links for 2007-05-17

Mayor/Governor Moonbeam (Jerry Brown) has started a blog.  The Christian Science Monitor examines what this means. (Thanks to Jim Horton for pointing out this story.)

Over in the UK, text messaging is taking on new importance as a way to communicate with the parents of school children.  From LeedsToday.net: FOR 27,000 parents, a reminder of an upcoming teacher training day, or a message that a school trip is returning late, could soon arrive instantly by text message thanks to Leeds-based…

Kari Chisholm offers this: "Governing Magazine has a great discussion of the role that blogs are playing during the Texas legislative session"

CustomScoop is currently testing a free online clipping service covering news, blogs and more.  It is based on the same technology that powers the paid CustomScoop service.  This new product, called Personal Edition, offers similar functionality without all the bells and whistles that the subscription product has.  It has also been designed to take advantage…

Audi A3 camboomo! Blog ads turn out to be better value than Yahoo banners for Audi. (tags: Advertising Blogs) Matthew Hurst wonders where Technorati’s professiona product is? Announced for August release, nothing yet seen. (tags: Blogs MediaMonitoring) American Idol Comes to Internet Ad Campaigns Why shouldn’t online marketers let the public choose the star of…

PaidContent reports that Google is exploring creating a financial vertical, perhaps along the lines of Yahoo! Finance. Supposedly they are in an exploratory stage and have had meetings with many data vendors.