The following is a link to an AP story about a very serious and tragic topic, however when I saw the headline in my RSS newsreader, I thought it was a Thanksgiving cooking feature with a too-clever copy editor filling out the “subject” line: “Turkey fears new homegrown terror threat.”

Update: Since posting the following, I’ve been informed that, contrary to the reports mentioned below by TechCrunch and ValleyWag, Yahoo’s only purchase today was of Bix.com. (Also, I’m impressed with PR folks who work late on Friday nights.)

Okay, raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of MyBlogLog.com? That’s what I thought. You merely thought it was that goofy thing I’ve been messing around with so that photos of visitors to rexblog will show up over there in the right-hand column. Or maybe you’ve joined the rexblog community and noticed it was “powered by” them. Well, just to prove why you should drop by here more often, Valleywag and TechCrunch are reporting that Yahoo! is purchasing it. If the reports are accurate, my avatar friends Eric and Rafer & Co. were looking for venture funding and Yahoo! asked them if they’d ever heard the word acqhired? They said, “no,” but asked if Yahoo! had ever heard of the number ten million. For the record, I think it’s a wise investment: network effect, etc.

Technorati Tags: mybloglog, social media

A very sincere thanks to the folks at BtoB Online’s Media Business magazine for including me again this year in their “Who’s who in business media.” Color me clueless, but at the American Business Media’s top-management meeting earlier this week in Chicago, several people asked me about my “business-to-business publishing weblog,” I kept wondering what they were referring to, as everyone who actually reads it knows this blog is about bluegrass music, Titans and puppies. When I returned to the office today and was looking at the magazine in my inbox, I figured out what they were referring to. I’m very honored to be included with the real luminaries on the list.

Technorati Tags: b2b

Search engine guru Danny Sullivan recently left a website/blog company he helped make one of the biggest brands in that niche with his writing and conference-hosting. He’s announcing that on December 11, he’ll be starting a new blog-venture called Search Engine Land. Rather than “coming soon” at the new URL, Danny has posted a detailed description of what the blog will be all about, along with how to subscribe to the site via RSS, e-mail and all of the requisite icons so that fans like me won’t miss anything when Danny and his co-bloggers start posting in a couple of weeks.

Danny displays an important lesson: When you announce something, allow potential “customers, readers, viewers, etc.” the opportunity to do something more than hand the opportunity to disclose to you their e-mail address, or, worse “check back with you later.” Offer them an RSS feed, something they can monitor that won’t go into their spam filter and that, if they discover they don’t want to be your reader, they can shut off easily.

(Hat tip: Content Matters)

Technorati Tags: b2b, marketing, rss, search

Via Nashville blogger Sharon Cobb, I see that former Nashville blogger and now Manhattan blogger Joey Hood (a.k.a TvOnTheFritz) has visions of Cameron Crowe disco’ing in his head. He now has his first Rolling Stone (.com) by-line.

I’ll point to the New York Times story on Jason leaving AOL. Jason pointed to it also, but promises more later today. A few months ago, at Wikimania, in serendipitous fashion, Jason and I found ourselves in a conversation with a young online media entrepreneur being provided some sage advice by a legendary (and occasionally controversial) tech pioneer who was helping the young media person sort throw a highly-visible controversy he was going through. Until that point, my perceptions of Jason had been via his blog, which, at times can be biting and opinionated and off-putting, but always lively and insightful. In that instant, I witnessed the qualities of Jason that aren’t always apparent in his public persona, but which greatly impressed me in that moment: a genuine concern for the well-being of this young person and the willingness to freely and sympathetically share advice garnered from great failures and successes.

“You’ve got to be willing to walk away. Don’t be afraid to move on.” was one of the wisest things Jason said in the 30 or so minutes we spent chatting with this young entrepreneur and the sage technology pioneer.

When the most recent publicity regarding some changes in the management of AOL began to swirl in the last few days, I thought back on that conversation and wondered when, not if, but when, Jason would move on to the next great thing he’ll do.

Best wishes, Jason.

Photo taken at Wikimania, August 6, 2006, Harvard Law School.

Technorati Tags: calacanis, aol

• Circulation Bureau Goes Tender and Tough | WWD.com
  The Audit Bureau of Circulations appears to be taking a carrot-and-stick approach in its ongoing drive to get more accurate data from publishers.
  (tags: magazines audit circulation)
• The Evolution of Wikis Into Books | Heather Green (BusinessWeek)
  Pearson Education is working with profs at Wharton and MIT’s Sloan school on pulling together a management book using a wiki. Title: “We are Smarther than Me”
  (tags: wiki)
• Crain Files Suit Against Circulation Agents | Advertising Age
  Crain Communications is suing a host of circulation agents, alleging they sold subscriptions to AutoWeek without authorization — and often without filling the subscriptions after they pocketed consumers’ money.
  (tags: magazines)
• iPod Vending Machine? | New York Times
  Quote buried in a story about the resurgence of department stores: “Macy’s, which long ago ceded the electronics business to specialty stores like Best Buy, is installing vending machines that will dispense iPods and, eventually, digital cameras.”
  (tags: ipod)