Exhibit A
(Click to enlarge)

Odd. I was reading through my server logs this morning, when I saw that I had traffic coming from a page on The Big Blog Company. The Big Blog Company’s home page has a lot going on, so it’s a bit hard to figure out at a glance what they do, but partway down the page it explains:

The Big Blog Company is a one-stop shop for company blogs, a new tool for on-line communication for companies that want to strengthen their relationship with customers and their presence in the marketplace.

Ah, yes, another blog consulting company. (From my experience so far, good luck, guys.) Anyway, the page in question that was driving me traffic appears to be some page behind password protection. See Exhibit A.

There didn’t appear to be any way to register for the password-protected section that I could see. Looking around the page, however, I noticed in the upper-left corner there was a link for “Big Blog Company,” which I presumed would take me to the homepage, so I clicked it.

Exhibit B
(Same to you, buddy)

In fact, it flashed a temporary page that then just redirected me back to the log-in page. Imagine my surprise, however, when I clicked again and looked more carefully at the message up in the corner of this temporary refresh page: “Yeah, fuck you. Log in.” I beg your pardon? I’m trying to log in, but it’s not exactly clear how, gentleman. Doesn’t seem like very businesslike language for a consulting company.

Meanwhile, I’m also getting a lot of traffic today from this post on a site called GoFuckYourself.com, but that would appear to be an unrelated coincidence. Some days, it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed in the morning.

UPDATE:
Big Blog Consulting Company perpetuate the British stereotype that Yanks have no sense of humor and assume I’m a moron. At least I get to use trackbacks now. Whoopie!

New features in blogger, notably a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWIG) editing interface.

Evhead: Now in Blogger, WYSIWYG

I’ve never been the biggest fan of the “trackback” feature on many blogs — it just seems to further clutter the footer of posts, it seems generally underutilized and, as far as I understand, it’s available only to blog publishers using TypePad or MovableType. But, since a few of you have asked me about it, I’ve turned it on for future posts. I better start seeing some trackback links now soon, or I’ll be turning it off again eventually.

UPDATE/CORRECTION:
Okay, okay, as a few of you have pointed out, I am wrong about MT/TP being the only blog softwares that enable Trackbacks. See comments and trackback-comments for details. I’m also seeing trackbacks on other posts, so I guess I’ll leave them on for a while and see how it goes.

First, watch this video. It’s funny, basically showing the discomfort women suffer from their bra tags.

The site (linked in the above headline) purports to be an amateurly designed petition from a few concerned women calling on bra makers to design bras without itchy tags at the back, as Hanes has done with men’s undershirts. The site also links to a few blogs on the topic.

I am sure (just based on what I see) that this is really a stealthy preview campaign for some bra maker that already has such a product they are about to unleash on the world, and this is a viral advance teaser. If I’m wrong about that, it’s certainly an market and marketing opportunity some such company should capitalize on. But, I’m not wrong; trust me. This is too slick and well-orchestrated to be genuinely a populist thing. This has slick cyber agency written all over it. Stay tuned…

UPDATE:
Oh yeah, it’s definitely a campaign. Here’s an ad for the “grassroots” site on hip fashion site DailyCandy.com. Expect TV ads to follow soon.

ANOTHER UPDATE:
In case you’re too lazy to click on the comments on this post, reader John Fratus observes, “The domain registration on betagfree.com is to Sara Lee (i.e. Hanes, Bali, Playtex, Wonderbra, etc.).” Now, why didn’t I think of that?

Link

I just got the following email:

Dear Sir,
My name is Matthew Lin, an MBA candidate at University of New Brunswick at Saint John, Canada. I am currently conducting a research on how weblogs are being used as business tools, and their particular implication for small and medium enterprises. I have designed a questionnaire in order to survey individuals who publish weblogs or can describe the reasoning behind their company’s weblog. The survey will be posted online for one month, starting next week. I am seeking your assistance to promote this survey to your readers, in hope of gathering a good cross-section of business weblogs. Please spread the word!
The survey [“The Blog as a Meaningful Business Tool”] is available at: http://business.unbsj.ca/bblog/
Additional information about this project (e.g., objectives, hypotheses) are available upon request.
Thank you for your consideration. If you are aware of others who might also be interested in posting this questionnaire URL, please feel free to forward this email to them.
Sincerely,
Matthew Lin

Be a sport and help the fellow out: take the survey and spread the word. I’ll be sure to post results when they’re made public.

