As diehard readers of Signal know, I tend to ignore the latest Apple product announcement, figuring you all have heard enough (and it hasn’t even happened…yet). But what I have noticed is a lot of Google in the news recently, reminding us all of how large the company looms in all things Internet. To the links:

Google Places vs Facebook Places: It’s Search vs. Social (TNW) It’s worth reading this comparison to stay up to speed on the two giant’s “Places” plays.

Companies Google Has Acquired (Volcanic) Fun graphic.

Online publishers: growing the display advertising pie (Google Blog) “We believe that the new technology we’re developing to make display advertising work better will help to grow the display advertising pie for all publishers, by orders of magnitude.” Well my, that’s something. It’s already in the billions, Google. My, my, my.

Facebook’s Latest Patent Targets Search Behaviors (Mashable) Did I not tell you yesterday of Facebook’s search plans? The patent is for “ranking search results based on the frequency of clicks on the search results by members of a social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation.”

Cover Story (Boston Globe) Who knew, the first book was not the Bible, but…a grammar pamphlet? Lessons from the last massive shift in media, applied to today.

With Content Marketing, You Get What You Pay For (MarketingProfs) The headline pretty much says it all. Content marketing is all the rage right now, and for good reason. It’s not about content, per se, it’s about who makes the content, and for whom, under what premise. In other words,publishing.

Amazon’s cloud platform still the largest, but others are closing the gap (ORR) Interesting to see growth of cloud services (a Point of Control) through lens of job postings.

Pitfalls that could derail your branded apps (iMedia) Solid if pedestrian advice.

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The FM program of the day is taking a day or so off.

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Today’s Signal is a mish mosh – this is the week a lot of us go on vacation, and it’s showing. No themes? How can it be?! No Apple announcements, no scandals? Well, every story below is (literally) hand picked, and each has something to say. So to the links, shall we?

Are You Being Served? (New Yorker) Don’t let your attention wander, folks. Focus on your customers, the ones you have now.

Cannibalize Business Development by Popularizing your API [Voices] (Hunch via ATD) Mark my words: If you are a marketer, and you are not thinking about APIs, you either A/ will be soon or B/Will be working with someone who is, and who will probably have your job soon.

On Retargeting: Fix The Conversation (Searchblog) My thoughts on a growing practice, with some thoughtful comments.

Cable Loses Ground, TV Numbers Gain and Six Other Numbers From the Past Week (AdAge) I love numbers like these.

Radical Opacity (Tech Review) Interesting profile of 4chan, which you should know about if you don’t. You can thank me at the cocktail party.

There, I Said It: Screw Viral Videos (AdAge) And in a few years, someone is going to saw “There, I said it: Screw Apps!” Most likely, someone who is a professional creator of apps.

Arcade Fire’s Experimental New Video Shows What’s Possible with HTML5 (Mashable) I like me some Arcade Fire, and HTML5 is clearly a major point of control so…happy coincidence. Well, not really, given Google made this happen…

Facebook “Like Farms” Are Spamming Up Your News Feed (BI) Welcome to the world of search, Facebook. Gird yourself.

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The FM program of the day is Gillette’s Art of Manliness content series. Tres Masculine.

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Believe it or not, it’s a rather slow weekend for news here in Internet Industry Land. So I’m going to lead with something I and a select group of nuts have spent a lot of time on this past few months – a map of our industry’s territories. Special thanks to the group that gathered in my garage to help me fashion this months ago….Check it out, and let me know what you think. To the links….

Points of Control, The Map (Web 2 Summit Blog) Where we launch a fun map laying out the topography of our industry. Check it out and have fun with it. I’m hoping it’s the first iteration of many.

Is Google Objective? (Searchblog) In which I ask the question and get a good response.

Introducing @clickabit (bit.ly blog) Fun with data! Find out what’s hot on search with the Google Beat (Google Blog) More fun with data!

Foursquare Surpasses 3 Million User Registrations (Mashable) That’s inflection folks. I wrote about this two years ago w/r/t Twitter.

Open-Facebook Competitor Diaspora Sets Sept. 15 Launch Date (Wired) Long odds, no doubt. But interesting.

‘Chief Listeners’ Use Technology to Track, Sort Company Mentions (AdAge) But do they have any influence? (The listeners, I mean!)

Zuckerberg: “Guess What? Nobody Wants To Make Lists.” (TC) Yep, it’s insanely complicated. So deal with it and fix it!

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The FM program of the day is the Verizon Dooce Partnership Conversationalist.

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The news today, limited as it is, seems to focus on how Google can’t beat Facebook (despite, of course, having more profits in a quarter than Facebook has revenues in a year). My take is that a company yet to be named will beat them all, but then again, that’s easy to say in this industry. To the links:

Say You, Say (Google) Me–When Will the Search Giant Get Social Graces? (ATD) If only it were that easy. This is a DNA question. Perhaps a more interesting question is “When will the social giant get search graces”? Answer: Soon.

Why Google Has No Game (GigaOm) Rifkin’s latest. “Google’s playing a game of ChaseBook.” Classic. Read this. I am sure Google would debate the points, but they are, well, pointed.

Google makes bold move to battle Skype (CNN) Apparently, Google does have game in comms.

