When it comes to digital, there's an unfortunate conversation that still goes on among marketing folk: one that sounds like a conversation on integrating digital, but really plays more like rattling off a list of individual online initiatives. It's effectively a to-do list: "We'll do X, then we'll do Y, then we'll do Z." It lacks a strategic framework and doesn't tap the full power of digital options. And such an ad hoc or haphazard approach seeds its own problems down the road.

Who owns the Web site address www.[your child's first and last name].com? Hopefully you do! Internet domain names are hugely important in establishing identity and visibility on the Web -- not only for brands, but for people. That's why I registered my own name several years ago.

I've always believed that the Radio Shack battery card was one of the great retail marketing innovations all time. For those who don't remember, Radio Shack used to give you a card to bring into the store each month to get a free store-brand battery. When you came in, they punched the corresponding month on the card, gave you your battery and, certainly in my case, won a lot of loyalty -- and usually some impulse purchasing. For years, I've wondered why Radio Shack or other ecommerce vendors haven't created online-enabled versions of the "battery card." Well, I have finally …

Is it just me -- or are the majority of innovations in this current phase of the Web all about ego? Checking in, tweeting, posting your status, and sharing your activities with friends are a collection of very ego-driven experiences. In some cases you may be sharing information that others will find relevant, but sharing what you're thinking at that very moment or what bar you just popped into is rarely of value. I can't throw stones, since I do just as much of this as the next guy, but what's really the value here -- and how can …

The future of news is getting bleaker and bleaker. If something doesn't change soon, we may soon see a day when real news journalism dies. I am not talking about the media companies that own today's newspapers and television stations, although they are obviously facing their own challenges, I am talking about the news that is a product of professional journalism.

I recently attended a great technology event about monetizing the location-based Web. Not surprisingly, group-buying services were a hot topic. Groupon, a deal-of-the-day Web site, is on a tear, as evidenced by rapid U.S. expansion and recent fund-raising that values the start-up at over $1 billion. It's an exciting story, but group buying wasn't invented yesterday. While unsexy, dorky and perhaps wreaking of suburban tendencies, my favorite group-buying phenomenon is far larger and more impactful. It's called Costco.

Like many of you, I have been reading and hearing a lot about how folks in the U.S these days, particularly younger ones, are using their computers to watch a lot of their video, including shows that they used to watch on their TVs. I am sure that this is true. I know a lot of folks who regularly use services like YouTube, Hulu and Boxee. I know even more folks who tell me that their children are watching a lot of video that way. However, I have always wondered whether actual Web video viewing patterns actually matched up to …

On Saturday night I was at a concert with a friend whom I'd dragged to see one of my favorite bands from back in the late '90s (Pavement). We found ourselves reminiscing about the past and reveling in the present. It's amazing to think of the advances in technology that we're witnessing right before our very eyes, many of which were still just forecasts the last time that Pavement was on tour, and mere fantasies when we were all kids. It was the stuff of science fiction and James Bond movies, but it's happening now, right in front of us.

MSNBC has it 100% right by banning banner ads on its site. Enough is enough. The truth is that most marketers who buy banners to achieve "reach" might as well be burning their money. Today on the Internet it's easily possible to very cheaply buy a BILLION banner "impressions" "reaching" hundreds of millions of people, but how many people will actually be impacted in any way by a message delivered like this? On the Web, reach numbers are far too easily gamed.

Advisory boards, directly or indirectly, are part of our business lives. These boards are often in the background counseling or watching the backs of our management teams; they're helping steer turnaround or growth of burgeoning businesses. You may rely on these boards or sit on them. And they seem increasingly vital in these industrious times, when people and teams are continually pushing the rim of their own comfort zones.