Vertical Scope, the Canadian-owned giant that touts a whopping 30 million unique monthly visitors amid its 300-plus web properties, according to its Google Analytics report March 2011, announced yesterday via Twitter that rumors of its acquisition of what is purportedly the largest off-road website upon the web, Pirate4X4.com, were in fact true, adding to its massive portfolio of automotive, powersports, power equipment, sports, action sports and technology websites.

Here's a link for photographers, videographers and radio reporters alike. It's one of my all-time favorite companies for photo, audio and video equipment. And they have a great selection of used goods. I have been using them since the early years of my career as a photographer, dating back to the early-90s. Back then, B&H Photo distributed a regularly-published newsletter crafted from stapled paper. I purchased tens of thousands of dollars of equipment from that publication throughout the years. This link was inspired by Twitter friend JustinBrown17, specifically his reply to my post regarding photojournalist camera equipment and my prized Domke Camera Bag for working the newspaper scene. The photo used for this post was ripped from his Twitter page. Direct any photo credit therein. The kid's got motocross game. Just needs to begin branding his Twitter page. Check it.

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.”

Do I stream? Do Ustream? Well, if you're considering launching a web cast that seeks to stream a live audio or live video show, then Ustream is an excellent platform to place your web streaming efforts into. I love the social media channel for its compartmentalized embed options, which can be easily tailored to your website's design layout. If you're not familiar with Ustream, a decent place to begin delving into how the platform works is found within the embedded video upon this page.

I have long touted the principle of self-sufficiency and regularly integrate it into my work ethic as well as the work itself. From an editorial standpoint, this translated into articles that identified the lifestyle of self-reliance. This played well, as most of my life after newspapers has existed in the outdoors or automotive world, specifically the off-road and powersports industries. Therein, my passion was for the real life application and core lifestyle aspect of the industry and not the overplayed editorial advertising puff pieces orchestrated through the overzealous marketing department. I loved the down home how-to articles on the techniques and methods that would make one effectively self-sufficient when embarking upon adventure.

Taking a gander at social media and the immediacy of the project at hand, there comes a time when too much is simply too much and not enough is simply not enough. And attempting to explain it to those who may have interest but neither have the time nor multifaceted media skills to deploy the complete package is quite futile. If there is any hope of achieving tangible results from the marketing game plan, it's merely time to take charge and charge onward toward the objective.

I am hereby breaking into the business of making news of someone else's hard work. I toss a quick quip and a sensational array of edgy words. It's artistry and engaging. I don't dictate onto the masses. I embrace them. I call it news aggregation. It's nothing more than a modified blog of slightly more important subject matter. Yet it's news. I am a news aggregator. It's word of mouth marketing. I merely regurgitate what I refer to as news and do unto it like a cow chews cud. The normal method of consumption is chew, swallow, stomach and dump. So goes the old ways of the news world. The newspaper is virtually dead. Now, we mouth off a bit, chew it, swallow it, and combine the final two stages into one, regurgitating facts and opinion amid social media outlets and thereby commence into the abyss of new age reporting until the fad fades into emptiness.

Since the days of Google's now renamed Froogle product search platform, which is now simply referred to as Google Products, I have made habit of dutifully exporting product data to product search websites through the use of CSV, RSS or through an API. This method of extending the e-commerce shopping cart's reach and the retail business brand has proven quite profitable. And to think that other than the cost of manual export or syndication configuration, such product syndication services are predominantly free or charge. But what about the your copyright? This morning, I was performing some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for an e-commerce shopping cart and began drifting down the inbound link list. Further down the list of links, I landed upon TheFind. Now this is an interesting product search platform - perhaps one of the best. I was alerted to it a while back when I was asked by an enraged client why their products were listed upon TheFind's product pages.