The Strength of Internet Ties Did you know that the Internet helped 21 million Americans get additional career training; helped 17 million deal with a major illness or helped 16 million buy a car? No? All that and more in the excellent report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Information Super Traffic Jam The issue of net neutrality seems to come and go, but here is a new perspective.

Advertising, Marketing: What's the Diff? Here's an interesting article that raises the issue of where marketing and advertising differ - and has the Internet blurred the issue still further.

I have long-since argued that in terms of online transactions [e-commerce?] it is B2B where the big money is - but it is not sexy enough for the mainstream media to report on. Data like this backs up what I say about online B2B dwarfing the more media-favoured B2C. This article [Online auctions save govt millions on IT] talks about saving more in one product area than a lot of smaller B2C sites combined will actually sell. Furthermore, the subject is hardly leading edge stuff, this kind of e-procurement has been going on since the turn of the century.

This is something from me. It considers two things: Does the Internet bring anything new to marketing and also questions the Internet's role in distribution. The latter is probably any issue that a marketing lecturer should know - ho hum. There is nothing new in marketing on the web.

Here's good article that considers an element of online marketing which changes strategic thinking - it even uses the word 'paradigm' [but don't let that put you off]. Decentralized Commerce.

New Market Power: A Democratic Exchange - an inteligent look at how consumer generated content [CGC] is changing marketing.

I find the 'Street View' feature in Google Maps fantastic. I used it when selecting hotels for a 2008 trip to America - it's great to be able to check out the location of potential accommodation before you book online. If you've not come across it (at the time of writing, June 08, it covered only some parts of the USA) here's an article that picks up on some of the amusing, and questionable, aspects of it - Cool Sights In Google Street View.

Almost a way of life in the USA, but not such a popular marketing tool in Europe, the coupon can can be distributed effectively online - Coupon Tactics Get Interesting.