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Woody Allen said, “Most of the time I don’t have much fun. The rest of the time I don’t have any fun at all.” That’s how I feel about 2007. It was a tough year, mostly defined by long work hours, business trips, and tough decision but…as a whole, turned out to be an exceptionally positive year with lots of both professional and personal growth.

Not being one to ruminate, my year in review is presented in list format…

Work Highlights:

• Growth, growth, growth…RDVO grows by nearly 40% (for the third year in a row).
• New people. We were able to attract and retain some great new team members in ’07. The company nearly doubled in size and only one person left the company in 2007.
• Great work. We had a number of awesome website and product launches in 2007. Our work for MBTA.com was recognized as one of top websites of 2007. RDVO did some innovative work for Microsoft and Oxfam America.
• New services and focus. We grew our research and strategy capabilities and team. I believe this is a critical piece of RDVO’s future success (and our industry in general). In 2008 we plan to continue to grow in the area and plan to establish the company as a leader in this area.
• Awards. RDVO won more awards than any year in our history. We won a Webby for the MBTA website, as well MITX Awards for MBTA, Gillette Young Guns, and PHT Corporation. We also took part in Microsoft’s Phizzpop challenge and were nominated for a technology award at South by Southwest.

Life Highlights:

• New home. I bought a new place in Boston’ South End, housing market be damned! I moved into a parlor level on Union Park. The move was generally painless although actually “moving in” has taken much more time and energy than I thought. Should there still be boxes laying around six months after the move? 2008 will be marked by home improvements, including new kitchen, bathroom, and a number of other small projects…
• Traveling man. I spend well over a month on the road this year. Most of the travel was work-related, with a number of trips to Seattle. Ilisa and I took a nice (albeit short) vacation to Mexico. I also had visits to New York, Chicago, Austin, and San Francisco. Numerous frequent flyer miles were obtained!
• Red Sox. Saw one of the playoff games in their historic championship run!

I also saw a number of great movies, dined at a few great restaurants, and read some wonderful books. Here’s my quick “best of 2008″ list.

• Best Meal – a toss-up this year. I had an amazing meal at Café Juanita in Seattle while traveling on business. In Boston, the best meal I had was the amazing Ribeye at Boston’s new Ruth’s Chris steakhouse. Yeah, yeah – Ruth’s Chris is a big chain, but I’m not embarrassed—I was generally underwhelmed by Boston restaurants. Two new restaurants in my neighborhood – Gaslight and Rocca were both extremely disappointing.
• Best Movie – I can’t recall a year where I saw fewer movies than in 2007. I was blow away by No Country for Old Men, which was definitely my movie-going highlight of the year. I also enjoyed Eastern Promises and Ratatouille.
• Best Book – I read a number of books this year, but nothing really stuck with me. I enjoyed Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth. I also re-read a couple of classics, including I, Claudius, Ragtime, and The Autobiography of Ben Franklin. Most entertaining, however, was Edmund Morris’s Theodore Roosevelt biographies, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex. America could certainly use Roosevelt today!

By Michael Chabon

I’ve read pretty much everything Michael Chabon has written. I am in awe of his evocative writing style and enjoy the whimsical nature of his story lines. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union is his follow-up to The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, a book I completely enjoyed from cover to cover. While equally ambitious and enjoyable, Union ultimately runs out of steam and fails to engross the read like Kavalier.

The premise is inventive and engaging. Imagine if the Jews ultimately failed to establish the State of Israel after World War II and instead were given a small swath of land in coastal Alaska to settle. Instead of Tel Aviv, Jews in this alternate universe have Sitka as their capital and have established a large Jewish community in the far Pacific Northwest. As the book begins we learn that Sitka will soon lose sovereignty as an independent territory and, not unlike the last two thousand years, Jews will again have to seek a new homeland.

Enter Meyer Landsman, a Sam Spade (Spadestein)-like detective down on his luck. The run-down hotel where he lives is the scene of an execution-style murder of a junky chess master who turns out to be much more than he appears…

The novel unfolds as a class murder-mystery with a number of surprises and turns of fate. Along the way Chabon introduces the reader to the large cast of beautifully drawn characters who inhabit the strange world of Sitka, including Mafia-like Hassidic Jews, Filipino Donut kings, and Tlingit Indian lawmen. Chabon’s writing and narrative brings the sights, sounds, and smells of this imaginary Kosher wasteland to life (although his copious use of Yiddish may be confusing to some readers).

Ultimately, I found that the novel ran out steam about three quarters of the way through and ends up limping to the conclusion. Creating a compelling murder mystery against the backdrop of such a lavishly fantastic setting must have been challenging for the writer. While it works on a number of levels, I thought all the competing elements of story became exhausting and I limped through the last fifty pages or so. The mystery becomes more complex and far-reaching as it unravels (and quite difficult to follow!)

I would recommend The Yiddish Policemen’s Union to Chabon fans and readers who enjoy thick and juicy power-fiction. It’s a must read for anyone who enjoys Chabon’s work. However, I would try Kavalier or Mysteries of Pittsburgh if you haven’t read any of his work.

I was reading a report that predicted that online advertising will hit $44.6 billion in 2008, approximately 10% of total advertising spending. At these numbers, online ad spend will overtake radio this year and magazines in 2010.

All in all, online advertising increased 25% this year and has nearly doubled in two years—all without the Olympics or election year traffic that we’ll experience in 2008. 25% growth may be a conservative estimate. My first prediction is an easy one: it’s going to be a huge year for online advertising.

