Transparency is such an uplifting word, it's easy to forget what a mess it can create. Case in point: Zappos.com's chaotic agency RFP, which began as a fairly simple review of 20 or so shops and then devolved into a free-for-all involving 104 firms, many of whom were evidently all but ignored by the client who's business they sought. For a digital ad reporter, it's rare indeed to have the veil lifted on an agency review process. Which is why I'm very grateful to El Segundo,

An active comment thread has sprung up on Young's recent post about branding metrics and the web. One of the topics (Pepsi versus Coke) has recently had some ground-breaking research come out regarding how branding actually works in the brain. This month some of the analysts in Microsoft Advertising are reading Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely (quick review: if you liked Freakonomics and you read all of Gladwell's stuff, it's probably worth your time).

Just like Gmail, Google's Calendar app now also has a Labs section... with gadgets appearing to the right side of the calendar, as we spotted earlier . You can reach these opt-in features by clicking the green potion icon at the top. Available at the moment are: Add a background image Attach Google Docs documents to events Add a world clock showing current times around the world A "jump to a date" widget Display the next meeting,

The Google Korea homepage , already different from Google.com for some time, is now showing a dropdown search navigation menu to the left of the search box. Translated it reads All Search - Image - News - Map - Dictionary - Blog - Shopping - Videos - Academic , so it represents the different ways to search Google. The selection box does not automatically trigger a search, though, you will still need to click the search button; also,

This Thursday afternoon I'll record some new videos, so I created a Google Moderator page where you can post suggested topics and vote topics up and down. I won't be able to answer every question, but I'll tackle several popular questions and a few interesting questions. Please suggest topics that lots of people would be interested in, not just questions about specific sites. If you can ask about a topic that requires more than yes/no answers,

Often, in our rush to get ahead and do things, we forget to plan. Do you have a business plan? Do you have a business plan, but haven't updated it in a while? A business plan need not be complicated. A few bullet points scribbled on the back of an envelope can constitute a business plan. A business plan is simply a description of what you intend to do, and how you intend to do it.

by Mike Krumboltz The second day of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor featured more questions, more answers, more references to the controversial "wise Latina" quote, and a puzzling line of questioning involving nunchucks. Below, a summary of memorable moments from the day's proceedings. The "wise Latina" responds Judge Sotomayor and Sen.

Seems the movie industry has seen the impact of the trust Twitter users have in others comments. As Time magazine suggests "Brüno could be the first movie defeated by the Twitter effect. " Bruno opened Friday with good numbers - $14.4 million - and was predicted to break $50 million, but then came Twitter. Seems the 140 character reviews took a bigger toll on attendance numbers than anyone could have thought.

Bing in partnership with Federated Media and of course Twitter has rolled out BingTweets which is described as: BingTweets combines Twitter trends with Bing search results, enabling you to see deeper, real-time information about the hottest topics on Twitter.

While Twitter may break the occasional sensational news story, traditional news sources do not need to feel too threatened by bloggers just yet, according to a Cornell University study , that shows "old media" beat blogs to news by an average of 2.5 hours. The death knoll of professional journalism and mainstream news providers may not be as close as people seem to think.