As a marketer or advertiser, you most likely subscribe to the mantra, "Right message. Right time. Right place." When it comes to e-mail marketing, why are many of you still taking the load-and-blast approach?

Senior analyst LeeAnn Prescott of Hitwise, a Web measurement firm I used to consult for, recently poured some cold water on a highly misguided debate in the blogosphere about whether Digg.com is potentially as big as the NYTimes.com.

Last week, market researcher Outsell released the results of a study on click fraud in the pay-per-click advertising market. Based on interviews with 407 advertisers representing approximately $1 billion in ad spending, the study found that confidence is dropping in pay-per-click advertising as advertisers estimated that more than 14 percent of the clicks that they're billed for are fraudulent.

I've been in media for 13 years now. That's not a long time in the grand scheme of things, but it's a lifetime in the digital world, and it's afforded me the opportunity to view the commoditization of media buying firsthand.

Those who know me well know that I have a rather controversial stance on online video ads: I think a lot of people will make a lot of money in the short term on preroll and standalone online video, but I don't think that trend is sustainable for the long haul.

We are finally seeing a shift from passive to active media--yeehah! The term "user-generated content" is buzzing around--but like most buzzwords in our industry, its meaning is vague.

I have a number of news and information gatekeepers that I trust; some of them happen to be in the news media, some in the blogosphere, and many elsewhere. Some of them are in my own workplace, my gym, my doctor's office, my home and favorite local bar.

"Skip this Ad." Those three words are a preamble to almost every invasive ad on the Web, from interstitials to takeovers. Will it always be so? I think not. I think that there is a good chance that "Skip the Ad" buttons will disappear some day; and, most significantly, consumers won't even care.

The concept of the long tail is one that I find fascinating not only because of its applications to marketing, but also because of the speed at which it is being adopted by the publishers and content creators utilizing the Web today. One example of this is the Web site Brilliant But Cancelled.

Happy Independence Day, dear readers. I wanted to share a quick study with you regarding changes in search queries.