Jeff Jarvis has documented exactly how horrible Dell customer support can be. I’ve had great experiences with Dell computers, but their customer service has been HORRIBLE. Jeff is 100% correct about that.

I bought a monitor from them recently and they took weeks to get it to me, didn’t tell me about the delay when I bought it, and their customer support folks didn’t communicate well with me at all. At the end of the day the offered me some free speakers for my troubleTHEN NEVER SENT THEM! I had to send in the emails with the promise of the free speakers twice before they finally sent them.

My advice to Dell? Send Jarvis a new machine (you should have done this a while ago) while you figure out what is wrong with the product. The reply to him ON HIS BLOG with an apology, explanation of why there was a breakdown, and permission to show him how good your service can be by making his in house service free.

Dell should look at Jarvis going off on them as FREE CONSULTING. Jarvis is a highly-paid consultantbe thankful you got his services for free!

Five months ago Fred wrote his most popular blog post ever. It was about the new business models in publishing that Gawker and Weblogs, Inc. have been pursuing. Today he updated that famous post and sheds some more light on what we’re doing. He points out exactly why what we’re doing is working not to be self-promotional (nooooo. never!) it’s a must read.

Then again, I wouldn’t expect anything less from the guy who invested in Geocities back when and del.icio.us today.

Just got an email from a journalist who wanted to know my thoughts on the downside of Google Adsense. Here is my response (keep in mind I’m responding to an email which I’m not going to publish in case this doesn’t make total senseit’s half of the telephone call, so to speak

Dear NAMEREMOVED,

1. we only use Google right now

2. Clickfraud=non issue/manageable issue for folks like Google. It’s so easy to get caught and it’s so hard to get a Google Adsense account, so this will never be a major issue (i.e. you need a social security number or a tax id numbernot cheap to get!). Plus, advertisers factor some bad clicks into their buys and, as a result, everyone pays a little less per click (think 1-5%). Clickfraud is probably less then credit card fraud, and it’s delt with the same wayeveryone takes an unnoticeable hit.

3. The ads are absurdly targeted in my experience people look at them like content and they don’t even mind them. In fact, I see them as value added. As such, it’s a revolution in advertisingfor the first time since the Superbowl people want the ads!!! It’s advertising nirvana for everyone involved: advertiser, publisher, and Google.

4. There is no conflict between Google Adsense and display ads for us as a publisher. Display advertisers want more then just text links on a site like Engadget and Autoblogthey want their brand showcased. They want a big, beautiful Flash animation of their car or cell phone for people to take in. You can’t get that impact with text ads. Those advertisers also want control over where and when they run. With Google Adsense they are not guaranteed to get anylet alone 100%of the ad space. Finally, we run our display advertisers first then Google Adsense and other networks. So, the same way Google has a marketplace where the highest paying person goes to the top we have a marketplace where the highest playing person goes to the top.

5. Text based advertisers find out about our site because of Google Adsense and then they wind up buying display ads. So, Google is doing free marketing for us in a way.

I’ve found no downside as a publisherzero. I keep telling that to the media and tey keep writing stories about how this model has problems. It doesn’t. This is a genuine revolution and the fraud issue is a construct of the media looking for the downside in Google’s model.

For now there might not be a downside something the media can’t handle.

Now, Google stock price? I have no idea.

310 828 8284

best j

So, Judith, Karina, Brian, and I are going to Philly tomorrow to cover Live8 from backstage (yes!). Our updates will be at www.live8insider.com. We’re looking for some folks to cover the other shows, so if you’re blogging from another show and have the gear to blog from inside the show (i.e. take photos, send text, etc) please post some info in the comment below or email judith at weblogsinc dot com.

I was at the LiveAid back in 1985 and I’m so excited to be going back 20 years later. It’s a really important cause and you can learn more about it at the blog.

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You’ll find lots more links after the jump. Enjoy!

The Download Squad’s Victor Agreda, Jr. offers tidbits from iTunes 4.9 and praises Easy PDF Converter. David Chartier explains why his browser of choice is Camino. Marc Perton covers Google’s warning about the Firefox extension Greasemonkey.

Engadget’s Peter Rojas reports on a robot assisting in surgery, and Interlink’s new GoSpeak! portable speakers. Ryan Block reveals used CRTs as the key to sub-$100

I’m going to Philly for Live8 and will be blogging it (more details to come)… really great to see so many folks getting behind the event including Technorati which is doing some amzing work including getting up to 50 bloggers ticketsyou rock Dave!

If I had any idea what this said I would be really psyched!
http://news.chinatimes.com/Chinatimes/Moment/newfocus-index/

Frank nails two important points about what we are doing: 1. You can subscribe to very, very niche feeds like your favorite director or your cellphone model and 2. When we add a new blog we don’t need to find that many new bloggers (i.e. DownloadSquad is almost all existing WIN bloggers):

Using RSS for niches in niches Blog-preneur Jason Calacanis is exploiting the ability of Really Simple Syndication technology to deliver very personalized information.

Most RSS feeds by online publishers are categorized relatively broadly, by company or function. BBHub.com, Weblogs Inc.’s blog about BlackBerry devices, offers data sliced and diced by telecom providers (Sprint, Nextel, etc.) and information relevant only to specific models of the popular handheld.

The newest Web log from Calacanis’ company has nearly two dozen RSS feeds. DownloadSquad’s categories include games, audio, design and video. The blog is very much a group effort, with 11 contributors most of whom, if not all, also work on other blogs in the network.

In other words, Calacanis has launched a new blog requiring virtually no additional staffers beyond the 106 bloggers he already has.

Engadget Chinese has the new LG phone designed by Porsche.

This is what I love about going Global: we’ve got more Engadget editors outside of the US then inside the US, and they can bring us stories like this that we would never know about. I’m sure Autoblog and Engadget (in english) will cover this story as well. I love it!!!

Andrew is doing the job of public advocate for New York City before he even wins the job. This is brilliant great, free wi-fi for the greatest city in the world! Sign the petition after the jump!

Dear Jason,

Do you want your Wi-Fi?

Are you, like me, excited by the growing possibilities of new information technology and frustrated by how slowly our city government is moving to embrace them?

Are you outraged by the fact that children in South Korea have better and faster access to the Internet than kids in the South Bronx, and even kids in SoHo?

Do you think it’s fair for Verizon, Cablevision and Time-Warner to charge working families $600 a year for a connection that is ten times slower than what you can get in Tokyo?

Are you ashamed by the fact that our schools are ranked 41st in the country in the use of computers in education?

Do you want to fall behind our neighbors in Philadelphia and Boston as they bring wireless