Yesterday's Search Insider column caught my eye. In it, Aaron Goldman explained how search ads were the original native ads -- and why native ads work. The funny thing was, the use of the term "native" in today's more politically charged world struck a note of immediate uneasiness. On a gut level, it reminded me of the insensitivity of Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins. There's nothing immoral about the term itself, but it is currently tied to an emotionally charged issue.

Native ads are all the rage these days. Look around; you can't escape them. The thing is, native advertising is not a new concept. It's been around as long as the Internet. Well, almost that long.

OK, it has a new logo. The mail interface has been redesigned. But according to a recent New York Times piece, Yahoo still doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up. Marissa Mayer seems to be busy, with a robust hiring spree, eight new acquisitions, 15 new product updates, a nice 20% bump in traffic and a stock price that's been consistently heading north. But all this activity hasn't seemed to coalesce into a discernible strategy -- from the outside, anyway.

Over the past few weeks, fellow Search Insider Gord Hotchkiss and I have been bantering about the viability of Google Glass, via columns and comments. Gord is not convinced. But as an actual user and beta tester of Google Glass, I am. So today I want to discuss a few reasons I feel strongly about Glass and other wearable "glass" technologies -- why it will become the "new screen."

I've been struggling with a dilemma. Almost a year ago, I wrote a column asking if Big Data would replace strategy. That started a several-month journey for me, when I've been looking for a more informed answer to that query. It's a massively important question that's playing out in many arenas today, including medicine, education, government and, of course, finance.

Late the other night I finished Google's new digital marketing analytics training program, Analytics Academy. It's intended to help beginners acclimate to marketing/web analytics broadly, and the Google Analytics platform specifically. I was relieved to find that most of the material was a refresher for me; the kid's still got it. After the final examination, as I basked in my moment of glory, I began to think about how it must feel for the newly indoctrinated. I have to imagine for most it looks like one dominated by Google, or at least one where innovation is occurring on top of …

I believe I speak for all agencies when I say I hate RFPs. The agency perception is that most RFPs are rigged in favor of one agency, and if you aren't that agency, you'll spend a lot of time crafting an RFP with little chance of winning. For this reason, I'm sure in-house marketers also hate RFPs. They may already have an agency they love but are required to put out an RFP to comply with internal policies. Of course, they can't tell "competing" agencies the process is a charade - they have to look impartial. That results in wasted …

Fraud is a big part of today's digital advertising ecosystem - and yes, it's awful how rampant it is. But there is a solution, and it lies with advertisers. Don't get me wrong; I'm not out to blame the victim. Those who perpetrate the fraud are undoubtedly the villains, faking impressions or manufacturing automated clicks. But fraud follows opportunity. And change will come only when advertisers start paying for real, verifiable customer outcomes.

If readers' responses to my few columns about Google's Glass can be considered a representative sample (which, for many reasons, it can't, but let's put that aside for the moment), it appears we're circling the concept warily. There's good reason for this. Privacy concerns aside, we're breaking virgin territory here that may shift what it means to be online.

I know a lot about football -- and by a lot, I mean relatively nothing at all. A lifelong fan, I've played in a confidence league for years and, this September, boldly entered a fantasy conference. I can see calls before the refs (oh settle down, I know it's likely going to be, "holding") but my ability to spot the 1st down marker has waned because of technology. More than a decade ago, ESPN and SportsVision debuted that little yellow stripe magically painted on the field (technically, the "Virtual Yellow 1st and Ten" line) and in October 2013, that same …