Thanks to Barbara for the heads up on this piece from Edelman, “PR In A World of Expression.” Must reading for anyone involed in media relations to any degree.

As of midnight Friday night, Facebook began offering vanity URLs (for example: facebook.com/lohad). The Atlantic reports on the “bizarre brouhaha” while The Times of India suggests that if you have a personal or corporate brand to protect, “claim it early before it is all gone.” Let the games begin!

As my post the other day indicated, I spent far too much time this week dealing with malicious malware. But there’s good and bad in everything. Here’s the good: Geek Police is awesome, and if you ever wind up with a nasty infection, they’ll help you out — for free. (Though be sure to visit the tip jar once you’re up and running again.)

One of the main programs they use to deal with malware issues is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware; it’s free and you can get it here.

So while I had a Geek Policeman’s attention to my issue, I took the opportunity to ask them: In addition to Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (which I typically like to run every month or so when I backup to external drives), I also use CrapCleaner, Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, System Mechanic, and SpywareGuard. (I’m not a fan of Norton or McAfee; their software is too bloated). What I wanted to know from the expert was: (1) Is there anything on that list that’s a waste of time? and (2) Is there anything else I ought to be using regularly?

The expert’s response: “That’s a good list of protection.”

Best of all: Each of those programs (with the exception of System Mechanic) is available for free.

Takeaway for marketers: And for everyone else: If you’re not using at least two or three of these programs, what are you waiting for? Start downloading!

“No matter how much you’ve done, or how successful you’ve been, there’s always more to do, more to learn, more to achieve.”
—Barack Obama

Geek Police rocks. And whoever created Malware Doctor needs to be waterboarded.

Just sayin’.