At first glance AkibaLive looks like a cool new blog on Japanese gadgets. But it’s not. It’s a marketing gimmick by Dynamism.com, “the leading U.S. retailer of next-generation electronics from Japan and around the globe”. The press release says it all: “Retailers have yet to leverage the targeted, personal impact blogging has on consumers,” it quotes Douglas Krone, founder and CEO of Dynamism.com, as saying. “The collaborative nature of this technology makes blogs ideal for customer relations, and promotional and advertising initiatives. It’s a smart way to attract and provide value for the technophiles that make up our business.”Well, yes. Nothing wrong with this, except that the blog looks and feels like an independent blog. If you didn’t know about Dynamism, you might think it was just that. Does this mean that blogs are going to be hijacked by marketing types who conceal their identities to adopt the persona of blogs to peddle their wares? Should they be allowed to? I believe the power of blogs lie in their determined individualism and integrity of view. I don’t think they should be pure marketing tools. Thoughts, anyone?
A positive early review of Musicmatch’s new online music store, from Paul Thurrott of 
A few folk have written in to my column asking how they can fight back at spammers. Here’s one tale that offers hope. 
Pointed out by my old friend Robin Lubbock, here’s an