Gee: Using a new GMail account from Google, the folks at Clickz subscribed to a few marketing-oriented e-mail newsletters. As the free e-mail service from Google includes text ads from their Adsense program, Clickz wanted to see what ads would show up. If you are a marketer who uses e-mail, you might not like what they discovered.

Quote:

“Google targets ads based on the text of a message,” said a Google spokesperson. “If a message contains information about a service or product, Gmail may display a competitor’s ad. This is a benefit to users because it provides additional relevant information that enables them to make informed decisions.”

If Gmail is released more widely in its current form, the competitive environment is certain to intensify. Google recently shifted its trademark policy to allow advertisers to bid on trademarked keywords. Hypothetically, a message from Banana Republic (for example) could, simply because of its subject line, trigger ads from J. Crew, Eddie Bauer and the like.

No way to save Face: I rarely link to stories about non-U.S.-circulated magazines, but couldn’t resist doing that “save face” pun for one of the five regular rexblog readers who knows who he is. (via iwantmedia.com)

Life is like a box of vaporzines: A year ago, the rexblog pointed to a story about Time Inc. floating a vaporzine concept to resurrect the Life Magazine brand as a Sunday newespaper supplement. That idea is still being floated and I have nothing to add since that earlier post. (via iwantmedia.com)

Time blogs on: Time Magazine has launched a weblog called Techno File. It’s their first I believe. It’s kept by Eric Roston who “gives a daily commentary on the technology that will carry us through tomorrow — and the stuff that keeps us stuck in yesterday.” Great start, but Eric needs to learn how to write in shorter, pithier spurts and how to link. Interesting to note that it is not on Time servers, rather is a hosted Typepad site costing Time Inc., what, $15 a month (or perhaps they paid the annual fee and saved $30.) (via BoingBoing)

Review the rexblog: I was checking out the A9 features mentioned in an earlier post when I discovered (was shocked?) that you can actually post a review of the rexblog on Amazon.com. If you are one of the five regular readers of this weblog, please write one…and be kind. Also of interest, under the “people who visit this page also visit” feature, all the weblogs I am “connected” to belong to bloggers who have pledged their allegiance to the Rocky Top Brigade. Also, I guess I should start asking people to link to me more.

Vaporzine update: VNU announced today it will launch Adweek’s Marketing y Medios, a monthly trade magazine covering marketing, media and advertising news for businesses targeting the U.S. Hispanic population. The English-language print publication and companion Web site will launch this September (thus, the vaporzine designation). The print edition of Adweek’s Marketing y Medios will provide analysis and insight supported by news and data on the Web site.

More on Amazon’s A9 and collaborative filtering: Chris Sherman, associate editor of Search Engine Watch, takes a look at A9 and while he doesn’t link to my previous post raising the topic, he addresses the collaborative filtering potential I discussed then.

Highlights from Chris:

Another interesting feature in search results is the “site info” button. Mouse over this button and you’ll see a pop-up window with information about the web site provided from Amazon subsidiary Alexa, including traffic rank, number of sites that link to the site, speed, and how long the site has been online.

You’ll also see the collaborative filtering process that Amazon does so well with products on its own sites, “connecting the dots” between users. “People who visit this page also visit” shows you the top three sites that Alexa toolbar users have also visited.

For the time being, A9 does not use this collaborative filtering to influence or alter the Google results it displays, though it certainly may in the future.

So, for the record, my early prediction that one day we will see the Amazon’s amazing collaborative filtering skills incorporated into A9 search results, is in the “certainly may in the future” category.

I will, for the record, state that I believe those collaborative filtering algorithms are currently running in the background and that “in the future” is conceivably not too far off. Why should it be?

Earth Day magazine post: In honor of Earth Day, this weblog would like to point to a Seattle Times profile of the quarterly magazine (”well, stapled newsletter”) Frugal Environmentalist, “that explores Earth-friendly ways of doing things without spending a lot of money.”

Quote:

Lisa Farino and Peter Luyckx, who moved to Seattle from Vermont in November, are working on the 20-page magazine’s sixth issue, which will offer advice on staying cool in the summer, reducing your contribution to smog, and cooking with summer crops such as the blessed tomato and ubiquitous zucchini.

Speaking of Earth Day, here is a link to a web-tool found on my blogroll of magazine resources that lets publishers calculate how many trees are used in the production of their magazines. Also, in honor of Earth Day, I will link to a site where you can download fact-sheets from the paper industry.

Magazine launch news: Victory Media Inc., a Pittsburgh, PA- based publishing firm, today announced it has launched a new magazine aimed at the nation’s veteran-owned businesses. According to the company’s press release, “Veterans Business Journal is the first-of-its-kind national magazine serving the unique needs and opportunities of small business owners who are veterans of the U.S. military.” The magazine’s initial circulation is 30,000 (with plans to grow to 150,000) and it appears to be targeting advertisers among federal agencies and contractors seeking veteran-owned vendors.

Sad news: I briefly met Dr. Stuart Bullion last year at a conference held at the University of Mississippi where he was the chairman of the Department of Journalism. I mentioned having a wonderful conversation with him on this weblog as he and I share an interest in the Finnish communications theorist, Osmo Wiio. Yesterday, Dr. Bullion died after a six month battle with cancer. I would like to extend my sympathies Dr. Bullion’s family to the students and faculty at Ole Miss. Rexblog friend Samir Husni is serving as acting chair of the department.

The Vanity fare? A Vanity Fair writer is being accused of demanding two first-class tickets in order to include someone in a story he wrote. (Note: This weblog only requires coach tickets for inclusions.)

Sushi manners: As it’s a slow magazine news day (at least news I find interesting), I thought I would link to a short piece on nytimes.com about how to eat sushi (registration required, etc.). Now you know.

Econ lesson - supply and demand: Bad news: gasoline prices are sky-rocketing. Good news: Celebrity magazine prices are plummeting. Wait, is that good news?

Blog connections: My day job and blogging haven’t often intersected (while I publish magazines and this blog is about magazines, it rarely - by my choice - covers the topics our magazines cover), but they are more-and-more. Here’s an example of how they connect: Nashville blogger Bill Hobbs has been all over an issue here in Tennessee that will undo for small businesses some of the benefits of recent tax-releif at the federal level. As soon as he first reported it, I linked to his coverage and forwarded his coverage to my professional friends at our client, NFIB, to let them know what Hobbs was uncovering. NFIB/Tennessee state director Rob Ikard was aware of the issue and was already setting into motion a survey of Tennessee NFIB members on the issue. Rob is a regular reader of Bill’s blog, but was so busy on the state’s capitol hill that week he had not seen Bill’s coverage until I alerted him. Well, to make a long story (in which I played no part in, but am applauding) short, NFIB is now officially opposing the measure (as noted on a site I have a “day-job” relationship with) and which is being reported by Bill.

Timeless cliche: This week’s Time and Newsweek covers are not official “2004 Clone Covers,” (See Clone Covers, 2003, for an explanation). However, this week’s cover illustration for Newsweek reminded me of an ancient Time cover. Here they are, side-by-side, I mean, back-by-back.

Time: July 14, 1980
Newsweek: April 25, 2004

(Note: I would not have remembered the 1980 Time cover were it not for some back surgery I had during that era which led me to read everything I could find on the topic. Secondly, I am quite proud of myself for making it through this posting without even one use of a pun related to a certain body part.)