Just finished writing a feature/book review for AFR’s Boss Magazine on John Battelle’s book "The Search." I finally caught up with him for a half-hour phoner - we’d been trying to connect for two weeks but stuff like book readings at Google, Yahoo and eBay kept getting in the way.

So naturally enough I asked him about the AOL/Google deal, and comments on his blog questioning whether in fact Google had jumped the shark. His response:

They have yet to say to me there is no way they would change their paid results, so I think they might at least be jumping a tuna, not a shark, if you change your paid results.

That comment led to a few of us here amusing ourselves over at jumptheshark for a little while (because that’s what you do on your last day of work before the holidays) searching out a few classics like Dallas and West Wing.

So has Google jumped the shark? John’s latest set of predictions (see prediction #2) seem more in line with his tuna jumping comment.

And so with that, I’m outta here. Not jumping any form of fish (I hope!), but taking a three week holiday over Christmas. Y’know it’s one thing I love at about Christmas in Australia - unlike the US which keeps on working, everybody around here clears out until some time in January to enjoy the summer. See you mid January 06.

This time of year produces enough online shopping stories to stuff the proverbial stocking, but even so the anecdote in this story has me thinking. There are some people out there who must now routinely do 100% of their gift shopping online.

But there are countless others, like yours truly, who simply leave their run too late and are unwilling to trust the postal system when you’ve got two weeks or less until C-day. And so the usual Christmas shopping madness follows. My wife and I were brave (that’s code for very silly) enough to venture into Chatswood, on Sydney’s North Shore, last Saturday with our very active two year old. Let’s just say it wasn’t pleasant. But we did tick off the rest of the gifts on our list, and there’s nervous waiting by the letter box.

In our case, I reckon we bought about 10 percent of gifts online this year, which was actually down from last year because we’ve been too busy to get organised and buy stuff online when you really think about these thing in, say, September.

Over to you: what percentage of gifts did you buy online vs in person? If I get some interesting answers and you’re happy to go on the record (I’ll follow up offline) I’ll see if we can work it up into a story for the paper.

(n.b. yes, sorry, that will mean you have to register on TypePad to comment. It’s only a little bit painful, you only have to do it once, and has saved me from the comment spam deluge.).

Tired of only being heard by hacks & flacks over at ITJourno, Phil Sim pops up in the blogosphere screaming and shouting about how Web 2.0 is a "load of poo." Ah yes, classy stuff that. It’s the healthy dose of vintage Phil that the blogosphere’s been missing. Takes me back to the days when he’d scream out at me across the news room. "Jones! You’re sacked!" You could never see it coming…

Welcome to the conversation … I think. I don’t think we will ever be the same again…

UPDATE: Crikey! Sim’s barely out of the gate and he gets Scobleized.

John Battelle writes that Alexa (Amazon.com) is trying to turn the web index game on its head. Very interesting. Question is, does Alexa have what it takes to produce a credible index that will produce decent results? I don’t believe that the index has become commoditised already.

Today’s Fin carries a scoop by yours truly regarding early plans for spectrum auctions next year. It impacts Unwired because it’s wholesale WiMax business will be negatively impacted (looks like its stock sank 7.6% on the news today too).

Anyway, those funsters over at Whirlpool who don’t do us the service of using their real names claim that I’m "in bed with Telstra." Ahh, nope. I don’t hold shares in Unwired or Telstra, and a closer read of the story will show you that Telstra, Optus and any other carrier will be able to bid for the new WiMax spectrum. Those crazy funsters….

Enjoyed a coffee with Ross Dawson this afternoon in sunny Sydney, and he even gave me one of his books (thanks!). Ross is getting a bit of attention for this post about Australian corporate blog illiteracy. Worth a read if you’ve not yet seen it.

We share a few common ideas and sentiments. Ross is on a mission to educate the business community about the benefits of what he calls "living networks," otherwise known as the development of blogs, wikis, social networking software, podcasting, and so on. We also share a love of San Francisco - he’s got an office over there - and moved back to Australia for a combination of business and family reasons.

The point? Every day I’m meeting more people who are thinking critically about the internet economy in Australia. Beyond the headlines regarding the online advertising boom, there’s a growing collection of loosely connected internet entrepreneurs with a passion for understanding Australia’s role in the wider internet community. Now, if we could just get a few more of those San Franciscan cafes and neighbourhoods over here…

Having tracked blogs in the media for the better part of four years now there are a few old ideas that keep resurfacing. 1. What, exactly, are blogs? 2. Blogs are simply cut/paste exercises, and that’s wrong.

I just can’t be bothered answering the first one anymore. But if you want to read about the blog awards fiasco regarding that issue, read all about it here and here.

Phil Sim at ITJourno has weighed into the second of these issues in a "rant" here (subs for IT journalist only) following the Frank Arrigo debate a little while ago. Excuse me while I ironically enjoy a bit of cutting and pasting from his piece to explain the story of why he’s calling it the "flogosphere."

