In an earlier post, I highlighted my recent adoption of Google Reader as my new RSS viewer of choice. I now rely on Google Reader to skim the Web for me, and to return articles from sites I often frequent. One of the most interesting and useful features of Google Reader is the ability to share articles, with a single click. Now, all day long, when I read new stories I find interesting, I just click "Share", and they are automatically added to a live feed, which you can access here.

Now, rather than writing entire blog entries that are simply a collection of links, highlighting what I found interesting, Google Reader does all of the hard work for me, presenting to you a cross-section of politics, sports, technology, news and anything I find interesting. Might be worth a bookmark for you, or you can add it to your RSS reader, whether you use Google Reader or anything else.

Listening to ''Dominica'', by Thomas Penton (Play Count: 2)

Cross-posted at Athletics Nation

Fresh off Blez's note this morning that Thomas was rumored to have been wooed by the Texas Rangers, media reports, including ESPN, the Mercury News, and the San Francisco Chronicle, are reporting that the Toronto Blue Jays are on the verge of completing a deal that would see the Big Hurt leave Oakland.

A's GM Billy Beane, in response to inquiries from the Mercury News, said that Frank was likely going to get an offer from Toronto, before calling the A's and asking them to match it. I'm sure a great many of us here on AN, including myself, are hoping this is part of a play for leverage, and not a real desire on Frank's part to either leave town or put on a white and blue jersey to hit bombs in the Rogers Centre...

Some of the very best books on marketing and public relations I've read in the last few years have come from the desks of either Al Ries or Jack Trout, including "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind", "Marketing Warfare", "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" and "The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR". Anybody in the business familiar with customer options, market trends and the battle to make noise in a crowded field will find themselves nodding along through the books' pages - seeing example after example prove their points. As a result, I was eager to read "Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competititon", which Trout issued in 2001 - recent enough to be relevant, but older enough to be amusing, where he managed to get things wrong.

While I again found myself nodding when Trout retold the stories of how GM confused its market, and lost ground against more agile competition, again saw the example of Volvo meaning safety and BMW meaning driving in consumers' minds, I was hoping that this book would "differentiate" itself from all those that preceded it. But it didn't. After getting the message right away that there are more products and line extensions than ever, and that marketing teams need to find those characteristics of their company and products that separate it from the competition, it was the same tired examples that were trotted out in this  book that Trout had used in each of his other books, including his advice that Burger King present itself as the grown-up burger as the alternative to McDonalds, or that Coke had blundered when it changed its tagline from "The Real Thing".

Truth be told, some of the best parts of the book were his comments on Web companies in the era of Web 1.0, where he said DrKoop.com would rise above other health sites thanks to his branding, and that eToys would win in online toy shopping. What a difference a few years makes...

Maybe I shouldn't expect that business and marketing advice books such as these can all be read - in the same way I would consume every John Grisham book and Steven King novel. Maybe Jack Trout only has a few dozen stories, and by repackaging them with a new title on the cover is his way of differentiation, but I was hoping that by paying full price for a new book, I would be getting a full book's worth of new stories, examples and advice.

If you haven't read any of Trout's books, "Differentiate or Die" is a good one to start with. If you've already read "Positioning" and "Marketing Warfare", then you've pretty much already read this.

Thanks to a string of corporate events year after year, I've racked up hundreds of thousands of miles on United Airlines, boosted by consistent spending on my United Visa. United just happens to be default for me when I consider flying, and it will take a magnificent price difference to get me to switch. As we know, old habits die hard.

So when I found a round-trip flight from San Jose to Tampa, Florida would cost me over $1,000 on United, and just over $300 to take Delta, we switched, despite the fact I would need to catch 7 a.m. flights on both ends of the trip. So yesterday, I dragged myself out of bed by 4:00 a.m. and, eyes bleary, drove through the darkness to make my way to an unfamiliar terminal. Already grumpy, thanks to the damage to my sleep, our near-draconian security measures at the checkpoint forced me to give up the basics, including my shampoo, shaving cream and toothpaste. Brilliant. As if I were going to foam up my hands or threaten to make a fellow passenger minty fresh...

But I made it on the plane. Originally planning to sleep or read, I found that the jet was equipped with in-seat TV monitors, where I could watch our progress across the nation, or choose from a small selection of films for entertainment. For $5, I watched "Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby," slipping the flight attendant a Lincoln to gain access to 2 hours of Will Ferrell. While the show wasn't the best I'd ever seen, it was fun, and entertaining, from the California/Nevada border all the way through Arkansas. Best of all, I didn't need to strain my neck around other passengers to see it on a far-away monitor, and simply used my iPod earbuds to get the sound, rather than reaching into my seat pocket to get industrial headphones and wondering who had borrowed them before me.

The seats on the Delta flight were comfortable, and luckily, we didn't have anybody sitting in the middle seat. Just me, an empty chair, and another passenger, by the window. After so many cattle calls on United, this was much preferred, though I could give credit for that to the early flight time as much as the airline.

Was it enough to get me to switch over from United, and become a Delta fan? Not entirely. But if I see that Delta saves me any cash over United for future flights, I'll be sure to check out the flight amenities and not dismiss it right away.