What Khoi Vinh thinks: “Typeface licensing is broken.”

Blogs as Google juice: Garick Van Buren (Work Better Weblog) says he started “blogging regularly about a 18 months ago because (he) wanted (his) Google presence to be more than a handful of stale message board postings.”
That statement caused me to test his theory by doing a vanity Google search using only my last name.

My last name, of course, is a word that is also the generic name of a swinging rope bed. More than 20 companies (including LLBean and Home Depot) pay Google for a keyword search ad to appear on the results page when my last name is queried. My last name, in a generic sense, is mentioned on about 1.5 million web pages. But when one types that word in a Google search, this webblog gets a rather startling high rank. And by extension, the company at which I work which shares my last name appears a few slots down.

However, I’d like to be clear about this: That’s not why I blog.

Side note: The URL that is the most obvious name for someone who sells that rope swing product goes to my company’s website (longtime geekness has its benefits). This fact is not lost on people who sell that product. They cannot understand why I don’t want to sell it to them.

Side, side note: A long time ago, I experimented with a rexblog affiliate store linked to a retailer of that rope swing product. I determined it was not, as they say, a viable business model for this blog.

(via: news.smallbusiness.com)

Things not in the U.S. Constitution: A list of things people think are in the Constitution, but are not. Most surprising to me is that the right to free wi-fi is not actually included.

(via: kottke.org)

Best wishes: My brother is getting married right now. He and his wonderful new wife are on a beautiful beach at sunset (he’s a physician, but his passion is photography so the right light was a factor, no doubt). I’ve known he was getting married for several months, but the time and place have always been a mystery. He called me a short time ago to let me know. I’ve never heard him talk with such joy in his voice. We’re getting together soon to celebrate. My love and best wishes are with you both.

(By the way, I believe he’s the only relative I have who actually reads this blog.)

See Jane run: Folio: is reporting that Fairchild is expected to announce a “big name” editor of Jane magazine next week (by “big name” I assume there will be more than four letters in her name). Fairchild says they don’t think it matters that someone not named Jane is going to edit the magazine. (I think Fairchild has a point since there are lots of Janes magazines that have editors with names other than Jane.)

Yahoo! audio search: Upon first glance, Yahoo!’s audio search appears to have a modicum of mojo. Search guru Gary Price has an early review.

Another Steve Baker fan post: Okay. Let me make this clear. Steve Baker (and his blogging partner Heather Green) work for a magazine that is about as old-media as it gets. Millions of trees are sacrificed each year so that people like me can hold that magazine in our hands. However, as I have said here and have told anyone who asks, if you want proof that an old-media reporter can be a great blogger on a corporate-owned weblog, Steve Baker is your poster boy. He has now displayed also that he can report on the printed pages of BusinessWeek a story about business blogging (on a topic I noted last week on the rexblog) that provides insight only someone who blogs everyday can muster. His article about iFufill.com’s demise in this week’s issue is the best article I have ever read “in print” regarding a business blogging-related topic.

Update: B.L. Ochman blogs that Steve misquoted her in his article. And, of course, he immediately points to her post, even before checking his notes. It’s all a conversation.

Update II: Steve blogs that, yes, he did indeed misquote B.L. and that a correction will appear in next week’s magazine. B.L. is thankful and says (and I’m cutting and pasting her quote for accuracy), “I guess this blogging stuff really IS a conversation. It’s a public conversation that is both permanent and high stakes. When it works, it is a thing of beauty.” I am happy that two of the bloggers on my newsreader have so rapidly worked things out the blogger way.

1.5 million reasons not to set up a fake product-hyping weblog: Sony used a fake critic to hype some dud movies and is now reimbursing movie-goers who joined a class-action lawsuit against the studio (don’t get me started on what this displays about the sad state of our litigious culture). This should be a forewarning to some product marketers who think it would be cool to set up a fake blog to hype their product. Even though I’m not an advocate of “rules for blogging,” I do believe in “common sense,” transparency and a belief that laws that apply to other aspects of society and life, apply also to blogging.

(via: IWantMedia.com)

Gross unreality TV: “A team of young and attractive girlfriends, whose combined ages almost reach Hefner’s, provide all the proof of vigor a man could want.” (Which reminds me of my favorite Samir Husni quote of all time.)

Best magazine covers - and the winner is: The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) is hosting a competition to identify and rank in order the 40 greatest American magazine covers of the last 40 years…“The goal of ‘Magazine 40/40’ is to honor the most memorable, influential, compelling and iconic American magazine covers, from January 1965 to the present…”

Prediction, an easy one, at that: I hate to make a spoiler announcement of the winner on the day they first announce the competition, but this is a no brainer. The most memorable, influential, compelling and iconic American cover (the Citizen Kane of magazine covers) is the cover of the April, 1968, Esquire Magazine.

(via: MediaPost.com)

Magazine taxomony alert: Introducing “Specialized Specialty magazines.” This apparently is a new sub-species of magazine that has been “tagged” (I guess I could say “bagged”) by my friend, Samir Husni, Mr. Magazine, king of all magazine quotes and chair of the journalism department at Ole Miss:

I am not kidding. Samir Husni is my friend. A couple of Fridays ago, I e-mailed him and asked if I could come talk with him about an esoteric (existential?) magazine topic. He said sure, when? That weekend, I drove four hours to Oxford, Miss. and Samir and I had a conversation that reminded me once more that all those clever quotes reporters constantly attribute to him are not rehearsed. Profundity wrapped in pithy wit is his natural way of imparting wisdom.

Blogging dilemma: I have started two quick posts this morning that quickly grew into serious essays about really deep stuff. I’m in a very reflective state today, I guess. I am going to postpone the “deep thoughts” for later and perhaps another venue, however I do want to say to three different 20-something blogger friends I have who don’t know one another but who have been expressing a similar malaise in recent weeks: Hang in there. (This is where I found myself going on for about a thousand words about what profound lessons one learns during the worst parts of life’s journey, but I’ll hold that for a weekend post.)