Farrar, Straus and Giroux hires Names@Work to help it shape its Internet strategy. We start in a fascinating way with a fascinating book. A story to follow

After I posted about the disconnect between AT+T’s advertising about blogging, and their actual “delivery” of it online, I decided to look a little further. Another variation on the theme….

Eric Weaver writes an inspired rant about direct marketers treating customers as if they were clay pigeons. I show that the practice is not restricted to the “Old School” marketers.

Buy a commercial for the Superbowl and you’ll spend approx. $2.5M for a 30-second spot. Add $1.5M for production, and that works out to about $83K per second. What could you do with that kind of money?

with the introduction today of the public beta of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7, internationalized domain names (IDNs) are about to enter a new phase. It’s a huge step forward for non-English-speaking people and a huge challenge for intellectual property owners, and possibly for the future of a unified Internet.

An underlying theme of the new web economy is authenticity and trust. Blogs have it, corporate web sites don’t. Or so they say. How does it work, and will it last?

An expensive corporate case of “just doesn’t get it.” AT+T spends $500 million on advertising

That quick little glance leaves you with a full knowledge of a company’s mission, goals, and philosophy. Except that it hardly ever does. A collection of links, some genuinely interesting, some genuinely funny.

The usual question, “Chicken or Beef” got a new twist on a recent flight on American Airlines, where valuable marketing real estate did not go to waste. Will we see a new specialty, “tray marketers”?

Joseph Jaffe is trying to get people to review his book Life After the 30-second spot, so he sent it out for free to quite a few people. I’m glad I asked for it; it’s a valuable perspective.