These are my links for February 24th through February 27th:

• Low-Hanging UX Fruit, How a Well-Designed “Thank You” Inspires Community Uptake – The Carsonified blog Think Vitamin is a fantastic read, it's all about web design and usability, which to a non-techy like me is hugely understandable and engaging. Their case studies are well worth studying: this one on improving a conversion goal (increasing prospective students to join a Facebook page) showed a massive 1000% uptake. I've always been sceptical about usability claims for conversion (surely if the content and message is the same the effect is more-or-less the same?), from this evidence I'm prepared to seriously rethink my point of view.
• Italian privacy: Google officials convicted in video bullying case – For once, I actually feel sorry for Google. This case, where Google employees have been convicted for hosting a video depicting a crime on Google Video, is 'PC gone mad' and could have serious implications for those of us working in creating spaces to allow user generated content.
• Sellaband Not Quite Dead Yet, Waiting For White Knight’s Signature – The great dream of online music services replacing traditional labels directly with audiences…seems to have bitten the proverbial. Sellaband, one of the VC-funded leaders in this space are borderline bankrupt, and this artists critique of her treatment: http://www.mandyleigh.com/sellaband/ seems to suggest all the same problems of days of old: focused too much on profit, not enough on A&R (probably less so than most indie labels), and limited support for marketing and promotion.