Where Google is going with Picasa and Hello

Picture this: you send your best friend a picture from your weekend trip to the beach. Along with the picture, you lament that you would rather have been on a date. You and your friend both get served a Google AdSense ad for a Web dating service.

People have been asking "Why is Google paying big bucks for Picasa and then giving away the software for free?" Put Picasa together with Hello which is a peer-to-peer messaging service. Hello comes with Picasa. Google controls both. Are you getting the picture, or do you need Picasa to enhance the image for you?

The big bucks are going to come from users clicking the ads that are going to be served up at some point with their image sharing and instant messaging. Who has a better  handle on context-sensitive advertising than Google? Nobody; not by a long shot.

Some of this is hinted at on WebProNews which links to some interesting threads at Webmasterworld. If you like rank speculation, take a look. As one post in the thread said: "Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and lots and lots of others are all going to make lots and lots of money with this. Compete? Heck, they'll all be needed to meet demand."

Blogging tips

You can't have too many tips when it comes to blogging. One good source is an article at NetGuideWeb which is pretty successful at compiling tips from various blog authors into one place. Here's one of my favorites:
 
"In a personal blog, there needs to be something that sets it apart from others in its class. It might be that it's particularly useful -shares inside-track knowledge, provides up-to-the-second analysis, hard-to-find links. Or it might have a point of view that's unusual, funny, insightful."

Google buys Picasa

Keep in mind that Google is in a forced "quiet" period pending the public offering of Google stock. That is why you may not have heard too much about the recent purchase of Picasa by Google.
 
If you don't know anything about Picasa, just think management and manipulation of digital photographs.
 
Immediate speculation raised the idea Google would go beyond radio and TV clips and enter the online-music business, selling downloads of music files. "You can't ignore it. There is tons of money to be made off of music," Danny Sullivan, editor of searchenginewatch.com, told the Post.  --Seattle Times
 
I don't know about sales of digital music, but searching and AdSense ads going across the digital spectrum is something I can see Google getting more heavily into.
 
In the meanwhile, Picasa is a good product and is available in a free download. Go HERE and try it out for yourself.

Website do's and dont's

There is a very interesting thread at Thomas Brunt's Outfront on site design.

Frontpage? Javascript? Frames? Some good information on what to include and what to avoid on your site.

Blogger burnout

It happens to all of us. The old feeling that writing that blog has become a chore rather than fun. One or two days go by without blogging and you feel a sense of obligation to get something posted.

I coined a word a couple of years ago for this (I think I was the first, anyway): the "Blahgs".

One long time blogger (Counterspin Central) quit entirely on June 10.

Markos Juniga writes the Daily Kos and says "I never can post something and say I'm done for the day because I'm always thinking about the next post. I'm always feeling like I'm letting people down if I don't have any new stuff up on the site."

"I definitely get burnt out," he said. Sometimes "I'll go through the week and I'll go, 'Wow, that was a really bad week.' ... I haven't found a way to control it, to be honest. Either I'm on or I'm not on. I can fake it and maybe people don't notice it, but I know it when I'm not at my best." ---from Wired News

Top ten site mistakes

Originally put together in 1996 and updated in 1999, the "Top Ten Mistakes" is still good advice for bloggers and Webmasters today.

Well worth the read. Here's one snippit that some bloggers should pay heed to:

"It is as hard as ever to read scrolling text, but aggressive use of distracting animation now causes even more problems than in 1996: users have started equating such designs with advertising which they routinely ignore."

Point of Blogs is missed

Why is it that the mainstream media continues to miss the point of blogging entirely? For some reason the "journalists" are under the impression that blogging is reporting and, as such, all blogs should consist of balanced reporting. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There are some very good points made in this regard on the Captain's Quarters:

"No one expects blogs to be balanced and unbiased, unlike expectations for reporters of national media outlets. Unfortunately, they usually don't meet expectations in this regard, either becoming cheerleaders for a candidate (Jodi Wilgoren from the New York Times) or distortion providers against a candidate (Walter Pincus and Dana Milbank from the Post). Michelle Malkin notes some fairness and accuracy issues from the Post's past that he conveniently omits from his critique."

True, blogs are strictly a person's point of view. A blogger blogs about whatever is interesting from the blogger's perspective. Balanced? Against what? Here is the point that journalists need to let sink in: blogging does not even pretend to be balanced. Only the hypocrites among the journalists pretend to be balanced. With us, there is no pretense.