Big retailers aren’t the place to go to for really interesting stuff.  Instead, try visiting some antique stores or small shops, where you might find that sort of thing a piece at a time.  But – stay with me here – if “interesting” stuff is usually found in small places, what chance does a gigantic corporation have of keeping that trait as part of its culture?

In a presentation at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition in San Jose, Gary Briggs, chief marketing officer at eBay said online retailers should think more outside the box.

“eBay Says Online Retailers Need To Innovate”

I may have spoken too soon yesterday, lauding the freedom of the press in America, contrasting it with Venezuelan President Chavez’ takeover of the airwaves. I didn’t speak out of turn, however, when sharing a sincere appreciation for the power of YouTube.

Amazon’s got its fingers in a little bit of everything these days, and it may soon have them in Netflix, as well.  This information has been very clearly marked as a rumor, and yet some heads are nodding, and Netflix’s stock price is rising.

Lycos has released their list of the 50 most popular Internet search results for the week ending June 1, 2007.

This isn’t about FeedDemon or Google buying Feedburner. But it is about RSS.

When a homeless person says something, not many people listen.  When your average middle-class person speaks, he (or she) might, at best, be able to get on the local news.  But when Google talks, nothing short of Congress itself is ready to pay attention, and that was the case as Laszlo Bock laid out his company’s case for more H-1B visas.

Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson (also the editor of “The Long Tail: Why The Future of Business Is Selling Less of More”) was in Singapore last week for the Media Leaders Series and his Long Tail theory has put paid to Vilfredo Pareto’s 80:20 rule.

An except from the Long Tail reveals how pervasive the Long Tail is, and how it put the 80:20 rule on its head.

Meeting Ecast CEO Robbie Vann-Adib, Anderson is asked what percent of the top selling 10,000 digital music tracks are sold or rented at least once a month.

Jupitermedia has purchased AdsofTheWorld.com and CreativeBits.org. Both Web sites offer user-generated content for design communities and have one million unique monthly visitors combined.

Speaking of Search Engine Strategies Toronto, did you know that Incisive Media now hosts half-day and full-day training sessions – intensive workshops on special topics to bring you fully up to speed – the day prior to the SES conferences?

Google executive Chris Saaca just helped identify a shooter. The shooting happened right outside his San Francisco apartment. I had dinner with Chris a few weeks ago and he told me about seeing the aftermath of a pedestrian getting hit (not a story I wish to repeat, it wasn’t pretty). Darn a lot happens outside Chris’ window!

TechMeme really wants to be Google News, it seems. I see less and less blogs on TechMeme lately and more and more “professional news.”

People returning to their feedreaders after the SMX conference and elsewhere found new AdSense policy changes awaiting them.

Google has updated its Webmaster Guidelines to include definitions of commonly used terms for shady practices and clearer language about the penalties associated with black and gray hat SEO tactics.

Google’s focusing a lot on some international markets as of late, including China, South Korea, and India.  But those countries are grouped together in Asia, and this latest expansion comes in the Middle East; Google opened a regional office in Cairo.

A post from Rand Fishkin from SEOMoz says that Incisive Media (guys who run Search Engine Strategies) wants to introduce a speaker exclusivity agreement.

This week everyone seems to be talking about the debate between Shoemoney and SEOmoz following Rand Fishkin’s post last week about disclosing paid blog recommendations. This continued when Shoemoney and Rand Fiskin discussed their opinions today on Net Income.