Nov 23 - home snow home

• I came out of the 12 hour in-transit relatively unscathed.  No delays, and even got in slightly early on connection and to upstate NY.
• I'll be spending the rest of this week in central NY watching the snow-covered trees sway in my family's front yard.  Warning me to not bother to exercise out in the chilly air (no sweats!), but just stay inside in my thick socks.  My brother is also home, and this week we're planning a day trip to Ithaca and some excursions out for movies and beers.  I think I see Quantum Solace in my future soon.

Nov 19

• I'm not looking forward to spending 12 hours in transit from San Francsico to a chilly Syracuse on Saturday.  I'm even missing the 1st ever YouTube Live event November 22nd.  For anyone who's not spending 12 hours in transit, you can check out this free streamed event that will be happening all day with dozens of performances.  I see "mythbusters" as a confirmed guest - perhaps live stunts are also part of the program?
• My fellow Fordham alumni and friend Joe Kutchera got a shout out today for his new role at ContextWeb, heading up Spanish speaking contextual advertising.  Joe just returned to NYC after a stint in Mexico City.  Unfortunately, I can't speak Spanish with him when we catch up, but I'm excited to see he's back stateside and working on such exciting stuff.  It's great to see ContextWeb realize and seize this market opportunity as well, as 23 million spanish speaking web surfers are out there.

Nov 18

• Things aren't bright for online advertising's near term, according to Citi analyst Mark Mahaney. "October spending in display saw a sharp deceleration from September as advertisers continue to worry about the macro environment," he wrote. "Premium, guaranteed advertising, especially, has been highly impacted across all verticals."  Mark does note however that there are some sunny patches such as vertical ad networks.  After all there's only 300 or so of them out there.  I see some consolidations/filtering out in the next six to nine months, if not sooner.
• The real big headliner today is about Jerry Yang stepping down from Yahoo's top post.  This isn't suprising to me, and in fact I'm suprised it took this long. WSJ blog names several successors both inside and outside of Yahoo who could fill his shoes.  Among them Meg Whitman, Tim Armstrong from Google, Kevin Johnson of Microsoft (who was supposed to run Yahoo after acquisition) and Susan Decker Yahoo's current President.  I predict an annoucement before Thanksgiving.  The successor?  I think an outsider will be picked, someone who has a proven record of turning around companies with an operations or financial background.  Who that will be remains to be seen.

Nov 17

• The weekend was great.  A record high of 80 on Friday, and sunshine everywhere around San Francisco.  Unfortunately I am still cramming in apartment painting so I didn't take advantage to the weather unfortuanately.  I keep forgettig to snap progress photos - but here's one from earlier in the process. I'm glad to report this room is now 100% complete.  And full of all my boxes now...
• Have you seen Obama's fireside chats yet?  The press is comparing it to Roosevelt's fireside chats on national radio.  Due to air weekly during his transition period and with 3:34 running time, it seems like a good way to get out some quick thoughts.  If you go to search for it on Youtube however, it's not there.  My guess is the strategic placement of this on change.gov is also introducing him to his complete 'brand' and what he stands for and an opportunity to learn more about him from his site.  
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Nov 13

• I'm enjoying these photos about White House Perks.  There's some great links here to view Barack family and days in the senate. My favorite is Michelle Obama's expression while getting her finger pricked for an HIV test in Kenya. 

Nov 12

• Feeling lousy? Sneezing or coughing? Maybe you have or think you have the flu.  There's a bit of buzz about the new google.org Flu trends site.  My boyfriend heard about it on the radio yesterday.  It's on WSJ's personal homepage today.  I'm sure bloggers all over are talking it up.  It seems like a great joint effort headed by the CDC to predict epidemics.  Don't forget to check it out and get your flu shot if you see your area rapidly swarming with infestation.
• Now you can hear and see your gmail as well as read it.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122643926441518379.html?mod=djemTew
• Syracuse, NY is a mere 10 days away.  Home of the only upside down traffic light in the US. That's right, I'm heading home for the holidays.  Hopefully only by planes, and no trains or automobiles.  For any of you 'cusians, I'm planning to post an event on Facebook that week. Stay tuned for details. 