Context:

A couple of weeks ago MediaConnect’s Epitome column had a momentary tangle with the blogosphere. The column had noted a negative blogger’s reaction to an Eric Wilson article in The Australian, and this then made its way into the hands of Microsoft blogger Frank Arrigo. On his blog, Arrigo quoted in full the relevant section of the column, before commenting on some of its assumptions and propositions. He backed up a day later with comments on a follow-up piece in another Epitome column. The self-referential saga was noted by a couple of prominent IT tech bloggers, including Mark Jones and Paul Montgomery.

In his Filtered blog, Jones commented: “It’s interesting how the blog/media virtuous circle works. First, The Australian writes a story, Frank Arrigo comments on it, then IT Journo writes about the comments behind the subs-only firewall, and Frank’s back again with more comments on the saga after getting a copy of ITJ’s story. Just proves (again) that you can’t expect firewalled copy to stay protected…”

Phil disagrees with my comment, noting the copy is firewalled for commercial reasons. Fair enough too, I say. But my point is simply that websites or blogs are like email (Doc Searls once described blogs along the lines of "emails CC the world". You just can’t expect content to remain contained. Some, or all, of your copy can leak out if there’s news/public interest.

Phil continues:

To our mind there is a very clear distinction between quoting an isolated paragraph, and pasting a whole column into a blog, especially when that content is, as Jones described it, “firewalled”.

So he’s not really happy that Frank, to pick on one example, had pasted the entire article in his blog. Although goes on to say he has suffered "no commercial damage" from the exercise. His point:

However we look at it, cutting and pasting significant slabs of text that you have not written, is plagiarism.

Agreed to a point: define "significant"?

In concluding, Phil says content owners should retain control of consumption, while  constrasting this with the conundrum of links: "Part of the wonder and utility of the Internet is it’s hyperlinked and self-referential nature." The problem is that "control" and "links" are not bedfellows.

Blogs work because they connect people in conversation and free-form community. Attempting to draw solid lines around what is, and isn’t permissable content in blogs is an excerise in futility at best. Sure, copyright laws will restrict outright commercial profiteering. But what we’re talking about here is central to the philosophy of blogs. Bloggers add value to conversations started by news stories and other bloggers. Do you have something to ADD to a discussion? If not, don’t comment or link.

And along these lines, if a site (blog, media or otherwise) cannot provide an opportunity for that conversation to continue (comments/trackback etc), then it will continue outside that site regardless. So the amount of content pasted into a blog is directly related to its value. To that point, you could argue Frank’s copy/paste exercise was in fact a measure of the value he attributed to the entire piece.

Trevor Sykes, author and creator of the famous Pierpont, finishes up at the Fin today after a legendary career in journalism. Do yourself a favour and go buy a copy of the paper today and read his annual dubious distinction awards for an amusing insight into the best crooks and shonks Australia has to offer. And get a copy of tomorrow’s paper too.

Trevor’s desk, just behind mine, is a sea of balloons and streamers. He’s been getting calls all week, eating and drinking day & night in celebration, and still turning up bright and early every day with a cheery "good morning!" for everyone.

Trevor, you’re an inspiration, and will be sorely missed. Enjoy your retirement, you’ve earned it.

Check out his site here.

"Now we are talking" is Telstra’s corporate blog. Check it out here. Just came across it this afternoon via an email from Ross Dawson. (thanks mate).

I’ve barely had time to check it out, but some initial reactions:

* "Now we are talking" - now there’s a joke name. Telstra execs can’t STOP talking.

* Given all the negative press they’ve been getting, this had to happen. But will it be seen as credible?

* They’ve got individual blogs within this site, apparently written by REAL people at Telstra. Imagine that.

* It’s driven by one of Telstra’s amigos, Phil Burgess. You’d expect it come from PR. But will they resist the temptation to censor comments?

* How about this line from Phil, explaining (here) the decision to launch the site:

After discovering that a single mailing to shareholders cost close to $1.0 million — we launched the idea of a special web site for shareholders and the public together – a place where we could address the digital revolution and what it can mean for how we live, work, play, learn and move about. 

Also amusing in that same post is his implication that a Telstra shareholder was happy  about the state of Telstra’s sliding share price!

* You can subscribe via email anyway, apparently. How ironic. And, ahh, just where are the RSS feeds??? I can’t find them. Helllloooh.

Aussie web company SmartyHost has stumped up some cash for it’s blog awards. Good to see TPN and Darren Rowse at ProBlogger made the list. The company’s PR agency issued a press release today announcing the winners, which sez:

"Bridge girl travelling diary”, was awarded the first grand prize of $10,000 cash and honoured Australia’s best blog. The ten runners up will receive a SmartyBlog package worth $120.

1. http://www.singingbridges.net/diary

2. http://www.loobylu.com

3. http://www.ausculture.com/blog

4. http://www.karencheng.com.au/

5. http://www.problogger.net

6. http://www.trollhattansaab.net

7. http://www.thepodcastnetwork.com/tpn

8. http://www.hearye.org

9. http://www.browncardigan.com

10. http://antonyloewenstein.blogspot.com/

11. http://www.camwheeler.com/wine/

Of course, the cynical side of me knows that the whole awards thing is a strategy to get SmartyHost some ink, but they are also a pro-blog IT company and we could with a lot more of them in Australia.

So, do you agree with the judges decisions??