• Twitter Stats Twitter management demonstrates transparency. The system is buggy for unknown reasons. Here’s a traffic chart.
• Does Cashback Trump SEO/SEM? Arrington calls it a “go for the throat” move.
• Building a Better Buzzword Say goodbye to “Software as a Service”, Hello to “Platform as a Service”.
• Linkedin’s Ignorance Of Networking Another round of punishment for the people who make the market.
• Teens produce ever more content online 28% of online teens have created their own blog (up from 19% in 2004) and 27% maintain their own web page.

• Microsoft to Launch “Live Search Cash Back” Tomorrow Next up, paying job hunters to search your jobs. No, I’m not kidding.
• Twitter: Something Is Technically Wrong even though the money is coming.
• Why the Roku Netflix Player is the First Shot of the Revolution or “Why Jason Davis is a Next Generation Video Mogul”
• 5 Reasons Gen X is Cool with Gen Y…. It’s really a pointer to this article (if you want to skip the middle click.)
• Paying Your Employees To Quit - Brilliant! Not all attrition is bad, of course. How to encourage the people who should attrit to do so.

Take a gander at these unemployment statistics:

• 70 Metropolitan Areas (out of 369… about 20%) have unemployment rates below 4%
• 170 Metropolitan Areas (out of 369…about half) have unemployment rates below 5%
• 45 Metropolitan Areas (out of 369, 12%) have unemployment rates over 7%

There is trouble in non-coastal California, the rust belt and relatively rural areas.  There is a boom economy in Washington DC, Texas, and interesting parts of the northern Middle of the country.

The thing to notice is that, in spite of all of the rhetoric, there is no such thing as a national economy.

Mayday, Mayday. I am writing at a small table in a Kroger’s in Mansfield, Ohio. My last day in the state (following the Cleveland Recruiting Roadshow). It’s an odd experience, different from anything I’ve seen on the coasts.

Kroger’s, an old line grocery chain, is clearly updating itself. More Walmart like than you could imagine, it’s a cluster of lawn furniture and produce. The Starbucks is in the middle of the beer aisle. The Starbuck’s tables are occupied by giggling elderly women.

I struck up a conversation with one of them. (more…)

The Generational Power Shift In The Industry (and In the Workplace)

The day to day leadership of our industry (and most industries for that matter) rests in the hands of people in their forties. The greybeards look, well, a little old. Changes through merger, acquisition, failure and astonishing growth are the way that the new leaders have emerged. (more…)