Jeff Jarvis of the wonderful blog Buzz Machine &mdash and, oh yeah, his day job is president of Advance Internet, parent to CondeNet and other major media online properties — is offering a tutorial for ad agencies and the like on what he calls “citizens’ media,” which means blogs and other stuff that may as well be blogs.

Of course, I’d be happier if big media companies called me for such a presentation, but Jeff’s already put one together and presented it to the likes of Daimler Chrysler, BBDO, and Organic, so I figured I should give him props.

If this were any cooler, I’d probably wet myself: you can now subscribe to NYT stories via RSS.

Link

Mena Trott’s emotionally charged post about handing over her title as CEO of Six Apart, publisher of the popular blog publishing platforms TypePad and Movable Type, to board member Barak Berkowitz says so much about what kind of company Six Apart is and, for that matter, about the whole blog phenomenon. I mean, in what other kind of business could one executive so openly mock another during the ceremonial passing of the torch, even while at the same time making it clear the love and respect is so heartfelt. It’s really a beautiful tribute to the kind of businesses blogs can help foster.

Meanwhile, Mena, who will retain her title as president of the company she co-founded with her likewise twentysomething husband, announced that Six Apart has acquired its French reseller, Ublog, and it has also hired Web VC veteran Andrew Anker.

In short, lots of good news for this terrific company that is really growing into something with potential that several industry big-shots are banking on. (Disclosure or whatever: this site is produced using TypePad, and I’ve met Mena, and she’s very nice.)

Wow.

Okay, for starters there’s the product: a personal beverage vending machine for your living room by large appliance maker Maytag. The product is called SkyBox. I am guessing this product is not targeted at women. In fact, I’m guessing this product is not targeted at men with women in their lives. (I could get a pool table or pinball machine in my livingroom sooooo much easier than a vending machine with my wife, and I couldn’t get either a pool table or a pinball machine in my livingroom with my wife in reality.) Is this like the livingroom bar for the new millennium? Somehow, tacky as the livingroom bar seems, it seems a lot classier than a vending machine….

Anyway, what this product obviously needs is a blog. This is Maytag, mind you. More power to them!

And, again, thanks to Olivier for the link.

Link

It really is remarkable how cool Microsoft is about blogs. This post on Community Kitchen explains:

We just launched the Microsoft Community Blogs Portal, a searchable listing of blogs by Microsoft employees, categorized by product or technology topic. The project also makes it easier for pages across Microsoft.com to publish lists of relevant blogs and posts from those blogs.

Isn’t this the kind of thing you’d expect from Apple, considering how innovative they’re supposed to be and all (yet, do they actually do anything with blogs as a company?).

Thanks again to Olivier for the link.

Link

Those interested in attending the BlogOn conference in Berkeley, CA, July 22-23 can recieve a $100 discount by entering the promotional code “socialtext” when registering here.

Again, just want to say I’m sorry that I’ve been such a slacker about this blog, but I’m so frickin’ busy these days I can’t believe it. Just got back from AdTech Chicago (well, okay, Tuesday night) where we once again produced the AdTechBlog. Meanwhile, I’m actually writing a couple of blog-related reports fairly soon, as well as other projects that actually pay the bills around here. But enough apologies; I’m actually posting a few important new updates this evening…

Another example of a blog pursuing an ad revenue model:

HotelChatter is a collaborative web publication for travelers who research and purchase hotel reservations online.
HotelChatter is dedicated to covering everything related to hotels and lodging around the world, we cover hotel deals and reviews, which celebrities are staying where, hotel industry news, tips for booking online, the hotels you should stay away from, the hotels you should book, and more.

Link

Jonathan Schwartz

Jonathan Schwartz was appointed president and CEO [make that COO; d’ho!] of Sun Microsystems just this past April, and by June the 38-year-old, ponytailed executive started a blog.

