quick note on the googlebar

Every fifth or so time I mentally decry our soundbite culture, I recall that reporters mangle quotes all the time, as I've seen first hand. Therefore speaking in short, coded segments almost starts to make sense. That's one reason why weblogs are still so exciting in that folks can elaborate on their take.

You can always append your universal emoticon for extreme sarcasm: ":)" (note airquotes) or the ever popular :|

Personally, the anime smiley-face would add an ironic twist to your business development sensibilities, making you all "kawaii" and shit: ^_^

There are many milestones in a person's life (I was going to write 'landmarks', but it came out 'landmines'), when one suddenly finds oneself being taken wa-a-ay too seriously. Getting married, buying a house, getting a normal haircut for the first time, and any new job that is considered a 'step up'. In your new position with SixApart, you are not only getting that treatment, but you're getting it very very publicly, and with Andy's simply eloquent observation that "reporters mangle quotes all the time", may I add that the mangling will usually err on the side of way-too-seriousness. I don't agree with the use of emoticons (except as a pattern on your suit jacket, ala Matthew Lesko), but some kind of a trademark disclaimer may be useful (Please don't use "I kid because I love" or "YMMV" or "fuggetaboutit"). You could end every other sentence with "...but that's still in beta" or "...it's not on MY Amazon Wishlist" or "...still waiting for trackbacks" or "...that's two cents in my PayPal account" or "...it's all water over the blog."

In the blogosphere, no one can hear you joke. ":-)"

Anil, why do you hate Google so much?

yeah, as you go up the corp. totem pole, it is harder and harder to be irreverent or idosyncratic. The pressure to conform becomes higher.

Politicians understand this. That is why no polician would write anything remotely interesting until they are sure their career is effectively finished (I think Churchil was an exception. No one could accuse him of being unprovocative).

You are lucky in that you work in IT industry and that too in a weblog publishing system start up, where people can get away with a lot more than in most other sectors. The more matured industries value blandness!

I was going to say "Why do you hate America so much?" but since someone already paraphrased it, I'd like to say "The terrorists have already won!"

I won't be satisfied until I see a post from you entirely rendered in graphics on-the-fly by MT.

very interesting, thanks

It's a blog eat blog world out there!

So far you seem to have managed to stay on remarkably good terms with your "rivals" and long may this continue...

Your best hope is that Google will want to hold on to their good guy persona and I reckon they'll end up treating the other Blogging tools pretty decently...

Perhaps by letting the consumer decide what BlogThis! does for them, a bit like you can select to hear an audio file using Real Player or Media player?

What do you reckon?

Your best hope is that Google will want to hold on to their good guy persona and I reckon they'll end up treating the other Blogging tools pretty decently...

Why does everybody expect Google to act in the best interests of everybody else? They are a company and their motivation is making profits. Rest assured they will not sacrifice their own for others (ala AOL shafting Netscape).