Because then we can keep using it as a major competitive advantage.

Crusadify – Ideas to Make B2B Marketing Not Suck – Why I hope Fred Wilson keeps telling startups to not invest in Marketing.

Fred’s been saying this for a while and when he mentioned this last year, this was my response:

That’s Fred Wilson’s advice. I had mixed feelings about his original post because although the message felt wrong, if legions took it as gospel, it means less competition for me in any channel other than earned media and social media!

Link to imgur or direct link to the PDF

via Twitter / @samirhousri: Interesting – Incentivized ….

It all revolves around “balance” he said.

via New Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s Turnaround Plan.

The new CEO Thompson also believes that data will play a huge part in Yahoo’s turnaround:

Beyond “balance” Thompson is convinced that “data” will play a huge part in Yahoo’s turnaround.

He called data “Yahoo’s most undervalued asset” and said, “I believe data will be the key component for driving innovation at Yahoo. It will be the cornerstone for creating new products and services.”

Thompson said Yahoo can use data to give users “uniquely releveant experiences,” something “nobody’s done yet on the Web.”

On the ad products side, that means:

• Better and more targeting options
• Increased reporting (pushing the boundaries of their privacy policy)
• Additional engagement metrics

Data can’t be a lead product for a company like Yahoo (circa 2012) but it’s an awful nice way to provide product differentiation.

After a few small experiments, I discovered that a pin that linked to one of our merchant clients was swapped out for a SkimLinks affiliate link as I was passed from Pinterest to the source page of the pin.

via What Affiliates and Merchants Should Know About Pinterest Links | Professional Affiliate Program Management | GTO Management.

A new survey by the investment banking firm concluded that each Kindle Fire generates well over $100 in additional income, which more than makes up for the $2 to $3 Amazon reportedly loses on each sale.

via Amazon Makes More Than $100 Off Each Kindle Fire – John Paczkowski – News – AllThingsD.

Did you know that an email sent at 6:00 A.M. is almost three times as likely to see a link clicked as one sent at 4:00 P.M.? It turns out that scheduling messages for times when people are feeling fresh (and have high blood sugar!) makes them significantly more likely to have a successful result.

via Schedule Sending Email for Later | ReviveYourInbox.

How much does Google make in advertising from mobile? Cowen analyst Jim Friedland estimates that Google is generating $7 per year from each smartphone (and tablet).

via Cowen: Google’s Mobile Ad Revenues Could Surge To $5.8 Billion In 2012 | TechCrunch.

Want to take out the new John Grisham? Get in line. As of Friday morning, 288 people were ahead of you in the Fairfax County Public Library system, waiting for one of 43 copies. You’d be the 268th person waiting for “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” with 47 copies.

via As demand for e-books soars, libraries struggle to stock their virtual shelves – The Washington Post.

On sites where there’s private information in the URLs + links to external sites, overriding the referrer is necessary in order to protect users’ privacy / identity.

How not to do URL redirects (… the way Quora does) | Hacker News.

It’s convenient that for this particular issues, preserving privacy works in favor of the web property.  Often times, that’s not the case.