Looking to siphon off YellowPages revenues, local search portal CitySearch will soon add pay-per-click ads to local searches. The ads will be sold by 100 on-the-street sales representatives, a telephone sales force of 30 and a web form.

I’ve never used CitySearch… do they have any credibility? Would seem to me that sites with exciting brands and personal affinity — either national like Google or local like LAexaminer or Gawker — would do much better.

And won’t the local plumber hire a high school kid to spend all night clicking on his rival’s ad?

We went for a walk yesterday in the woods at the notch. Even though the snow is still two feet deep, the sun and temperate breeze convinced us that spring is near. We listened to the creek gurgling beneath the ice. Breezes knocked puffs of snow off pine bows and down our necks.

Last night, we watched Amherst trounce Southern Vermont 84-60, to advance to the NCAA division III round of 16.

The comments section for this Matt Welch post has an interesting round-up of thumb-waving (up or down) on the Iraq war.

I haven’t played poker in 15 years and got to sub in on a local game last night. I’d forgotten how much fun it is. I was down to just a few chips and then won three hands in a row, coming out a chip or two ahead. Flushes are good, right? Several of the guys there also read this blog… guys, say hello to 600 million people!

The terror and beauty of 21st century life.

Jeff Jarvis, populist and publisher, considers the recent news that Dr. Pepper has concocted some murky scheme to incent bloggers to create buzz for its weird new milk drink. Jarvis offers this advice: buy blogads. “You won’t find a cheaper CPM anywhere! And just the act of buying a real ad on a weblog will get people to talking about your product (if you’re first on the block to try this trick).” Merci Jeff!

Here’s a cool blog designed by blogger (and Blogads seller) Emmanuelle Richard to help 50 French freelancers strike against Radio France. Matt Welch offers some commentary in English.

A blog seems like a strong fit for strikers since they’ve got numerous personal tales, a history of grievances and evolving negotiations.

Having studied the forums he runs for his own CMS software, Joel Spolsky has just started a forum focused on on New York. It be interesting to watch this grow, since Joel has a passionate readership and forum usership.

And in his latest “JoelonSoftware,” Joel shares all sorts of interesting theories about what makes forums work.

Talking about why his forums are so simplistic, Joel writes: “In the early days of the Joel on Software forum, achieving a critical mass to get the conversation off the ground was important to prevent the empty restaurant phenomenon (nobody goes into an empty restaurant, they’ll always go into the full one next door even if it’s totally rubbish.) Thus a design goal was to eliminate impediments to posting. That’s why there’s no registration and there are literally no features, so there’s nothing to learn.”

He adds, that registration, “so easy to implement and thus so tempting to programmers, is the best way to kill dead any young forum. Implement this feature and you may never get to critical mass. Philip Greenspun’s LUSENET has this feature and you can watch it sapping the life out of young discussion groups.”

Great stuff.

College town slums.

Oh, gee, this is gonna be fun. Doctor Pepper is introducing a new milk-based soft drink via some secret bloggers.

“Dr Pepper hopes to develop a ‘blogging network’ to hype Raging Cow and ‘be part of the ‘in the know’ crowd,” says its brand-marketing honcho Andrew Springate. Those spreading the news via their blogs won’t disclose their flackitude, says Springate, because officially they’re not paid Dr Pepper employees; they only get promo items like hats and T shirts. ‘We’re independent and can advertise Raging Cow the way we want,’ says Nicole, 18, a Louisiana high-school senior with a popular blog.

Wouldn’t it be simpler and more effective to buy some killer Blogads? I guess Andrew Springate wouldn’t have a job, though. (Via Instapundit.)

Ken Layne revels in the police blotter for Sparks, Nevada, “done in a dark narrative style.” Here in Amherst, things are lighter. Every week we’ve got at least one or two loud, unexplained noises, rabid raccoons, people who “check out OK,” dogs that bark but are gone by the time the public defenders arrive. I’ll find a few and post ’em.
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OK… I’m back. Some fender benders, a loud band, a stolen cell phone… ahh, here we go…

“A person or animal was reported stuck in the ice on Cranberry Pond Feb.20 at 2.56 P.M. Police wehn to the pond and found the object to be a hay bail.” And, “A River Road resident was advised not to snowblow snow into the road.” And, under the “Suspicious Activity” heading, “Sidewalks were reported unshoveled on Amity Street. Police said the sidewalks appeared to be clear of snow.” And here’s one of our “Disturbances:” “A West Street woman requested assistance in removed (sic) someone from the home with whom she was arguing. She later called back to say the problem had been settled.”