How to increase traffic to your blog

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing shares 5 good ways to use social networks to increase traffic to your blog. I like the idea of tweeting your blog post idea to get feedback and additional resources to make it a better post: http://bit.ly/73IGEv

The Big Money Facebook 50

Facebook has been "colonized" by some of the biggest and best-known multinationals, including Coca-Cola, Disney, and McDonald’s. Check out The Big Money Facebook 50, a ranking of companies making the best use of Facebook: http://bit.ly/4s5bcS

A licence to be kind

A cool card concept for those who believe in paying it forward: KINDRED gives you a licence to be kind: http://www.kinded.com

Facebook grows up

Facebook now has 300 million users. And is finally making money off those hokey ads http://bit.ly/TMOZ9

Inside GoogleWave

This video gives a good explanation of *how* GoogleWave works: http://bit.ly/4E7xe7 This one demos the interface: http://bit.ly/UonK7

The myth of the fold

Joe Leech's thesis is that real estate "below the fold" - any content that the user has to scroll down to find - being a barrier to users is a myth. This may be true of media websites, where a user plans to spend some time. But I'd like to see the same tests done on portal home pages. http://bit.ly/2iKOEe

Mobile ad revenues totop $4 billion in 2015

Mobile ad revenue is the new frontier, mostly from search: http://bit.ly/XDk9y

Traditional media torn between two audiences

Traditional media is caught between a new audience with new expectations -- and an old audience expecting old-fashioned propriety. http://bit.ly/4Oorah

Can Facebook crash your computer?

Here's some great info on viruses like Koobfrace that target social networks: http://bit.ly/31sTsT

Hello, TTC?

Get with the program: Ottawa's worked with Googlemaps for a public transit route planner. Where's Toronto? http://bit.ly/1YPsPZ

Why you shouldn't play Facebook games

There's a lot hiding under the surface of Facebook games, but it's not your data they're hiding: http://bit.ly/3MkukO

Plus: Who's clicking on those cheesy ads: http://bit.ly/3vID2Y

Web TV wants to be free

Online viewers get their own guide to Web TV: http://bit.ly/q84s5

It's true: nothing's ever for free

The New York Times reports that RealAge (an admittedly useful tool for estimating your real age, based on your lifestyle choices) sells your data to Big Pharma: http://bit.ly/1Sn06Z

Dontcha just love Fox?

Oh dear. Fox wouldn't ... manufacture news, would it? Heh. A video used in a segment claiming massive crowds for a book signing was actually from a 2008 McCain/Palin campaign rally. Fox is blaming a production error: http://bit.ly/3GksSC

YouTube wants you to be a citizen journalist

YouTube Direct plans to make it easy for TV and online news editors to get video from "citizen journalists" and even order up footage in advance of events: http://bit.ly/1974KE

A cornucopia of Molly

Outspoken Texan Molly Ivins may have been the only print American journalist in history to gain her own constituency. Her pet phrase for George W. Bush (The Shrub) was adopted wholesale during his eight years in office. I never turned off the Ivins Google alert for her name since she died of breast cancer three years ago and there hasn't been a day gone by that an alert has come up linking to someone wondering what she'd think about something in the news.

The last month has been a rich feast of Molly alerts, with review after review of Bill Minutaglio's biography: Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life. Finally managed to snatch a day to read it. Her battle with alcohol long preceded her battle with cancer, but what was little known to her legions of fans was that she was born to a privileged Houston family - her father was the lead counsel for Humble Oil and she rubbed elbows with Dubya during her high school years. Looks like it was her fractious relationship with him that led her to become one of the loudest American voices for the poor and underprivileged.

This loving review of Molly's bio in The Statesman made me weep: http://bit.ly/nqDic

Read an excerpt from the bio here: http://bit.ly/4A0Lp

And here's a treat for those of you who've never seen Molly at her best, especially if you're in need of a laugh (warning: racy langauge): http://bit.ly/812Gic

Canadian scientist, author arrested at U.S. border

Dr Peter Watts, Canadian science fiction writer, was beaten and arrested by U.S. border guards while trying to get back into Canada this week. I know Dr. Watts, and he does have an acerbic tongue. Apparently at the U.S. border that warrants being maced, beaten, arrested, and being taken to the border and dropped off in your shirt sleeves.

http://bit.ly/5oNu3s

The battle for press freedom has moved online

And that means that half of journalists jailed around the world are freelancers, bloggers, and independent contractors, with little or no institutional support. Even mainstream wire services are increasingly depending on freelancers to cover conflicts in the Middle East, so there's no one to call for help when you get taken hostage. http://bit.ly/5w7KQH

Do publishers want to get Napstered?

If the publishers force Amazon to raise prices on e-books, that's what will happen, Jack Shafer argues on Slate. On a more basic level, here's a question that needs to be asked: Ebooks cost less to make than printed books. Why shouldn't they cost less? http://bit.ly/uGlzO