Face

StumbleUpon put on a new face this week and not only is it mighty pretty, but it’s more organized and helpful, too. Imagine that, good-looking and smart! The redesign is all about helping you hone in on your interests, without losing that random factor that made StumbleUpon what it is today. They’ve done this by adding Channels and a new Explore Box.

It’s been a long time coming and now it’s finally here. . . sort of. Google+ is now rolling out pages for businesses and brands but you can’t start building just yet. Their announcement blog post is all full of warm and fuzzy feelings about how Google+ Pages will allow business to connect with the people who love them on a deeply meaningful level. Here’s my favorite line:

It’s a known fact that conferences can be expensive. Not only do you have the cost of registration and travel, but also the expense of time away from your work, family and social life at home. If you are traveling to another city for a major multi-day conference you can easily expect to spend several thousand dollars in travel costs and miss at least a week of your normal life. As great of a time as it might be, it can be hard to justify the expense when you consider an actual vacation can cost less

The following essay is also my column in next week's Advertising Age. Real-time + Face Time = the New Primetime One of the realities of the modern era and the age of continuous information streams is that consumers now expect, rather than simply demand, that their needs be addressed in real time. One of my former colleagues summed this up best by calling the phenomenon "The Baby Monitor Principle." The basic premise is that once an infant knows a baby monitor is in a room and comprehends

So, I haven’t fallen off the face of the planet, let’s just say summer kind of got in the way of me getting much done on this site. The kids are back in school, I am recharged and ready to refocus on my business, which means more Essential Keystrokes coming your way. I have some new web professionals lined up to share their Essential Tools for success, I’ve been bookmarking lots of new sites and tools to share with you, and I have some neat product reviews coming up, too. In the meantime,