Bill Gates, take note.

Link

Frankly, I’m not sure this is worth posting, as the observations about blogging are rather 2002, but it’s in the Economist, so, there you go.

Economist.com: Weblogging, The Trees Fight Back

Okay, okay, we get it, Microsoft loves blogs. Yet another advice piece from them for small businesses for blogs.

So, where is Bill’s blog, anyway?

Microsoft Business Solutions: The Four-Letter Word That Can Get People Excited About Your Products

The Seattle Times is looking for a 20-something political blogger.

Are you interested in this year’s elections? Know your community? Like to talk politics with your friends, colleagues and neighbors? Want an opportunity to blog about your observations?
Apply to join a grass-roots campaign coverage effort by The Seattle Times. We want fresh thoughts and perspectives about the elections from places and people not often found in newspapers — your neighbors, your favorite cafes and other local hangouts.
We’re looking for contributors under age 30 who are following the ’04 campaigns ‚Äî national, regional and local. Each participant will be given a blog on seattletimes.com and periodically appear in The Seattle Times.

And so on.

Seattle Times: Election 2004 Backyard Blog Project

It’s a long story. The Search Engine Guild sponsored a Search Engine Optimization Challenge to see who could achieve top ranking on Google for the peculiar phrase “Nigritude Ultramarine.” Popular blogger (and director of business development at blog software company Six Apart) Anil Dash decided to enter the contest, making a blatant appeal to his thousands of daily readers to link to his entry, hyperlinking on the term “nigritude ultramarine.” It worked: he won. See for yourself: search ‘nigritude ultramarine’ on Google.

Another good example of the power of blogs.

UPDATE:
Tig Tillinghast of MarketingVox had a better write-up than mine, so I figured I’d just rip it off to clarify more of the story (I tipped him off to the story, anyway, so I feel like I’m within my rights):

A contest held to see who could garner the best search engine rankings for a made up phrase (“nigritude ultramarine”) was taken by well-known blogger Anil Dash. His strategy seems to have consisted of appealing to his many readers to link to his page “in order to prove that real content trumps all the shady optimization tricks that someone can figure out, and because I figure I deserve an iPod at least as much as the Star Wars Kid.”
The contestant with the highest ranking site over a three-day period wins the “Stayer” prize, considered the more prestigious of the two prizes given out. The initial award went to Brandon Suit, an online community administrator.

UPDATE: I’m now linking (in the headline above) to the original source of this data, Dave Sifry’s own blog, the guy behind Technorati. He notes, “We’re currently seeing anywhere from 8,000-17,000 new weblogs created every single day.” Thanks to Olivier Travers for pointing me to this link.

ORIGINAL POST: Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine notes that Technorati has just passed 3 million blogs tracked. I don’t know where he got that graphic; I’d link to it directly on Technorati if I could find it, but anyway, Jeff’s a nice guy, so I’m happy to link to him. Note, this doesn’t mean that 3 million is all the blogs there are, but that’s how many Technorati tracks. It’s certainly one good measure, anyway.

Sifry.com: Technorati tracks 3 million blogs

Jill Fallon

Having a good niche is the secret the success of many businesses, and blogs are a great way to market to that niche. Jill Fallon has embodied that with her business Estate Vaults and its companion blogs, Legacy Matters and The Business of Life. I’m not entirely clear what the difference is between the two blogs (in general, I’m not a fan of multiple blogs for a single business author, but maybe there’s some good reason for it), but her “About the Author” page clearly describes the business proposition:

When she was essentially widowed for the second time, Jill Fallon was inspired to create EstateVaults‚Ñ¢ to help people take care of the business of their lives more easily and securely and at the same time keep their affairs in order for their families.
She believes that boomers – her target users of EstateVaults™ Рare the bridge between their non-digital parents and their totally digital children and grand-children. Boomers are at the time of life when questions about mortality loom larger even as life gets sweeter. With the proliferation of tools, they can create digital personal and family legacy archives to connect generations past, present and future, if only they get their act together.

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