I stumbled across a new Forrester blog recently and thought you might be interested in hearing about where other Forrester analysts are blogging:

• New media and marketing: Charlene Li
• Social computing:  Groundswell - Charlene and Josh Bernoff
• Devices and media: Ted Schadler, Charlie Golvin, and Paul Jackson
• Retail
• Security and Risk Management

The marketing team also had a conversation about why we blog.  Our feed subscription and site traffic have grown at a pretty decent pace and I thought it was a good point for a status check.  Some of our reasons:

The propoposal from Google and Earthlink that sits on the table in front of the SF board of supervisors is a great first step towards bridging the digital divide as well as serving the needs of most San Francisco citizens.

There hasn't been much information put forth about how consumers use the Internet and whether 300 KBPS can satisfy that need. The top thing online users do is check their email. Yes, large attachments can slow things down a bit, but 300 KBPS is fine for email as well as the rest of the top ten and twenty things consumers do online - browse portals, use search, read news, shop, research products, etc.

This past Tuesday, AOL put in a 6.3 billion kronor (about $900 million) bid for Swedish ad network TradeDoubler.  Although TradeDoubler's board voted to accept the bid, one of its largest share holders rejected the bid as undervalued.  The take among the investment community is that this is AOL's attempt to expand advertising revenues now that it has moved away from its subscription-based business model.  While I think this is certainly true, I find a few other angles of the potential acquisition more interesting:

Lots of good advertising for the wireless industry in the new season. AT&T Wireless had commercials all ready to go with their change of brand message. Looks like Sprint is doing product placement in the show. They did last season as well.

What impressed me most when watching Sunday evening's show was the placement of an application, Telenav. Typically, it's just been the hand sets with no direct reference to the specifics of the applications. Telenav was prominently displayed on the show and then directly afterward in a commercial. I believe that contextual advertising is exactly the type of advertising that the industry needs to drive consumer adoption. Would be curious to know the terms of the integrated advertising agreement.

The one part I struggled with was Jack hot-wiring the 1982 Pontiac and finding a GPS-enabled phone in the car. (OK, not sure it's a Pontiac, but an older American model)