37signals recommends the Hollywood Launch. Release a few hints until the big day, when people flood your site, sent by blog coverage. What happens: They bring the site down. They discover some big bug. You bring the site down for everyone because there was a syntax error. Everyone misunderstood what your product does because your front page wasn't clear enough. They all think it's stupid. The traffic is gone. Hardly any of those users come back.

What you should have done all along: the Gmail Launch. Have users from day one. Give it to your friends and family. Keep improving it based on their feedback. Let them invite their friends. Automate the process, giving everyone some invite codes to share. Codes protect against a premature slashdotting. Iterate. Take off the code requirement. People will come across it and become real users. Then build buzz. Have some kind of news hook. With Reddit, we switched from Lisp to Python. Start marketing.

(Photo by ioerror)

The archly dystopian series of Web videos feature 20somethings in L.A. using a wide range of Google's Web products. Google via text message? Customized maps? I bet most of the series' viewers had no idea Google even offered such services. Sure, the horror-film-lite endings won't play well in Larry and Sergey's candy-colored, hyperliteralist utopia. But it's high time Google starts figuring out some way to market itself besides pointing to the exercise balls and free food.

It's not that amazing. As CenterNetwork's Allen Stern first pointed out, each time a new user signs up for FriendFeed, the site suggests the new user becomes friends with "Popular FriendFeeders." On the list: Bret Taylor, Fred Wilson, Scott Beale, Michael Arrington, Loic Le Meur, Jason Calacanis, Dave Winer and Leo Laporte — despite, as Stern notes, the fact that many of these "popular" users don't actually use FriendFeed very often. Why? We haven't asked anybody at FriendFeed because the answer is obvious: So that the whole bunch of easily ego-fluffed blog blowhards will blog about how amazing FriendFeed is, without bothering to figure out why, exactly, it seems to be growing so much faster for them than everybody else.

Video: Microsoft Surface at the Rio in Las Vegas

Previously, Facebook went with a three-column format, but now there’s only two. That means that the right-most column that was previously filled with new app messages and notifications is gone. Which means that profiles are lot cleaner — and a lot more difficult to get your custom app featured on. Those apps that used to line the right column now live within the ‘Boxes’ tab (first I’ve ever heard that term used on Facebook). When clicked, that tab expands to reveal all your installed applications, but also keeps them out of plain sight. Again, nice and tidy for users, but troublesome for marketers.

Truth is, Facebook's anticlutter efforts are doing these marketers a favor. During the Facebook platform's first year, users installed apps with abandon — and then abandoned them. But since oft-installed apps remained on user profiles, they were still considered a success. No longer. Now apps will need to be used — and need to be useful — to be considered a success. And it'll be that much harder for brands to create applications that Facebook users appreciate — but that much easier to get value out of the ones they actually use.

The idea is that engagement mapping will convince advertisers that the ads consumers saw before they searched actually led to the purchase of their products, not the search ad that took the consumer to the vendor's online store. "We think paid search is getting more credit than it deserves," Johnson told Fortune. He hopes engagement mapping will convince advertisers to spend less on search and more on types of advertising Google doesn't have completely locked up.

This is a misconception of what search advertising is. It's not "brand advertising" meant to convince consumers to purchase a product. It's a way to make sure a product is highly visible when consumers are looking for it, no matter how they decided to look for it. If a series of ads on content sites convinced a consumer to purchase a product, that product's vendor better be the top search ad when that convinced consumer goes searching for it.

The good news? Engagement mapping — an effective way to tell how well a brand advertising campaign is working — won't erode the power of search, but it will take money from less measurable TV, radio and print advertising. The bad news? From the top, Microsoft may be too obsessed with Google to notice.

We are considering a transaction with Yahoo!, not a full acquisition, but we reserve the right to reconsider that alternative. We are not where we want to be. We are better with algorithmic search and we are investing to differentiate in vertical experiences. Hear more Wednesday. Actions we are taking: With search, we are ready to throttle up distribution initiatives. We are building new releases of Windows, Windows Live, Windows Mobile, Internet Explorer, Search and MSN with an eye towards optimizing and unifying. Fix our online branding-Our brands are fragmented and confusing. we need to clarify. In display advertising, we will increase engineering resources. Build on our strengths in Europe. Expand strategic partnerships. Pursue small, targeted acquisitions.

