The Economist reports on Amazon's brief withdrawal of API access to Lendle: "The brief outage demonstrates a fundamental truth about the internet: if you don't own the data you need to run your business, you're dependent on the policies—and whims—of the parties that do. Jeff Croft, Lendle's founder, says he will not make that mistake again."

Danny Whatmough, a tech PR consultant at Wildfire, says "It’s time for social media marketing to grow up." Excellent article. Via / Standardistas.

Now that many corporations have mastered the tricky art of signing up for a Twitter or Facebook account, the next step is leveraging social media tools in a meaningful way that impacts your brand and your bottom line. Jeremiah Owyang, offers four laws of social business: don’t fondle the hammer, live the 80% rule, customers don’t care what department you’re in, and real time is not fast enough.

30 Minute long BBC Radio 4 show looking at how … "Many of the world's best-known business newspapers and magazines are being painfully squeezed by the recession and the rise of rival media. In London and New York, Peter Day finds out why it matters... and how they are going about fighting for survival." Via Mr Murphy.

Mike Davidson of Mike Industries examines the rise of Apple and fall of Microsoft. Their ability to provide awesome experiences and what their strategies mean for web developers in the mobile-web era.

"How traditional businesses who have moved to the web regularly undervalue their front-end web developers, and are worse off because of that." — Paul Carvill

Jack Matthews, CEO of Fairfax Digital, talks about the direction in which journalism is headed. Matthew has vast experience in pay television, telecoms and the internet.

Mr Godin advises not to worry insanely about little expense.

"The thing to do is invest in scary innovations, large leaps, significant savings. Instead of renting a skimpy booth at the big trade show and scrimping on all the extras, why not rent a limo and drive the key buyers around town, or sponsor the awards luncheon? When you skimp all the time, you signal that you're struggling. "

"What I have come to realise over the last few years is that too many people are trying their best to please the client over the visitor. The client is not the primary aim, the visitor is."

Jeffrey Zeldman: "This may sound Jedi-mind-trick-ish, but never create a blog or a Twitter feed with the explicit idea of promoting yourself. Create for the joy of creating. Share for the joy of the sharing, and because the information you’re sharing genuinely excites you. Do that, and the rest will follow."

Business guides for designers. A free Design Council resource for design professionals.