Marketing Pilgrim

I know it sounds like a feature that designed to predict whether your friends will email (“Reply hazy try again”), or possibly to tell you to switch email clients (“Outlook not so good”—an actual Magic 8-Ball response. Man, I’m hilarious). However, Gmail’s pending project, nicknamed the Magic Inbox, is designed to prioritize your mail by sender—with your best friends’ missives listed first.

Hey, that’s kinda neat, isn’t it? Yeah, it is—until we remember Google’s penchant for declaring anyone you’ve ever emailed a “friend.” However, this might change. Google Operating System highlights the two-year-old technology that might help Google identify your real friends (now there’s a useful app!) from a RarePlay post:

For Yahoo it appears as if the good ship “Search Business” has left the dock and Yahoo is just waving as it goes merrily off into the horizon. In other words, they missed the boat. We all pretty much know and accept that. Well, according to The Business Insider there is talk at Yahoo that they better get on the USS Social Networking vessel before it sets sail for good as well.

Is all the water and ship imagery making you a little nauseous? Imagine how the people at Yahoo have felt considering the rough ride they have had for quite some time now. In an effort to settle down and actually put together a strategy it appears as if social networking will be the focus moving forward. Yahoo’s CTO Ari Balogh stated yesterday that it could happen in a number of ways and untying the purse strings is one of them.

Google has announced a number of changes to its Google Suggest technology. The search engine starts its post with the most user beneficial additions, but lets start ours with what’s really behind these changes, shall we?

Yep, that’s a sponsored result you’re seeing at the bottom of Google Suggest. Now, you might think I’m about to go on a rant, but I’m not. I think it’s actually a pretty smart move by Google. After all, there’s only so much "screen estate" that the company can monetize and here it is, squeezing an itty bitty ad into a small box.

It is curious that the most recognizable brand in the world, Google, seems to be afraid to truly step out into the real world in many instances. As pointed out by Michael Arrington at Tech Crunch, 4 out of the 5 core Google apps offerings are still in Beta. The very recognizable names are Gmail, Google Docs, Google Talk and Google Calendar with Google sites being the only one that does not carry the Beta label.

NBC17 asked me to share some tips for a couple of TV segments they aired today. The first looks at how your personal online reputation can have an effect on your career goals. The second discusses what to in the event of an impostor “brand jacking” your name on a social network.

Both segments were posted online, so I thought I’d share them with you.

With all the Facebook investment and valuation talk swirling about, I stated yesterday that if Facebook was going to do an IPO then that would be news. Well, that ‘announcement’ is not imminent according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as he addressed the Reuters Global Technology Summit.

Zuckerberg’s comments really didn’t add any fuel to the fire or speculation about investment in the company. In fact, he made sure that it was clear that all of the talk right now is just that; talk. Reuters reports:

The 25-year-old co-founder of Facebook said he is always open to partnerships and investments, but stressed that Facebook can achieve its business goals with its current financial base — despite numerous media reports that it has had talks on a new round of funding with various investors.