Marketing Pilgrim

No, this is not about God using Twitter so if you have any issues around that please put them aside now. This is actually about a service that some airlines are putting in place that utilizes Twitter and Facebook to update those who care where you actually are while flying from point A to point B. Just another update on every minute of everyone’s life brought to you by social media.

Mashable reports:

We’ve seen Tweets posted by plants, a space shuttle and even a house, so we shouldn’t be particularly surprised to hear that commercial jets are now Tweeting and posting Facebook messages (sorta). In fact, we think the idea is ingenious.

Let this be a lesson to us all: be careful who you poke on Facebook. The click of that button can get you arrested.

For most of us, the note that we’ve been poked only elicits an eye-roll. But when Shannon D. Jackson of Tennessee poked one of her Facebook contacts, she actually broke the law—a restraining order. The order prohibited “telephoning, contacting or otherwise communicating with the petitioner.” Somehow methinks poking qualifies as “communicating” or “contacting.” After all, once you poke someone on Facebook, they are automatically notified:

Violating a restraining order is a class A misdemeanor in Tennessee, punishable with up to 11 months and 29 days in jail and a fine of up to $2500.

Last week, twenty members of Congress sided with AT&T and asked the Federal Communications Commission to take a good look at Google Voice, because the free telephony service doesn’t allow users to call certain rural numbers. Two days later, Sharon Gillett, chief of the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, sent Google telecom counsel a list of questions about their service.

Remember Arthur Levinson?

Sure you do.

Levinson was the sole remaining board member causing a boatload of headaches for both Google and Apple, by serving on the board of directors for both companies. Ring any bells? Well, he finally manned-up and vacated his role on Google’s board.

Google CEO and Chairman Eric Schmidt described Levinson in a released statement, "Art has been a key part of Google’s success these past five years, offering unvarnished advice and vital counsel on every big issue and opportunity Google has faced," Schmidt said. "Though he leaves as a member of our Board, Art will always have a special place at Google."

Google AdSense or unemployment benefits? It’s your choice, but you can’t have your cake and eat it too–even when that cake amounts to just $1.30 a day in AdSense earnings!

The New York State Department of Labor is investigating the eligibility of an unemployed attorney who was receiving $405 a week in unemployment benefits. That $405 has been stopped while the DoL decides if the earnings she receives from ads displayed on her new restaurant review site are either:

a) Income

b) Residual earnings

c) Self employed revenue

Surprisingly, there is no option “d”–is ~$40 a month in AdSense enough to live on?

Of course, most people would have just kept quiet about the check, but “Karin”–the semi-anonymous blogger who’s the focus of the Forbes piece–is studying for the bar. She likely knew she had a legal obligation to report her earnings:

While talk swirls around Twitter on subjects ranging from video to revenue to biz plans and Biz’s plans, there is one that keeps coming up because it is pretty important. How do you search Twitter and mine it for the nuggets of wisdom amongst the wasteland of wackiness?

Last week we told you about the unholy alliance talks that Twitter was supposedly having with Microsoft and Google separately regarding the tsunami of 140 character pearls of wisdom that need to be gathered, catalogued and organized so the world can be a better place because of it. It really is the piece of the puzzle that everyone seems to be most interested in so we’re just waiting for Twitter to figure out how to best monetize it.