Missing links for 2009-04-20

I can't really trust switching back on auto-link posting from Delicious until I'm sure I'm going to be around to monitor that it is working OK, and today I'm rather busy getting ready to present at tonight's London IA Mini Conference. So in the meantime, here is a round-up of what I bookmarked over the weekend.

• Mute Bank - Product Information on Sounds Of The Universe (Deluxe Box Set Edition)
  My Depeche Mode box set has arrived. It includes a 'certificate of authenticity'. My wife's comment was "What does it say? Well done mullet for spending 60 quid on something you'd already downloaded for free?"
• BBC news mess up Footie results | Phil Bradley's weblog
  Here's one for all you conspiracy theorists about which teams the BBC shows bias towards...
• Spotlight – E-readers | JP Digital Digest
  Very thorough overview of the e-reader scene, with a 2001 reference that I failed to pick up in my recent blog post on the futuristic predictions of the movie.
• Starving for a newspaper fix? Let them eat Kindles | yelvington.com
  Steve with the maths behind the switch to electronic ink: "I don't expect magic".
• Peter Preston: As the web cripples papers, an internet licence fee could help deliver the news | Media | The Observer
  I think there are a couple of massively flawed assertions in this article, not least of which is arguing that the situation "is a particular British bind because the BBC's overarching influence makes it so". Mmm, you've seen Paper Cuts, right?
• The OU on iPlayer (Err? Sort of not...) « OUseful.Info, the blog
  Tony Hirst on how BBC, BBC channel and BBC iPlayer branding obliterates the chance that the Open University has of getting credit for content online. Another useful link for when I eventually get around to writing my definitive response to anyone who argues "and you don't need a DOG because we always know exactly what channel we are watching or we can press the 'x' button on our remote control / Sky box / TV / digital watch" etc etc...
• Blog Commenting for SEO | Search Engine People | David Leonhardt
  David Leonhardt writes a blog post that I've been meaning to do for some time. Only he left out all the swearing...Best tip on trying to leave comments for SEO benefit: "Before commenting, take a look at what other comments have been approved and make sure you conform to the convention of the blog (just as you would look around how other people act at a wine and cheese or a church basement gathering). Then make sure you exceed what you see, as a new contributor, both in quality of your comment and in avoiding a spammy signature link that might get your comment deleted if the blogger is having a grumpy day."
• Thoughts of Nigel: Steve Richards on blogs-they follow the fashion
  "Yet he giveth with one hand and taketh with the other. He says that Guido has an easy job as he follows the fashion". I've long held the theory that the reason the UK political blogosphere has seemingly produced the most successful blogs from the right is all to do with the culture of being in opposition.
• The assault on UK freedom | Wordblog
  "The picture quickly emerges of a state which has little regard for personal liberty or of the freedom of the press". A depressing read.
• Using Tag Seeding to Create Optimized Pages | The Google Cache
  "You could simply include all of the terms returned by the API, but we like to go one step further. In our system, we assume that single words are unrankable or, more likely than not, without value. Our system only stores multiple-word keyphrases extracted by Yahoo. These long-tail keywords are more likely to rank assuming they can only rely upon the existing PageRank flow on your site. We also make sure that each term is included in at least 3 different pages on our site. The last thing we want is a ton of tag pages that only show 1 result". Very interesting way of getting juice out of content.