Fall is in the air and that means crisp mornings, school buses on the road, Holiday decorations at the mall and yes, more NFL games then you can imagine! Yesterday the announcement of the Bing partnership with the Seattle Seahawks went out and we could not be more excited. Bing is going to be on the practice field (check out the practice jerseys for this year) and if you go to a game at Seahawk stadium expect to see Bing in a few places there too.

In honor of our partnership with the Seahawks, we wanted to remind you of our NFL instant answer which includes NFL stats, game scores, schedules and player information. You can also search on players, looks like Matt and the Hawks are off to a great start with a shutout last week…sweet! And if you want to take your player knowledge up another notch, check out the Bing Visual search gallery for NFL players…amazing!

Good luck in all your fantasy football leagues and neighborhood game pools! We’ll be seeing you on the playing field (I mean you will be seeing us).

Kristin - Bing

*As mentioned above, Visual Search is still in beta. Visual Search is currently only available in the US and as we refine this feature we will continue to look for new markets to release it in.

“I just installed Lijit.”

When people ask me how I came to be working at Lijit, thats the answer I give them. “I just installed the widget.”

From that first outreach from Tara until today, when I publicly announced my resignation from Lijit, that simple answer completely encapsulates what makes Lijit such an amazing place.

We (It will always be a “we”) built a company centered on the concept that transparency, real interactions with our publishers, and building a great product would lead to success. And so far, we have been right.

The numbers are staggering. 1100% increase in publishers since I have been here, a 3000% increase in pageviews and a doubling in our headcount. As we begin to build out the next pieces of functionality, I truly believe that bloggers who have yet to understand the value of Lijit search brings in both feature set and monetization, will finally figure it out and jump on board.

Do I sound proud? I certainly couldnt be prouder of the Lijit team.

So, why did I decide to move on?

Opportunity. Risk. A healthy amount of alcohol. (Ok, really its the first two. I dont drink and after my 5,345 non-alcoholic beer, I realized the futility of that effort.)

I am a startup guy. I love the beginnings of startups. I love watching entrepreneurs jump of the Startup Cliff with the belief that they will figure it out before they, well, splat.

Current Wisdom, my last (and most successful startup) was started in 2003 as a side project. It was sold in 2007. Its time for me to jump again.

So after mentoring a couple of Techstars teams, one began to ask if I would consider to join them as their CEO. “Two kick-ass developers with a kick-ass product?” I thought to myself.

Jump.

It was more of a running leap.

This time is different that Current Wisdom. Before I leapt with Current Wisdom, we were making about $50k a month in revenue. This time, I am actually financing the parachute on the way down. (Anyone out there want to get involved with the project, lemme know. That ground comes up fast!)

But, I am excited. The founders are amazing. The product is seriously bad-ass. And the opportunity? Well, it may not get a Twitter or Facebook valuation in the seed round, but it might get that $1 billion valuation. One day. (No really. It might. And, its not the non-alcoholic beer talking. I think.)

Most importantly, I have the support of my mentors, and Todd Vernon, Lijit’s CEO. “I cant wait to see you as CEO,” Todd said. (Im 99% sure there was no sarcasm in his voice. I think.) The fact that I will continue to be part of the Lijit family also makes the choice easier.

Having that air screaming by my face as we head into uncertainty is the greatest feeling any entrepreneur feels. (Well, except the feeling of putting a really big check in the bank when its all over.)

Am I worried? Nope.

Great team, amazing product and fantastic concept? What else could any startup want? (Money? Right. forgot about that.)

In about 30 days, I will be able to provide more information about the project once we close our round (which, while I joke, is pretty close to being done) and get the product to market…

…and then, its up, up and away!

BTW: Here is the post I wrote when I joined Lijit: Micah Goes Lijit!

Then don’t read this.

This post from Marc Meyer struck a chord this morning. Marc brings to light one of the dark secrets all social media strategists face, and that’s that people who are new to social media often expect to have a strategy document handed to them that will instantly rocket them to “social media stardom”. In a week. Sometimes overnight. Ain’t gonna happen people.

You don’t just create a dozen profiles and start broadcasting your greatness to the universe. Social media is something that grows organically. You have to feed it and nurture relationships in order for them to stay viable and build your reputation as a company or an individual.

I usually recommend starting slowly and seeing where the conversations take you. Joining a bunch of networks all at once is often fatally crippling because it’s just too much to absorb all at once and the learning curve, while not very steep individually, can be staggering when trying to learn the etiquette of individual networks, creating relationships simultaneously on multiple levels etc. The direction you need to take and networks to participate on  changes as your strategy gets results and evolves.

When will you see return? I can’t predict that for sure either. Like all forms of networking it’s about what the people in your network do that creates the buzz about you and your interaction with your network that decides that.Not the number of profiles or followers or even number of messages you send out.

My job is to help you understand what networks fit your goals best, help you evaluate your progress and brainstorm ideas to get the buzz started. I believe long term engagement pays off. That’s why I’m a social media coach and not a social media consultant. When you work with me I’m in it for the long haul to support you and help you find the best track. I’m not here for a quick fix. There isn’t one.

There, that’s my rant. I feel better now.

A while back, I wrote that display advertising is too complicated.  Today Google announced their entry into the display ad exchange business.  Both in their announcement and in this conversation with Neal Mohan from Google, the idea of bringing simplicity to the market is cited as a major driving force.  Google also describes the system as if it were the first display ad exchange ever.

Of course the reality is a bit different, with Yahoo/Right Media and others having offered exchange capabilities for quite some time.  For advertisers and agencies who have already been using exchanges this simply means that another exchange is available.  What remains to be seen is if Google can succeed in pulling smaller advertisers into display the way they did with AdWords and AdSense.

In the meantime, however, if the Justice Department is paying attention, they should stop wasting time reviewing the Yahoo-Microsoft search deal.  Google now has a complete display offering, so for there to be a credible second player that can cover both search and display, the Yahoo-Microsoft search deal is actually a competitive necessity.