From: Kevin Johnson
Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2008 1:30 PM
To: Platforms & Services Division
Subject: Online Services Strategy Update


We have been executing against the core strategy I first presented at our Financial Analyst Meeting in July 2007 to go after the growing opportunity in online services and advertising. Four pillars have formed the basis of our strategy:

1. Consolidate ad platform and win in display
2. Innovate and disrupt in search
3. Deliver end-to-end user experiences across PC, phone, and Web
4. Reinvent portal and social media experiences

We have many options that support acceleration of our strategy. As announced earlier today, we are also considering new alternatives for a transaction with Yahoo! which do not involve a full acquisition. At this time, we have not made a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo!, but we reserve the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo!, shareholders of Yahoo! or Microsoft, or with other third parties.

Regardless of the outcome of any new discussions, it is important that we continue to move forward to strengthen our online services business. The fact is that we are not where we want to be in this business yet and we've been in this position longer than we'd all like. To that end, we will be accelerating elements of our core strategy, and breaking ground in new areas.

On Tuesday, Brian McAndrews is hosting advance08, our annual advertising conference here in Redmond. Over 400 leaders from across the media, technology and advertising landscape will be here for two days to engage in dialogue on industry trends and opportunities. These leaders are some of our closest partners in the digital transformation of the advertising industry, and they recognize the increasingly important role Microsoft plays in this transformation. We are very excited to have these customers and partners on campus.

Brian's keynote will highlight our unique position in the advertising industry. It's amazing to see how far we've come with the aQuantive acquisition in differentiating our advertising platform. This foundation is paying off, with Q3 advertising revenue growth of nearly 40 percent, a rate that has accelerated over the past two quarters while growth rates at Google, Yahoo and AOL have slowed.

On Wednesday, we will be announcing a major new initiative that our search teams have been driving. We are getting better and better with our core algorithmic search, and at the same time, we are investing to differentiate in vertical experiences and to disrupt the current model. You'll hear more about our plans Wednesday.

advance08 will underscore our commitment to search and online advertising, and you'll continue to see announcements demonstrating our progress in this space. Earlier this week, I spoke to leaders across our online services business about our core strategy, the importance of acceleration and a set of actions we are taking, including:

1. Innovate and disrupt in search-We will disclose some elements of our plans with this week's release of search and sharpen our focus on user experience and business model innovation. The work we have done over the last four years on search has established a solid foundation to build upon.
2. Win targeted distribution-With this release of search, we are now ready to throttle up broader distribution initiatives.
3. Reinvent portal and deliver new experiences across PC, phone and Web-We are building our new releases of Windows 7, Windows Live wave 3, Windows Mobile 7, Internet Explorer 8, Search and MSN with an eye towards optimizing and unifying experiences and scenarios.
4. Fix our online branding-Our brands are fragmented and confusing today, and we recognize a need to clarify and align our online branding . We are now driving forward to address this opportunity.
5. Win in display advertising-We have an advantage in tools, agency assets/relationships and a team laser-focused on capturing the display ad platform opportunity. As we build from a position of strength, we will increase engineering resources to drive even more innovation.
6. Build on our strengths in Europe-As measured by comScore in March, our online business in Europe is doing well. We have over three times the page view volume and nearly seven times the minutes of usage compared to Yahoo!, and 68% reach to internet users throughout Europe. We will double down on our investments in Europe and expand on this strong position.
7. Expand strategic partnerships-In addition to our organic innovation agenda, we will expand strategic partnerships that increase inventory on our display ad platform, enable new paradigms in search and accelerate growth in key geographies.
8. Pursue small, targeted acquisitions-Looking forward, we will focus on small, targeted acquisitions that support our work in search, complement our value in the ad platform and help us grow scale in key geographies. Recent acquisitions including Rapt and YaData are examples of these types of acquisitions.

The PSD leadership team is actively working on the FY09 budget, including resources and investments to support the actions above. Additional elements of our work will be revealed in the coming weeks, leading to our Financial Analyst Meeting in July where I will share more details on our strategy and business/financial outlook.

As we move forward, I want to remind everyone that we are well positioned to compete. We have some of the industry's best assets on our side: technical and business talent, global scale, a culture of self-criticism and tenaciousness, a healthy balance sheet and an unparalleled product portfolio. It's time for us to seize the opportunity.

Thanks again for your continued leadership and focus on our business.

Regards,

Kevin Johnson l President Microsoft Platforms & Services Division

In light of developments since the withdrawal of the Microsoft proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft announced that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business. Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo! an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo! Microsoft is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo! at this time, but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo! or discussions with shareholders of Yahoo! or Microsoft or with other third parties. There of course can be no assurance that any transaction will result from these discussions.

