Hey, in reply to Danny Sullivan's note about Google having and then not having a strategy: not having a strategy IS having a strategy. Hope that helps!

By the way, I doubt Google is building what everyone is thinking they are building. Here's what I'm hearing: don't look for them to build a building. Look for them to build bricks. Once they have a bunch of bricks, then they'll look to put those bricks together in an interesting way.

If you are thinking they are building a building, like a house, then you'll be frustrated with their "strategy." If you are, though, like me, and are watching them build bricks and other construction pieces, then you can really see their strategy (or, lack of strategy) evolve.

Steve Rubel is reporting that CNBC Squawk Box has launched an MSN Spaces blog.

Blake Ross, one of the developers on Firefox, is really pissed about Stanford University's school newspaper. He says they are gaming Google in a disgusting way.

Yesterday I had an interesting experience: I had a conversation with a bunch of Microsoft's lawyers about blogging. They invited me over to speak to their little mini-conference.

We always hear about when lawyers lay down the law inside corporations, but you rarely get to hear about how they listen and learn to others.

One thing I came away from: they get blogging. Another thing? They are actually pretty nice people. They read blogs, they love blogs, and they want us to do more of them. But, they also know there are some sizeable risks. One of the lawyers, after the talk, told me that he thinks I will get sued someday.

He doesn't know why, or how, or when, but he knows that the risk of talking out in public when identified as an employee of a large company is so high in today's society that it's just a matter of time before it happens in his opinion. I hope it's a long time (the last thing I want to do is have to spend time in a courtroom), but it says a whole lot that Microsoft is taking that legal risk in stride and letting us talk about business pretty darn openly.

Yes, I did ask them to blog. I wish they would (and I told them they are welcome on Channel 9 anytime), it would be a fascinating thing to let you peer into their world (but that world isn't friendly to lawyers who talk in public, which makes it really difficult for them to do a blog or come on Channel 9). Yesterday, I gained a whole new respect for what they do and the crud they have to put up with.

Speaking of lawyers and blogs and all that, we're almost finished with the chapter on guidelines, FAQs, ethics, etc for our book. Hopefully we'll have it up soon.

Yes, Steve Gillmor, I saw you called me a bunny. Very funny, says this bunny. And, yes, Dave, I like it!

I sure feel like a bunny hopping around the country in the past month. I've seen enough of airports lately. But, more ahead, cause next weekend we'll be going to Europe. It's my first time in Denmark and UK and we can't wait.

Oh, geez, just wait until my wife sees Steve's new name for me. She already calls me her "goof." Now she's gonna call me her "goofy bunny." Steve, you are gonna pay for this! Watch out when you sit on the red couch! ;-)

Update: you'd think I'd know where I am going, but I just corrected this entry. We're going to the UK and Denmark.

Dave's having problems with Spyware. Sigh. I hate this crud. I can't wait until we have a permanent answer to this (yes, one is coming, and no it doesn't involve buying a Macintosh). Dave, have you tried Microsoft's Antispyware program? That's really good and has been quite successful in cleaning off my friend's machines.

Second, since putting in place my "layers of security" on my other friends' computers they no longer get Spyware. I've done it on quite a few computers. Trick? Turn off admin mode. That seems to be the thing that really lets the crud take hold. It's drastic, yes, and folks hate it, but since doing that on my friends' computers I haven't gotten any "clean my machine off" calls.

By the way, I have visited more than 4,000 different Websites since January and I haven't gotten any spyware. Just WHAT kind of sites are you hanging out on, Dave? ;-) And why are you surfing with scripting turned on in administrator mode?

I'm not planning on being on stage at Gnomedex, but something I own will be: my Red Couch. Seriously. Maryam and I just gave Chris Pirillo permission to use it on stage to hold conversations on.

Damn, that couch is gonna have some famous geeks sit on it.

Oh, and I hear there's some interesting stuff that'll be announced at Gnomedex too.

Me? I'll be giving a "barnote" at 1 a.m. in the ZigZag. Maybe Robert Hess will be there (it's his favorite bar in Seattle and he knows something about the topic since he does the Drinkboy website).

By the way, I haven't done anything else yet on the camping trip. If it still will happen I'll have to find a camping spot this week. I do know that it'll have to happen after Gnomedex now. Is anyone still interested in that?

I was talking with Julie Leung and we might try to get something going in a spot over on Bainbridge Island. It wouldn't be spectacular like a campout in the Olympics or Mount Rainier, but then it'd be a lot closer to Seattle so more people could join in.

Ideas are welcomed!

Oh, and happy Memorial Day weekend!

Hello from San Rafael, CA. We're here for the weekend. Gonna be in Petaluma tomorrow. The Sheraton has free wifi and we rented a killer brand new Lincoln LS from Hertz (costs only $10 more a day, Maryam finds the best rates on this stuff, I'll try to get her on soon to tell you where she finds the best travel deals).

Heh, folks are arguing about feeds all over the Internet. Darren Rowse has the best of the threads where they are arguing it out. Darren, I never said anything about your feeds cause I never knew anything about it. I've had a lot of people at conferences come up to me and say that they'll never say anything about it, but they hate excerpt feeds too, which is why I'm so stringent about it. Mark Jen is trying to do some market research about how people use feeds.

Oh, and Mark, yes, Microsoft workers are obsessed with their email. I have not found another company that is so email centric. The team I'm on got so swamped with email at all hours of the night and day that everyone decided on an "email truce" where we wouldn't send email to each other after 7 p.m. at night or on Sundays. That was nice, hope we can keep that going.

Update: the Blog Herald, er, Duncan Reilly, has an interesting thread on the feed issue too.