Early in the year, Race-Dezert.com was approached for the purpose of initiating an advertising campaign. A fraction of the initiative was unconventional and something I had yet to see upon the web. I wanted to park a brand's Facebook and Twitter widget in the direct line of site and embed it above the fold of editorial and community-created forum content. The conventional banner ad was a no-brainer. But the direct engagement social widget advertising was a request that seemingly fell upon death ears.

Here's a brief snap shot of the news, reviews and analysis read throughout the week. Everything from business strategy, sponsorship, motorsports, television, advertising, marketing, retail, ecommerce and branding are referenced and well worth a look.

Photoshop Product Manager Bryan ONeil Hughes performs a quick sneak peak overview of the Content-Aware Fill in Photoshop CS5. The tedious task of cloning is virtually solved. Photoshop Content-Aware delivers a near-miracle feature by adding content that didn't exist or simply covering up items that you don't want within your photograph. Retouching and completely reimagining a photo is within reach and can be executed with the great speed of a cloud computer but the masterful manner of a well-trained artist.

VerticalScope Inc., owner and operator of the Internet’s largest network of automotive and powersports web sites, today announced that it has acquired Off-Road.com from Advanstar Communications Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. “Off-Road.com is a great fit with our portfolio of premier auto and powersports web sites, which include brands such as Motorcycle.com, ATV.com and AutoGuide.com,” said Rob Laidlaw, CEO of VerticalScope. “We grow our business through acquisitions and we are extremely excited about adding Off-Road.com to our network. Both enthusiasts and advertisers will benefit from the content, community and cross-marketing synergies with our current network of 140 automotive sites and 65 powersports sites.”

Last week, on the crux of moving forward on several projects and completing critical phases of others I had a hard drive failure. Fortunately, I run my primary machine with multiple hard drives for real-time backup and likewise back them up via remote backup applications such as Carbonite. Now, in updating Google Docs for several real-time client collaboration folders, I figured it a good idea to further collaborate via Google Wave, and in doing so, I began to realize a powerful platform for every facet of my life in media. From managing editorial, business, ecommerce, advertising, marketing, publishing, planning and conceptualizing, Google Wave is a very interesting and highly extensible platform that ought to be considered for its potential power in communications.