Is advertising is dying?  With social media, customers control the message, they can say anything they want, customer influence other customers, and this leads many analysts to prognosticate on the death of advertising and the rise of the customer from social media. 

But... the advertising market funds our consumer culture, with no sign of the industry slowing.   A NPR story cites the super bowl ad for Chrystler as the main factor in raising the sales over the year up to 25%. With payoffs like that, I wouldn't expect to see any decrease in advertising any time soon.  

Customer reviews are the last bastion of competitive difference.  The article cites 90% of customers trust peer reviews, and of course nobody likes or trusts adversements.  What are you doing to enourage customer reviews for your business?  

The example of Under Amor and Skull Candy, of customers answering other customers questions is outstanding.  As a counterpoint, don't treat your customers like this - it can drag down a business in a day.

Wow, what happened to a HTML?  I think the standard that built the web has been consumed by the programable browser.

Take a look at the source code on a typical web page..

No longer do you need to know <b>hello world!</b>

This goes on for what seems to be 120 + pages... I didn't print it out to find out out.  And this isn't to rip on the site listed (quora).. most any modern interactive site is driven by javascript and completey unreadable.

Wonder why you can't find any programmers?  I don't.  

One thing I like about the Social CRM space, is even the "competitors" / vendors are  friendly.  Zendesk, Bazaar Voice, GetSatisfaction all arguably compete with each other.  But just like these companies are trying to bring a customer conversation out to the open, they seem comfortable talking to each other.. no barbs..snide comments... can you imagine the old guard in Customer Service working this way? When I was at Siebel.. wouldn't happen!

YouTube link.