Like many of my colleagues in the industry, I've become "the computer guy" to a lot of my friends - the "go to" for software and hardware questions. I heard complaints about the various pop-up blocking tools - how they worked so well for a few months but now miss pop-ups on certain sites and let them through - how the pop-unders build up in the taskbar and force the occasional break from web surfing to close them before they litter the entire screen.

I guess it's news to some, but I've been wondering about this for about 17 years. That's what I began thinking when Devin Leonard's Fortune Magazine article was circulated among Bill McCloskey's One Hundred Club email group this week, by my colleague Cory Treffiletti.

In today's Online Spin, Meskauskas ponders why advertisers don't place especially entertaining commercials online, where people like him can see them.

What is the downside to Accountability?

I just finished reading a sample chapter from AdAge editor Scott Donaton's book, Madison & Vine. Donaton makes some good points in this chapter about product placement and product integration, including citing some examples of what can go wrong when Hollywood and Madison Avenue collide.

As most you know, I'm on the Executive Committee of an organization called the Boston Interactive Media Association. I'd like to give you a peek inside the event. In a word - clutter, clutter, and more clutter.

Yesterday, I drove up Route 1 and attended the Direct Marketing Association's Pharmaceutical Marketing Conference in Princeton. I couldn't believe what was missing from the proceedings. Search.

There's been some grumbling and mumblings in the last few weeks about major market advertisers looking at taking a new approach to their communications strategies. Proctor & Gamble has put their entire advertising efforts under review. At last week's AdWatch: Outlook 2004, major marketers like Pepsi and Wal-Mart said they are looking at new ways to market their wares through new branding innovations that may include non-traditional media vehicles. And McDonald's chief marketing officer, Larry Light, actually went so far as to declare "the end of brand positioning as we know it."

One of the responses to my article last week dealt with the subject of Persuasion, and I thought this would be a great topic to discuss this week. Persuasion is an element that I have long thought could be a planning consideration, but does tend to be overlooked.

I'd sure like to meet the person who came up with the marketing strategy for Gmail. I'd like to shake that person's hand.