Content summary: Windows Live; Google in China; Weber Shandwick hires Jeremy Pepper; BluePulse apologizes and wins; US bloggers get an Amsterdam junket; Cirque du Soleil invites bloggers to Canadian debut; listeners’ comments discussion (paying attention to Technorati); the music.

Show notes for January 30, 2006

Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, a 73-minute podcast recorded live from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Concord, California, USA.

Download the file here (MP3, 29MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need a podcatcher such as the free Juice, DopplerRadio, iTunes or Yahoo! Podcasts, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).

Listen to this podcast now:

In This Edition:

Intro:

• 00:30 Neville intros the show; what the show’s about; how to give your feedback; show notes
• 02:01 Thanks for your support for voting for FIR on Podcast Alley - now at #5 in the Business category

News and Commentary:

• 03:28 Neville’s impressions from the Windows Live preview event in London last week; we talk about mobile-enabled content; Ajax and why communicators should pay attention to this new technology
• 18:44 Is Google compromising its values? Google’s actions in China in censoring search results continue to attract much passionate opinion and commentary; we discuss some of the latest buzz including by Dave Taylor, Steve Crescenzo and Jason Calacanis, and hear critical comment from Tom Raftery
• 38:01 PR blogger Jeremy Pepper gets hired by Weber Shandwick
• 41:56 Brother Love shouts out!
• 42:17 Changing web content will backfire on you when there’s a search engine cache - a cautionary tale about BluePulse which has a positive outcome
• 48:54 Twenty-five US bloggers get an Amsterdam junket in exchange for promoting Amsterdam including ads on their blogs; one blogger, Outside The Beltway, answers criticism about ethics
• 56:48 Howard Harawitz tells us about a Digg item on Cirque du Soleil inviting two bloggers to be at the debut of their Canadian tour, so we discuss blogger outreach

Listeners’ Comments Discussion:

• 62:51 Paul Baker has a tale that highlights why you should pay attention to what’s being said about you on Technorati

Outro:

• 66:17 A get-well message to Lee Hopkins
• 66:40 Shel wraps the show; how and where to send your comments; where to find the show notes
• 67:27 Outro podsafe music via the Podsafe Music Network - Nobody Else But You by the Mike Andersen Band

Links for the blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show are posted to the FIR Show Links pages at The New PR Wiki. You can contribute - see the home page for info.

If you have comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for our future shows, email us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), or call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

So, until Thursday February 2…