Where in the world
: Google is beta testing its maps. They’re nice, graphically. I have become devoted to maps.Yahoo.com for one simple feature: finding the nearest wi-fi. [via Ubergizmo]
: Holovaty loves Google maps but even so has lots of suggestions.
Branded
: Corante expands its ever-expanding roster of damned smart media biz blogs with a new one on branding.
Eason on FoxNews
: Got a call from Fox for a segment on Eason Jordan. Could not do it… was on a plane. Surprised Fox did not jump on this earlier with competitive glee… or perhaps they wanted to wait until someone else jumped first.
The Sunshine State
: I look out my window from the hotel near Ft. Myers, FL, and it’s the damnedest sight: high-rises pop up out of the palm grove and swamps like mistakes in a game of SimCity.
: I’m waiting to get on the plane now and there are nine — nine! — wheelchairs coming off, plus two walkers.
About?
: I wouldn’t buy About. Not that I could afford it but… If you were starting About.com today, you wouldn’t create a centralized marketplace of cheap content; you wouldn’t hire a bunch of people (even at serf wages) to create the content. Instead, it would make much more sense to start a network of distributed media (yes, blogs): less cost, less risk, greater scale, greater diversity, stronger voice of the people….
I’ve said this to the man who started About and the man who bought it last time and they didn’t kick me in the shins.
PaidContent.org says The New York Times is the frontrunner to buy About. That makes sense if you’re a centralized marketplace of content trying to maintain that model, if you or your owners are scared of the distributed world. But the centralized marketplace — the channel, the portal, the conglomerate — is the thing of the past. Things of the past often buy each other when the past arrives.
