actually seem to be as much about security as features, but if you're a fan of the Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) then you might have realized that any upgrade to your firmware past 1.50 means that you can't play homebrew games, download custom software or software ports onto the PSP, and more. So, should you upgrade, or not?

&nbps; Should I upgrade my Sony PSP?

A detailed answer with explicit information about each of the last major upgrades, a must-read for any PSP owner.

Notes from the Google AdSense Team

2005-11-30T15:03:00.000-07:00

As a member of the AdSense program, I get sporadic newsletters from Google that highlight all that's new and good with the AdSense program. If you're just starting out with AdSense - or perhaps having joined yet at all - it's hard to know what's new and what has been a part of the program for quite a while, so it's darn useful for you to be able to read the newsletter too, and so:

Notes from the Google AdSense team

If you haven't signed up for AdSense but are interested in learning more about this program, this easy way to monetize the traffic on your Web site, please consider starting out with my tutorial Getting started with Google AdSense.