I don’t use a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed to track and have delivered to me “my kind” of news and other information from the Internet. Nonetheless, I see the significance of CNET News’ Newsburst.com launch. This personalised tool downloadable at newsburst.com can organise content from news sites, blogs, weather, search results, alerts, auctions and more. In competition with other free and paid newsreader tools including Bloglines just acquired by Ask Jeeves, Newsburst will allow readers to check other information sources while staying at News.com where advertising can be beamed at them. Opines Steve Rubel, a public relations functionary who keeps a blog (Micro Persuasion) at micropersuasion.com: "This is the beginning of a trend where the big media launch branded RSS (Really Simple Syndication) aggregators to make sure they retain reader loyalty". Also: “The RSS revolution will force online news sites to evolve into aggregators to retain their eyeball base.” Point noted. Incidentally, the Newsburst working motto is: “Follow the sites you care about. See the newest content in one glance.” Admirable!

DOWN WITH BLOGS. Google’s new war cry?

There’s someone else in the same boat (aeroplane?) as the intrepid ‘Queen of Sky’, remember her? hindustantimes.com (‘PERILS OF ELLEN. The next instalment.’) and hindustantimes.com. (‘WATCH OUT. Blogging can be injurious to your job.’). He’s Mark Jen who worked briefly as a product manager for Google after quitting Microsoft where he was a software development engineer – as well as a blogger blogs.msdn.com. Ironically, Microsoft, the so-called ‘ogre’, is tolerant and supportive of blogging by employees like Mark. [Just last week, this column had talked about how Microsoft is learning to live with blogging (‘FORTUNE’S #1 TECH TREND, ’05. Blogs, what else?’).] On the other hand, Google – a tenet of whose corporate philosophy is to encourage expression: "Democracy on the Web works" google.com – doesn’t seem to be living up to its avowed credo. Jen has not stopped blogging, though. In the first post after a couple of weeks’ break after his break with Google, he wrote: "I want to thank those in the community that have been so supportive." 99zeros.blogspot.com. In his ‘A Talk With Mark Jen About Google Firing’, Jeremy D. Zawodny reveals the following sketchy details: “Yes, he was fired from Google. It was directly related to his blog. … He doesn't believe he was doing anything wrong (neither do I based on what he told me). In fact, he wasn't even aware of the blogosphere's Google obsession – or at least the search bloggers who watch every little thing Google does – until this happened. … he was surprised by his sudden fame.” I find this assertion a bit naïve. You’ve got to be from Mars to have the mindset Jen claims for himself. webpronews.com. Another report on the Jen firing worth reading is at technorati.com. Reports of other blog-related firings are at riverfronttimes.com and washingtonpost.com. By the way, the word for getting fired on account of one’s blog is ”getting dooced”, coined by blogger Heather B. Armstrong in 2002, after she was fired from her web design job for writing about work and colleagues on her blog, Dooce.com.
 
GREAT EXPECTATIONS. About search revenue.

Based on Safa Rashtchy analyst Piper Jaffray’s recent predictions, Gord Hotchkiss expects search revenues to top $10 billion next year, then $13.5 billion in 2007, $16.2 billion in 2008, $19.8 billion in 2009 and peak to $23 billion in 2010. The driving forces behind this growth are: the increasing use of search by big business; a second wave of small business just discovering search; the international growth of search; discovery of the branding value of search; and the growth of contextual search and local search. searchnewz.com.

BLOGPLOITATION. A McDonald ‘special’.

Supporting McDonald's Superbowl ad blitz in the US of A for ‘Abe Lincoln’ French Fry is a blog set up using Typepad lincolnfry.typepad.com. It appears genuine, right down to permalinks and user comments. “The comments are fake, and blog readers aren't allowed to post their own comments,” writes Steve Outing poynter.org. “Shouldn't McDonald's trick be called ‘blogploitation’?” asks one of Outings’ readers. His fear is that “since a lot of people still don't know what blogs are, those who's first exposure to blogs come through blogploitation ads will have a warped understanding of blogs”. True. Kevin Dugan sums up the problem pithily in his PR blog, Strategic Public Relations. prblog.typepad.com. By the way, Steve Rubel (Micro Persuasion micropersuasion.com) calls fake corporate blogs “flogs”. Clever, hey? Have a look at fakeblogs.info to find out more about flogs. Rubel also raises another valid point worth a serious thought: “If some mischevious (sic!) crafty person wanted to, he/she could launch a ‘fake’ fake blog and fool everyone into thinking that a clueless major company was behind it. That's a pretty substantial liability for corporations, don't you think?”

CAUGHT AT LAST. The ‘tsunami hacker’.

“Daniel James Cuthbert, 28, of Whitechapel in East London has been charged with one offence under section one of the Computer Misuse Act following an unauthorised attempt to access the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) website on New Year's Eve,” reports Andy McCue in ‘Tsunami charity website hack – UK man charged’. Also: “Some Chinese fraudsters have been manipulating Google rankings to try to ensure their fake donations site ranks higher than genuine ones.” And: “Another UK man was jailed for six months after his email hoax informed families searching for relatives missing in the midst of the tsunami crisis that their loved ones were dead.” software.silicon.com. An earlier ‘tsunami hoax’ story: hindustantimes.com.

NOW IN INDIA. MSN’s ‘cultural barometer’.

The MSN Search Engine, billed as a ‘cultural barometer’ and available in 10 languages and 25 global locations, was recently launched in India. “A collection of tools helps users customise and enhance their search experience,” says Krishna Prasad, head of programming, MSN India. At the launch event, top search results by Indians across the globe in 2004 were announced: movies (Kal Ho Na Ho, Dhoom and Murder); songs (Pretty Woman from Kal Ho Na Ho, Dhoom Machale from Dhoom and Chak De from Hum Tum); holiday destinations (Singapore, Malaysia, Rajasthan, Goa); books (Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and The Broker by John Grisham). agencyfaqs.com.

TEA WITH ASH. Only Rs 4 lakh on Bazee.

Tea (and sympathy?) with Aishwarya Rai costs more (Rs 4 lakh) than a whole day with SRK (Rs 3.65 lakh) on Bazee.com. agencyfaqs.com. Not surprising. Movie fans can be unpredictable. For instance, I have it on good authority (Salman Rushdie, no less) that Dorothy’s ruby shoes – made to fit not Judy Garland’s feet but her double Bobbie Koshay’s and so two sizes larger and discovered in a bin in the MGM basement – were sold in May 1970 at auction for $15000 while Clark Gable’s trench coat went for $1200, even lower than the Cowardly Lion’s costume ($2400). To read myths and facts about The Ruby Shoes, go here: geocities.com.