Here is some info on internet usage stats in Asia:

Source

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Cool website for tracking hurricanes online in real time. Very valuable when spending time in Florida during August and September.

www.stormpulse.com

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Top 100 Buzzwords of Web Marketing for 2008.

1. User Intent
2. Branding Integration
3. Return or ROI
4. Universal
5. Integrated Marketing
6. Mobile Marketing
7. Lead-Gen
8. Blended Search
9. Engagement
10. Reputation Management
11. Online Marketing
12. Out-Sourcing
13. Branding
14. Integration
15. Site Stickiness
16. Online Marketing Budgets
17. Online/Offline Integration
18. Widgets
19. Web 2.0
20. Intent
21. Social Networking
22. Consumer Initiated
23. Quality Score
24. Personalization
25. Behavioural Targeting
26. Visibility
27. Community
28. Relevance
29. Creative Control
30. Brand Virus
31. Intergration
32. In-House
33. Relevance
34. Blended Search Optimization
35. Next Generation SEO
36. Local Search
37. Facebook
38. Long Tail
39. Online Visibility
40. B2B Strategy
41. Content
42. Funnel
43. Transparency
44. Consumer Initiated Marketing
45. Analytics
46. Universal Search Optimization
47. Engagement Metrics
48. Trend Analysis
49. Blogging
50. Total Solution
51. Online Reputation
52. Core Competency
53. Video Optimization
54. This is How We Roll
55. Mobile
56. Web Conferencing
57. Conversion Paths
58. Leveraging Relationships
59. Customer Retention
60. Globalization
61. Agency Integration
62. Relationship Marketing
63. Buzzwords - yup the word itself made it on this year’s list.
64. XING
65. Open Social
66. Search Marketing
67. Grow our business
68. Best Practices
69. SERP (Search Engine Results Page)
70. Integration
71. Connection
72. Video
73. Organic Marketing
74. Online Competition
75. Widget Marketing
76. Global Thoughts
77. Parity
78. Discovery
79. AJAX
80. Syncing
81. Collaboration
82. User-centricity
83. Web 3.0 (yes we’re starting to hear this unfortunately)
84. Workflow
85. Digital Integration
86. Search Recession
87. Webinar
88. Paradigm Shifts
89. Search Maturation
90. Black-Hat
91. Bounce Rates
92. Alignment and Re-Alignment
93. B2B SEM
94. Online Advantage
95. Site Re-Design
96. Search Engine Optimization
97. Online KPIs
98. Core Competency
99. Low-Hanging Fruit
100. Exit Strategy
      

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I love smart peoples “rules” for how they run certain aspects of their lives. Here’s Mark Cuban’s rules for entrepreneurs: 

1. Don’t start a company unless its an obsession and something you love.

2. If you have an exit strategy, its not an obsession.

3. Hire people who you think will love working there.

4. Sales Cures All. Know how your company will make money and how you will actually make sales.

5. Know your core competencies and focus on being great at them. Pay up for people in your core competencies. Get the best. Outside the core competencies, hire people that fit your culture but are cheap.

6. An expresso machine ? Are you kidding me ? Shoot yourself before you spend money on an expresso machine. Coffee is for closers. Sodas are free. Lunch is a chance to get out of the office and talk. There are 24 hours in a day, and if people like their jobs, they will find ways to use as much of it as possible to do their jobs.

7. No offices. Open offices keeps everyone in tune with what is going on and keeps the energy up. If an employee is about privacy, show them how to use the lock on the john. There is nothing private in a start up. This is also a good way to keep from hiring execs who can not operate successfully in a startup. My biggest fear was always hiring someone who wanted to build an empire. If the person demands to fly first class or to bring over their secretary, run away. If an exec wont go on salescalls, run away. They are empire builders and will pollute your company.

8. As far as technology, go with what you know. That is always the cheapest way. If you know Apple, use it. If you know Vista… ask yourself why, then use it. Its a startup, there are just a few employees. Let people use what they know.

9. Keep the organization flat. If you have managers reporting to managers in a startup, you will fail. Once you get beyond startup, if you have managers reporting to managers, you will create politics.