Young used his time on stage during the keynote to show off a 10-disc Blu-Ray project that included almost every song he'd ever recorded, in chronological order. Sun's role? In providing Sony the Java code that allows for interactive features on Blu-ray. Young said that while he'd been working on the project for 15 years, only now was the digital audio quality up to standard. Each track had visual accompaniment from the relevant era. When a recording from the compact disc era appeared, he joked "We took a giant dump at this point." He also mentioned that he was working to create a car that didn't require stops for refueling, which also has some tangential relationship to Java, showing off an American mid-century model he's entering in the automotive X-Prize challenge.

Interestingly enough, us bloggers with our hair-trigger deadlines were given first crack at asking questions of Young (and indulging in the complimentary fruit plate), while the print reporters with their leisurely deadlines had to wait outside. As we waited for Young and his entourage to arrive, O'Reilly Media founder Tim O'Reilly showed off his Livescribe pen for recording audio in time with written notes to News.com editor-in-chief Dan Farber, who remarked sagely about the need for special Livescribe paper, "So they're selling the razors and the blades." But the two quickly went into fanboy mode when Young arrived, peppering the man with questions before anyone else could get a word in edgewise.

The car project, part of a documentary Young's working on with filmmaker Larry Johnson, a longtime collaborator, seems to be a bit of a lark. He wants to create a superefficient car that doesn't need to stop for gas or electricity, and he wants it to be heavy. While I might have gotten a C+ in college physics, it's enough to know that you can't run a Lincoln Continental on unicorns and rainbows. "It's very kooky. When you try to do something like this, people say you're nuts." Wonder why?

I mostly went on behalf of my father, who's pretty much a superfan (to the point where, besides the mutton-chop sideburns and dark glasses, he and Young seem to have identical fashion sense). My question had to do with the fact that my father had already bought Young's work on vinyl, then again on CD, and will now probably buy it all over again on Blu-ray in the fall. "I think it's the same as Microsoft selling the same applications every year with new bells and whistles." He then made this vinyl collector very happy by lambasting the quality of digital audio, and saying that he still records and edits everything in analog.

Young was at his best when he pierced through the Sun marketing hype of the morning. When O'Reilly asked how the musician felt about the "free" aspects of Sun's open-source efforts with Java, Young veered well of the "Keep on rockin' in a free world" tagline I assume Sun paid dearly for: "The free aspect... I think that's a word, that's a marketing thing." Touché.

• (1-7) Your Avatar: have one. Use high contrast colours. Use a photo designed to be an avatar. Don't offend unnecessarily. Pay a graphic designer.
• (8-14) Stumbleupon allows only 200 friends. Make sure each friends you back. Make sure they are active stumblers. Say get lost to your pal sending you spam. People know what you stumble and you will be judged. Some stumblers are more powerful than others, get them to friend you, submit your stuff.
• (15-21)There is a specific culture on SU. Looking at those who stumble the hot stuff in your sector. Create similar content. People stumble ideas. Attract people into conversation. Stumble other people's stuff at least 5 times more than your own. Popurls.com can do a lot of the work for you. If it's hot on Digg it could be hot on SU.
• (22-28)Be polite. Accept criticism. Do not submit front pages of e-commerce sites. See it as a mini blog.

Keys to using Facebook Pages: Showcase the human element of your business. Update frequently. Choose applications for your business. A restaurant may add an app for reservations. Promote your Page through Facebook Ads based on age, gender, geography, educational status, relationship status, and precise interests or keywords. Add links to your Facebook Page on other websites and blogs. Search engines index your Page. One way Facebook knows which stories are most interesting to a given user is the number of that user's friends involved in a story. Stories about Events include all the users who have RSVP'ed. Notes is Facebook's blogging feature. Record, upload, and edit videos. Delete any Wall post. Send updates to all your fans. View data on your fans. Export this. Integrate outside websites with the Facebook API and Beacon to users' friends about something they did on your site.

Advertisers want to know how and if consumers are reacting to new TV commercials. One way to tell would be to watch for how and whether consumers are searching online using product names, slogans or ad copy. The hold-up? Sales teams for both Yahoo and Google aren't laying claim to the money advertisers are willing to spend on that notion yet because, according to Redniss, they're too stuck on hawking pay-per-click advertising.

