Here's the link to one of my favorite MySpace pages ... the Travelocity Roaming Gnome ... LOL

Facebook responded quickly to MySpace Data Availablity (partnering with Yahoo!, EBay and Twitter) ...

Refer link to Facebook Develepers, "Announcing Facebook Connect" by David Morin on Friday May 9th at 12:32pm.

Expect a lot of discussion around who has the most Dataportability compliant effort ... The battle lines will be drawn over data ownership, access and privacy ... Refer first article from David Recorden (Open Platforms Tech Lead at SixApart) entitled "MySpace's Data Availability is not Data Portability" over at O'Reilly Radar ...

Let the games begin.

Comscore Logic ≠ Google Revenue Growth …

restated as … Comscore ≈ Σ(measured clicks)+/- {insert margin of error, PR spin}

Blogosphere … Google 1; Comscore 0

Comscore is in the business of measurement of clicks. Google is in the business of monetization of clicks. The big disconnect over the past 24 hours was that Comscore had effectively convinced the market that Google search was down – predicting that digital advertising revenues were ‘off’ … and well, err, seems they were wrong.

Here is Comscore’s analysis and position …

Comscore Blog - "Why Google's surprising paid click data are less surprising" by Magid Abraham (James Lamberti, SVP of Search and Media at comScore, is a co-author of the post) on February 29. 2008

The industry had well covered Comscore’s position – refer:

Many of my colleagues have cautioned me about the time it takes to blog. They’re right. Time, energy and discipline. So far, so good. Actually, quite enjoying it …

Naturally, next step is to seek out some tips from pros … No shortage of input here across the blogosphere.

To spread the ‘linklove’, a few of the better sites for blogging tips are … drumroll please … BloggingTips and ScoutBlogging (corporate blogger tips)– both from Scout Media out of Boston ... and Problogger.

However, to go with the power of the blogosphere (mathematically aggregated – SEO, SMO gamed or otherwise), Problogger seems to be the community fave … Source: DailyBlogTips

The FTC Behavioral Advertising submission process has essentially divided into two camps (not a surprise outcome) … industry self-regulation or the consumer advocacy position of a (recurring) call for a ‘Do-Not-Track’ Register. Refer Reuters article by Diane Bartz entitled Consumer groups urge "do not track" registry.

The economic stakes are high for advertising networks and behavioral targeting …Multi-billion dollar revenue streams. They should be focused on the case for self-regulation given the stakes.

The case for privacy and choice for the consumer is equally strong. Tracking online activities and ‘behaviors’ – especially the extent to which this arises as well as correlation of ‘offline’ data sources – at best, can be a little creepy. Similar to say, eavesdropping all of my phone conversations … or tracking everything that I watch on TV via say, a set top box / DVR …

This is not a new debate – the positions have not changed from either side, nor are they likely to … It is good to see that a middle ground of ‘sensitive’ is emerging.

Following on from yesterday's post, here is the National Adverstising Initiative draft Principles RoadMap. Their efforts have come a long way in their stated objective ... "Helping you protect your privacy online." Couldn't be simpler.

What is "Sensitive"? ... Here is the proposed list:

Certain medical/health conditions:

• HIV/ AIDS status
  Sexually-related conditions (e.g., sexually transmitted diseases, erectile dysfunction)
• Psychiatric conditions
• Cancer status
• Abortion-related

Certain personal life information:

• Sexual behavior/orientation/identity (i.e., Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender)
• Criminal victim status (e.g., rape victim status

The challenge that I will reiterate is that someone needs to know this information to PROHIBIT the advertising ...

The Economist recently published an article on Online Social Networks entitled “Everywhere and Nowhere”.
The article leads with … “ Social Networking will become a ubiquitous feature of online life. That does not mean it is a business.” Moreover, it concludes with … “ Social Networking may end up being everywhere, and yet nowhere.”

Online / Digital Marketing Spend – not a business? Check again. Over $20 billion in revenues in 2007. Amount targeted towards niche social venues? – over $2 billion in 2007 (with this sub-segment projected to grow at a staggering 75% per annum). Why? They build targeted, relevant communities of interest. Conversations aggregate around communities of interest … not brand web sites. Savvy marketers understand the difference.

The big controversy over the past week was over the video footage posted to the Internet of six teenage girls beating up another girl while two other boys watched ... allegedly over content posted on MySpace. Refer video below from Salon.com (apologies in advance for excessive violence and potty-mouth language):

Great video from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Jennifer Stoddart ... entitled "What does a friend of a friend of a friend know about you?"

So, do you really know how your data is being used? shared? correlated? Do you really read the Terms of Service? Oh, and by the way, ever tried to use the service without clicking through the (non-negotiable) Terms of Service?

If you have more than ten minutes and really want to explore Google's position on privacy, head over to The Google Privacy Channel. Remember, it is not just search ... think DoubleClick, Picasa, Orkut, Google Checkout, Google Talk (IM), GMail, etc ...