Conversations, word-of-mouth, chat — it’s amazing how many auditory words we use to describe text-based actions. Replying to comments on Facebook is a conversation, sharing a product review in a blog is word-of-mouth and chatrooms have functioned for years without any chatter at all.

Nuance is going to change that. They’re using voice recognition technology to create ads that actually converse with the consumer. As in “talk” with sound, not just words scrolling across the width of a box.

Nuance’s voice ads borrows from some old school ideas that work. For example, the moving ad. Remember those early banner ads that challenged you to click on a moving target? By replicating the carnival game experience, they got thousands of people to click through to a sales website.

The hoodie you see here is called Ping. It’s a stylish, functional garment that allows you to wirelessly connect with Facebook by performing natural movements such as lifting up the hood or lowering the zipper. Pull the hood up and the system posts your location to your Facebook. Your friend Susan leaves a comment saying she’ll meet you for coffee – a sensor in the hoodie taps you on the shoulder to let you know there’s a timely message.

Electric Foxy (how much do you love that name?) is also working on a fashionable hoodie / music player. I’m not talking ‘tuck your iPod into the pocket.’ I’m talking about a player that raises the volume when you raise the zipper and changes tracks when you wave your hand in the air. (I guess you’re out of luck if there’s a sudden wind or you need to hail a taxi.)

More and more, I have the feeling that every time I look left, gremlins are causing havoc to my right. That’s why I appreciate tools that pull data from the left and the right and the up and down into one place so I can see what’s going on at a glance.

Adsense was like that – one login and I could see how my entire network was doing, including my ads on YouTube.

To quote Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau, “not anymore.”

For some odd reason, YouTube has elected to remove the day-to-day AdSense data from AdSense. The totals will still add up at the end of the month and you’ll still get paid the same way but if you want to see how you’re doing on any given day, you’ll have to log in to two different reports.