The Internet is a big place; It can be a scary place too. That said, there is a lot of good that takes place on the Internet. Blogs can be great tools, site like MyFamily.com and Geni bring families and people together. Social media sites also bridge gaps and dissolve physical distances and borders, sometimes.

So, the Internet can be a very useful resource. It can also be used for bad, and that’s where we as responsible adults and parents need to step in and help our kids make good, well-informed choices on the Internet. The nice thing is a lot of the big entities on the Web are helping us do this job by providing guidelines galore and privacy features in most if not all social networking sites.

Google recently made a great post about using common sense online. It’s worth reading the post as well as visiting Google’s U.S. partner in Web safety education, commonsensemedia.org.

This is really a topic that can’t be put off by responsible adults. I hope to post more on this down the road.

Engadget joked that this is one you kind of wish was one of those realistic-looking Photoshopped images — it’s not.

But wait, there’s more …

Okay, confession, for whatever reason, I like guns. When I was a kid I had one of those revolving rubberband guns, it should something like 10 rubberbands as fast as you could pull the trigger. Well, again thanks to the Web, here’s a guy that took that simple concept just a little bit further — I know who’s on my team for the rubberband war:

I think I speak for all guys, that rocks!!! I couldn’t leave out the video, you have got to see this thing in action, simply incredible.

[All of these pics and video are courtesy of Engadget]

With anything we write one of the goals is to get people’s attention, headlines are intended to do this in a newspaper. By avoiding what we call editorializing, that’s sharing one’s opinion beyond being objective and credible, writers and editors find catchy ways to get readers’ attention to read stories, even if it’s only the first few sentences of the story, or the lead. Scan the newspaper and see what, by headline alone, catches your attention. By the same token, when writing headlines for your blog posts try to make them catch, you have to think that with the millions of pieces of information available on the Web, if you get your content in front of a potential reader the title or headline is where conversion takes place. Granted, this takes some practice but will ultimately be one major way to get a good strong following from more distant readers (people who may not know you and simply come across or stumble onto your blog).

I was looking at Engadget the other day and this headline just jumped off the page at me,

What a headline, he got the gist of the story across, threw his twist on the story to get my attention and it worked. Compare this with “My thoughts for today” and unless I know you I probably won’t click on your blog to read about your thoughts.

My Two Cents: Although I think that user-generated content is what makes the Web great, I also think we can do a better job overall. Not only will writing more thought-provoking, catchier headlines cast a better light on us the writers, but it could also potentially drive traffic to our site.

Also of note in the report, 40 percent of African Americans have a high-speed Internet connection in the home. According to the Pew Institute, this figure has nearly tripled from the same survey taken in early 2005 (when it was a 14 percent adoption rate).

To read more about broadband Internet adoption from the Pew Institute, click here.

My Two Cents: I guess the Internet is more than just a passing fad. What’s more, it’s getting faster and faster.

A while back I wrote about Meosphere, a Utah-based social networking site that uses lists to build a picture/profile of users, to keep track of and to share their life experiences. One can also use these checklists as a to-do life list. For example, one list might ask you which international airports you’ve been through, once you’ve checked off the 5 or 10 airports you’ve been through you might realize that you’d like to visit more airports (I know that is a weird example, but it takes all kinds to make the world go ’round). The cool thing about Meosphere is that you use the list on the site as your checklist of sorts to track your progress and find other cool things you didn’t yet have on your life list.

Well, in the business world I believe it’s easy to come up with problems and criticisms, what really takes brain power is coming up with solutions. Eric Eliason, Meosphere’s founder and CEO, and his team have got that covered, they’re holding a contest to see who, if given $10,000, can come up with the most creative way to expand his or her meosphere (the plan has to be in 20 words or less). Interested? You can get more details about the contest and enter it here.

My Two Cents: If given $10,000 I’d rent a convertible and cruise Route 66 with my dad, taking in all the sites, eats and just the experience of this classic American hot rod icon.

• It confirms that the things we search for most are actually on the Internet–online services;
• It confirms that consumers want Web access to traditional brick and mortar stores;
• It shows that people are looking for interaction online;
• It may be proof that social networking sites are more than a trend;
• It proves that Yahoo! is more searched than Google–my bet is people are “Googleing” Yahoo!, what an irony.

Here’s the top ten list according to Hitwise:

1. MySpace
2. ebay
3. Yahoo!
4. Mapquest
5. craigslist
6. WalMart
7. Google
8. Target
9. match.com
10. Bank of America

My Two Cents: Does this list represent anything significant? To some degree, I would say yes. The survey was based on data from 10 million Internet users, and although that is a statistically significant number, to be sure we would need to compare lists over the years. At the very least, this list serves as great case studies or best practices for anyone who wants to become successful on the Internet.

My Two Cents: Web 2.0 is still evolving and it behooves us to figure it out before it becomes Web 3.0.

According to Eliason, Meosphere relies on users’ life experiences through various (read: eventually thousands) of lists that can be commented on and shared. Eliason says, “Everyone loves a list,” how true that is. Eliason and Meosphere have just closed a second round of funding, predominantly from Utah angel investors.

In order to participate, users share experiences through lists. One of the goals of the site is to encourage users to “get offline and become immersed in the real world.” In essence, this is the life list of the Web 2.0 social networking movement.

My Two Cents: As much as I tend to cringe at yet another social networking site, this site really make sense. I almost see this as a step up from the blog, which is sort of Journal 2.0. I like the concept because it combines non-computer/indoor experiences with the Internet, I am curious to see if it actually has the power to encourage users to get out of the house or office and experience life and the world. I think if it can pick up the traction, it has potential to become a great site.

The previous three commercials are funny to me. I think a lot of the humor comes because of what is being portrayed combined with Peyton’s down-to-earth personality. (Here is a clip that shows behind the scenes of the final Peyton Manning commercial, watch it and see how they let Peyton be himself.)

My Two Cents: I think that although we will continue to have professional ad agencies, for one reason or another, we, the users, will become more of a presence in the advertising world. In reality, user-generated videos are just an evolution of letting the audience choose what content is in a commercial.

No one is exempt from change; this can be a great threat or strength to any organization. The challenge for the PR Pro is how to deal with change. The advantage depends on the situation; if, for example, you are trying to introduce a new way to travel (read: Segway), you may find some resistance to change, for obvious reasons–price point, tradition, feasibility. On the other hand, if you are introducing a new, less expensive type of gasoline, you will probably have the upper hand from a PR perspective.

The savvy–and probably successful–PR Pro will know how to leverage the message and strategy to use change to his or her advantage. Knowledge and familiarity of key publics, perspective, as well as a handle on history will probably help you most. As an example, when dealing with people, there are some things that just do not change. For one, disclosure and honesty are always good ways to garner support or understanding from key publics, everyone is very familiar with the Johnson & Johnson Tylenol crisis and you probably know why it was considered a landmark PR case study–if not, you might want to catch up.

Even if you’re the PR Director for Google right now, you can leverage your message correctly to use change to your advantage. Talk about how Google has been a catalyst for change and innovation, talk about what Google is doing to stay up with the trends and times. Bottom line: the good PR Pro will always look for ways to keep a good PR message out there. With the speed of information exchange at an all-time high, today it is better said: no news is bad news! You have to keep your publics informed or they’ll turn elsewhere for that info.

My Two Cents: Look at change as an opportunity to be creative, innovative. Look at it as a chance to shine, the more you do, the more successful you’ll be.