First, Keith and Nicole: And now this. As the groom has place a few blocks from the rexblog HQ, maybe I should send a wedding gift.

Missing the point: First, let me say I love great graphic design. Several extremely talented graphic designers work at Hammock Publishing. Their work is honored each year with many design awards. So, please, don’t consider it an insult of graphic design when I say it is fruitless to look for meaning in any correlation between a weblog’s design and its Technorati ranking.

Why? Because bloggers (those who generate the links that influence those rankings) are (and I’m making an educated guess here) are often users of RSS news readers (I used to think all bloggers were until some of them informed me that no, they still surf). In other words, they can easily be linking to weblogs they never actually see. For those who don’t use an RSS newsreader, the screen shot above is how I look at web news stories and blog posts — I rarely visit many of the blogs or news websites I monitor. My point: While I am a fan of well-designed weblogs, the design of a weblog or website is not going to be what generates incoming links — it’s what’s being posted that counts.

(By the way, I use “folders” to organize the feeds on my RSS news reader (as displayed above). The reader I prefer, NetNewsWire, will also display feeds in a “River of News” way as discussed today by the developer of FeedDemon, Nick Bradbury. Note for less geeky readers of the rexblog: FeedDemon is a newsreader for Windows, NetNewsWire is a newsreader for the Mac. They are both now owned by a company called Newsgator. They are programs that reside on your computer, however, you can set them up to automagically synch with Newsgator.com so that if you are not at your computer, you can still monitor the new content appearing on websites you follow — or RSS feeds related to keywords that may be important to you or your business. And somehow — this is the magic part — when you read something on your desktop version, the online version knows you’ve read it.

Bonus: You should set up an RSS newsreader is a somewhat dated post from a year or so ago.

The Wall Street Journal to put ads on the front page: (From the New York Times) So what? There are ads on the front page of WSJ.com. There are ads on the front page of the NYTimes.com. There are ads at the front of TV shows, including those on PBS that say, “this show is brought to you by…” There are ads on front of most of the blogs that may suggest there’s something shocking about this. My only question is what took them so long and why are they calling the ad format a “jewel box” — is the reference to CD cases?

Technorati Tags: advertising, wsj.com

Media heat: Just how hot is it? FishbowlNY has a re-cap of today’s weather, including a mention of the coldest office in Nashville. However, I’ve requested that my office thermostat be “raised” to the 60s. I’m sure there are a few readers of this weblog who can attest to its chill factor.

What’s scarier? That I’m posting this from a moving car or that the 15-year-old is driving it?

Update: That has an easy answer: as soon as I hit the publish key, he ran up against the curb — no problem, but I’m signing off from this white knuckle blogging.

Really, go see this: Last night, I pointed to One in the Hand, maintained by Johnnie Tech, who’s posting video tutorials on how to use the newest versions of the Treo. Since I recently got one, it naturally hit my radar when Robert Scoble posted a link to Johnnie Tech’s website. This afternoon, I finally got around to watching one of his short lessons, and BOO-YA: If you’re in marketing, and you’re still wondering what all this personal media stuff has to do with anything, check out Johnnie’s tutorial on how to set up speed dialing keys. Hint: You don’t need to have a Treo to enjoy it. I have no idea who Johnnie Tech is — he could be empoyed by Palm or Sprint for all I know. However, if he’s not, he should be. Boo-ya.

Technorati Tags: treo700p, vlogging

Announcing the rexblog junk food store: While I don’t run ads on rexblog (inside secret: rexblog is an ad), I’ve always had a link over on the right-hand column to my Amazon.com affiliate store. While I think I’ve earned $1.85 from it during the past year, I still keep it over there to remind me that I should use it when I order something from Amazon. However, today, I’m glad to announce that because I’ve kept that affiliate link, I can now have an official place where you can order snacks to eat while reading this advertisement weblog. Don’t know what to order? How ’bout one hundred Slim Jims for $14.50.

Technorati Tags: amazon.com

iTunes movie rentals: Think Secret is reporting that Steve Jobs will announce a “rental” model of iTunes Store movie downloads at the upcoming Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, August 7.

Quote:

It is not known exactly how the coding system will work, but industry experts tell Think Secret that the software would likely either limit the number of playbacks or provide unlimited viewing for a period of time, after which the movie will be “turned off” and no longer available….Apple had been trying for months to persuade the movie studios that the a-la-carte model of buying individual titles, as the iTunes Music Store offers with music, was the way to go. The studios, however, have been fixed on offering only a subscription or rental-based model.

My take: This is a situation where good is the enemy of great — but it may be the only way to get there. As in the previous post, I mentioned a helpful tool Snapz, that allows me to record screencasts. (Hint to the hard of understanding: It is a means to record all the video and audio taking place on ones computer — like, in theory, when a video is playing on it.) If I can’t “own” the movie I download, why couldn’t I as a consumer, use a tool like that to record (as I can on my digital video recorder) what I rent so that I can watch it when I want to watch it? In the U.S., the Supreme Court has granted me that privilege, so I’m not suggesting anything illegal. Placating the movie studios with some easy to work-around DRM scheme is, perhaps, Apple’s role in moving things forward. I’ll postpone further rants until I actually try the new service out.

Technorati Tags: apple, itunes