On all paws, German Giant, named for the world’s largest rabbit breed, stands 17 inches tall. He weighs 22 lbs, and eats mostly lettuce. Standing on his hind feet, he’s more than three feet tall.via NY Post

Posted by B.L. Ochman The question I am asked more often than any other is “how do you keep up with all the information coming at you from every direction?” So I thought I’d share some of the research tools I can’t blog without.
Google and YahooNews Alerts send me emails when artilces with my name or other keywords I follow appear online. They miss a lot, but they pick up a lot I might otherwise not see right away.
Bloglines RSS feeds. I subscribe to 158 feeds from blogs and news sites at the moment, and check the headlines in my newsreader every morning. You can see my feeds here
Technorati is the site where I track who’s linking to me; what the top topics are in blogs at the moment; to find blogs on particular topics and lots more.
Lifehacks tracks the most popular items posted on del.icio.us over the last 24 hours
Tech Memeorandum to follow technology business news from blogs and MSM
Digg a technology news website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allow an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do.
And I have Firefox with multiple browser tabs open at all times
Wow! As I put this list together, I realize there are many other tools I use, so I will write about them from time to time. I lack the geek gene that many bloggers have, so I promise that nothing I tell you will be technically challenging.
I’ll be reporting on how other bloggers find the information they blog about over the next few weeks.
What tools do you use to stay up to date? Please share them with us!

When I renewed two of my domains today at 000 Domains, there was a button that said “Get a $10 Cash Reward: click here.” Innocently, I clicked for more information. But it wasn’t me who got information, it was Reservation Rewards.
Reservation Rewards had been given my credit card and personal information by 000 Domains and charged my credit card a fee for membership without telling me what that fee was or giving me a chance to cancel the order. RIP OFF! Beware!
Shame on You 000 Domains!
Searching the Reservations Reward site, I found a phone number. The recording answers with, “To cancel your information, Press One.” Apparently, they get a lot of cancellations. No wonder!
What a rip off. I certainly hope there will be no charges on my credit card. But I am sure I will now get a mountain of junk email. Jeez 000 Domains, you stink.

Peter Sanders at The Wall Street Journal writes about the new The Lobby blog from Starwood Hotels.
The blog says it covers “the latest and greatest in worldwide travel” trends, and it links to some resources, but The Lobby is mostly full of thinly veiled ads for Starwood Hotels. And comments are not enabled. Blogs are conversations. Conversations are two way, The Lobby, at least so far, is a dud.

“Corporate blogs have had mixed success with readers thus far,” Sanders writes. “Experts say the key to success depends largely on the approach companies take.”

Nobody wants to read ads pretending to be blog posts.
Still, as Sanders notes, none of Starwood’s competitors have yet ventured into social media. I don’t believe that something is better than nothing. If you are going to do it, do it right, or don’t bother until you’re really ready.

Google really is taking over the world. Here’s Simply Google, one simple page where you can access the considerable information and remarkable features Google offers.

From Steve Smith’s Mobile Insider newsletter email today, WAY too much information:

VEGAS DOESN’T HAVE MUCH FOR me. I don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t gamble, and the middle-aged libido is so depressed that, until they develop a Viagra IV drip, I am not likely to be womanizing, either. My only option at the CTIA Wireless Show in Las Vegas last week was to scratch beneath the surface of the panel sessions on mobile marketing and catch a few rumors and innuendo. And so, in true teen girl rumor-mongering fashion, here are my SMS bursts on the show.

Yecch.

Vice-president Cheney threw out the first ball at the opening game at the Washington Nationals and the crowd booed him as the ball rolled along the ground. Is that a bullet proof vest he’s wearing under the jacket, or is he porking up?

With Pluck set to syndicate blog content to mainstream media, I was interviewed by Jennifer LeClaire for Tech News World about the infiltration of newspapers by blogs. Here’s what I said:

“It was inevitable that newspapers would recognize there are some really good writers and excellent journalists out here in the blogosphere,” whatsnextonline.com President and blogger “B.L. Ochman told TechNewsWorld, “It makes sense to bring some of our content in — and getting paid for it is not a bad thing, either.”
“If there was any doubt that blogs are a part of the landscape this ought to make people realize that this is not going away. This is a new medium and it’s apparently valid enough to be seen alongside, and even inside, of old media. It’s the ‘if you can’t beat ’em join ’em’ philosophy.”