"road runner" So, here's an interesting test of the perils of starting a new search engine: search for "Road Runner" on IceRocket.com, and the first result is for Verizon. Search for Roadrunner, and the first results is for an auto engine lube kit. Looks like there might need to be a bit more work needed behind the scenes.

So, Captain Morgan has a blog. There's quite the conversation about it. There's a post by Scoble on a bit of the technical side, and from gapingvoid, they get the
"beyond lame" award
From my perspective, it just doesn't have a voice..and it doesn't sound like a human wrote it, eg:

Okay, everybody’s been known to pad their résumé once in a while, particularly when you’re talking to someone new at a bar. But it’s important to know where to draw the line. Do you really think she’s going to believe you’re an astronaut when you can’t even figure out how much tip to leave? Keep it plausible. Try these on for size: Alternate Stunt Double. Associate Casting Assistant. Dry-Land Oceanographer. Hey, even Cologne Spritzer has a nice ring to it. What’s your best almost-believable-profession?

I thought I'd do a podcast of the Small Business post of a few days ago. It's about 3 minutes on e-marketing for small businesses. No audio effects yet, but that will come with time. :)

Seeking Alpha: ... Good links to some financial websites.

9 Thoughts on E-marketing for small businesses:
1. Have a website. You've probably already set one up. If you haven't, almost any ISP will offer a free hosting service. If you already have one, now might be a good time to make sure all of your product and contact information is up to date. Are you offering new products and services that you should put online? Are there new features like surveys, guestbooks, polls, or live chat that you might want to add?
2. Digital materials. Have copies of your sales pieces, and product information online, or link to it. If someone wants the latest news on the TSX-1000, or information on a new makeup product, it should be easy to find.
3. Do you have an email list of customers and potential customers? There are plenty of services online ranging from Yahoo to Topica.com that will let you maintain an email list of customers. They offer forms on your website, collect contact information, and add people to your list. They'll also automate things like unsubscribe messages, which you don't want to be dealing with manually.
4. Make sure you're listed in search engines. You should make sure you've submitted your site to Google and Yahoo; and you should also make sure to add to industry specific directories. There's one for almost any industry that you can think of.
5. Online advertising. Both Overture and Google offer ad campaigns where you pay by the click. Essentially, you're paying for each visitor to the website. You choose the keywords that you advertise on, and you can be as specific as you wish. So "Herndon Virginia beauty salon" might be one that you choose. There are options that start as low as a $25 deposit, and you can set a daily budget of any amount you wish, so that you can see what kind of results you generate.
6. Blogging. No longer the domain of kids lamenting their parents or listing their favorite music. Many small businesses use them to document what's going on with the business, solicit customer feedback, and establish an ongoing dialog with customers. Blogger.com is a great way to get started, or you can talk to your 14 year old.
7. Do you want to sell your product on your website? This sounds obvious, but there are many cases where a sale might not be practical online. A home demonstration of an air purifier might be needed. In that case, an online query might be the best possible result. If you do want to make sales online, you'll need to accept payment. You may be able to use an existing merchant account online, or you can sign up with a service such as PayPal, which lets you take a variety of payment types. There are also a number of online catalog vendors that are available, if you have a variety of products.
8. Do you want to make money from the people visiting your website? If you have traffic to your site, from people wanting to learn more about a topic, you can have ads run on your site for other products. One of the easiest is Google's AdSense, https://www.google.com/adsense/ Do you want to sell your product online
9. If you really want to be on the cutting edge, looking into podcasting. Podcasts are audio programs that you record, that people can subscribe to, and listen to on their MP3 players, the most common being the iPod.
If you're interested in more info, this discussion will be online at http://www.joshgreene.com/

Interesting response to the VoIP priority posting from yesterday And, Slashdot has a thread

Eyetools Research Blog on eyetools ... neat map of Google, and which parts of it people actually see...

PBS | I, Cringely . Archived ColumnInteresting article on how VoIP and big telco companies might have issues.

A Coder in Courierland Fun article on life as a bike messenger.

PWOP Productions - www.pwop.com: "spent a lot of time looking for high-quality gear that is also compact and affordable. This is our currently suggested podcasting kit.

>> reemer.com: ETech: Lessons from Mark Fletcher, Creator of BloglinesNeat article on building a business"

A VC: The PeopleWeb Another post on the idea of sell-side advertising where: The idea is if you've got an ad, you just put it out on the net somewhere, tag it, and let the ad networks' crawlers come get and run it wherever. I do think that this is a next logical extension of AdSense, where companies who advertise on there would post there ads, and pay for desired results. I would think the first to adopt this would be those who have a clear transactional result, as that would be easiest to track.

Test podcast. Listen to me count to six! :) Details to follow.

Podcasting How-To Some useful collections of resources on how to podcast on XP. More to come. Good list of clients Also, audioblogging, call a number and record... hmm, with a conference call, that could get interesting. Here's a good step by step guide. This step by step guide looks even more thorough. Interesting article from Informit. Good pictures of using Audacity, up till setting up the enclosure. How to podcast with blogger.com. Wikipedia entry on podcasting. Some good links in the bottom right to explore. Listen to Audio Web Logs on Your Pocket PC!

Jason Womack: "Great interview with David Allen " -- I'm looking forward to listening to this.

Ross Mayfield's Weblog: Adword ArbitrageInteresting article on AdWords arbitrage. I think that there's definite value to providing more focused leads to companies. It's an issue of specificity...Someone who types DVD player into Google, is worth a lot less than someone searching on an Apex Brand 23 with DVR. That person has value as a potential searcher for support or, more likely, knows exactly what they want to buy. And there's value, in them being further along the purchase decision process.

MyBlogLog This looks interesting for tracking outgoing links.

John Battelle's Searchblog: Adsense Update: Fred, $500, and Is Google Trying Harder?: "Adsense Update: Fred, $500, and Is Google Trying Harder?"
Fred Wilson's article on numbers for Google running Ads on his Blog. I think it's good numbers are getting out of there; it seems a little ridiculous for Google to be keeping advertisers from disclosing revenue. I think more people are going to start anonymously posting results.

Markl's Thoughts: Shipping Software Interesting article on whether Microsoft still knows how to ship software.