I'm inspired. Want more stupid questions? "Which brand would you most like to sit next to at a dinner party?" "If sent back 100 years, which brand would have the biggest impact on history?" Both were won by Apple, but for the second question, Ford ranked fifth. Who are these people who think a computer company that makes shiny gadgets would have a bigger impact than Ford — the company that created modern manufacturing? (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)

Over the span of one day, Cordarounds flooded the internet with clips of Palmer giving confusing instructions to a caricature artist on drawing the man of her dreams. "I want him to be smart and sporty. Maybe you could draw him with a book in his hand or a graduation cap? And on a surf board maybe? And he should be funny, so definitely with a smile," Palmer tells the artist.

After posting video and pics on the Cordarounds blog and Facebook page, Palmer's gang continued the barrage of internet assault by continually posting "GOT ANY ROMANTIC ADVICE FOR KAREN? WE WANT TO KNOW" and "THRILLIING UPDATE!!!!! KAREN HAS SECURED HER FIRST MEETUP. YOU'LL BE ABLE TO SEE IT SOON AFTER IT HAPPENS." Much like those Porntube posters touting their own vids. Cordarounds' cloyingness had users pranking the Cordaround blog and Facebook wall with gems such as these:

The ad campaign ended with a useless "We will see what happens." Pics or it didn't happen, more like it. The viral marketing for Cordarounds ended up being as annoying as corduroys themselves.

They're good at it. "When they target children, they do everything any commercial advertiser would do. They use comic books, storytelling, graphics, movies, competitions, prize-winning and so on," Weimann told WebProNews. So the only question here is why your marketing team isn't learning Arabic, logging on, and taking some serious notes. If they don't improve their viral skills soon, the terrorists will ... no, sorry. I just can't type the words.

(Photo by AP)

Berndt will work with agencies on using Google's new ad products — which now range from text links to banners, video, and radio ads — more creatively. He'll also, most importantly, work on Google's own marketing efforts. Only one problem, as I see it: He'll report to Lawee, whose job now becomes even more pointless with Berndt doing all the work. If only Google followed my Darwinian "Toogle Many Googlers" principle, which would require the axing of some Googlers — say, Lawee — to make room for new hires like Berndt.

If you crunch the numbers, you'll figure out that This Second Marketing's two dozen "brand representatives" managed to talk to a mere 18 people an hour. Worse yet, Imax actually paid the street team a real-world wage for its work. Honestly, you should be able to do better hawking Harry Potter. Even in as barren a terrain as Second Life.

2:27 p.m. Pacific Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, the analyst who's drawn a fake blog of his own, gets the last question, asking about Google's efforts in China. Schmidt uses his favorite word, "accelerating," to describe Google's place in the market. He also mention's Google's "tenacity." Translation: It's going to take years for Google to improve its market share in China significantly. And with that, the call wraps up.

2:19 p.m. Pacific "There are lots and lots of rumors, which is always very exciting," says Eric Schmidt. He's talking about Google's wireless plans, of course, but I'm strongly considering repurposing it as a Valleywag blurb.

2:16 p.m. Pacific Was the headcount cost primarily driven by sales hires? Kordestani talks about a reorganization of the salesforce to get them to sell more than just search ads. That's got to be expensive, and a reorganized salesforce is usually less productive. This might explain some of Google's overhiring and the resultant earnings miss.

2:11 p.m. Pacific Omid Kordestani, Google's top sales executive, appears to be a convert to the cult of "conversational marketing," claiming that YouTube allows for "two-way conversations." Sure, if you consider juvenile YouTube comment threads to be a form of conversation.

2:08 p.m. Pacific Did a Google executive on the call just belch? Seriously, people. It's an earnings call. Have some respect.

2:02 p.m. Pacific Schmidt dodges a question about why paid clicks are flat, dumping the question in SVP Jonathan Rosenberg's lap. Rosenberg claims that paid click growth was hurt by seasonality. Which is it? Seasonally flat, or accelerating? Brin pops in and adds that tweaks to make ads more targeted also kept the growth down.

2:00 p.m. Pacific Eric Schmidt takes over again, trying to wrap up by claiming that Google's growth is "accelerating." Really? Even for a Ph.D. in computer science, apparently, math is hard.

1:58 p.m. Pacific Page starts talking about how Google works with software developers. Sadly, unlike manic Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, he does not start yelling, "Developers, developers, developers, developers, developers!"

1:56 p.m. Pacific Cofounder Larry Page takes over from Brin. Even he can't resist teasing Brin about searching for 1960s IBM equipment. He's talking about YouTube's partnership to put videos on the iPhone, and he says, "You can waste very many hours and also enjoy useful content like mainframe videos [on the iPhone]."

