David Churbuck, a blogger and marketing exec, said that cloud computing -- aka "the cloud" -- needs to alleviate the "nasty, stupid experience" of migrating from an old PC to a new one. I work on a Mac, not a PC, yet I still agree entirely.

I just started reading Jeff Jarvis's book "What Would Google Do?" -- and I love it. He writes about the very successful -- and fundamentally different -- approach that Google takes in running its business relative to virtually every other company in the world. So I'd like to follow his advice and turn the question back on Google. Why? Because as I read the book, it occurred to me that Google has done some things that are not "what Google would do."

Many people say the 30-second spot is dead, which may very well be true -- but television is far from dead, and it may actually be starting to learn a thing or two from the Internet that will keep it alive and kicking for many years to come!

There is a quiet battle raging in the advertising industry over who will become the Agency of Record (AOR) for marketers' social media efforts. With traditional media for delivering advertising declining in reach and effectiveness, and an even greater call for advertising efficiency in a down economy, becoming a marketer's social media AOR can be a huge win and provide a map to a much-needed new business model and revenue stream for agencies.

In our current environment, I would expect a lot of talk about shifting models. Yet, the urgency varies by situation and quest. As we re-model, are we guided by vision or salvation? Are we actively driving to a real future -- or feverishly re-acting ourselves down the highway to perpetuate a dated model or entrepreneurial dream?

What is the purpose of online advertising? Surely, search advertising's purpose is to capture shopper intent. It does so extremely well, providing more economic visibility than any other advertising medium. It's made Google one of the most valuable media companies in only a few short years. But what about the rest of online advertising, such as display?

Today, my column is going to go a bit off normal topic. I'm going to get up on a soapbox and try to help answer a question that a friend posed to me yesterday, for the leaders of the many, much-hallowed graduate schools of business in the U.S.: "What are you going to do about this financial crisis?"

"Everyone is somewhere all of the time." That line sounds like something Yogi Berra might have said after a long, hot day at the ballpark, but I'm afraid that I have to take credit for it. It's something I said all by myself and it might as well be the slogan for location-based digital media.

It's a slippery slope from being an effective marketer in social media to being creepy. Showing someone exactly the right product they might want to check out can be beneficial and therefore effective -- but using certain personal information to target the ad can very easily come off as creepy. Asking and empowering people for endorsing your brand to their social graph can be incredibly effective; but attaching your marketing message to my likeness without EXPLICT permission can be creepy (see: Beacon). Rewarding people who share your brand with their social graph can be effective, but pure pay-per-post is certainly …

Team-speak can sound trite. We innately understand the value of collaboration, building teams, team players, taking one for the team - and so on. But until we've been impacted by a team fractured or wowed by one's success, we may not get it. One thing is certain -- when it comes to team, with a capital T, you will know one when you see one.