Increased online advertising spend clearly trickles down to the search engine marketing firms and consultants. Someone has to help companies effectively spend their money.

2. Search engine marketers get more credibility

Look for search marketing to grow as a field in 2008. SEM and paid search firms have traditionally been looked down upon by the more established online marketing disciplines. However, as organic positions become even harder to obtain, companies are going to be looking to paid search to maintain competitiveness and ensure their brand is positioned. The process of planning, creating, and managing paid search campaigns will likely become even more complex and competitive, putting search marketers into high demand.

Search marketing should grow in prominence in 2008 and firms that offer those services should have a great year. Traditional advertising agencies and digital firms who haven’t branched out may get a rude awakening in the coming months.

3. Better tools and applications

In 2008 we will see better tools, applications, and platforms that will improve the ad management experience for both large-scale SEMs and small, individual advertisers. Look for more desktop tools like Adwords Editor or helpful Excel add-ons that make it easier to plan and manage campaigns. Users will continue to find the online applications slow and limiting. There will be some major advances in tools that will be readily embraced by online advertisers and may—over time—help to demystify the process.

4. We begin to see the benefits of the Google/DoubleClick and Microsoft/Aquantive acquisitions

These acquisitions were big news this year. It will be interesting and exciting to see how Google and Microsoft integrate them into their offering. For Google, DoubleClick gives them a huge boost in their traditionally weakest area: display ads. The marriage of DoubleClick’s ad-serving platform and Google’s targeting engine could help Google dominate in an area they’ve struggled with in the past.

The tangible benefits of Microsoft’s purchase of aQuantive are a bit harder to pin down. aQuantive arms Microsoft with a number of new tools, clients, and expertise that may help the company continue to grow its online advertising division. Traffic and search volume may the most immediate benefit of the buy; now Microsoft has a global offering and ad platform. aQuantive may give Microsoft enough leverage to overtake Yahoo as the number two online ad platform.

5. Google loses some marketshare

Google is clearly the dominant player in the paid search market, locking up nearly 90% of the market. 2007 saw a few chinks in the market, however, and it’s feasible that Google could lose some marketshare in 2008. For one, Google has become increasingly more expensive. Cost of keywords has amplified along with competition. Small advertisers can no longer hope to compete with large companies for top placements. Faced with growing costs and competition, more advertisers will begin to look to other platforms and providers. It is still relatively inexpensive to advertise at Yahoo.com or Microsoft’s sites. Microsoft should get a nice traffic boost based on its recent Facebook deal.

It should be an interesting, banner year for online marketing…

ABC News has a neat little Flash app that matches a presidential candidate to your political views based on a series a multiple-choice questions.

Admittedly, I haven’t been following the presidential race as closely as I probably should be, but who the heck is Mike Gravel? Apparently his platform matches the most closely to my views. And if I decide that I’m not a Gravel-backer (is that Graveler?) my next choices are Kucinich and Biden…yikes!

Google’s new charting API is one of the cooler technologies we stats geeks have seen in quite awhile. I had heard that they were going to release some sort of live charting application, but what they’ve quietly announce with make it really easy for anyone to integrate gorgeous charts into their webpages or applications.

Sparklines can be easily integrated — just set lfi as your chart type.

The sparkline comparison shows Tom Brady’s TD passes per season. His average for the 2007 season has been 3.2; if he maintains that average he’ll finish with 54 TD passes, setting the new NFL record. Will he do it? Well…that’s 9 more TDs needed in two games. The sparklines clearly indicate that his late season production tends to slip!

Tom Brady TD Production by Season
Season	TDs by Game	Game Average and Season Total
2007		Average through 15 weeks=3.2 TD/Game | Est. Total: 54 TDs
2006		Average TD/Game=1.5 | Total: 24 TDs
2005		Average TD/Game=1.6 | Total: 26 TDs
2004		Average TD/Game=1.8 | Total: 28 TDs
2003		Average TD/Game=1.8 | Total: 28 TDs

Some useful links regarding the Google Chart API:

• Developer’s Guide
• Quick reference from Ajaxian
• Google Code Blog
• 24 Ways – Tracking Christmas Cheer with Google Charts

Also check out this interface for creating charts…

Need free gear for your machine? Lifehacker has just released their 2007 list of best apps.

I was pleased to see Paint.net, by far my favorite freeware application. Paint.net is free image and photo editing software for Windows. Built on .Net platform, it has a great UI and a number of awesome features not too far off what you see in Photoshop.

Are you like me and never know what day it is? Does the fact that a week is seven weeks long get lost on you? If you need a helpful pocket calendar that doesn’t have a power switch then you should download the 2008 Thumb calendar.

Last year I downloaded the calendar, printed it out and taped it inside the front cover of my notebook so I wouldn’t have to fumble through my handheld to find a date. Arranged quarterly, the design is nifty and a neat take on a calendar UI. The designer, Adam Sporka, also has some cool takes on subway maps.

If you need something a little larger than a business card, you can download David Seah’s Compact Calendar.

The Compact Calendar follows the “Candy Bar Theory” of calendar design where the whole year is displayed as a continuous stream of dates, which supposedly improves your ability to visualize a time period (as opposed to seeing time ranges in chunky month intervals).

The compact calendar can be downloaded as a PDF or as an MS Excel file that can be used for customizing project plans. Neat tool.