After a short measurement period Google will make a judgement call and if your pages are deemed too slow then your Quality Score will take a hit, meaning that you'll need to spend more to maintain or improve upon your ad positions.

The thing is, Yahoo doesn’t need to change the game, only to play it properly. Or to at least speed up its moves. Because if you want to see a killer example of tardy gameplay, look no further than its lame – and ongoing – failure to roll out the long-awaited Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) internationally.

Feel free to add this to your blog! Feel free to post this video! Feel free to promote our viral!

Oh yeah? How about ‘feel free to take a running jump’? Or ‘feel free to pay us a ton of money and then we’ll talk’.

Microsoft has totally failed to manage user expectations, to accommodate new Xbox users, and to cater for the spikes that were bound to appear over the holiday period. It’s a pity, since the Xbox Live experience, when it works, is nothing short of sensational, and should get better and better.

We spoke to Brett Hurt to find out more. He is the founder and CEO of customer reviews specialist Bazaarvoice. Some of you may remember him from our What's New In Online Marketing event earlier this year. He has some pretty interesting observations...

The story focuses on eBay’s proposed introduction of a shipping fees ratings scheme, to clamp down on sellers who charge bargain basement prices but make profits on exorbitant delivery ‘costs’.

All good, but what about the improvements that eBay’s website has been in need of for a considerable time? Adding functionality and tweaking its ranking algorithms are one thing, but what I think it needs is some proper usability testing and a bit of a makeover.

It seems that Kindle Fever is in full swing, yet the mass consumer adoption of ebook readers seems thoroughly unfeasible in the short term, and I’m not convinced it is a likely scenario in the long term either.

Patrick, who is essentially a leftist with an otherwise right-on record, has suggested that internet gamblers should be fined and jailed, marking a shift from the usual ‘prosecute the gambling companies, not the punters’ line.

Nothing unusual in that, you might think, but Patrick’s recommendation appears within a bill aimed at making room for three more casinos in the state that he currently oversees. A thoroughly bizarre move, if he is concerned about his reputation, and savagely hypocritical given the main thrust of the bill.

The group was roundly applauded when it decided to release its latest album directly via its website, with fans able to name their own price.

The savvy PR infantry at comScore swiftly noticed an opportunity to bag some exposure and subsequently released some data to the media. The findings? Just 38% of fans paid for the record, and the average amount paid was a mere £2.87.

But according to the band, these numbers are rotten...

Measuring the validity of all online reviews is difficult and I can’t work out who might want to police this...

The National Union of Journalists’ magazine – which I don’t subscribe to, before you get the wrong impression - has a bizarre article in this month’s issue called ‘Web 2.0 Is Rubbish’.

The tips are great. They are based on three observations – readers are in control, readers don’t care about your deadlines, and readers want to share their own opinions on any given story.

I’ll reveal Howard's tips after the jump, and add a few more suggestions of my own...

El Pais, owned by Prisa, is annoyed at the downgrade because media buyers rely on panel data provided by firms like Nielsen and comScore to determine where to place ad campaigns. The BBC has the lowdown here.

It seems to me that this reflects a bigger issue relating to the blind faith in panel data among advertisers.