On Facebook, Brands, and Web Properties (JG) Indeed. Why do brands always fail to be true publishers, and instead outsource their audiences to others? Oh, right, because that’s what they’ve always done. Time to wake up, folks.

Facebook’s Not So Neutral Ad Policy (TNW) Well, if I were Facebook, I’d probably not want to get jumped on by rabid special interests either.

LivingSocial, Groupon’s Biggest Competitor, Now Gets More Web Traffic Than Groupon (SAI) Does this industry move fast enough for you? Sheesh.

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The FM program of the day is Kohler H20Visions.

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Sometimes we miss the point. Or we get too involved in what we do. Look, I blog, a fair amount. So do a lot of folks. But really, what are we doing? Allow me to advance a point of view: That blogging, such that it is, is about offering a strong point of view to a community on topics that matter to that community, in a form of communication that resonates.

In other words, we’re publishers. To the links:

Social Me Me Me Me Me Media (Louis Gray) Why, yes, “blogging is the foundation in a world of streams“. But let me put it another way: Valuable point of view, well stated, is the foundation of conversations. OK?! Let’s not get confused by the term “blogging,” shall we?

Topsy Wants to Redesign Search, Starting with Twitter (GigaOm) In case you’re wondering (I doubt you are, but…), I think Twitter is an important search player, but it’s just not become apparent, yet. Topsy agrees.

Top 5 Ways Big Brands are Using Foursquare (Mashable) I’m sort of stunned how fast “big brands” are moving into location as a key signal.  Well done, Big Brands! Now, go make some honest mistakes, please!

Update: Groupon’s Andrew Mason on Clones, the Gap and Mugging Larry Page! (ATD) Andrew will be at Web 2 this year.

MyTown hits 3.1 million users (intoMobile) This service keeps surging, and gets none of the Foursquare love. But watch it.

Good-bye “What’s Next”, hello “What’s Now” (Simon Waring) Pay attention to the most important signal: What your customers are saying to you. (Thanks, Knud).

Article: What Will Hulu’s IPO Mean for Advertisers? (eMarketer) Well, usually it means rates go up!

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The FM program of the day is the Sprint EVO “First to Know” series on Mashable.

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I’d be stretching it to find a theme to today’s Signal links, so why don’t we just get on with it, already? Happy last week of August….to the links:

The dirty little secret about Google Android )ZdNet) A very important piece, to my mind, about what happens when you sleep with those who have business models opposite to yours.

$50 Tablet Prototype Promises Low-Cost Computing in India (Wired)

Thnks Fr Th Mmrs: The Rise Of Microblogging, The Death Of Posterity (TC) I must disagree. I love Twitter and especially Foursquare, as pointed reminders of stuff I simply would never have bothered to record otherwise. I don’t think the musings of a professional diarist apply to most of us.

Viral Graphic: What If Solar Power Grew as Fast as Facebook? (Also Its Places Video!) (ATD) We can dream. I mean, man, do we need a “solar” or “wind” Facebook right now. Badly.

Twitter Hires Fox Audience Network’s Bain As Revenue Head (PaidContent) Nice pickup, Twitter, and congrats, Adam!

A Response to Privacy Concerns (WSJ via Romenesko) Long story, but a friend and former colleague pointed out the WSJ’s conflict of interest in its ongoing coverage of privacy and marketing issues, and the response is tepid at best.

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The FM program of the day is Open Forum, because it’s just that good.

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Exciting news today at FM: We’re acquiring powerful semantic-search technology from TextDigger, and four key people from TextDigger are joining the FM team.   Search tools that understand the meaning of words will make our conversational-marketing executions even more powerful and allow us to create great new products for FM’s marketers and authors.

Being able to welcome Tim Musgrove, Robin Hiroko Walsh, Peter Ridge and Jim Hull to FM makes it even better!

There’s more in the coverage from VentureBeat, MediaWeek, PaidContent and TechCrunch, and the press release is here.

A shortened Signal to start the slow last week of August, I’m back from vacation,  in body anyway, and in mind I’m sure I’ll come around in the next day or so. Meanwhile, the weekend did bring some news…

Federated Media Buys Semantic Profiling Technology From TextDigger (TC) Why would FM do this? Well, as the company that created “conversational marketing and media” concept, acquiring a linguistic/semantic technology platform just…makes sense. More soon.

Facebook Feels Unfriendly Toward Film It Inspired (NYT) Truth is a slippery eel, ain’t it. Whether you are Facebook, or…someone on Facebook.

Forecast: More Digital-Media IPOs Coming (PC) Yeah, who said that? Who? When? (Me. January…)

The Future of Internet Search (Dyson) Nothing earth shattering here but worth a read to refresh your synapses.

What Happens When Facebook Trumps Your Brand Site? (AdAge) Interesting chart (above).

Buzz Kill (Laporte) Leo goes back to blogging. Interesting.

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Today’s Signal is brought to you by sleep. As in, I better get some, work looms in the morning….sorry it’s so short, but I flew all day and just got in.

If it suits your information consumption goals, sign up for Signal’s email newsletter on the Signal home page (upper right box). You’ll get an exclusive, email only weekly roundup of Signal to boot.