Radio Ads, Hot Trends & How I’m Changing The World

Not that we want to control those too…

The New York Times reports that Google filed a proposal with the Federal Communications Commission yesterday asking them to institute a real-time auction-based system for selling radio spectrum. Google says creating a system similar to what is currently in place for online ads would maximize efficiency and help smaller companies be able to afford radio ads at 3am in the morning on John Tesh’s radio station. [Don’t even pretend you didn’t just click that link. I saw you.]

Before Google’s last minute proposal, the FCC was planning to institute a traditional auction of the spectrum. Google claims this will result in licensees ending up with more bandwidth than they need. We’ll see if Google is able to change the collective mind of the FCC.

And in case you’re thinking it, Google says they’re doing this to promote competition, not because they want to get in on the ground floor and become a bandwidth reseller. I totally believe them.

Google Outs Hot Trends

[This was apparently really big news today so I’ll try and look impressed.]

Google added a new feature to Google Trends appropriately named "Hot Trends", created to show uses the hottest search queries of the day. It differs from similar services like Google Zeitgeist or the Yahoo! Buzz in that the trends history can pinpoint searches by city, state, country or even globally. You can also go back in time to see hot trends of days past, I don’t believe the other services have that functionality.

There are lots of pretty graphs and charts but I think the most fun feature is that it allows you to see why certain terms have all of a sudden become "hot". Google shows you the hotness score, related searches, when the query achieved hotness, plus the news items, blog items and Web results for that query. That’s helpful since I am apparently so old and boring that I don’t recognize at least 80 percent of these queries. Eh, make that 90 percent.

It’s useful in a wow-that’s-kind-of-interesting way. It’s neat to see what people were searching for last week as opposed to what they’re searching for this week. However, I wouldn’t give it anymore value than that. If you think this is going to become your new favorite keyword research tool, well, then you’re just special.

I have skills. Two of them!

Sometimes I worry about what would happen if Bruce finally listened to Susan and I lost my job. There’s something about walking into a job interview, looking my potential employer in the eye and telling her that I’ve spent the past 15 months blogging that terrifies me. I’ve never had an interviewer laugh in my face and I certainly don’t want to start now.

Luckily for me, The Blogging Herald has helped to calm that fear. Contrary to Susan’s popular belief, blogging has in fact given me employable skills! [Heck, we hired you even without employable skills.–Susan] – Heh. You got me there. I possess the two skills needed for successful blogging: authenticity and transparency. The Blogging Herald says these are critical life skills because they are necessary to build relationships, which are the currency of success in society. See, Mom, not only do I have employable skills, I have life skills! You can stop being embarrassed by me now.

Even more impressive, The Blogging Herald goes on to say that blogging allows us to learn who we really are: "Authenticity by it’s very nature is about humility and acceptance of our transparent selves. This is world-changing action taking place from the inside out of each individual."

As of today I’m updating my resume to read:

February 2006 – present: Changing the world!

Beat that!

Fun Finds

Search Engine Watch says that people searches make up 30 percent of all searches? That’s it? I know at least 50 percent of my searches are about me. ;)

ResourceShelf reports that AOL’s blogging platform has released new tools. AOL has a blogging platform? Like blogging blogging? Who knew?

Meanwhile, Hitwise reports that the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox (!) are the two most visited baseball team Web sites in sports. See, now that I knew.

Lisa Barone is a writer, content marketer & VP of strategy at Overit Media. She's also a very active Twitterer, much to the dismay of the rest of the world.

See Lisa's author page for links to connect on social media.