More on Google's ascent to the top of the media tree.

Just to put things in perspective, the web search company's market cap means it is now worth more than the combined value of News Corporation, Clear Channel, Tribune, and the Washington Post group. What's, er, wrong with this picture?


Am always interested to hear anything TiVo is doing, since I remain convinced that it will be the breakthrough technology that eventually forces the entire advertising and media industries into a rethink.

That's why this is kinda cool - in principle, if not in practice for now.



Finally, in morning conference today, someone inadvertantly printed up yesterday morning's news list. "Re-run the stories!" "Greatest hits paper!" came the tortured cries...

Which led me to thinking; see if you can tell which of these headlines are from our list today, and which are from a year ago....?

"More rate rises on way, Greenspan tells Congress"
"Bankruptcy hits more under-30s"
"Twin crises threaten Brazil's reform agenda"
"Global airlines may be unprofitable for a fifth straight year"
"Unrest continues in Bolivia"
"US and EU at odds over aircraft subsidies"
"US 'losing its grip' over political process in Iraq".

Have a good weekend.

Luckily, "the kittens ran to safety"....

(am now strangely concerned by the fate of small, cute mewing things. A side of myself I never imagined existed...)

Just got into the office after my departmental review this morning ("mental" being the operative word, was pretty worried about it..)

The comments by my head of department and my study supervisor on my work so far were harsh but fair. In all, it was the sort of session that's tough to get through, and you're glad when it's done; but when you look at the notes later you realise they are really making some constructive observations, that will undoubtedly - I hope - make the work better in the long run.

They left me in no doubt, though, that if I couldn't make more of a connection between the chapters I've already written and the ones I need to work on this summer, then they wouldn't be able to upgrade me from the MPhil programme to the PhD track, due next summer.

That's fair enough. I have plenty to do from now until September, and I'd better start now...

Have been having some interesting responses today to the China piece - particularly from ex-pat Americans and Australians with direct experience of the CCP's state censorship. One guy from Shanghai emailed me to say he was aware of "about a million" people being employed by the CCP specifically to monitor online activity.

"Amazing what five bucks a week can pay for", he says.

This'll run and run.

Google is now apparently the world's largest media organisation by market cap.

Nice rundown on PBS's Newshour looking at the future of News on Demand and how it affects local news outlets. All of those options are things we need to look at here.

Had dinner and drinks here the other night with Steven Clift and a bunch of like-minded folks to talk about civic engagement projects. A really interesting evening. Steve's organising a conference in Minneapolis next month which I'm going to try to get to, particularly since there's a chance to go here.

I have my annual review tomorrow morning with my head of department and was trying to do some last-minute improvements to the chapters I've submitted, when I get an email from my editors at Forbes pointing me to this story.

Want to write something? they said. OK, I said.

Apparently, the new edition of the Collins English Dictionary includes for the first time,the words: Hoodrat, hornbag, growler, wanksta, dumbshit and scrote.

And I thought they were a law firm.

"Why you, I oughta......"

So angry and disappointed this morning I could hardly blog.

This is what happenes to a sport when one team just gets so rich it thinks it can do whatever it likes, and the existing rules and punishments are meaningless.