10. NEVER EVER EVER buy swag. A sure sign of failure for a startup is when someone sends me logo polo shirts. If your people are at shows and in public, its ok to buy for your own folks, but if you really think someone is going to wear your Yobaby.com polo you sent them in public, you are mistaken and have no idea how to spend your money

11. NEVER EVER EVER hire a PR firm. A PR firm will call or email people in the publications, shows and websites you already watch, listen to and read. Those people publish their emails. Whenever you consume any information related to your field, get the email of the person publishing it and send them an email introducing yourself and the company. Their job is to find new stuff. They will welcome hearing from the founder instead of some PR flack. Once you establish communications with that person, make yourself available to answer their questions about the industry and be a source for them. If you are smart, they will use you.

12. Make the job fun for employees. Keep a pulse on the stress levels and accomplishments of your people and reward them. My first company, MicroSolutions, when we had a record sales month, or someone did something special, I would walk around handing out 100 dollar bills to salespeople. At Broadcast.com and MicroSolutions, we had a company shot. Kamikaze. We would take people to a bar every now and then and buy one or 10 for everyone. At MicroSolutions, more often than not we had vendors cover the tab. Vendors always love a good party :0

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Aaron, hey man… who were you flipping off on your NBC post medely relay interview? Spitz? Thorpe? The French? Or all? Come on man, throw me a bone, inquiring minds want to know.

http://www.jeffhock.com/blog/aaron-peirsol-flips-off-gives-the-finger-to-spitz-or-french.html

Here is the video of the bird flipping… Note it happens at the 3:30 minute mark.

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Right after the medely relay where the US olympic swim team headed by Michael Phelps won the gold, NBC interviewed all 4 swimmers to get their take on the events that just transpired.
 
Michael Phelps was last to talk and just as the interview came to a close, his teammate who spoke first, Aaron Peirsol, jumped back into the conversation and stated something to the effect of… “They used to call great olympic achievements Spitzian Feats, but now were are going to have to change that term and call them Phelpsian Feats.”

What made this statement interesting was that the whole time he was saying it, he was clearly flipping off someone. After rewinding and reviewing that portion of the interview several times, he clearly had NO irritation in his eye at all. But then suddenly, right as he chimed in, he pretended to have something in his eye, and was trying to rub it out with his middle finger.
 
While doing this, he gazed over to Michael Phelps with a shit eating grin as if to say… see, I told you I’d do this. And Phelps laughed and clearly displayed the look of, Oh dude, I can’t believe you are doing that. And meanwhile, Aaron kept on fake rubbing his eye with his middle finger, which was clearly just a long exaggerated flipping the bird at someone.

The only question in my mind is…. who? Spitz? Thorpe? or the French? 

Mark Spitz was who he was specifically referencing at the time of flipping the bird. And many olympians hate spitz, saying he’s as arrogant as Muhammad Ali but without the sense of humor.
 
However, the French also stated before the race that they would “Smash” the Americans, so it’s possible the bird was meant to the French team. 

Or perhaps the middle finger was meant for Ian Thorpe, who they talked about earlier as saying Phelps would never do it.

All this in and of itself isn’t so interesting. At least, it’s not worth my time to write a blog post about. But what I find incredibly facinating, is the fact that… millions of people saw this same interview when I saw it, and continue to watch it on reposted video clips online… and yet, nobody appears to have caught the flipping of the bird.
 
I did a vast search of the subject on google and youtube, and found NO results that anyone caught this subtle gesture. Is it possible that I’m the only one who caught it?

http://completelyunorthodox.blogspot.com/2008/08/phelpsian-feat.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/16/AR2008081602696_pf.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/21/AR2008082100052.html

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Icanhascheezburger.com sold for $2m USD in late 2007 to Pet Holdings Inc., which has a holding of 7 web properties including the newest addition to their portfolio: http://engrishfunny.com/

The family of sites is generating 3.3 million daily page views, and around 5 million unique monthly visitors. Total revenue per page view is more than of $0.80 RPM.
 
.0008 x 3,300,000 = $2640 USD per day

Oh, and my favorite fail.

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