del.icio.us tags 12.19.06

I'm going on vacation tomorrow for the next couple of weeks as of Thursday. I've been too busy to actually come up with a plan for how I am going to spend my time, but Rohit suggested I check out Site 59, so I will.

Anyway, I had a couple of big deliverables for today that I managed to get done, so I'm feeling pretty good. A small sense of relief.

But I'll feel much better after I catch up on my del.icio.us tags. It's a bit painful, because these puppies go as far back as last Thursday . . . (Yes, Alison, we know, you are very very busy.)

• The BBC reported on Jimmy Wales' plan to provide community building software to users for free via their MediaWiki site -- in exchange for a link to their site.
• Healia is a new health-specific search engine (via Micropersuasion). The filters are an interesting tool, enabling the user to weed out results by race, age and gender, as well as reading ability, browser and connection.
• Michele over at Wonder Branding critiques the new Men with Cramps from P&G, which is meant to be promoting ThermaCare Menstrual Patches. I'm with Michele in that I don't find it to be particularly amusing (It's not that it's offensive, it's just not very funny. It screams marketing people in a room coming up with something that they think might create "buzz".) Anyway, the best thing about the post is actually Michele calling out the person from P&G who tried to be stealth and write a ridiculously positive comment about the product. Michele threatened to take it down, but I am hoping she keeps it up because it's such a great example of what NOT to do. Here's my favorite part, "Stephanie" writes in her comment "as a female I know that each month I love using these portable, air activated heating pads when I have to go to work or leave the house". Who wants to bet that "Stephanie" is a guy named Steve? AdRants says that P&G's research said that women overwhelmingly wished men understood what menstrual cramps felt like. You know what I think -- who cares if a man feels my pain? Just make sure I have a full bottle of ibuprofen and I'm good.
  
• Houtlust has quickly become my favorite blog, if only for the consistency of the good sh*t they find. Check out this South African PSA about families who turn their backs on women who are raped.
• The folks behind Blue Frog (the anti-spam software) have a new digital advocacy platform -- Collative -- that I am trying to figure out because it seems pretty cool and if I get it a little bit more I might just want to suggest it to someone else . . . Yeah, I know, that's lame, but I'm trying to understand it more fully than I can from this Wired article or from these two early adopters. EchoDitto tagged it -- which is where I first read about it. Hey, guys, can you help me to understand it?
• I love Nedra Kline Weinreich. Love. Back on Friday she wrote this great post with tips for marketing to introverts. I am, myself, an introvert, so I probably liked it so much because it was about meeeeeee. The only bullet point that didn't work for me was the thing about introverts not having strong social networks. Or maybe it's true . . . I have lots of individual friends who don't necessarily know each other. John was the first person to tell me I was an introvert. Now, if only he would stop forcing me to participate in group brainstorms (the least effective way to get a good idea from an introvert), all would be good.
• Like peanut butter and jelly, like chocolate and whiskey -- my two favorite things came together on Saturday when Houtlust posted about Greenpeace's action at the Apple's 5th Avenue store on Thursday night. Green My Apple, indeed.
• The number of people reading blogs, watching videos and making phone calls online saw huge leaps this year -- more so than any other online activities -- but they still remain the least common online activities. E-mail continues to rule, illustrated by the fact that I am still catching up on work email from last Friday. Comes via EchoDitto.
• New research from PodZinger suggests that 10-15 second video ads are the way to go. Show uses a 7.5 minute video and they'll tune out about a minute into it.
  
• I already posted about the Time "Person of the Year" article, but I haven't yet shared a link to Reporters without Borders' Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents.

Finally. Caught. Up.