1:54 p.m. Pacific Just as Google started disclosing "paid clicks," a measure of the size of its advertising business, Brin reveals that it's now allowing advertisers to buy pay-per-action ads — in other words, paying Google for ads by the lead or sale. Curious if the company will start disclosing the number of actions, too.

1:51 p.m. Pacific Brin talks up two of Google's worst-named products: iGoogle, a personalized homepage, and Gadgets, customized content modules that appear on iGoogle. (Most people in the industry call those modules "widgets," which makes Brin's peculiar parlance for them annoying.)

1:48 p.m. Pacific Now Sergey Brin takes the horn. He talks up "universal search," which is the technology by which Google gives its own products — YouTube, Google Maps, and so on — privileged positions in Google's search results. He describes how he found a YouTube video about a 1960s IBM mainframe as an example of how mainstream consumers will benefit. Rrrrrright.

1:46 p.m. Pacific It almost sounds like CFO George Reyes is breathing a bit heavily. Everything okay, George? I didn't think things were that bad. A deep breath right after he gives Google's new headcount figure: 13,748 Googlers.

1:41 p.m. Pacific Schmidt fesses up: Google has overhired, causing costs to rise. He says the company is going to be watching headcount going forward. Google, no longer Silicon Valley's hiring machine? That's a frightening thought. Or perhaps comforting for startups trying to recruit engineers. Sure enough, Schmidt wraps up his comments in record time and hands the call to Reyes, who has to dissect the bad news for analysts and investors.

1:39 p.m. Pacific Eric Schmidt begins his comments. He's hesitant and stumbles a bit before trying to claim that the results were "strong." The most positive thing he says is that Google's main search website performed well. What he doesn't get to right away: Paid clicks, the way Google makes moeny from advertising, were stagnant from the first quarter to the second quarter.

1:37 p.m. Pacific Call is starting. On the call: CEO Eric Schmidt, CFO George Reyes, cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and top executives Jonathan Rosenberg and Omid Kordestani. It's the usual crew for a Google earnings call.

1:35 p.m. Pacific Want to know why Google missed earnings? Look no further than its operating expenses, which mostly consist of payroll and data-center costs. They're now 31 percent of revenue, up from 27 percent in the first quarter. That's a big jump, percentage-wise. Operating expenses grew by about 25 percent, while revenues only grew 6 percent quarter-over-quarter. Scary. Expect Wall Street analysts to start talking about how Google needs to get its costs under control.

1:27 p.m. Pacific Waiting for the call to start. Google's revenues? $3.87 billion. Or as Dr. Evil might say, "Three point eight-seven BILLLLLLION DOLLARS!" Of course, I'm not comparing Google to Dr. Evil. Google actually paid out more than $1 billion to its AdSense distribution partners. You know that's funding a lot of Web 2.0 keggers.

• Bill Gates meets the bloggers. Take a bow, Steve Rubel! Unless you post a denial in the comments, this stunt has your happy-tappy fingerprints all over it. By giving them an hour of his time, Microsoft's ex-CEO softened the anti-Redmond reflexes of the entire blogosphere. Grade: A
• Free Vista laptops. The idea merits a passing grade — send sexy laptops pre-loaded with Vista to a similar subset of bloggers seen as influential. That's not a bribe, it's a promo. But bloggers don't have editors and publishers to explain to them how to deal with a "review unit." By not providing recipients with fail-safe rules for handling and disclosing the laptops, Microsoft publicists deserved the backlash they got. Grade: D
• Gates' CES keynote. If you ask, "Which year?" you've spotted the problem. Bill showed Vista onstage in Vegas in 2006, then again at last week's 2007 show. The demos were slick, but 2006 was too soon. Twelve months ago I was nearly trampled by necktie-clad businessmen elbowing for seats. This year, I stayed home. Three editors hunted me down seeking a quick-turnaround piece — on the iPhone. Grade: C

• Vista Coach Tour. A tour bus wrapped in a desktop theme, carrying a band of self-styled "Vista influencers" to Cincinnati, Charlotte and other third-tier cities. I mocked this wannabe-rockstar idea savagely on IM yesterday: "Alright Gainesville! Are you ready to get CRAZY for Windows Vista!" but woke up this morning feeling guilty. These guys are getting on a goddamn bus to meet their customers. It could be a Cluetrain adventure. At worst, it's a lot cheaper than a Vista Gulfstream Tour. Grade: Incomplete
• The "Wow" Starts Now. A former MS employee shares what she learned there: "Sell your weakness as your strength." If your Web server crashes daily, base the ads around 99.999% uptime. If your new operating system is years late and pretty much looks like a Mac, spin it the exact opposite way — Wow! Now! My wincing disgust at Vista's hypocritical launch slogan is fueled mostly by fear. I'm afraid this stuff works. Grade: F

Customers and bizdev managers spend far more time on Google than reading trade mags these days. Even reporters use it for background research. Hiring a publicist to chase journalists to write articles that become Google entries isn't the direct route to their eyeballs.

