I run into lot of people who confuse web reporting with web analytics.

Here is what I heard from one marketing manager when I asked her if she had a web analyst on staff – "Yes we hired somebody, she knows XYZ web analytics tool so I am all set, she will be pulling the data for us."

A year ago, the two companies were reportedly in talks about a merger, but those conversations were dismissed as rumors and speculation. Well, here’s Microsoft and Yahoo 2.0.

One of Brad Garlinghouse’s ‘Peanut Butter Manifesto’ consolidation wishes is coming true, in a way, as Yahoo will be closing down its Photos service in favor of Flickr.

Fewer clicks led to more conversions when outdoor outfitter Cabela’s made a change that SEO pros should recognize, and businesses should employ.

AOL changed their strategy last year by shifting from a subscription-based service to offering most of their services and content for free. In doing so they focused their energies on advertising.

Once the largest Internet provider they now have 12 million subscribers, trailing Comcast who has 12. 1 million and AT&T who is the biggest provider with 12.9 million customers.

Talk about mixed emotions. I like Barack Obama – at least, as seen on TV – and just when I started to like him more because of a letter he sent to Democratic National Convention Chair Howlin’ Howard Dean urging him to put debate video under public license, the Washington Post reports his campaign officers butting his biggest fan out of MySpace.

Google Reader is taking another step forward, and it’s holding Gmail’s hand as it does so.  Thanks to a new feature, users can now “share something you find in Reader with someone who doesn’t use a feed reader at all.”

To put an underscore on the Silverlight vs. Flash battle, last night there were several Web video startups that presented at the SF New Tech! Live shindig. I think all of them are using Flash. Will Silverlight start to show up? You can watch last night’s proceedings too on Veodia. Funny enough, they aren’t using Flash.

If you are already a Movable Type or HTML expert, this post is not for you.  But many fellow bloggers who are Typepad users (but not programming saavy) asked how I created my Social Media Bio and how they might do the same.  For all of you that asked, here is how I hacked mine together – using a bare minimum of coding knowledge and mostly using the tools that already exist within Typepad:

Google and Volkswagen have been pals for over a year, but that once-pure relationship appears to have recently devolved into a criminal partnership.  It turns out that the Volkswagen home page – which is powered by a Google Search Appliance, and was also recently featured in the Google Enterprise Blog – contains some hidden text.