Nov 11

Swallows the World?

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/ad-share-shift-update-google-swallows-world

I think the title here is  a bit over the top.  So print and other traditional channels are losing.  Is this Google's fault?  Would this not be declining if it were only Yahoo, MSN, and AOL taking a bit out of traditional media?  My guess is yes.  In my eyes, online is merely playing catch up with it's traditional media sisters.  If online ad spending matched online eyeballs, this figure would be closer to the 30% of ad spending dollars. There's still some catching up to do.

• Hard to believe but does anyone out there remember the MySpace suicide story?  It's almost a year to the day (Nov. 15 2007).  Tradegy stuck again today when the state of Missouri did not bring any charges.  However the plot thickens with a new indictment - fraud for setting up a fake name account on MySpace.  Unfortunately the web's dark side, and dark people, stepped out of the shadows on this one.  It's just another reason to be smart on the Internet - check in with your online kids.   Educate your kids.   Be smart on the Internet.  Unfortunately, I don't think this type of harassment will go away anytime soon, and it's extremely difficult to prevent.  Educate and use judgement, always.

Nov 10

• • It's official.  Eric say's he's staying put at Google and nay to the US Tech Czar post.
  • WSJ published its top 40 women to watch in 2008.  Apparently a third of them work in the financial sector (#1 is head of have some work cut out for them) including Sheila Bair, "who has been thrust into the spotlight in her bank-rescue role as a hard-charging regulator at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp."  Good luck there, Sheila.
  
  
  • My new apartment is coming along nicely in the painting dept. thanks to Rachael & Doug DIY Painter Corp. We are halfway through.  Yesterday we finished painting these walls and removed the tape.  All that's left to do is paint the baseboards white, or 'silver feather'. Oh yes, and the other 2 bedrooms.  There's also a lovely shop-vac that's been idle in the bathroom since the contractors finished there.  Anyday now I hope its owners come by for it.  
    

Nov 6

• I haven't brought up any Internet Advertising news in a while.  I have come across plenty of insights, but haven't been blogging them.  It's time to start again!
• Mary Meeker strikes again and her NYTimes article sheds some light on what to expect in the near future for advertising and online channels.  I remember when stocks would rise and fall like window shades based on her reports and press quotes.   The mere title "Cheerful Gloom" reminds us there may be tough times ahead, but there's a silver lining at the end due to emerging platforms, and increased global traffic.

Nov 5

• Yes we did.  At least that's what my friend Leigh says (works on Obama's web site at bluestatedigital.com).  Last night Obama won in a landslide victory.  I thought it would be a much closer, slower race.  But at 8pm PST, we had a clear winner.  Just when I was sitting down to eat my pasta dinner.  We were going to pop open a bottle of bubbily, but realized we should dive into my chocolate cake and save the bubbily for when we can actually finish a bottle of champagne.

Nov 4 - Election Day!

• Enjoy your election day, free cup of coffee, free scoop of ice cream, and anything else that helps for the cause.
• Check out the real-time election tracker Google gadget below:

- I got a kick out of this on Truemors.com - the Google logo guy

- Vote Vote Vote!

Nov 3 - Rainy season is here

• It looks like the rainy season has hit the bay area.  It seems odd to have rain after, oh 10 months of no rain, but I know we need it. I just have to put up with soggyness for a bit.
• Everyone is gearing up for the election tomorrow.  It seems like many things are free.
• Free starbuck coffee, Free Ben & Jerry's.  Nice promotions for a good cause.  As an absentee voter, I don't know what I'll be able to snab.  
• After checking out the YouTube barackobama.com page, I went to the site and couldn't believe how well organized its volunteering section is.  I mean, within moments I had options to volunteer today or tomorrow to make calls to swing states on the candidates behalf.  Very web 2.0.  I think that is due to some tech savvy folks (wasn't there a facebook exec who left?) leaving their posts for the obama campaign.
• Remeber to cast your vote tomorrow in the US!  It's a priviledge for all of us.