More on the music front - Tower Records kicks off Digital Download service (Engadget)

A peek at understanding Second Life’s potential (Neville Hobson)

All the more reason for me to fire back up my Second Life account, Micro Persuasion had a news item up about a Marketing Conference/panel discussion in Second Life occuring tommorrow at noon (PST).

Google makes a play for Flickr (Paul Stamatiou)

A look at a pay-to-play ARGN model (ARGN)

Bill Gates steps down from Microsoft day-to-day (CNET)

ComScore reported this week that traffic to Social Networking sites continues to grow - worldwide. This is great news, but even more interesting was Stowe Boyd discussion of Fred Stutzman’s analysis of five MySpace competitors to watch out for, highlighting (most notably, I think) that Social Networking sites *just* made for social networks just don’t cut it anymore - users are more interested in doing something with their social networking time than just networking with others. Great analysis on both parts, and highly suggested reading as you coast into the weekend!

Netscape launched a beta version of the newly revamped site, an easily identifiable copy of Digg - but with more channels and a group of 8 “anchors” who will both monitor and create content. This comes right on the heels of Digg moving into new content channels as well.  I agree with Digg CEO that they should be “proud” of the Digg clones - the interesting thing happening with the beta right now (if you check it out) is that it seems Digg users are “fighting back” on the beta site by posting anti-Netscape news stories about Digg. Kudos to Netscape for leaving that type of content up vs. trying to cover up or control it - attempts to control or delete it would probably just instigate the community further. It’s also nice to see that there is the (somwhat) rational debate going on vs. random Netscape/Digg bashing.

Is eBay a tool for measuring Ad ROI? (Fast Company)

Web 2.0 Reviews/Cateorization…by hand! (Web 2.0 Awards via Digg)

Want the most popular podcasts? Sort by Popularity. (Micro Persuasion)

Google: Music Store or Not? (CNET)

Facebook, the trendy college social networking site, is on the block for $2 billion, according to Business Week, while passing on a $750 million offer. “I think they should have taken the $750 million,” says Om Malik. Why? Well, Facebook’s stats “are stagnating like my new year resolution to lose 50 pounds” and “the company is considering opening up its network to the non-core audience,” which would dilute brand.

Cell phones, iPods, IM…Oh My!  Time’s cover story delves into the teens of Generation M(ulti-task).

Nielsen to measure Computer TV watching (AdJab)

iTunes sorts podcasts by popularity (Micro Persuasion)

New Women’s Social Networking Site (MediaPost)

AdAge launches a podcast (Micropersuasion)

Using The Movies to make movies (Wired)

A colleague of mine sent a link to Squidoo, a website that she called “a website that combines wiki and friendster.” She wasn’t far off. I’ve read about Squidoo on and off for a few weeks now, but hadn’t yet taken the jump over to the site to check it out, which I did today.

Squidoo is a website that allows users to create “lenses” - pages that encapsulate subjects they are both interested in, and want to share their knowledge with others. At first glance, the interface is a little overwhelming, but a quick click on the “Top 100” lenses shows subjects that are delightedly varied. Some of the Top 100 lenses include topics such as Moleskine Resources, Creating a Custom MySpace Overlay and Martha’s Cookies 101 in addition to more standard techie topics such as RSS feeds, Torrent sites and Blogging 101.

The one element that Squidoo has that may provide it a leg up on Wikipedia is that you can learn a little about who is providing you the information - and most individual lens creators I’ve looked at today are very open about who they are and where they come across their information. This may provide users with the ability to cite information - without coming back a week later and learning that it has been changed. At the same time, I’ve already come across two competing lenses on Moleskins (and if someone can tell me when these got popular, I’d be a happy camper), which might lead to a “dueling banjo” situation as users present information to the public.

Quick work warning to the wise: If you don’t have time during this busy week before the holiday to spend a few hours jumping from lens to lens looking at stuff - wait until the holidays.