Google has launched their mobile version of Google AdSense, now available on the iPhone and Android platforms. Not surprising that Google was the first to implement full blow advertising in applications. What was once free, will now be a little less free as users of free apps will now be forced to sit through targeted advertising embedded into the application. Developers of the app do have the choice to decide what ads are shown, block certain ads and how they are shown. While users may be less than thrilled with the new addition of advertising be delivered through their apps, many marketing and advertising professionals are scrambling to buy ads. Continue Reading ->

What do you do when you are faced with upper management that doesn’t understand Social Media and why it should be an important part of the marketing strategy? I stumbled across a great presentation by Chris Brogan today that pretty much sums up the question of “How to Convince Your Boss that Social Media has Value”. It’s on HubSpot and I highly recommend that you check it out. It was recorded earlier this year but is still very applicable

I flew into San Jose this morning to attend the IDCDirections conference, so I was up at 4am to catch the 6:50am flight from Seattle. Had to drive and park at the airport, not my preferred method but I live too far to hire a car.

Not thinking too much about location, I had booked meetings with some top editors in downtown San Francisco starting at noon. I was worried that I would never make it through traffic and into downtown in time. Fortunately for me, the concierge at the Fairmont suggested that we take Cal Train. We had 4 min to catch the free shuttle to the station, which we just barely caught, and when we got to the train station, we were told the train was leaving in 2 min. We ran to catch it and jumped aboard. Flying through the city we arrived in downtown SF with 30 min to spare. Now that is what I call public transportation!

Now why again does Seattle have such an issue with public transportation? Granted I wouldn’t want to have to spend an hour commuting each day but I at least want the option. Seattle’s lightrail would be great if it actually went anywhere that was useful for commuting to work. Maybe by 2050 we will have our own version of Cal Train.

What could be better than being stuck in the airport and being able to play PacMan? I was thrilled to find out that I could download PacMan for the iPod but quickly was disappointed to find out that I can’t get it for my iPhone. I’m hoping with the release of the new G3 iPhone this summer that I will be able to download games on the iPhone. Not that I actually play video games (I generally don’t) but I do travel a lot which means that there are lots of hours in airports and sitting on runways so games on the iPhone as a backup to kill the time is a must have for me.

I’m scheduled to take the LSAT’s in June and while it seemed like a long way off, the date is looming close very quickly. I had thought I would be able to put in at least 3 hours of studying a night after working and putting Ben to bed, but after generally a 9 hour day and then spending time playing, feeding, bathing and putting Ben to bed I am just about spent. I’ve taken a couple different pre-tests online and I’m scoring just above average, which is enough to get into most law schools but not high enough to get into the law schools I really want to get into. I was taken by surprise that the LSAT’s really have no content to study for or formulas to memorize, which leaves my super Continue Reading ->

So my husband would tell you that we are hands down, a Mac household. Since he owns a software company (Semanteme, Inc.) that is solely focused on creating applications for the Mac and iPhone, that leaves us pretty much with a huge spend at the Apple store and more than 5 different Mac’s (Powerbooks, Macbooks, Dual Core Desktops etc. at any one time to work on at home. Now turn left. I work at Microsoft and since 2002 my real estate business required the use of Windows in order to run proprietary real estate software that just wouldn’t work on the Mac. Therefore, I’ve always had a PC laptop running whatever the newest version of Windows was (currently XP because it doesn’t have the gusto for Vista) and I’ve run both Windows XP and Mac OSX on my Powerbook since the emergence of the Intel chip on the Mac. So while my husband gets to live in his own happy bliss Continue Reading ->

I have an 18 month old son and while I wasn’t necessarily looking for a lesson in content delivery from my son, he’s provided a very interesting perspective on it. He already knows how to turn our iPhone’s on and use the touch pad to get to the different screens until he find something that interests him. He knows how to start and stop the videos playing on his daddy’s Powerbook and how to take the iPod, headphones and all to listen to music. His attention and excitement over a new experience is amazing to watch. First he looks at it skeptically, then he analyzes if it’s worth his time and once he’s decided that it’s interesting he goes for it full force, wanting to experience anything he can get from it. New experiences far outweigh those that he’s already done more then a few times. Once he’s seen something on the computer or the iPhone or figured out what the response will be from a certain action, he moves onto something different, looking for the challenge, for something to figure out or discover. It’s fascinating to watch and insightful about the natural inclination of people to want to experience something new.

I believe that most online companies could talk a lesson or two from my son. Continue Reading ->