There's an entire cottage industry built around what's historically called SEO, or search engine optimization. SEO began as a direct marketing method for online retailers, but Search Engine Watch has documented that journalists now reach for Google as their first research tool. On the bizdev side, six-figure deals regularly begin with an intern's Googling for partner-ready companies in, say, the enterprise knowledge management sector. If you don't come up in the results, you miss the deal.

You can hire a search engine consultant , or do it yourself by reading Search Engine Watch and the marketing forums at WebmasterWorld. The hands-on details of how to choose search keywords, format HTML and set up cross-site links to maximize your results page rank easily fill a book, so leave that stuff to the code monkeys. Focus on your top-down search engine PR strategy:

• Make a list of the industry or product sectors for which you want to appear in a search. What words would someone who's never heard your name be typing into Google? For example, "silicon valley gossip."
• Does your product solve a common problem like "credit cards stolen?" Add it to the list.
• Make a list of your competitors. You want to turn up in searches for them, too.
• Buy some Google ads against these search terms for your company, solution space, and competitors. Buy ads keyed to your CEO's name that link to your site, especially if Google already serves up a painter, a writer, three professors and two realtors with the same name as results 1-10.
• Optimize your press releases, too, and sign up with a distributor like PR Newswire that will plant them reliably in Google News.
• Don't forget the bloggers! They post far more pages than the press on any topic, and a few links from A-listers are the best tech PR there is. Where do you think reporters get their story ideas?

All that said, a good PR firm does a lot more than send "story idea for WIRED" emails to freelancers. A publicist can help you hone your message and train you to keep your foot out of your mouth. And despite the growing power of the Long Tail, a single mention in BusinessWeek or Forbes tops a hundred blog posts in Google results (Exhibit A: My day job, Splunk.) Those articles rarely happen without a flack in the mix.

SVUG's search optimization: If you can afford it, hire a publicist with proven business press clips on file (you want InfoWorld, not San Jose Metro) to get you started and pitch your launch. If the hits stop coming, cut your losses and pick up a copy of SEO for Dummies.

The word-of-mouth agency is offering its "agents" — volunteers who work for points and prizes — free electronic excerpts from the book. Read that carefully: BzzAgent is giving away something people already got for free. That's the definition of brilliant marketing.

To be fair, BzzAgents might win signed copies of Seth's book. Penguin hopes that these agents will recommend the book to friends.

So go ahead, sign up as a BzzAgent and you too can be Seth Godin's imaginary friend.

Small is the new big [Penguin Books on BzzAgent]

As predicted here, Riya marketer Tara Hunt left the photo-sharing startup after nine months of aggravating the engineers and belittling their marketing attempts — a skill Valleywag commends her for. The exit is no surprise to those around her — Tara is worth watching not for her Riya job (has she ever told you about Riya?), but for her solo work promoting "Pinko Marketing" — her rebranded Cluetrain Manifesto school of marketing. That's the sort of stuff that gets a speaker on the conference gravy train for life.

But what happens to Tara now? After all, she's an alien with a work visa. Will a self-employed position as "consultant and marketing visionary" keep her from getting booted back to Canada?

Tara hasn't publicly blogged her exit yet (though this bio makes it pretty obvious), so who knows if she'll mention the other dirty secret — a few tipsters think she was fired. Chances are this was one of those shoulda-seen-it-coming mutual break-ups. Good luck to Tara, and wherever she takes Pinko Marketing, Valleywag looks forward to pettily mocking it.

UPDATE: Tara confirms at her blog.

HorsePigCow [Tara's blog]
Photo: In Tdot [Tara on Flickr]
Earlier: Is the Pinko Marketer leaving Riya? [Valleywag]
Update: Announcement #2 - Rogue on the loose [HorsePigCow]

Why to believe it: The Pinko Marketing pundit is clearly on her way to her own brand, seminar series, book club, and Pinko Diet Program.

Why not to believe it: She's still blogging about Riya as if she's on board for years to come.

Why to believe it: The fame, baby, the fame!

Why not to believe it: Wouldn't her boyfriend Chris just get all the credit?