If you're not a Gmail user, you're probably not aware of this system-wide message: If Google keeps up with the outages, it will need to come up with its own one of these: What would be a good "fail whale" alternative for Google?

Tell me you watched it! The men's 4×100M swimming relay was the highlight of the Olympics thus far. If you're American, you must watch the video . If you're French, not so much. Today's Picks: IAC has announced it has started testing ads in its popular RSS reader Bloglines. If you're going to SES San Jose next week, here are 33 reasons why you should attend the Internet Marketer's Charity Party . Pete Blackshaw author of Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends,

If I'm not reading a MarketingSherpa report, you'll likely find my nose buried in a report from the equally great E-consultancy. E-consultancy is a UK based research company-so you'll find a lot of European bias in its reports-but they're always worth reading. The latest, Online Reputation and Buzz Monitoring Buyer's Guide 2008 , is no exception.

The New York Times asks-almost nonchalantly- Is Google a Media Company? I'd ask the NYT: Why? Are you scared of the competition? [Google's] Knol has been called a potential rival to Wikipedia and other sites whose content spans a broad range of topics, including Mahalo and About.com, a property of The New York Times Company that uses experts it calls "guides" to write articles on a variety of topics. Reading the article, and those quoted,

If you've signed up for Trackur's Enterprise level , you'll be pleased to know we've just added "Profiles" to your dashboard. With the new profiles, you can now create up to ten different keyword groups- giving you the option to segment your monitored keywords. So, who will benefit from the new profiles? Marketing agencies and PR firms - now you can create profiles for each client! Large companies - create profiles for each of your brands or product lines.

The email newsletter Daily Candy , now going on its eighth year, got a sweet deal this week. Comcast is buying the company for $1.25 million . Rumors were that Comcast would pay far less - around $75 million and it's many times over their revenue. The pithy newsletters focus on what's hip and fashionable - marketing products to young women - and drawing national advertisers. Last year they expanded to include a kid's edition aimed at well keeled moms.

Let the games begin! The Olympics in Bejing have begun and Tibet monks aren't the only protesters - the media is angry too. While Chinese citizens may not have freedom of the press or Internet, but their Olympic guests expect it. And to be sure, the media was promised they would have full access to web sites. But reports are that not only are sites being blocked but that the government is monitoring Internet activity.

I try to treat Marketing Pilgrim like Christmas-it's better to give, than receive. However, I would like to ask for your help with something. I'm trying to get a panel added to next year's SXSW and I need your votes and comments of support. Managing Your Brand in a Radically Transparent Worl d has already made the list of finalists and now it's among the many great panels vying for a space at next year's event. All I'm asking,

Did you miss me yesterday? Not really? I had a blast teaching my first Online Reputation Management Workshop yesterday-thanks to the great folks who took the time to attend! After sleeping solid for 10 hours, I feel like some Picks-what about you? Video search engine Blinkx has its eye on search advertising firm Miva -offering $1.20 a share in cash to acquire the company. Just how cool is new search engine Cuil? Well, judging by its traffic ,

I love Google, you love Google, the whole world loves Google, but that love is unrequited-at least when it comes to Google's customer service. It seems that Google believes it can provide enterprise level services without actually offering enterprise level support. You won't be shocked to learn that Google Apps suffered an outage AGAIN this week .

I'll be honest, I'm not much of a stock picker. If I invest in a company, invariably the stock price declines. It seems I share my talent for destruction with Google. AP is reporting that Google has filed notice that it believes its $1 billion )5%( investment in Time Warner's AOL unit is a dud. [Google told] the Securities and Exchange Commission that the 5 percent AOL stake that it bought in 2005 "may be impaired.

First let me tell you that I am not a big online video viewer. When I allow myself to get sucked into the world of YouTube I will look for things like obscure music video from the way back machine. It's the stuff that could only rarely be seen before the internet made everything seem normal and commonplace.  That's fun for a bit but after I have let 30 minutes slip by without doing anything other than staring at the screen I feel a bit useless. Well,

Google Insights for Search is like candy for Internet marketers fascinated with Google. It will surely lead to hours of searching and plotting. We are very interested in getting more information about how, why, and when people search the web. Google Trends was already useful but Google Insights gives much more information. If you run a paid search campaign, or if you're looking for ideas for a press release, or figuring out where the bulk of your customers come from,

Last March Google acquired DoubleClick and it's affiliate and search marketing arm Performics. That sent some chills up the spine of a lot of companies who saw it as a conflict of interest. Today it was announced that Google is selling a part of Performics, to Publicis Groupe , one of the top four global advertising companies. Just this June Google rebranded Performics to the "Google Affiliate Network" but seemed to have done little else with the division.

The big news in Raleigh, NC? The daytime high for this weekend is expected to be 84F! Time to grab a scarf! Here are today's delectable Picks: Google Search Appliance gets bigger, better , stores 10M docs in a box. Google launches free music service in China - when does the US get this? Yahoo to update shareholder vote after error-although outcome won't change. Google pushing software to low-cost Linux PCs. Google engineer hits street for marriage proposal 2.0 .

Google has announced the latest iteration in its quest to provide more analytics- Google Insights . Building on the recent updates to Google Trends, Insights offers better filtering, related keywords, keywords with "rising" popularity, and a global heat map. It's a smorgasbord of data. Google claims Google Insights is' "'a new product designed with the advertiser in mind.

If you're an avid Google user, you may wish to read this post sitting down. Chris Brogan documents the sorry tale of Nick Saber's complete and utter denial by Google. After returning from lunch, Saber was unable to access his Gmail, Google Talk, Google Docs, or Picasa-and he was a paying Google customer! When he tried to log in, he saw this message: Sorry, your account has been disabled. [?] When he contacted Google he received this reply: Thank you for your report.

Today is you last chance to register for my Online Reputation Management Workshop taking place this Thursday. I hope you can join me, but if not, I hope you'll enjoy today's Picks. Google is being sued for patent infringement over the way it tracks Adsense clicks. Of the 3.9 billion searches conducted in the UK in June, Google received 75.3% of them ! At least one major Yahoo investor is questioning the validity of last week's shareholder vote .

Some people get on my case because I don't follow everyone on Twitter, who follows me. Well, for one thing, I'd never keep up with 3000+ Tweeple, but I also live by my mantra of building meaningful relationships with social media-I don't care about any popularity contest . Well, there's another reason why you-and I-should think twice before we add a friend to Twitter.

You may not remember Friendster . It was the leading social network, back when people didn't really use social networks. It made a few mistakes and let MySpace, Facebook, and just about everyone else, steal its lunch money. Well, while dead to US audiences, Friendster has maintained strong growth among Asian countries. The last time I read about Friendster, investors weren't too interested in a failed start-up that was targeting a non-US audience. Well,