Marketing Pilgrim

eWeek interviews Chris DiBona, Google’s open source program manager, and learns about the company’s passion for open source.

Highlights include…

“Google has no plans to release an operating system or an office suite.”

Google has donated $350,000 to a joint open-source technology initiative at Oregon State University and Portland State University.

Proving that you don’t have to launch a new product to make a press anouncement, AOL sends word of the top Halloween costumes this year.

The top 10 costume searches on AOL Search for Halloween 2005 are:

1 Star Wars Costumes
2 Pirate Costumes
3 Tinkerbell Costumes
4 Fairy Costumes
5 Wonder Woman Costumes
6 The Incredibles Costumes
7 Power Rangers Costumes
8 Yoda Costumes
9 Police Costumes
10 Alice in Wonderland Costumes

UPDATE: It’s now 2006, what are the top Halloween costumes for 2006?

1 Pirate Costumes
2 Disney Costumes
3 Indian Costumes
4 Little Red Riding Hood Costumes
5 Star Wars Costumes
6 Playboy Bunny Costumes
7 Tinkerbell Costumes
8 Fairy Costumes
9 Geisha Costumes
10 Gypsy Costumes

Head over to MarketingVox for details on just how big the information industry will grow.

Revenue projections for 2005 are $37.6 billion, with information industry growth of 18 percent in 2005 and a 17 percent compounded annual growth rate from 2005 through 2008.

Kevin Newcomb looks at the not so widely known practice from Google.

Google has quietly been running geo-targeted contextual ads in RSS feeds for several months, but many advertisers, agencies, and analysts contacted by ClickZ were surprised to learn about the placements.

The targeting came to the attention of a New York City-based ClickZ editor when an ad for a nearby single-location spa showed up on an RSS feed for a blog about Apple Computers. The same ad was targeted to other editors in New York, but not to others outside the city. The ad did not seem to be contextually targeted, but entirely targeted by location.

Andy Beal and Cindy Akus are no longer associated with Fortune Interactive. View Andy’s consulting services.

I know you may not want to hear about Fortune Interactive’s growth, but I’m excited to announce our latest team member, Cindy Akus, Marketing and Communications Manager.

Cindy is an award-winning PR practitioner with extensive media relations, marketing and events planning experience. She comes to us from French/West/Vaughan (FWV), the Southeast’s largest public relations, public affairs and brand communications agency and is going to be instrumental in the growth of our company and the launch of new products that focus on online media relations (more to come soon).

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Thanks!

I know I’m a little late to comment on the Google Base story, but I spent all day moving home, which kept me a little out of the loop.

That being said, it’s amazing the information you can browse from your Blackberry.

It’s scary to think of how the internet will look in a few years, thanks to Google. While there is no doubt that Google’s plans to introduce low-cost or free services, is appealing to many, you can’t help but think that the quality will suffer.

Google Base is a good example. If indeed the new service becomes a free alternative to eBay, and eBay loses market share, where will the innovation come from? There are many instances where I could use a free service for my needs, yet the adage, “you get what you pay for” is always so true.