Top Internet Strategy, Marketing & Technology Links – Jan 29, 2010

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With Apple, under a formula that tethers the maximum e-book price to the print price on the same book, publishers will be able to charge $12.99 to $14.99 for most general fiction and nonfiction titles — higher than the common $9.99 price that Amazon had effectively set for new releases and best sellers. Apple will keep 30 percent of each sale, and publishers will take 70 percent. – Books on iPad Offer Publishers a Pricing Edge (NY Times)

With the Apple iPad, publishers will be able to charge prices similar to print books (but no higher). While it’s nice that publishers get a bit more control on the iPad platform, I don’t really think they should charge the same price as print. After all, there’s no printing, raw materials (other than content), shipping or stocking. It’s the whole argument that we had when CDs came out – publishers were able to get away with large profit margins as the cost of the technology dropped (and they didn’t drop the price). One could say that the market will set the price with whatever buyers are willing to pay. True, but charging the same price for different delivery methods doesn’t really make sense either. Time will tell.

Reading a book seems very low tech in this current digital age. But don’t underestimate the words on a physical page.

While many bloggers do their reading online, you can gain an advantage by shutting off the computer and reading a book offline. Here are three reasons to head over to your local bookstore. – 3 Reasons Bloggers Should Read Books (Performancing)

I love books. I wish I had more time to read because I get great ideas from sitting down with a book and letting the mind work. It’s great for brainstorming and for coming up with new blogging topics (and new ideas for refreshing old blog posts). If nothing else, you can always write a review of the books.

What Google’s proposing is that enough information be sent during these machine/network communications to optimize browsing speed by creating connections with topologically close servers, but not so much information as to violate users’ privacy. In other words, by gathering enough data about a user’s location in a network, the system can then optimize that connection to have as few degrees of separation as possible between the user and the host. – Google Proposes to Extend DNS Protocol, Optimize Speed of Browsing (ReadWriteWeb)

Google is obsessed with speed. They have said that it will play a part in PageRank in the near future. And now they are trying to increase the speed of the browsing (and indexing) experience by asking DNS servers to give a bit more information about your location. This isn’t enough information to locate you, just enough so your browser would be able to grab items from nearer servers (in theory). Google is interested in speed not only for their own indexing (and providing real time results), but also because all of their services run on the web. If we’re going to move to online-only applications – they need to be fast – really fast.

As social sites with user-generated content such as Facebook, Twitter and WordPress continue to grow in popularity, and with Google’s announcement of real-time search, you must be aware of and manage your online reputation carefully now. “Social media has made our lives very transparent,” Laratro says. “If you maintain a professional persona, this can be something positive, but if you’re unaware of comments or pictures online that that you wouldn’t even want your mother to see, it can be terrible.” – How to Protect Your Reputation Online (CIO)

Reputation is increasingly being formed by what you do and say online (and what others do and say about you). Most companies will search for your name before hiring you. So, keeping track of what’s being said is important. Unfortunately, there’s not really a way to “remove” untrue things that are said about you – everyone gets a say. Private & professional lives are beginning to blend – and its increasingly difficult to keep them separate online. Not a reason to hide in your closet, but you should be aware of ways to monitor your online reputation.

There was a turning point a couple of years ago when it was suddenly undeniable: It was either text message or be left behind. If you were paying for it by the message, you suddenly had to find a plan, because you started having more and more friends that wouldn’t talk any other way. Well, we’re wondering if it has finally reached that point in the U.K. – or if it’s yet to come. – Americans Sending 4 Times as Many Text Messages as Brits (ReadWriteWeb)

In many countries, texting is more cost effective than calling. That’s not really the case here – most plans have a limited number of text messages per month. Yet, txting (or SMSing) is still pretty popular – especially with teens & young adults. For the younger crowd, it’s probably because you can send short messages in times & places where you can’t really make a call. But txting is also useful like IMing or emailing is useful – you can send a txt without having to connect directly with another person and wait for the response when they have time.

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