Are you using a location based service?

What about the iPad?

Or how about Posterous?

All of these things have at one time been labeled overrated. For example, I think foursquare is a complete waste of time. Why the heck would I want to tell the world where I am! I mean that’s really nobody’s business! It’s not like Twitter where I actually have meaningful dialogue. I find value in Twitter for numerous reasons. I can’t imagine finding that same value with foursquare.

But, that’s just me.

Everything I mentioned above could make me miss out on new opportunities.  My own subjectivity is getting in the way of learning new networks and how to exploit them for my clients and myself. This dangerous attitude isn’t unique to just myself. Many folks in the tech space, that don’t find value in new things, are quick to label them “pointless”. The truth is they are right. At least for themselves that is.

While most sources are predicting a rise in ad dollars for the rest of this year, Barclays analyst Anthony DiClemente is lowering his estimate from 5.5% to only a 5% growth. That may not sound like much but these days, even .5% really counts.

In an article at MediaMemo, Peter Kafka says that it’s print (including phone book advertising) and radio that are skewing the numbers as they continue to have poor ad sales. The web and TV networks are seeing an uptick but when you average it together it’s not a pretty picture.

Kafka goes a step further, noting that things were so bad last year that even a 5% hike isn’t bringing ad dollars back to what they once were. He says we’ll know more when the big media companies turn in their Q2 reports next week but he’s not hopeful.