What’s an MBE?  Apparently its a Multilayer Business Executive according to blogger Maria Popova.  I googled the term and nothing really comes up so it remains to be seen if this term can stick or not.   So what exactly is an MBE and could you be labeled as one?

According to Maria, MBEs are…

“a new-age version of the types who have been running the parade since the beginning of business time. They’re not the old-school conventional “suits.” Many don’t even go to work in suits, if there’s anywhere to “go” in the first place—nursed on new media and technology, this set is comfortable with telecommuting, Web- and videoconferencing, livecasting and all the rest of those new tools that let them control both their time and their business.”

Here’s a simple checklist to see if you qualify:

1. Not in a suit 24/7 – Yep, that’s me.
2. Comfortable and immersed in new technology – Absolutely.
3. Worldly intellectual and a culture-crossers – I’ve been to Asia and Europe.  Mexico, Canada, and the rest of the US sort of counts.  I’ll do a partial nod and a full nod once I eventually make it to Australia and Africa.
4. Have an MBA – Getting one…so check.
5. Quote Christopher Guest movies rather than Peter Drucker books – Well, I have seen Best in Show…
6. Crave luxury and good design, but also socially and enivronmentally conscious  – Wonder why Pinkberry’s and Prius’ do so well? 
7. Excelled at higher education, but they’re uniquely attuned to pop culture – Face me in Trivial Pursuit, I dare you.
8. Have successful business careers, but are also harvesting entrepreneurial ideas or actual projects on the side – Check and check.
9. Have money to spend – Not yet, but hopefully.
10. Great bloggers with something to say – You can be the judge of that.
    

 From the daily (often hourly) ritual of checking Facebook for updates on the lives of my friends I began to wonder, could Facebook be the next evolution of personal e-mail?  What is E-Mail?  Well, Wikipedia defines it as ”a store and forward method of composing, sending, storing, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems.”  On the personal side, many people send emails to share news, forward interesting articles, discuss topics, and/or communicate to multiple people at once.

On Facebook, one can definitely compose, send, store, and receive messages (via private message or on someone’s wall).  One can share news (through status updates) and forward interesting articles (group postings).  Topics can be debated via wall posts and status updates can be equivalent to a message to multiple friends. 

The difference for Facebook is interactivity, speed, and personality.  Yes emails are informative, but on Facebook wall posts back and forth are conversations.  Yes I can spend the time to email all my friends to what’s new in my life, but in Facebook I can merely change the status in my profile and instantly let all my friends know what I’m up to or feeling.  While e-mail is merely an address, Facebook provides profiles where I can put a face and personal information (via what they put in their profiles, show in their photos, etc.) to the messages they send.  These aspects seem quite powerful.  Could we be saying in the future, “I’ll Facebook it to you?” instead of “I’ll e-mail it to you?”

Apparently Google is continuing its efforts to push advertising to be more dynamic, engaging, and interactive.  It has apparently been testing its latest ad format – Google Gadget ads – since May 2007 but now is starting to slowly rollout. 

According to Google’s help – “If gadget ads are enabled in your account, you will have received an invitation to create gadget ads from the Google support team. If you haven’t received this notice, don’t despair: We expect to offer Google Gadget Ads to other advertisers in the future as the launch progresses.”

This looks like a better alternative to rollover video ads as it provides the user a greater chance to interact with the ad without committing to going to the actual site.  For an example, click here.