What the really successful independent stores do is combine consumer friendliness in terms of design, space, and amenities with the kind of knowledgeable and dedicated staff that's traditionally thought of as characteristic of independents. I think there's a plausible argument that independent stores underestimated initially how important the experience of shopping was to customers.

***

These stores are also taking advantage of a genuine market opportunity by being active intermediaries between their customers and book publishers. (Amazon does it via collaborative filtering, while brick-and-mortar rely on staff members.) The real challenge for readers today is figuring out which of the tens of thousands (or more) of books published every year is worth their time.

Editor's note: We're excited to present the twenty-eighth in our popular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of other weblogs...


The Ego blog is a Swedish blog written entirely in English by Martin Lindeskog. Martin blogs from Sweden's industrial port city of Gothenburg.

As its title suggests, the writings in the Ego blog are based on the philosophies of "Reason - Egoism - LaissezFaire Capitalism." This is a blog very much about Ayn Rand Objectivism and capitalism in its purest sense. The following quote of Ayn Rand sums up the philosophy and gives a clue as to how Martin got the name for his blog:

"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." - Ayn Rand

FORKUM: The initial idea for the logo was a graphic solution using the word "ego" to form a person's face, but the results didn't really connote egoism strongly enough. I knew John could illustrate a heroic, proud man so that is the tack we took. ***

COX: Heroic was what I was shooting for. There was power in his stance that I think captured a sense of joy and determination.

• Companies selling to small businesses will be dealing with Hispanic-owned and operated businesses more frequently, even in relatively remote areas of the Midwest and Northeast. Successfully reaching these businesses may require more nuanced sales and marketing approaches than the seller is used to in such locales.



• Multicultural employees are an advantage. Hiring practices should -- and will -- evolve in a landscape that increasingly includes Hispanic-owned businesses and Latino consumers.



• Small and midsize businesses that sell to consumers may find that their local market demographics are shifting faster than they realize. Companies that are used to advertising on the local country music station might want to try the fledgling Spanish-language station, too. Don't have a Spanish-language radio station in your part of America? You will soon.

1. Travel time will be reduced as people access nearby airports.

2. Economic development will be spurred in smaller communities.

3. Air congestion around large cities will be reduced.

4. Safety will be improved.

AOL's second annual instant-messaging trend survey shows that business use of IM is increasing. Approximately 27% of IM users now say they use it at work, compared with 16% in 2003. That means 24 million people in the U.S. use IM at work, mainly to:

• Communicate internally with colleagues (70%)



• Get answers and make business decisions (63%)



• Interact with clients and customers (34%)



• Avoid potentially difficult in-person conversations (11%)



• Touch base with children from the office for peace-of-mind (22%)